Nintendo happy with February performance

[DealBot]

The latest video game industry sales figures reported by the independent NPD Group show that Nintendo DS and Wii topped the U.S. charts for February. Nintendo DS sold nearly 587,600 units and Wii sold nearly 432,000. "Our momentum has not let up since the holidays and we expect it to continue throughout the year," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "We have the industry's strongest lineup of games for everyone from core to casual gamers."

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[meppi]

Holy....eum moly???

The prediction numbers I've seen floating around this past week were about half of these official ones.

So I'm very surprised to say the least, as well as glad for them. They are doing a great job software wise as well so imo they really do deserve all the good fortune they are seeing.

[meppi]

And a bit more data. :wink:

Another world shattering NPD. It's becoming so commonplace it's easy to forget how historic these numbers are.

SW totals were $668.7M!!!! That's an increase of 47% over last years historic number.

The hardware is steller as well. Units were up 19% to over 2.1M systems combined (and that's compared to last year which was up 60% over the prior year). The "less technically advanced" systems were phenomenal. DS, PS2, & Wii all showed remarkable level of sales. 360 & PS3 sold quite well and there sales are quite respectable, but compared to the other systems don't seem to impress quite as much.

Hardware

PlayStation 2 351.8K

PlayStation 3 280.8K

PlayStation Portable 243.1K

Xbox 360 254.6K

Nintendo DS 587.6K

Wii 432K

Top 10 SW

Top-Selling VG Software - February 2008

RELEASE TOTAL U.S. RANK

TITLE PUBLISHER DATE UNITS

360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE* ACTIVISION 7-Nov 296.2K 1

360 DEVIL MAY CRY 4* CAPCOM USA 8-Feb 295.2K 2

WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA 7-Feb 289.7K 3

PS3 DEVIL MAY CRY 4* CAPCOM USA 8-Feb 233.5K 4

WII GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK* ACTIVISION 7-Oct 222.9K 5

NDS MARIO AND SONIC: OLYMPIC GAMES SEGA OF AMERICA 8-Jan 205.6K 6

360 LOST ODYSSEY MICROSOFT 8-Feb 203.6K 7

360 TUROK TOUCHSTONE 8-Jan 197.7K 8

PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK* ACTIVISION 7-Oct 183.8K 9

360 ROCK BAND* MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS 7-Nov 161.8K 10

[wildlele]

Holy....eum moly???

The prediction numbers I've seen floating around this past week were about half of these official ones.

So I'm very surprised to say the least, as well as glad for them. They are doing a great job software wise as well so imo they really do deserve all the good fortune they are seeing.

Not that great, Xbox360 captured 6 of the top 10 selling games so while Nintendo may sell a lot of hardware, their software attach rate which is what publishers really look at is pretty poor

* Xbox 360 leads in games, with six out of the top 10 best selling console games in February. (February NPD data)

* Xbox 360 "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" (Activision) was the best-selling console game across all platforms, outselling the PlayStation 3 version by 2:1. (February NPD data)

* $332 million was spent on the Xbox 360 platform this month, capturing 39 percent of the generation's ecosystem, $235 million was spent on the PS3 and $283 million was spent on the Wii. (February NPD data)

* February NPD data shows a new Xbox 360 software attach rate of 7.2, nearly twice that of the PS3 or the Wii. (February NPD data)

[meppi]

True that, but you can't fully compare things like how much money was spent on a Wii system vs a 360 and see how much the respective companies made from that.

As we all know Wii systems have been sold at a profit from the get go, while 360's were sold at a loss, and seeing the new price drops (in Europe at least) that seems to continue.

So more money may be spent on the hardware, but that doesn't equal profit.

Also from Nintendo themselves:

* Nintendo sold more than 1 million hardware units combined, accounting for nearly half (47.6 percent) of all hardware sold.

* Nintendo DS games topped all software sales, with more than 3.6 million units sold. Consumers purchased nearly 2.9 million software units for Wii. Four of every 10 games sold were for Nintendo systems.

* Three games in the top five sellers for February play on Nintendo systems, including two from third-party publishers.

* Nearly 1.7 million accessories were purchased for Wii, more than for any other system. More than 1.2 million accessories were sold for Nintendo DS as well.

So the combined DS software actually outsold the 360 software overall, despite the top 10 not showing this.

Too bad we're not getting the full software lists anymore from NPD, as we only seem to be getting a glimp of the top selling games and nothing else. So the picture might be a bit distorted at time.

[wildlele]

I wouldn't call it an apples to apples comparison including the Nintendo DS vs. Xbox 360 as Microsoft does not have a handheld unit which gives Nintendo 2 consoles to Microsofts 1.

Having said that, if you are comparing Wii vs Xbox 360 vs PS3, the Xbox 360 sells the most games per system with each of the 17.2 million Xbox 360 owners having an average of 7.2 games. This is huge and part of the reason why Xbox 360 has such an insane software lineup!

Look at Wii... they have released all their big guns already! The only AAA titles in my mind announced for Wii for 2008 are

04/27: Mario Kart Wii with Wii Wheel from Nintendo

Q2: Wii Fit from Nintendo

Compare this to Xbox 360

03/18 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2

04/01 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

04/29 Grand Theft Auto IV

05/13 Soulcalibur IV

05/20 Ninja Gaiden II

06/02 LEGO Indiana Jones: The Videogame

Summer Saints Row 2

Summer Tom Clancy's Endwar

Fall Fable 2

Fall Fallout 3 <- could also be my game of the year!

Fall Halo Wars

Fall Left 4 Dead

Fall Mafia II

10/31 Dead Space

Nov Gears of War 2 <- OH YESSSSSSSSSSSSS

Winter Lego Batman: The Videogame

??? Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

??? Street Fighter IV

[meppi]

I doubt the accountants at Nintendo are bothered too much by MS not having a handheld system. :wink:

As for the software list, do you really think that after Wii Fit there aren't any big titles left for the rest of the year?

Not announced doesn't mean not in development.

On a more personal note, and this is strictly going by my own gaming tastes, I only see 1 title that I would be interested in playing on that list and that would be Street Fighter 4, and so far it's only been confirmed as being an arcade game.

The others simply don't do it for me... :-/

[wildlele]

I doubt the accountants at Nintendo are bothered too much by MS not having a handheld system. :wink:

As for the software list, do you really think that after Wii Fit there aren't any big titles left for the rest of the year?

Not announced doesn't mean not in development.

On a more personal note, and this is strictly going by my own gaming tastes, I only see 1 title that I would be interested in playing on that list and that would be Street Fighter 4, and so far it's only been confirmed as being an arcade game.

The others simply don't do it for me... :-/

I think we are total opposites I would play pretty much everything on that list but the fighters like Soul Caliber and SF4. I like games where you can run around and just explore and do wacky stuff, like GTA, Mercinaries, that kind of thing. Also Bioware RPGS and Oblivion/Fallout3 style RPGS

[meppi]

I think we are total opposites I would play pretty much everything on that list but the fighters like Soul Caliber and SF4. I like games where you can run around and just explore and do wacky stuff, like GTA, Mercinaries, that kind of thing. Also Bioware RPGS and Oblivion/Fallout3 style RPGS

Well that would explain a lot.

I have been playing arcade games since I could reach the joystick while standing on a chair.

Started with Space Invaders in 1979 when I was 3.

I know what you are thinking, how can you go to an arcade at the age of 3. Well, I grew up in a pub, so we always had an arcade and pinball machine. :grin:

Donkey Kong (junior), Elevator Action, Asteroids, Rush 'n Attrack, Wonderboy, etc. You name it, they all were there for at least a month or 2.

So those classics pretty much shaped my childhood and must have shaped my gaming tastes up till this day as I still prefer arcade style games.

Which would explain my love for Sega, Capcom, Namco, SNK and Nintendo. :happy:

This new generation seem to be passing me by without much thought.

The only games I'm interested in trying out or am looking forward to on the HD systems are Virtua Fighter 5, Sega Rally and the new WipEout's.

Realistic style games are a real turnoff for me personally.

[E-Day]

Nintendo will release a Triple A title or two for the holiday season. I would hedge my bets on a new Zelda or Metroid title, since the first ones game out at launch or shortly after. HOPEFULLY they won't release a Mario PArty game, since the Wii has more than enough party-type games.

[meppi]

I really doubt it'll be a new Wii Zelda or Metroid, even though I would love that to be the case.

What I would do to get a new Zelda in the style of either Majora's Mask or the Wind Waker...

I'm gonna have to pick Animal Crossing, Pikmin 3 or 1080° Snowboarding game as my end of year predictions. Although I would love to see a new Waverace being developed by Nintendo Japan themselves this time around. Oh, and Excitetruck 2 or F-Zero! That would be so great.

[Gnash]

The Wii needs better third party support. It needs great sequels from Square-Enix, Capcom, and so on.

[WarriorWarrior]

The Wii needs better third party support. It needs great sequels from Square-Enix, Capcom, and so on.

The Wii's games are very shallow and boring thus far with very few exceptions.

[meppi]

The Wii's games are very shallow and boring thus far with very few exceptions.

That being said, the PS3 has no games whatsoever and the 360 breaks down after 3.5 minutes of play.