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[Coolio McAwesome]

It looks like the Wii has officially surpassed the lifetime sales of SNES, and it's only 2.5 years into its life cycle. The fact that the Wii has been able to reach that number so quickly without a single price drop or SKU change is remarkable. The Wii is a software giant, too. It's almost unfathomable for a system that has sold as quickly as the Wii to have such a strong attach rate.

 

[lowlylowlycook]

This Reuters article claims that Nintendo made about $5.3 billion in operating profit for FY09.

Is that official?

[edit]
If that is correct and I did my math right that's almost exactly the operating profit of Sony's gaming division made from 1996 to 2006 :lol

[edit2]
Nevermind, I can't read that is just their projected earnings. Ignore me.

Ok, now it's official :lol

I'm still an idiot though.

 

[Vinci]

Total PS2 sales (as of march 2007): 1.24 billion software units
Wii tie ratio : 7.01 (353m/50m)

All things considered, I said wow.

 

[Grampa Simpson]

No new thread? I'm kind of surprised.

 

[Valtor]

All things considered, I said wow.

Impressed by Wii or PS2? I posted lifetime PS2 sales btw, if you compare to at this point in the lifetime, PS2 had ~250m software units sold.

 

[Vinci]

Impressed by Wii or PS2? I posted lifetime PS2 sales btw, if you compare to at this point in the lifetime, PS2 had ~250m software units sold.

Impressed by the Wii. Given its shit-tastic 3rd party support, those software sales are ridiculously good.

 

[Kenka]

It may be a silly questions but Wii Sports is included in those figures right ?

 

[Vinci]

It may be a silly questions but Wii Sports is included in those figures right ?

In the region it was sold separately. Can't fathom them including it elsewhere.

 

[Shin Johnpv]

So the Wii is basically smashing HW and SW sales records left and fucking right.

 

[Vinci]

So the Wii is basically smashing HW and SW sales records left and fucking right.

While being virtually ignored by major third parties up to this point, yeah.

 

[laserbeam]

While being virtually ignored by major third parties up to this point, yeah.

And people wonder why so many studios are being closed down.

 

[Kenka]

I am truly sorry but what does "fathom" mean ? To Understand ? To Guess ?

 

[Psychotext]

I am truly sorry but what does "fathom" mean ? To Understand ? To Guess ?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fathom
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/fathom.html

 

[markatisu]

While being virtually ignored by major third parties up to this point, yeah.

Yeah I think this is amazing, look at the PS2

GTA : SA : 12m (Rockstar/Take-Two)
GT3 : 9.53m (Rockstar/Take-Two)
GTA : VC : 9.21m (Rockstar/Take-Two)
GTA 3 : 7.5m (Rockstar/Take-Two)
MGS2 : 7m (Konami)
FFX : 6.6m (SQUARE)
FFXII : 5.2m (SQUARE)
Kingdom Hearts : 4.7m (SQUARE)
DQ8 : 4.4m (SQUARE)
Madden 05 : 4.3m (EA)

The entire PS2 list is 3rd party, the Wii list is almost all Nintendo with the rare exceptions Activision for GHIII and GHWT, SEGA for Mario and Sonic, and probably after this year Lucasarts for Lego Star Wars when you are looking at "Nintendo like" sales

 

[Kenka]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fathom
http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/fathom.html

Well, that's pretty clear.

So, in clear, you actually don't know if the bundled Wii Sports is actually counted or not. Is it an easy way to say what you thought ?

 

[Grampa Simpson]

From the PDF - R&D numbers and employee count.

4130 Employees and about $426 million spent on R&D.

They spent about $100,000 per employee on R&D.

Damn.

They expect to spend even more on R&D this year.

Also of interest, if you look through the PDF, they appear to have spent an appreciable amount of money on land.

Well, that's pretty clear.

So, in clear, you actually don't know if the bundled Wii Sports is actually counted or not. Is it an easy way to say what you thought ?

He very strongly doesn't think that they would have included it in total sales in regions where it was bundled.

 

[Linkup]

Says at the very end of the pdf that bundles were not included in their software numbers.

 

[markatisu]

Well, that's pretty clear.

So, in clear, you actually don't know if the bundled Wii Sports is actually counted or not. Is it an easy way to say what you thought ?

Its usually omitted when talking about total Wii software sales in the US and EU since its bundled, its one of the reasons Nintendo touts the success of Wii Play and not Wii Sports since you actually have to make a conscious decision to buy Wii Play

 

[Kenka]

Says at the very end of the pdf that bundles were not included in their software numbers.

Big news. Damn, that's a lot of software sold. I wish we knew how much of it was non-Nintendo.

He very strongly doesn't think that they would have included it in total sales in regions where it was bundled.

Says at the very end of the pdf that bundles were not included in their software numbers.

A good guess undeniably. Thanks for the further explanation.

 

[Vinci]

From the PDF - R&D numbers and employee count.

4130 Employees and about $426 million spent on R&D.

They spent about $100,000 per employee on R&D.

Damn.

They expect to spend even more on R&D this year.

Also of interest, if you look through the PDF, they appear to have spent an appreciable amount of money on land.

Didn't they just buy, like, 10,000 acres or something for a new R&D facility?

 

[markatisu]

Big news. Damn, that's a lot of software sold. I wish we knew how much of it was non-Nintendo.

A really large chunk :lol

You got to figure Wii Play is ~20m, Wii Fit has sold 18.22 m, Mario Kart Wii 15.4 m,
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is ~8m, Mario Galaxy is ~7.66 m, and Mario Party 8 is ~6.28 m (using Wikipedia and financial reports as a best guess estimate of LTD)

Those are the big Wii heavy hitters and make about ~76m

Add in a bunch of 2-4m games (Links Crossbow, Animal Crossing, Wii Music) and you still dont get near 100m

Which means the remainder is all 3rd party with the GH series taking up at least 6m in the US and Mario and Sonic taking up ~5-8m worldwide

 

[Ranger X]

And people wonder why so many studios are being closed down.

Seriously.
But they are stuck in their old mentality (needs more hardware power + beautifuller graphics or bust). They are shooting themselves in the foot and think the Wii is a second rate something. They think it's only a super new (and non-existing) gamer that buy Wii. Fact is we all have one. If all our major games were coming there we would buy them regardless. Publishers really are retarded and missing the point.

.

 

[Kenka]

A really large chunk :lol

Add in a bunch of 2-4m games (Links Crossbow, Animal Crossing, Wii Music) and you still dont get near 100m

So basically, thirs-parties sold something like 250 millions pieces of software, which is equivalent to everything sold on the PS2 in the same timeframe ?

 

[Kilrogg]

The Wii is breaking each and every sales record ever in the video game industry.

The Wii is the least (third-party) supported leading platform ever.

Where would it be now if the majority of the industry had even a quarter of Nintendo's business acumen?

 

[markatisu]

So basically, thirs-parties sold something like 250 millions pieces of software, which is equivalent to everything sold on the PS2 in the same timeframe ?
]

Pretty much, I would say if I had to guess probably like 225-230m is, its hard to tell

There are a lot of 450-700k games on Wii I am pretty sure (just since Nov 08 we have CoD WaW, Shaun White Snowboarding, Jillian Fitness, My Fitness Coach, not to mention increases in legacy titles like Lego Star Wars from 2007 and repeat yearly sellers Tiger Woods)

 

[GDGF]

Wow. Nintendo is the video game industry.

 

[Captain Smoker]

Wow. Nintendo is the video game industry.

I think if you add all Net Income & Net Loss from every video game company you'll get Nintendos Net Income (FY 2009). xD

 

[Spiegel]

Nintendo DOES include the ~45 million Wii Sports in the total software sales.

They don't include bundles ONLY in the sales forecast.

4 Software forecast figures do not include quantity bundled with hardware

 

[Vinci]

Nintendo DOES include the ~45 million Wii Sports in the total software sales.

Where does it directly state that? Doesn't make sense to count it in bundled regions. Japan, sure, but overseas?

 

[Shin Johnpv]

You know its a shame more gaming "journalists" aren't real journalists. Because I would love to see an article where they take these numbers, and the npd numbers we know, and other info (like de Blob, GH, CoD WaW etc) and go to each of the major 3rd parties, and just ask them questions. Like do they think they dropped the ball on the Wii? Why have they decided not to support the Wii with their major titles? How can they ignore numbers like this? It would make a pretty interesting read IMHO. Instead we'll get fluff pieces about how awesome some big new FPS is going to be, and how it'll be like 90% of the rest of them but this one will change gaming as we know it.

 

[Vinci]

You know its a shame more gaming "journalists" aren't real journalists. Because I would love to see an article where they take these numbers, and the npd numbers we know, and other info (like de Blob, GH, CoD WaW etc) and go to each of the major 3rd parties, and just ask them questions. Like do they think they dropped the ball on the Wii? Why have they decided not to support the Wii with their major titles? How can they ignore numbers like this? It would make a pretty interesting read IMHO. Instead we'll get fluff pieces about how awesome some big new FPS is going to be, and how it'll be like 90% of the rest of them but this one will change gaming as we know it.

I've seen some interviews where they asked questions like that. Most were by N'Gai though.

 

[Spiegel]

Where does it directly state that? Doesn't make sense to count it in bundled regions. Japan, sure, but overseas?

It won't make sense for you, but they do that.

3) Sales units, number of new titles figures for Wii do not include quantity of the Virtual Console and the WiiWare titles

-> They are counting everything except WiiWare/VC sales

4) Software forecast figures do not include quantity bundled with hardware

-> Forecast: They aren't counting bundles

Also, previous quarter:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2009/090130e.pdf

Wii Sports 40,5 million

 

[Shin Johnpv]

I've seen some interviews where they asked questions like that. Most were by N'Gai though.

That's because N'Gai is awesome.

 

[Vinci]

It won't make sense for you, but they do that.

3) Sales units, number of new titles figures for Wii do not include quantity of the Virtual Console and the WiiWare titles

-> They are counting everything except WiiWare/VC sales

4) Software forecast figures do not include quantity bundled with hardware

-> Forecast: They aren't counting bundles

Also, previous quarter:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2009/090130e.pdf

Wii Sports 40,5 million

That's pretty dumb. But oh well.

 

[markatisu]

It won't make sense for you, but they do that.

3) Sales units, number of new titles figures for Wii do not include quantity of the Virtual Console and the WiiWare titles

-> They are counting everything except WiiWare/VC sales

4) Software forecast figures do not include quantity bundled with hardware

-> Forecast: They aren't counting bundles

Also, previous quarter:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2009/090130e.pdf

Wii Sports 40,5 million

So that bumps the total to what ~150m? Leaving ~200m for 3rd parties. Still excellent given the shit state of 3rd party support

 

[Spiegel]

So that bumps the total to what ~150m? Leaving ~200m for 3rd parties. Still excellent given the shit state of 3rd party support

That's a pretty conservative estimate. Between three games we are almost at 100 million
Wii Sports (~45) + Wii Play (~23) + Wii Fit (~18) = ~96 million

I'd say ~170 million first party and ~180 million third party.

It's a good number for third party sales.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

The Wii is breaking each and every sales record ever in the video game industry.

The Wii is the least (third-party) supported leading platform ever.

Where would it be now if the majority of the industry had even a quarter of Nintendo's business acumen?

No, it's being supported. 250 million possible 3rd party titles confirm that. Just not the most popular console. 250 million dogz titles. Another indictment of 3rd parties, all the same.

 

[AniHawk]

So the DS is the first Nintendo system to hit 100 million since the Game Boy (and looks to beat those sales by quite a bit). At 50 million, the Wii has surpassed the SNES and is on its way to becoming the best-selling console Nintendo has produced.

In another two years, the DS will be the best-selling system ever, and the Wii might be the first Nintendo console to hit 100m (depending when next gen starts and if people lose interest). Wii Sports has already beaten SMB as the best-selling game ever, and NSMB beats SMB 3 for best-selling nonbundled, single-SKU game.

 

[kswiston]

Way lower than the Wii.
PS2 cumulative productions of software at the end of Sep. 2002 (after 30 months) was at 229m copies.
Wii software at the end of Mar. 2009 (after 28 months) was at 353m copies.

It's worth pointing out that Wii launched in all major territories within a few weeks of each other, while PS2 launched in Japan 8 months before North America and 9 months before Europe. Basically, in its first 28 months, Wii got 3 full holiday seasons. In it's first 30 months, PS2 only got 2.

If you start counting PS2 sales from the 4th quarter, 2000, and subtract the 8 million units of early Japan sales, you get 342 million units of software shipped by March 31, 2002 (29 months after US launch, 28 months after EU launch). That's a fairer comparison Since the majority of software sales are in 4th quarter and Japan counts for less than 20% of the world's software market these days. Wii is still ahead, but not be all that much.

 

[AniHawk]

That's a pretty conservative estimate. Between three games we are almost at 100 million
Wii Sports (~45) + Wii Play (~23) + Wii Fit (~18) = ~96 million

I'd say ~170 million first party and ~180 million third party.

It's a good number for third party sales.

One company selling 170 million pieces of software in 2.5 years on just one system is... well, unbelievable. That is a huge number. Then you have to account for the 20m each that NSMB, Nintendogs, and Pokemon Plat/Diamond/Pearl produced, along with all their other DS games.

 

[Yes Boss!]

I think it is a given Wii will hit 100 million. It is selling faster than even the DS.

 

[Wollan]

The entire PS2 list is 3rd party

The second best selling game there (GT3) is first party.

 

[AniHawk]

I think it is a given Wii will hit 100 million. It is selling faster than even the DS.

Well, I meant in the next two years. 26m more puts it around 76-77m a year from now. If sales slow between now and then, it's possible the Wii won't make it to 100m by the end of FY11. But yeah, it's a given that it'll hit 100m at some point.

 

[mentalfloss]

The second best selling game there (GT3) is first party.

It's also worth noting that those are all sequels published by 3 companies total. Doesn't really qualify the PS2 as a third party machine when only a few companies really make a killing.

A better comparison would be to show all third party efforts on both consoles that have sold over 1 million.

 

[markatisu]

The second best selling game there (GT3) is first party.

My fault, for some reason I saw that as GTA3 instead of GT3

It's also worth noting that those are all sequels published by 3 companies total. Doesn't really qualify the PS2 as a third party machine when only a few companies really make a killing.

A better comparison would be to show all third party efforts on both consoles that have sold over 1 million.

All that would show is that an overwhelming amount of third parties sell games on Wii but do not sell massive games on Wii (GHIII and GHWT are the only 3rd party games with juggernaut Nintendo like sales...well Mario and Sonic which was published by Nintendo in Japan)

 

[schuelma]

Nice find. It doesn't show up on Nintendo's corporate calendar, though, whereas past presentations have, so this could just be uninformed speculation by a Tokyo fund manager assuming such a presentation will take place. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/schedule/index.html

May 8, 2009 Fiscal Year Financial Results Briefing

 

[bttb]

.

 

[bttb]

.

 

[BishopLamont]

Bandai Namco Games.

Difference since last report:

Soul Calibur IV                 [B]+60K[/B]
Active Life Outdoor Challenge   [B]+480K[/B]
We Ski                          [B]+370K[/B]
Gundam Musou 2                  [B]+110K[/B]
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm     [B]+110K[/B]
Taiko Drum Master for DS 2      [B]+80K[/B]
Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit       [B]-[/B]
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3        [B]-[/B]
Taiko Drum Master for Wii       [B]-[/B]
Super Robot Wars Z              [B]-[/B]

Not much to say other then Wii games are doing pretty well in the West.

 

[Kilrogg]

No, it's being supported. 250 million possible 3rd party titles confirm that. Just not the most popular console. 250 million dogz titles. Another indictment of 3rd parties, all the same.

I meant quality of support. And by that, I don't mean "OMG Hardcore Gamez!!", but games that aren't shovelware or a poor man's Wii Sports/Fit. Any game, really, as long as the dev team has put some effort in it and it has a nice concept to it.