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Market research firm NPD released its latest game console shipment estimate for the U.S. Both the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 showed sharp upticks, while the PS3 gained significantly less – and has not gained any ground on Microsoft Xbox 360 since its launch almost two years ago.
Microsoft Nintendo hardware sales benefitted once more from successful game titles in September. The best selling title for the month was Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (610,000 units), which helped lift Xbox 360 sales by more than 75% from 195,200 in August to 347,200 units in September, according to NPD. The Wii climbed from a weak 453,000 units in August to 687,000 units on strong sales of its Wii Fit game and accessory, which sold 518,000 times during the month.
Slowly but surely, Sony may be concerned about its PS3. In comparison to its rivals, sales have been weakening over the past three months. In September, the PS3 saw the smallest sales increase, from 185,400 units in August to 232,400 in September. The most successful game for the PS3 came in at the #5 spot: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed sold 325,000 units. The PS3 had only one top 10 game in September, while the Xbox 360 had five and the Wii had four.
Nintendo has solidified its market share of more than 50% and stood at 54.2% in September. Microsoft increased its share to 27.4%, while Sony dropped to 18.3%.
In September 2007, the Xbox 360 led the market with 46.0% share, followed by the Wii with 43.6% and the PS3 with 10.4%.
Overall game console sales swung back strongly in September, ending up at 1,266,000 units, according to NPD. In September of 2007, shipments were 1,147,800 units. There are some parallels to last year, with Microsoft having a strong and Sony a weak month.
Lifetime sales for the Wii are now 12.7 million, for the Xbox 360 11.2 million and for the PS3 5.5 million. If you look closely, it is apparent, that the PS3 has not been able to close the gap with the Xbox 360 – despite the fact that the Xbox 360 is clearly the aging console in the market and it lacks a Blu-ray drive. It speaks for Microsoft’s strategists to keep the Xbox 360 attractive enough against the PS3.
Sony, however, needs to come up with new ideas to increase the appeal of its console. At least for now, the PS3 is left in the dust.
People started to buy the PS3 specifically for watching blu-ray movies now that quite a few standalone blu-ray players are cheaper than the PS3, that's one more reason for people not to buy them anymore and also accounts for poor software sales.
heh that reminds me where are Wrinkley Ninja and his skinny boyfriend?
Banned for life for a variety of reasons, nigh on a year ago.
Nintendo have got it so very right in my opinion when it comes to what a console and fun gaming should be and that's why they are leading the market. Pretty much everything the 360 can do, most people can achieve on a PC and most people own a PC anyway. you could say the same about the Wii, but with the Wii and the family entertainment factor, it becomes something far different than what is currently being done on the PC.
I think Sony fubar'd when it came to the PS3. The PS3 may have got a percentage thanks to Blu-Ray, but every step of the way, they've shot themselves in the foot with it. They were so busy trying to beat the HDDVD format, that they missed some seriously fundamental stuff and now they are suffering from it.
In my opinion Nintendo is a different beast to the Xbox and PS3 anyway, Nintendo has it's own market, XBox and Ps3 are directly competing in the exact same market space.
I love my Wii! I would never consider getting a PS3 or Xbox as I wanted something my five year old could join in with. There are games aimed at youngsters on the PS3 & Xbox but nothing compares to the intuitive controls of the Wii. Can't beat watching my daughter on Wii Sports Boxing.
Only thing is... why did they call it a Wii? How many people will be dashing around the shops this Christmas saying, 'I'm desperate for a Wii'?
Banned for life for a variety of reasons, nigh on a year ago.
Nintendo have got it so very right in my opinion when it comes to what a console and fun gaming should be and that's why they are leading the market. Pretty much everything the 360 can do, most people can achieve on a PC and most people own a PC anyway. you could say the same about the Wii, but with the Wii and the family entertainment factor, it becomes something far different than what is currently being done on the PC.
I think Sony fubar'd when it came to the PS3. The PS3 may have got a percentage thanks to Blu-Ray, but every step of the way, they've shot themselves in the foot with it. They were so busy trying to beat the HDDVD format, that they missed some seriously fundamental stuff and now they are suffering from it.
In my opinion Nintendo is a different beast to the Xbox and PS3 anyway, Nintendo has it's own market, XBox and Ps3 are directly competing in the exact same market space.
nah the 360 is made for gaming unlike a pc, its cheap, you pick up and play, everyone has a mic, there is no software issues as everyone will be running the same version of games, you just put the game in and play it, one thing the pc lacks is having to install EVERYTHING which takes time and is just dull, which is why consoles always had an advantage over PCs was no installs, yet the PS3 went and decided it wanted to install games too, which is just stupid and it takes EVEN longer ona PS3 to install a game than a pc.........
I have a 360,ps3,pc, had a ds, and by far the 360 is best for gaming with loads of choose from, the online is second to none and the gamepad is great!
Banned for life for a variety of reasons, nigh on a year ago.
As to the relative sales figures of various consoles, does that even matter? PS£ is even now prohibitively expensive for casual gamers and the Wii appeals to Jade Goody and the like so is it any wonder that the cheap pikey(albeit brilliantly marketed) console sells more than the hideously expensive one?
The real shocker is the Xbox because all the games come out about a month later for the PC and you can download them for free. I had one for a while until I realised this and now use the same joypad to play the same games but don't have to pay £45 per game. One can only assume that the whole entire populace is a big ******. Or rich.
I don't think everyone is rich though.
Last edited by Detomah; 20-10-2008 at 09:45..
Reason: If your going to talk out of your arse, it will be edited out.
I like the wii in terms of innovation, but it really is just a very very well marketed gimmick. The controls are awful, poorly responsive and just suck if you arent 5 or on illicit drugs giving you the energy and more importantly motivation to move around the room like an idiot. Also the Wii fit amuses me in that lots of people got it cos theyre fat gamers but didnt seem to make any difference, cos they still eat too many pies... mmm pie. I dunno why, but like Tef says it does seem to be the Jade Goody chav console, for no apparent reason. Seems good for little kids and old people, which is probably why it works for families.
The 360 is far the better console imo, but the games are a little more in depth and hardcore ie. time consuming and requiring some learning skills. Its good, but games are stupidly overpriced, especially as a lot of people seem to be pirating them, or their pc alternatives.
PS3 wass just a pikey way to get a ghey-rhay player.
Wonder if the credit crunch as got anything to do with it? We looked into getting a Wii for the kids this year (they got the xbox 360 last year) but by the time we have bought all the extra bits so the 4 kids can play together it would have been far too expensive!!
It really doesn't bother me whos out selling who as long as the kids enjoy what we get them.
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