August 18, 2008
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PlayStation 3 sales have dropped back from the high in June when Metal Gear Solid 4 bundles were selling well. The Nintendo Wii has rebounded slightly from a dip in June and the Xbox 360 appeared to get a modest boost from the clearance priced 20GB models.
Contents of Analysis
Page 1: Hardware Sales Analysis
Page 2: MGS4 Won't Make This Year's Top Ten
Page 3: The Truth About Third Party Software Sales
Page 4: PS2 Owners Fail to Show Much Sony Love
Page 5: Wii Puts NCAA Football 09 Over the Top
As the industry heads into the rush of the second half of the year, we have a couple more months before hardware and software sales really take off during the holiday. Let's take a quick look at the hardware sales for consoles and handhelds.

As the graph above shows, PlayStation 3 sales have dropped back from the high in June when Metal Gear Solid 4 bundles were selling well. The Nintendo Wii has rebounded slightly from a dip in June and the Xbox 360 appeared to get a modest boost from the clearance priced 20GB models.

With no price drops, new bundles or colors, or hot new software the handheld scene was remained essentially the same from June to July. The PSP still sells under half what the Nintendo DS sells each month, but that understates how well the PSP hardware is doing. Overall, the PSP is selling quite well and lacks the software sales to be declared a complete success.
In lieu of the usual LTD sales figures, it is instructive to look at the YTD hardware sales to see how each system's fortunes have changed from 2007 to 2008. First, here are the January to July hardware sales figures from 2007.
Note the order of systems above: Nintendo DS, Wii, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, and PS3. Keep that in mind as you consider the analogous graph for the same months in 2008.
Now the Wii is ahead of the Nintendo DS and each of those is far above its sales figures from 2007. The PlayStation 3 has doubled its hardware sales and moved from last place in 2007 to third place in 2008. The PSP and the Xbox 360 are in precisely the same positions in this ranking as they were last year, with only modest growth in sales. Finally, the PS2 is the only system down year-on-year and moves to last place.
A quick mental computation with the figures above will reveal the following fact: Wii and Nintendo DS sales together are greater in 2008 than the combined sales of the Xbox 360 and all three of Sony's systems.
Finally, a look at the actual dollar figures involved. This month we get a rare glimpse into just how software dollar sales are distributed among the big three (Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo). As the following figure demonstrates, Nintendo's two systems accounted for nearly 50% of all dollars generated by software in July 2008. Sony's three systems garnered 31% of the revenue while the Xbox 360 alone generated 22%.
July 08 software revenue per console sold in YTD 2008 is the highest on the PS3 and lowest on the Wii. This means Wii sells consoles to people who don't buy a lot of games; and PS3 provides the best opportunity for new IPs and creative games. Higher attach rates also imply that AAA 3rd party software will be developed for PS3/360, while the Wii will get more Nintendo games and low-budget crap from the 3rd parties.
Is there any way to print an entire article in the new page layout?
As console purchase apart from having the amount of cash at hand very much is determined by game preferences (at least that is often the initial incitement which MGS4 is an example of), it would have been interesting to see an elaboration of the correlation between specific game sales and peaks in console sales.
Philip Arcan
Point taken. I did originally buy it for myself for the wealth of innovative games and entertainment that I'd be enjoying but I quickly learned that wasn't the case. My daughter who is 2 likes games, but isn't coordinated enough to use the normal controller, so I got the Wii thinking it be fun for her. Ironically enough she tries to hold my 360 controller when she plays in stead of the Wii remote. She can only play the most simple of the simplest games. I do still believe that a lot of people are buying them just because they are hard to find. They are cheap, but not really when you consider that other than in the rarest of cases, all multiplayer is done same console, you have to buy 3 extra controllers (60 bucks considering remote and nunchuck) with the 360 (and PS3), that's not the case. That's $180 you don't necessarily have to spend on the 360. So as much as it is cheap, these people are dishing out the dough, and considering how well "games" like Wii Fit are selling, I think it really has much less to do with price than anything else. I'll make a somewhat obvious estimation right now, when the 360 drops price to 199 for the core, it will still get smashed by the Wii. I'm almost willing to bet 360 sales won't actually go up that much at all, maybe 50k a month.
@ NickgamertagO1
"people are buying the Wii cause of its price, and elmo-level fadism."
To a point, maybe some. But at almost 2 years and over 20 million sold a(including folks like you who bought it more then once), that, to me at least, says much more then a fad. As for price point, that is definitely a factor, and that's exactly the point. It is cheap so people are more liekly to buy it, just like in other electronic devices, cars and a multitude of other things.
I wonder how many people who still own PS2s even play them any more? And I think they are selling so many right now just because of the price, same as Wii. I'm sorry, I have a Wii (had one a long time ago, got rid of it, I never played it, recently bought a new one for my two y/o...TWO year old??? and 8 y/o) and it is not that revolutionary. Ok, so I can do the same thing with my character by swinging this thing that I've been doing for 15 years with a button. The results of swinging around with very little actual representation on screen to my actual movements are not enough to warrant the amount of work it takes. I'm fine with pressing A. When swinging around a controller results in an actual representation of my movements I'll be impressed. Ok, golf and bowling have that to some degree, and that's it. My point, people are buying the Wii cause of its price, and elmo-level fadism. IMHO anyway.
Im more concerned about new PS2 purchases... My sentiment is that it is the casual, low income, very young demographic. Sony is only selling the PS2 because its very profitablemoney, i fear it is cannabalizing its PS3 sales past an undesired threshhold.
On the PS2 vs PS3 ownership issue, i think there isnt enough information to arrive to definitive conclusions. Theres is still over 50% PS2 owners unacounted for/that do not own another system. So the valuable data point is which system are they more likely to purchase next.
On the other hand at retail Wii is obviously the cheaper console, and largely considered a non-hardcore experience which I would argue is what the PS2 now delivers and what the XBOX arcade is targeting. So it may be accurate after all, but can we segment that for non-hardcore console owners?
Something that may support the above: Maybe the Sony strategy of continuing to sell PS2 is costing the PS3, how likely are you to buy both a PS2 and a PS3 in the same year? With the PS3 already considered the most expensive system is easier to excuse the addition/diversification of another console manufacturer at a cheaper price, than it is to simply get the sequel for a lot more.
I believe some people are confusing what the study said. I'm pretty sure the scenario posed was, if you currently own a PS2, what other systems do you have? Well I don't think too many PS3 owners currently own a PS2. Most PS3's sold have backwards compatibility, so why would you keep your PS2? I'm not questioning the study, I just think the article failed to really explain the numbers.
Given that last fact, it will be interesting to see what EAs reaction is, i.e. do they decide they need to promote better or make games more mass market. I know promoting a football title isn't something they've had to do much at all in the last decade and less in the last few years thanks to the exclusive license.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com