Network now...FEATURE
Sales Analysis: January NPD
Coming off of yet another record-breaking year of double-digit growth, games at U.S. retail bounded out of the gate in January 2009, with the industry recording $1.33 billion during the month, a 13 percent year-on-year increase.
Hardware sales trends continued to be a point of interest during the month. Nintendo's Wii once again commanded the home console sales chart, outselling Xbox 360 and PS3 in January 2009. Albeit by a small margin, the supply-constrained Wii also outsold the competition a year ago in January 2008, a month where all three consoles were quite even.
But using the month of January as a snapshot, we can see the difference a year can make, as Wii’s total home console unit share further engulfed rivals in January 2009:
The trends contributing to the Wii’s market-chomping tendencies can be seen in a growth chart of hardware sales from January 2008 to January 2009. Xbox 360’s and PS3’s lines grow modestly (though you can see Xbox 360’s September price drop spike) while the Wii accelerates sharply thanks to improved supply.
In November 2008, the Wii accomplished sales of 2.04 million units. December saw sales of 2.15 million—impressive, but analysts were expecting over 3 million in sales for the month, going by past hardware trends.
Analysts figured that the Wii was supply-constrained during December, leading to lower-than-expected sales. Anecdotal evidence suggests supply is achieving equilibrium with demand; this year should be interesting to see just how much the Wii installed base can grow as its high-def rivals mature.
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Being a PC gamer, i can't see myself getting the PS3 until it hits £100/£130.
How can the PS3's price be justified? At the PS3's current price i could buy a great GPU (Radeon 4870 with 1GB memory), and a Blu-ray drive for my PC and still save myself £60 over the PS3.
Hook it all up to my LCD TV and you've got a set-up that puts any console on the market to shame.
PC gaming is so cheap now that it's almost hard to justify shelling out for a 360 or PS3.
One the reasons that it's so cost effective is BECAUSE of the 4870 (aka an R700)
Prior to that chip being released PC gaming was prohibitivly expensive.
The 360 was released, what, 2005? (Using the predecessor for the R700 as a GPU)
Likewise with the PS3, although less so because of it's higher price and later launch date.
And now AMD is (temporarily) competitive again we're seeing a quad core price war too.
A lot (LOT!!) has changed in the last 3 years.
For the good!
PCs are phenominally good value now, people are beginning to see that they don't need to spend 2000 pounds on a PC.
The only real problem with PCs these days is the (majority) OS, Windows! (Guess who spent 4 hours cleaning viruses and spyware off of a friends PC last night)
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3469
Man...when you put it like that I kinda feel ripped off for owning a 360.
Personally I've never really considered the PC when disscussing trends in the games industry and the 'console war' (yes its a dated cliche but I couldn't think of any other way to word it) I think PC gaming is too technical for my liking. (I don't mean to insult anyone who sees this) Personally I think that it's a game best left to the numb3r crunchers out their.
I understand where you're coming from. Honestly though, you'd be suprised how easy PC gaming is these days in terms of set-up.
Only the fanatics are into the "number crunching", but for the rest of us like myself it's the joy of playing games at their best.
The conception surrounding PC gaming is that you need the best card in the world to play games at a decent rate. This is nonsense, my current GPU (8800GT with 512 memory) can run games like:
Dead Space: at 1680x1050 with settings at full.
Race Driver-Grid: at 1680x1050 with 2x Anti-Aliasing (game runs at 60fps).
The Orange Box: 1680x1050 with settings at full.
Left 4 Dead: 1680x1050 with settings at full.
Devil May Cry 4: 1440x900, 2x Anti-Aliasing, rest of the settings at High (game runs at 60fps).
Crysis: 1280x800, 2x Anti-Aliasing, with the rest of the settings at Medium. (game runs at between 30/40fps).
The point is: i'm running a modest GPU (which you can pick up for £90) and getting an excellent performance on all my games.
I'd urge anyone out there with doubts about PC gaming to give it a go because it's not as "technical" as one might think.
"playing games at their best" Are the preformance perks really that noticable and if so , can you give some insight into any other beifits of PC gaming?
With console version of games they offer a baseline experience. The PC on the otherhand is the best it can be.
Take any of the games i mention above, play the console version, then go and experience the PC version, after playing the PC versions you wouldn't go back to the console version. The difference is exceptional.
As for other benefits of PC gaming? Well that all comes down to the individual? It's a case of horses for courses n' all that because what might suit me, might not suit another!
All i'm saying is: Just don't right a platform off just because you've got this conception that PC gaming is "too technical".
Fair enough, can't argue with that.
Just one question though; do you get any DLC with PC games? This is kind of a grey area for me and Im just curious.
I didn't mean to (and hope that I haven't) offend you.
Regarding DLC: You do get DLC with PC games (L4D, Oblivion, etc) just like it's console counter part.
Wow what amazes me the most about the sales figures for the US is the fact that about 600,000 people lost there jobs in January alone and the industry just plows on .
"Anecdotal evidence suggests supply is achieving equilibrium with demand; this year should be interesting to see just how much the Wii installed base can grow as its high-def rivals mature."
1). The term "anecdotal evidence" is an oxymoron.
2). The XBox360 has been out a year longer than the Wii and is further within it's lifecycle, but yet you're saying the 360 hasn't matured yet? The PS3 launched a week before the Wii, wouldn't both consoles mature within a similar time interval? I don't understand what you meant by that.
Hi Ken,
1.) I consider "anecdotal evidence" as much of an oxymoron as "jumbo shrimp". :p
2.) Don't look too much into the term "mature." It just means as the consoles continue to age, we'll see some interesting developments pan out in terms of hardware, software and online strategies. And besides, "maturity" isn't always reliant on a given amount of time, as many man-children like myself can attest to.
Fair enough, Kris.
What's the point of pointing out it's an oxymoron? Even if it is, that doesn't mean it's not a common phrase that fills a niche in the english vocabulary that can't really be described with other words. It doesn't really comment on the content of the article. It just makes you look like a know-it-all who just likes to correct people whenever he can.
Also, consoles can mature at different rates. I don't really get why it's such a hard to understand concept. Compare the Dreamcast or Gamecube with the PS2. Though the idea of the 360 not maturing yet is a bit confusing. The system is already in its prime. Though, I guess if things change significantly and they release a new SKU, it could rejuvenate it a bit and make it feel fresh again.
"anecdotal evidence" is where you non-systematically poll to get a read on what's happening in an industry.
In this case, it could have been something akin to:
We see more units availible for longer in store
We talked to a few distributors or retailers who said the supply problem was "getting better"
By "anecdotal evidence" they mean 'hear say' or isolated incidents that are not evidence of a general pattern.
Sony will dictate what MS do in terms of price. When Sony cut the price of their hadware, MS will just counter-act this with a price cut of their own.
Right on the money.
Sony very well will drop their price this year. My prediction is 2Q. Microsoft will follow with a price cut of their own in 3Q. The Wii I have already suspected a price drop will come shortly before the holiday season. They will do so as their demand will level off by 2Q and you will be able to find them regularly in stores.
Just goes to show that price will become the overwhelming factor this year. Over the year sales of PS3 will probably tail of sharply early in the year followed by Xbox and finally Wii.
Most companies working on projects with release dates further than a year away and already with agreed funding should be ok. But I'm sure some of those will still go under as some investors panic over the growing gap between xbox and ps3 hardware sales.
I'd say Wii projects are definitely the safest at this point.
203,200 PS3's. Not bad considering the system is still $399.99. I thought the 360 would've sold more...
Not the best start to the 'year of the ps3' then.
i was expecting a slew of posturing in the comments by now..........
perhaps its just too early or maybe each graph should have been given a score....
.......you know, like out of 10.......
.......7 maybe
"i was expecting a slew of posturing in the comments by now.........."
I think even blatant 360 fanboys like myself have gotten tired of pointing out the obvious. The trend of the Wii coming in first, the 360 coming in second, and finally the PS3 bringing up the rear has gotten so redundant that it's no longer entertaining to poke fun at the PS3. And the question of if/when the PS3 will make a turn-around has gotten so played-out over the last year and a half. It's really time for Sony to put up or shut up.
7! No frikkin way man! Anyone can see that graph is easily a 10. You're just biased against pie charts.
Lol, nice one.
nice chart, it's not going to save alot of companies from going bankuprt!
Mmm.. I love charts and graphs. Moreover I love growth