Create new account
Forgot password?

FEATURE

June NPD In-Depth

Matt Matthews's picture

By Matt Matthews

July 21, 2008

  • Login or register to post comments

See also:

Related Articles:

The Nintendo Angle: Strength in Numbers

There is almost nothing to criticize about Nintendo's execution this generation, which makes writing about them feel a bit odd. One suspects there ought to be something negative to say, yet comes up emptyhanded.

For example, it is tempting (and true) to say that Nintendo Wii sales are down for the second straight month, to 133,000 systems per week. However, this would conveniently ignore that even on a down month the Wii is selling faster than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined. Moreover, many in the industry suspect that the weaker U.S. Dollar has led Nintendo to direct shipments of Wii hardware to other regions, such as Europe.



Similarly, one could note that the Wii was not the top-selling system this month. Of course, that's because the top-selling system was Nintendo's other runaway hit, the Nintendo DS. For the first time since last year, the Nintendo DS surged to over 150,000 systems per week. Historically, June has been a strong month for Nintendo DS sales but this year was remarkable even by those high standards.



On the software side, Nintendo dominated 6 slots on the top 10 chart, two for the Nintendo DS and four for the Nintendo Wii.



Interestingly, four of these games are bundled with hardware. The Nintendo DS music game, Guitar Hero: On Tour, comes with a special strap-on device for holding and playing the system like a guitar. Wii Fit of course comes with the Balance Board while Wii Play is bundled with an additional controller and Mario Kart is packaged with a steering wheel accessory.

While Nintendo is clearly providing strong platforms for third-party software (witness the strong LEGO Indiana Jones sales), it continues to execute a very strong first-party strategy. Starting in 2007, big name Nintendo titles are released and spend about three months on the top 10 list before being replaced by another big name Nintendo game.

  • In June 2007, Mario Party 8 launched at #1 and remained in the top 10 through August.
  • In August 2007, Metroid Prime 3 launched at #6 (behind three Maddens) and remained on the list through September.
  • In November 2007, Super Mario Galaxy launched at #2 and remained on the list through January.
  • In March 2008, Super Smash Bros. Brawl launched at #1 and it remained in the top 10 through May.
  • In April 2008, Mario Kart Wii launched at #2 and it has remained on the list through June.
  • In May 2008, Wii Fit launched at #3 and was still in the top 10 in June.
Of course, all of these are dwarfed by the success of Wii Play which just marked its 17th month in the top 10 and surpassed 6 million units in sales.

« first‹ previous12345next ›last »

grognard66's picture
On July 22nd grognard66 said:

Matt Matthews detailed NPD analysis is, by far, my favorite feature on this site. Keep up the great work, Matt!

Thom's picture
On July 22nd Thom said:

If these systems weren't so damned expensive, I don't think there would be this fanaticism with which brand was taking the sales lead from month to month, or week to week. Personally, I'm just looking for games that are fun/visually stimulating/mentally engaging/introducing new and fun game mechanics or even a bad game that has something cool in it I can't find somewhere else (though admittedly I would probably only rent that one). Who really cares that Xbox sold more than PlayStation, or that Wii beat them both, unless your real concern is that the system you hitched your star to will fail and crumble to dust, leaving you gameless and without the financial means to leap over to another brand?

papalazaru's picture
On July 22nd papalazaru said:

totally agree .. its all about software for me, and who has the software i want to play .. sadly for my poor wallet all three have something I want ..

Dan_Chippendale's picture
On July 22nd Dan_Chippendale said:

I agree. It should be less about the popularity contest and more about providing the consumer with polished, enjoyable experiences. I can really see the utopian dream of a one console future. All developers focusing on one standard and not having to use resources on knocking out sub par conversions for all and sundry consoles. I know that there is choice for the consumer with the big 3, but surely all developers working with the same specs would boost the industry. I really expected Sega [when they dropped out of the console race] to really become one of the top developers/publishers as they could concentrate first and foremost on games, but this never really came to fruition. I guess they've been cranking out shoddy games across a wide range of formats so the quality is diluted a little. Just imagine a one console future... No more silly 'our machine's better/sells more than yours'. it would be more about the games.. now this will never happen.. but we can at least dream...

E. Zachary Knight's picture
On July 22nd E. Zachary Knight said:

Here are the charts I loved when the site was Next-Gen.

Thanks guys.