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NPD Sales Results for December 2009

Eteric Rice

Member
[Nintex] said:
Do you know the expression opening a can of worms?
Well you just opened a can of radioactive worms.

More like a can full of these.

dune-sandworm.jpg
 

liuelson

Member
JJConrad said:
Keep in mind that we're talking about 3rd parties finding games that will sell 3-4 million on a system that will likely end this generation with over a billion in software unit sales worldwide. It isn't really expecting that much.

3rd parties have in fact sold millions of units on Wii. It's just that few individual titles have done so in a single month so that they would chart in the NPD top 10.

Parl said:
Isn't it inappropriate to assume that mass third party support (inevitably at the expense of competing systems) would create many additional Wii users?

Not sure what you meant - I was actually NOT assuming mass third party support would create many additional Wii users. How many more users beyond "record breaking" would be appropriate to assume?

Also, third parties takes up a large chunk of Wii software sales. Good support would take sales away from lesser quality third party and lesser quality first party titles, thereby buying different games than s/he currently is.

Does this suggest that increased or different 3rd party support won't actually change overall unit sales, but simply shift which titles get those sales? Particularly away from "lesser quality third party" titles? If so, then...

Plenty of room for capitalisation, from this standpoint.

No, not really. Wii owners are buying as many games as should be reasonably expected of them. They are, mostly, buying the specific titles that they should reasonably be expected to buy. Aren't they?
 

donny2112

Member
liuelson said:
Wii owners are buying as many games as should be reasonably expected of them.

Not at all. Using jvm's analysis, the current Wii tie ratio in the U.S. is 6.5. The PS2 at the same point was 8.4. In the U.S. alone, that could be as high as an extra 50m in software sales left on the table. Of course as shown by JoshuaJSlone's analysis, there is probably a higher percentage of "recent" Wii owners than the PS2 had at the same point due to Wii selling so much, but the basic point, that there's a lot of extra software sales available on the system, still stands.
 

liuelson

Member
donny2112 said:
Not at all. Using jvm's analysis, the current Wii tie ratio in the U.S. is 6.5. The PS2 at the same point was 8.4. In the U.S. alone, that could be as high as an extra 50m in software sales left on the table. Of course as shown by JoshuaJSlone's analysis, there is probably a higher percentage of "recent" Wii owners than the PS2 had at the same point due to Wii selling so much, but the basic point, that there's a lot of extra software sales available on the system, still stands.

I guess I have 3 thoughts in reaction to this.

1. A console with a higher percentage of recent owners *should* have a lower tie ratio, because owners have had less time to purchase software. Should Wii owners be expected to buy software at a faster rate?

2. Even if Wii owners are buying software at a slower rate than PS2 owners (comparing against PS2 rather than against X360 or PS3), how does the total number of software unit sales for all 3 consoles combined compare this gen v. last gen? Is it reasonable to expect even *more* software to be sold overall than is being sold currently, especially at this gen's software MSRP?

3. I think it's fair to dispute that Wii owners, in the current market context, should behave similarly to PS2 owners in the previous gen's market context. As someone has pointed out previously, the current 2nd place console has outsold last gen's 2nd place console, and the current 3rd place console has outsold last gen's 3rd place console. NPD December domination notwithstanding, the actual hardware installed based marketshare is not as one-sided this gen, is it?
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Jaded Alyx said:
600p gives it a more film like quality, only one control option makes it more realistic in depicting the lack of control the modern warrior has over what to do and which weapons to choose, less than $3000 hardware makes one understand the way that cutting corners with military spending can hamper the guys on the ground, comfy couches help you understand the creature comforts the soldiers must give up, and fierce loyalty to your inferior platform helps you understand the way that patriotism can make people say and do crazy things.
 

donny2112

Member
liuelson said:
1. A console with a higher percentage of recent owners *should* have a lower tie ratio, because owners have had less time to purchase software.
Which is why I pointed it out. It would make up some of the difference, but not all.

liuelson said:
Is it reasonable to expect even *more* software to be sold overall than is being sold currently, especially at this gen's software MSRP?

Yes. e.g. Wii Fit, music games

As to total software compared to last gen, it's probably a little higher. Was last gen the highest it could go? Does expanded audience stuff just take the place of something lost from last gen? If anything, the expanded audience stuff shows that Wii could've been expected to surpass the kind of software sales that the PS2 had, if it had had PS2-level support from the industry.

liuelson said:
the actual hardware installed based marketshare is not as one-sided this gen, is it?
It'd be even more of a slaughter for Wii if it was. Last-gen's leader launched a year ahead of #2 and #3. This gen, #2 launched a year earlier.
If you switch the positions for Wii and 360, though, Wii does have a PS2 sized marketshare. That's sort of just an interesting sidenote, though, since that's not the way they launched.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Archie said:
I would like to see how microtransaction based games are performing
They are one of the main revenue drivers, and are considerably outpacing subscription based MMOs by this point(yes, including WoW).

Opiate said:
PC Revenue is growing, but many people here don't care as it's growing on the back of games that don't interest them.
Doesn't help there's a distinct lack of public data relative to sales-charts we get for packaged games. IMO genres making it over to microtransaction models are inevitably covering more and more stuff Gaf actually plays though. But people still have to get used to playing games they don't own...
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Fafalada said:
They are one of the main revenue drivers, and are considerably outpacing subscription based MMOs by this point(yes, including WoW).


Doesn't help there's a distinct lack of public data relative to sales-charts we get for packaged games. IMO genres making it over to microtransaction models are inevitably covering more and more stuff Gaf actually plays though. But people still have to get used to playing games they don't own...

Don't really think this is ever going to happen, honestly. At some point, someone will find a way to back up their games.

Actual sales are dwindling though - revenue growth is from new business models that don't work by traditional sales model. This is further exemplified by US no longer being the biggest PC market.
Big players shifted focus to consoles because those still make money the "old"way, but that won't last forever either.

How long do you think the old model has left? Do you think the big players are going to adapt?

I remember Ubisoft saying they wanted to make their games along with movies so they could share resources. Do you think this would actually work, or is it just a business being stubborn?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Fafalada said:
They are one of the main revenue drivers, and are considerably outpacing subscription based MMOs by this point(yes, including WoW).
By this do you mean microtransaction revenue is large than subscription revenue or that it's growing faster than subscription revenue?
 
Eteric Rice said:
Don't really think this is ever going to happen, honestly. At some point, someone will find a way to back up their games.

How long do you think the old model has left? Do you think the big players are going to adapt?

I don't think these things are mutually exclusive at all. The game industry is growing in all directions at once, and not at the expense of each other, at least not yet. The rise of handhelds hasn't stopped consoles from continued growth (worldwide, that is--in Japan this isn't true). The rise of phone-based gaming hasn't visibly hurt handhelds. Downloadable games hasn't visibly hurt retail game sales. I'd say the only loser is "traditional" PC gaming, which has somewhat shuffled over to consoles (especially the FPS genre) while subscription-based games and such commandeered the PC market.

I'd say it's way too soon to proclaim doom on any sector of the game industry, or any of its business models. Even the severely flawed "blockbuster" model that drives the so-called "hardcore" market is still going forward. Sure, it's a gamble, but there's money to be made, and not just a little, so it keeps on repeating.
 
Leondexter said:
The game industry is growing in all directions at once, and not at the expense of each other, at least not yet.
Arcades.
singleteardropindian.gif


Also maybe I'm just clueless, but garage development seemed to have died after the NES. Healthy as fuck now of course.

Both completely unrelated to what you were talking about, but hey!
 
Son of Godzilla said:
Arcades.
singleteardropindian.gif


Also maybe I'm just clueless, but garage development seemed to have died after the NES. Healthy as fuck now of course.

Both completely unrelated to what you were talking about, but hey!

Not completely, just a bit removed in time. Good points.
 

Sipowicz

Banned
AniHawk said:
Yeah, once we move to a different reality I could totally see that happening.

eh?

if it's done about 50k on one platform during launch month do you not see it surpassing 200k across 3 platforms?

I expect it to do so quite handily, especially if it shows some legs on the wii which it hopefully will
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Leondexter said:
I don't think these things are mutually exclusive at all. The game industry is growing in all directions at once, and not at the expense of each other, at least not yet. The rise of handhelds hasn't stopped consoles from continued growth (worldwide, that is--in Japan this isn't true). The rise of phone-based gaming hasn't visibly hurt handhelds. Downloadable games hasn't visibly hurt retail game sales. I'd say the only loser is "traditional" PC gaming, which has somewhat shuffled over to consoles (especially the FPS genre) while subscription-based games and such commandeered the PC market.

I'd say it's way too soon to proclaim doom on any sector of the game industry, or any of its business models. Even the severely flawed "blockbuster" model that drives the so-called "hardcore" market is still going forward. Sure, it's a gamble, but there's money to be made, and not just a little, so it keeps on repeating.

It's true that the rise of handhelds haven't effected consoles that much (accept taking key franchises in Japan.) What do they do when more revenue comes from those cheaper games than the bigger ones?

I mean developers have to figure out how to make good, accessible games one day. Right?

RIGHT!?
 
Eteric Rice said:
It's true that the rise of handhelds haven't effected consoles that much (accept taking key franchises in Japan.) What do they do when more revenue comes from those cheaper games than the bigger ones?

I mean developers have to figure out how to make good, accessible games one day. Right?

RIGHT!?

They should be doing both, and also keeping their costs under control. And there's nothing wrong with the little games making more money than the big games. As long as both are producing a decent RoI, they'll both keep getting made. Look at Nintendo, for example: which do you think has made more money, Brain Training or Zelda: TP? Of course it's the former, but since the latter is also very profitable, there's no reason to consider them in competition with each other for the company's resources.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Leondexter said:
They should be doing both, and also keeping their costs under control. And there's nothing wrong with the little games making more money than the big games. As long as both are producing a decent RoI, they'll both keep getting made. Look at Nintendo, for example: which do you think has made more money, Brain Training or Zelda: TP? Of course it's the former, but since the latter is also very profitable, there's no reason to consider them in competition with each other for the company's resources.

I think the problem is that most companies won't want to do both. And the ones that do try to do both really can't seem to get it.

I think this will be an issue for those that make big games, but don't really make a profit off of them.

Wouldn't really have an issue with the casual stuff if they'd put good teams on them. But they seem to refuse.
 

Tarazet

Member
I have a request on the odd chance that anyone could fulfill it. What were Gran Turismo 1's first month numbers? Was NPD tracking in 1998?
 

AniHawk

Member
Scribblenauts > 800k

Rabbids Go Home > Metroid Prime Trilogy > The Conduit > Excitebots, MadWorld, Overkill

inFamous = Punch-Out > 500k

LBP PSP > 160k

This month, Wario Land > Excitebots (LTD)

A Crack in Time > 250k

Uncharted 2 > 900k
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
AniHawk said:
Scribblenauts > 800k
Xbox Arcade must be doing some serious numbers or the profit margin must be massively better if it is a better avenue than the DS for 5th Cell.
 
AniHawk said:
This month, Wario Land > Excitebots (LTD)
You mean Wario Land sold more in December 2009 alone than Excitebots sold LTD (seems unlikely) or Excitebots was ahead of Wario Land LTD through November but Wario Land passed it in December (also seems unlikely)?
 

toxk_02

Black Republican
AniHawk said:
Rabbids Go Home > Metroid Prime Trilogy > The Conduit > Excitebots, MadWorld, Overkill
I don't suppose I could get a helpful number somewhere in this chain to help frame everything?
 

FrankT

Member
AniHawk said:
Scribblenauts > 800k
Rabbids Go Home is the best-selling hardcore Wii game this year.

Rabbids Go Home > Metroid Prime Trilogy > The Conduit > Excitebots, MadWorld, Overkill

inFamous = Punch-Out > 500k

LBP PSP > 160k

This month, Wario Land > Excitebots (LTD)

A Crack in Time > 250k

Uncharted 2 > 900k

Got any numbers on DA?
 
Sipowicz said:
so wait rabbids go home sold more than punch out?
I'm guessing he isn't counting Punch-Out!!! as a "hardcore" game, although I'm not sure why RGH is considered "hardcore" in the first place.
AniHawk said:
I keep forgetting about Punch-Out. No.



Yes. WL basically doubled its LTD in one month.
Interesting. I wonder if stores offered it to people looking for NSMBWii while it was sold out?
 

Busaiku

Member
Sad to hear about Excitebots, but that seems like great news for Wario Land.
Did A Boy and His Blob happen to get a boost too?

Would be nice to see a 2D explosion.
 

FrankT

Member
Mael said:
And they've explicitly said that XBLA>>DS or it just happen to be their next project?

I don't think so and that's where I believe his argument comes in. Who knows how many projects they have going, but I do believe the XBLA title is next although I could be wrong about that.
 

AniHawk

Member
Busaiku said:
Sad to hear about Excitebots, but that seems like great news for Wario Land.
Did A Boy and His Blob happen to get a boost too?

A little bit, yeah. I wouldn't look too much into it, but its LTD has tripled since the first month.
 

KingDizzi

Banned
Any Forza 3 numbers? It was on the list for a month and been heard of since then. Such a great game, hope it has passed 500k by now.
 

Mael

Member
Jtyettis said:
I don't think so and that's where I believe his argument comes in. Who knows how many projects they have going, but I do believe the XBLA title is next although I could be wrong about that.

But that's preposterous, I mean maybe they have a project that's suited for XBLA and not DS.
I mean are we arguing that EAD 3's best avenue change every time they release a game so they change the platforms they put Zelda on?
i mean it seems really stupid for an argument, maybe I missed something
 
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