Time to Commit Forum Suicide! - My Interpretation of Sales Figures

[Tickled_Pink]

I haven't read the full posts on here but the OP has got his figures completely wrong - or was he just on about US sales? Because the Wii is officially the fastest selling console EVER.

 

And no, I'm not a Wii fanboy. Hardly. I don't think it's a particularly good machine. Unique, maybe, but not good.

[JamesD]

Just an FYI....

 

The local WalMart has it's game display cases allocated as follows.

1 case, Nintendo DS

1 case PS2

1 case PS3

1.5 cases, Wii

1.5 cases, 360

and I think 1 case was split between the handheld Sony and something else. Maybe it was 1 row of the PS3 case.

 

I think that should give some idea of sales in that area or at least expected sales.

[Jess Ragan]

I think the unfortunate thing about the Wii is not the quality of the hardware, but the quality of the software. Even if it were literally a GameCube with a wireless controller, the Wii could do a lot better than Anubis II or the gimpy port of Puzzle Quest. Nintendo could be doing a lot better in this console generation, and we've seen a lot better from them in the past, but since the system is selling so well they don't have to put much effort into making games, nor do they have to insist on a standard of quality of third party releases.

[godslabrat]

Nintendo has never insisted on a standard of quality for third party games, aside from "This game won't crash from normal play" and "This game isn't grossly offensive", and even that last one has been all but lifted. Getting third parties to support their systems has been a problem for Nintendo ever since the release of the Playstation... the last thing Nintendo wants to do is add one more obstacle.

 

The thing is, and this is the elephant in the room, Nintendo doesn't NEED third parties. Yes, they help the bottom line and they're good for marketshare, but Nintendo makes enough good games that they COULD support a console by themselves, if they had to. Add Konami and Capcom, and just the three of them are going to crank out more games than I can play in the average month. On top of that, we still get Harmonix, EA, and everyone else, and I'm sorry but for all the complaining about third parties, I'm not seeing a shortage of games to play.

 

Besides, when it comes to quality, a lot of subjective factors come into play. What makes a game too bad to be released for the Wii? Where do we draw the line? Is the control poor? Is it too short? Does it involve horses? I admit the Wii has its share of crap, but I'd rather not go down this path of having Nintendo dictate what "should" sell.

[DracIsBack]

And considering that most Wii owners didn't purchase much more than the basic Wii Sports bundle and the Wii Fit game

 

Talked to most Wii owners have you? I can appreciate that there's evidence of many Wii versions of games not selling as well as their counterparts on other platforms but this is one of the biggest exaggerations I've seen on this forum all week ... and that's saying something.

[atarian63]

OK, here's what I'm talking about. Just because Joystiq, says that PS3 outsold Wii last month, doesn't mean it's kicking butt. It's only outsold Wii 3 times in Japan, and only ONCE here in America and it's still topping both US and Japnaese markets on a fairly regular basis even though the margin has slimmed.

 

Sales Chart

 

For the record, PS3 is also trailing the 360 in both markets...

 

 

 

Here's some more sales data for you:

 

From FT.com (Financial Times)

PS3 outstrips Wii in Japanese sales

 

By Robin Harding in Tokyo

 

Published: April 6 2009 13:17 | Last updated: April 6 2009 13:17

Nintendo’s all-conquering Wii games console is showing its first signs of weakness with Japanese sales last month falling below those of Sony’s PlayStation 3.

 

According to data released Monday by the games research group Enterbrain, Sony sold 146,948 PS3s in the five weeks to March 29 compared with 99,335 sales of the Wii.

...

Nintendo’s Wii, with its innovative motion-sensitive controller, has dominated the current generation of video game hardware since its release in 2006.

...

The Wii outsold the PS3 by nearly three to one in the larger US market in February, selling 750,000 units, according to NPD the research company.

...

Cumulative Wii sales in Japan of almost 8m still exceed PS3 sales of about 3m machines.

 

----------------------

 

 

I still have to argue that I think you have your demographics confused. Wii/DS is marketed to a much broader age range than Iphone/Macs. It's never been a "ME TOO", it's more of "Everyone can play".

I agree, it's very broad. Also I would say that Wii is really mainstream gaming right now as well as DS/DSi etc. Xbox360 and ps3 are kind of the odd teams out this time around.

[atarian63]

Just an FYI....

 

The local WalMart has it's game display cases allocated as follows.

1 case, Nintendo DS

1 case PS2

1 case PS3

1.5 cases, Wii

1.5 cases, 360

and I think 1 case was split between the handheld Sony and something else. Maybe it was 1 row of the PS3 case.

 

I think that should give some idea of sales in that area or at least expected sales.

My local Best Buy has 9 shelves of Wii, 5 shelves of 360. 3 of ps3 and 10 of DS, 1/2 psp.