NPD Results For October 2008

[Deadend]

GH:WT has 3 SKUs per console off the top of my head. That is quite a bit of spliting sales.

I am just happy to see Fable 2 up there, as Lionhead fucking delivered on it.

[KSmitty]

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

I don't believe it's egocentricity, it's the feeling, for many gamers, that Nintendo, a company that has been synonymous with gaming for so long, a company who we grew up with, has abandoned them. They bought the Wii and found that it's not the machine they thought it would be.

Are these the same 22 million people that bought a Gamecube? Down from the
32 million that bought N64s? Gamers in general abandoned Nintendo when Sony entered the gaming scene. I really can't fault Nintendo for not going out of their way to cater to a market that has stopped supporting them for YEARS.

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

I'm not surprised by the bitterness at all. This new machine of theirs seems to have no standards to speak of and that official Nintendo seal of quality is long gone or means diddly.

I never understood this argument. How does bad games being on a system somehow undermine the integrity of a system as a whole? The PS2 is considered a fantastic system, the majority of its yearly releases were crap and were rated like crap. The system with the highest mass market appeal is going to get the most shovelware, this has been apparent for several console cycles.

Originally Posted by Kelegacy

So, the machine many gamers THOUGHT would be another great Nintendo machine to play and own became a casual gaming machine for a different demographic to own.

The same 22 million gamers that bought Gamecubes? Because if you were one of those GC owners you already have everything that the GC had over its entire lifecycle. A Mario, a Zelda, a Kart, a Smash, a Metroid, an Animal Crossing, a new Pikmin, a Pikmin redux, with a new Zelda and Mario on the way and thats not even counting some of the good 3rd party titles that are out for the system. This 'Casual/They forgot about Us/Its no longer a gamer machine' FUD is tiresome and most of all false. Nintendo is doing what it has always done PLUS going after the casual market. And you can bet good money that MS and Sony are trying to follow suit.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by TheFlyingOrc

I'd say further proof that most people buying PS3s are buying a BluRay player, and that, outside of message boards, most of those buying a PS3 are not "gamers", per se.

I'd say it is further proof that the ps3 has a significantly smaller install base in the US than either the Wii or the 360 at this point and that it is a miracle that they ever have a title on the top 10. I suspect if you were to compare those numbers as a percentage of install base that you would see ps3 owners buying plenty of software and by software I mean games.

With 13m 360 and 6m PS3 in the US, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the same game is usually going to sell fewer copies on the PS3. Indeed, you yourself have often used that to explain why the ps3 will not see certain titles or should not retain exclusivity of some titles. Seems rather curious that you roll out these numbers when they support your argument but ignore them when they don't.

Then again, I don't make a habit of trying to downplay the ps3 as a next gen console every chance I get so YMMV.

[DarkDay]

If the ps3 was same price as the 360 I would own one, not 2 360's.

It needs to be 199 now, well last really...but ill take now too.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

Then again, I don't make a habit of trying to downplay the ps3 as a next gen console every chance I get so YMMV.

Yes. I do this. I do this because I find it entertaining. Explain to me how that allows you to feign some weird kind of moral superiority over me, please.

You do the blasted same thing in reverse, but you pretend as if that somehow makes you better than me. I'm going to continue to bash Sony, and you're going to continue to defend them.

And yes, the PS3s sales spike coincided almost exactly with BluRay winning the format war. If the 360s top billed game, talked about as THE reason to get the system this year, had only sold 200k-ish at launch, we'd mock it relentlessly.

[OldJadedGamer]

Originally Posted by DarkDay

If the ps3 was same price as the 360 I would own one, not 2 360's.

It needs to be 199 now, well last really...but ill take now too.

I bought mine for $220 and after buying it and playing around with it... I can honestly say that the machine is worth $250-$299 but not any more then that. It makes a great second system to add to your collection.

While the PS3 is a great system, I do believe it's destined to third place and have a GameCube esq following where it's more about quality then quantity with releases.

It's just too bad because I honestly believe that if they skipped on the Blu-ray and the system was released at $399 it would have been a huge run away hit up to par with the PS2. Again, they have no one but themselves to blame for where the unit is at today because they decided that the movie format battle was more important then the videogame war.

[Telefrog]

Originally Posted by Deadend

GH:WT has 3 SKUs per console off the top of my head. That is quite a bit of spliting sales.

Number of Guitar Hero SKUs in last October's NPD Top Ten Sales list: Four.

Number this October: Zero.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Originally Posted by Telefrog

Number of Guitar Hero SKUs in last October's NPD Top Ten Sales list: Four.

Number this October: Zero.

As I said, I'm astounded and very happy that Rock Band might win this year. Viva la better game.

[Telefrog]

By the way, I'd like to point out that Wii Music only sold 66,000 copies which makes me damn happy. I called that. I knew Myamoto's lame ass non-rythm game would sell like crap.

It might have a "long tail" like other Nintendo titles, but not in NA.

[Ondo]

So Gamasutra now has a list of the top 20 games from NPD here. It also groups together all SKUs of a game for the same platform - I think because of this it disagrees with Multiplayer, showing the 360 version of Guitar Hero selling better than the Wii version.

Also, Rock Band 2 for the PS3 is ahead of Guitar Hero for the PS3. It'll be interesting to see how Rock Band 2 for the Wii does when it's released.

[Variable Gear]

Originally Posted by Telefrog

By the way, I'd like to point out that Wii Music only sold 66,000 copies which makes me damn happy. I called that. I knew Myamoto's lame ass non-rythm game would sell like crap.

It might have a "long tail" like other Nintendo titles, but not in NA.

Wii Music didn't have much of a chance of being successful. It was the wrong game at the wrong time.

[MalReynolds]

i wanna see november ... thinks there gonna be alot of sales between gears and R2

[Rock Bandit]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6201179...dlines;title;2

The NPD Group, the US game-industry research firm of record, issues its best-seller lists based on SKUs (Stock-Keeping Units), retail shorthand for a single product. Each iteration of a game on a different platform is its own SKU, and every subconfiguration--bundles, special editions, and so on--is also a different SKU. With no less than 11 Guitar Hero World Tour and four Rock Band 2 configurations, the two games simply spread themselves too thin, SKU-wise, to make the cut.

Now, the release of the raw October NPD data allows for the tabulation of the two games' total sales. Unsurprisingly, Guitar Hero World Tour, available on four consoles, was the winner with just more than 534,000 units sold for the month. The most popular platform was the Xbox 360 (191,049 units), followed by the Wii (182,845), PlayStation 3 (96,657), and PlayStation 2 (63,462). Overall, the game generated $67.3 million in sales during the month.

Rock Band 2's second-place finish wasn't too shabby either, with sales split almost evenly amongst its two platforms. NPD reports that US retailers sold 238,128 units of the game during October, 119,569 being of the 360 variety and 118,559 bearing the PlayStation 3 mark. Its monthly haul stood at $26.7 million. The PS3 version of the game went on sale October 17, nearly a month after the 360 Rock Band 2. Wii and PlayStation 2 editions are expected next month.

So there you go, quantity trumps quality.

[Ondo]

Originally Posted by Rock Bandit

So there you go, quantity trumps quality.

That's a pessimistic view. Guitar Hero "won" this month because it came out for all four platforms this month. If you include last month's sales Rock Band 2 comes out ahead; if you look at first month on PS3 or Xbox 360 Rock Band comes out ahead. It sure looks to me like quality is winning.

[JayVe]

Originally Posted by KSmitty

How does bad games being on a system somehow undermine the integrity of a system as a whole? The PS2 is considered a fantastic system, the majority of its yearly releases were crap and were rated like crap. The system with the highest mass market appeal is going to get the most shovelware, this has been apparent for several console cycles.

Thanks for the common sense.

[MalReynolds]

Originally Posted by Deadend

GH:WT has 3 SKUs per console off the top of my head. That is quite a bit of spliting sales.

I am just happy to see Fable 2 up there, as Lionhead fucking delivered on it.

i loved it all till the ending -.- sooooooooo dissapointed