Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo spin NPD results again
The NPD figures showing hardware and software sales in the U.S. came out a few days ago, and they were quite interesting. The Xbox 360 crushed the PS3, but the Wii won big, increasing sales by a huge amount. But the figures don’t seem to matter to the companies, with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all putting their own spin on them.
Nintendo
We start with Nintendo, which really doesn’t have to spin anything because it clearly won… again. The Wii sold an incredible 687,000 units in September, and the DS sold 537,000, putting the Nintendo consoles a clear 1-2 in the hardware charts.
Nintendo talks up the control methods inherent in its two consoles, rightly claiming that those methods aren’t possible on other consoles. I wouldn’t say this is the whole reason for the success of the two consoles, but it has clearly had a huge impact.
Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing said:
The Wii Balance Board and Wii Wheel give players new ways to interact with their games, while the Wii Remote controller transforms into a pool cue, table tennis paddle or lightsaber. Consumers have truly responded to this variety of entertainment options.
Microsoft
Next is Microsoft, which clearly does have some things to crow about, having seen the price cuts have the desired effect, causing the Xbox 360 to beat the PS3 by a huge margin. Microsoft starts by talking up the price cuts and the fact that the Xbox 360 is now the cheapest home console available.
The press release then again mentions the software attach rate, now a record breaking 8.1 games per console sold. It then talks about the plethora of music games on the console, and the fact (maybe) that the Xbox 360 is the leading console for rhythm action games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
It finishes by mentioning the newly announced Xbox Live Experience, launching worldwide on November 19th to directly compete with Playstation Home. I actually expected more crowing about the victory over Sony but Microsoft did well to hold back.
Sony
Lastly (mimicking the NPD positions), is Sony, which, unable to cite a brilliant monthly performance against its rivals, instead talks up the year by year increases seen by the PS3. Apparently, September 2008 marks a 94% sales increase from the same month last year, although all that does is show how poor sales were in 2007.
Sony also talks up the Playstation brand, taking the PS3, PS2, and PSP as a whole rather than individually. Which is clever but spin nonetheless. Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America, then states his position:
We remain confident that our footing is solid as we enter the holiday season this year. Our new 80GB PS3 model has made its way to retail shelves and into consumers’ living rooms as the best value for both their gaming and entertainment needs. If the impressive pre-sale numbers and ratings for LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, and Resistance 2 are any indication, we anticipate hardware and software sales to continue to lift in October as we officially kick off the broadest and deepest software line-up this holiday, including LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and NBA ’09: The Inside.
If you say so, Jack, if you say so.
As usual, the figures have been spun to within an inch of their lives, but unbiased analysts can clearly see they spell trouble for Sony. This holiday is going to be a split win between the Wii and Xbox 360, with PS3 probably limping in last despite the release of LittleBigPlanet and Home (fingers crossed). If Sony cuts the price dramatically at the beginning of the year, then 2009 could be a whole new matter.
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37 Responses to “Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo spin NPD results again”
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October 19th, 2008
Sony is getting what they ask for… DEAD LAST…step it up sony…
October 19th, 2008
PLAYSTATION 3 is soon gonna be second plus Sony is doing fantastic.
October 19th, 2008
I somehow don’t think that Sony is interested in selling their consoles at a greater financial loss right now so they seem to be sticking to their guns on pricing. No they are probably not going to beat Microsoft in the NPD results between now and Christmas 2008 but they are going to sell an increasingly higher number of consoles at a smaller loss and position themselves for future sales as both a game system and a Blu-ray player. When the production costs improve the prices will drop and the NPD numbers will reflect that.
October 19th, 2008
The inclusion of blu-ray has been an albatross around Sonys neck. If they used the same old DVD player they’d be price competitive with Microsoft and giving them a spanking.
October 19th, 2008
As a Sony fanboy. I don’t believe Sony will do well this Christmas. Because of the high price, on their PS3.
Sad though.
October 19th, 2008
@ Microsoft spin
Many are talking up the revived sales of 360 for MS with the deep price cuts.
Um. They were losing money on the consoles, so now, what is so great exactly?
Just as they might have sold a console for profit, they go and reduce the price so that they can keep losing money.
Wicked plan. Look at how many more units they lost money on this month.
@ Sony.. Year on Year up 94% Awesome. Sony is announcing that they have doubled their losses in only one year. Truly showing the way forward for the PS brand.
–
I’d love to make stuff and lose heaps of money on it while everyone says how great I am.
Only thing better would be to piss a few hundred billion up against the wall so I could show everyone how cool I was, then get the government to pay it all back, while I get to keep all the toys I bought with it.
–
Love that market economy. HAHAHA.
October 19th, 2008
No one really knows the losses involved in making the 360 or ps3, so you can’t really say that MS selling the 360 for $x is a bad thing. They may only need to sell 4 games per console to proft, in which case the attach rate is higher than that, and hey presto, they’re making profit!
Speculation of course, but to say they’re dumb for wanting to put more hardware units out there is short sighted.
Anywhoos, always love nintendo’s responses
Its like that episode of south park where the manatees pick out words to create episodes of familly guy
October 19th, 2008
@cy starkman
MS was already making a profit on the 360, look it up before you post your ignorance.
October 19th, 2008
Sony keeps talking all round entertainment.
Non-gamers can be drawn in with that, perhaps, but as a gamer, who is looking for a games console…why do I care? The extras raise the price of the console, too, making me less likely to buy it.
Nintendo has a good thing going, and a big part of it is the control system, but they need to keep getting games for all kinds of gamers. There’s not a lot new over Christmas for the Wii, and its important Nintendo not think they don’t need big games to keep winning.
MS should stop talking about the high attach rate. It’s not good to have an 8.1 attach rate at this point. It’s a sign of poor console sales, as we see at the end of a console’s life cycle. 8.1 is well out of any normal point for a console that is supposed to be lasting many more years.
October 19th, 2008
Xbox 360 sucks that shit freezes when i play it too much. And wtf is this new fucking dashboard update it looks like the fucking mii shit mad gay. I’m getting a PS3 this november im tired of this bullshit. and all u losers get a life stop arguing about this gay console shit no cares what crap u like. I want a PS3 for SOCOM my son loves it and for Blu-ray. My Xbox 360 died 2 times. My little girl has a Wii that shit is funny.
October 19th, 2008
I won’t piont out the irony in your post.
Maybe I just did…
October 19th, 2008
Ivan…err….Joshua Hilton_PSP…. actually I don’t think I need to respond to your comment, you have said enough already.
October 19th, 2008
Fuck Joshua and u get a life fanboy im not a name poser like ur bitch ass.
October 20th, 2008
Ivan, it’s pretty obvious that you are Joshua…
October 20th, 2008
@ maylon
how much of that profit has been reduced due to the firesale? Any hard figures? Simple logic, reduce price reduce profit. don’t confuse that with reducing cost. what something costs isn’t what it costs. try not to insult people, if you yourself are not privy to M$’s material costs of production and operation or basic supply chain economics.
October 20th, 2008
correction… what something is “priced” most typically is not what it “costs”.
October 20th, 2008
Pfft firesale. Sour grapes?
October 20th, 2008
Nintendo is the King! They’re the only company who profits for every console sold. MS and Sony are losing money with every sold 360 and PS3. PS3 in on the losing side more, sticking to expensive technology that a lot of people doesn’t care about, the “Blue Ray”. It turns out that the technology they thought would sell the console would be the thing that would kill them. I’m not surprised for MS to drop early on with the new media wars and opt for the standard DVD.
High-priced gaming console anyone! Clearly, consumers are still after affordable prices and MS’s price drops definitely translates that. Wii sells like hotcakes because they are affordable. Now, due to huge player-base of MS, I’m not so surprised if some PS3 exclusives would be seen in action in the 360 and the Wii perhaps.
When will Sony have price drops?? 2010? Who knows? All I know is that Sony can’t afford at this point to have a price drop as they are already losing lots of money. So, I suggest everyone of us now should buy a PS3 to save it from oblivion, NOT!!!
October 20th, 2008
The house of Mario, Nintendo brought back to the world what parents and all of us except some upset Xbox fanboys in America always wanted, true gaming. Just because its no profit Xbox has a reduced price does not mean it has gone anywhere; wait and see Ps3 shall smash them once more; Just as long as we have Nintendo, the world is a better place. Nintendo is to the World what Old Hip hop, Old rock, Old RnB, Old Jazz, Even the Hated country was good of old. Xbox is like the new Disney and all its foolishness, Ps3 is like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, great but move with the wrong crowd.
October 20th, 2008
You don’t know shit about business you a total idiotic just like harry sachz.
October 20th, 2008
PS3…. or 360… Fine, but I’m sorry the Wii sucks! They have no big holiday titles coming out over the course of the next few months. The PS3 and 360 share all of the big multi-platform releases. And they even both have a ton of great exclusives, but what does the Wii have?… Oh that’s right! Nothing at all!
October 20th, 2008
Maylon, MS has yet to post a profit in their games division.
w/o a blur ray player I wouldn’t have bought any system this gen. Xbox doesn’t have games I enjoy and has a useless HDDVD add-on, Wii is garbage and I like my HD movies. The blu ray was the single purchasing factor for me and I’m a hardcore gamer so blu ray is indeed moving consoles to gamers.
When Nintendo released every system w/o even a CD player everyone said they were a lousy value while Nintendo said they wanted to stick to being a games machine. Now all the haters are saying that Sony has done what they have criticized Nintendo for not doing the past 20 years. I seem to remember when the PS2 came out all the bitching that the Gamecube didn’t play DVD’s…
October 20th, 2008
um, all the price cuts for MS means is theyre getting desperate and now that it has gone well for a month, theyre getting cocky. For instance, i dont want an xbox (the original), but i saw one in gamestation yesterday for £20 and thought “jeez, i might buy!” Its impulse, people see the low price and think “fuck hardware, graphics and next gen film players, i’ll buy this nice cheap one!” and take the 360. PS3 is just superior. My friend and I did a comparison the other day (he has both) and tbh, they didnt really seem that different, other than the fact the game took longer to load on the 360 and it was slightly shinier on ps3. Oh, and he had a wii and took it back the next day saying it was a waste of his hard earned cash!
October 20th, 2008
pfreak,
I beg to differ. The games division has been turning a profit for over a year now.
Ivan, go away, idiot.
October 20th, 2008
@ Mr. Sachs
You’re partly correct. M$ game division has been turning a profit but only for the last two quarters and those last two quarters haven’t even covered the expenses incured for the RROD warrantee… Let alone the inception of the game division. Bottom line. Microsoft’s game division hasn’t made enough money to cover the costs of the 360 or box1. Fact.
October 20th, 2008
OH,
Turning a profit = Revenue – expenditure > 0. Over the past year, Microsoft’s game division has been turning a profit. Fact – the 360 is making money, and will in time swallow up the cost of the warranty and the inception of the game division.
October 20th, 2008
well i guess some of you are forgetting Gears of War 2, and Fable 2 is coming out shortly. from the sales figure of the first one it looks like it will be a early christmas for xbox.
October 21st, 2008
Well Gears of War 2 might make Epic Games some money but FABLE II will must definitely be another Xbox 360 exclusive sleeper hit.
October 21st, 2008
For all you bitching about Nintendo not including a dvd/cd player you guys need to get a life. Everyone in the USA can own a dvd player considering they are cheap as hell. Also, screw blue ray. I’ll stick with a upconverter dvd player with my mass collection of dvds. I am not going to go buy a whole new format when I can just upconvert my dvds. I only have Brawl and Mario Kart for the Wii. I may buy the Metroid when I see it cheaper for used copy. I’ve bought more d/led games than actual games. Nintendo is rolling in the money with the Nintendo shop. Seems like the only thing PS3 and 360 have are 1st person shooters and few other genres (mainly 1st person shooters). I am sorry but I don’t really care to play a billion 1st person shooters (I would be happy enough to sill play the old school DoD). Nintendo outsmarted the other two companies this generation and all you fan boys need to go cry in the corner. Who really gives a shit about your opinion? No one. However, I do like to see all you whining.
October 21st, 2008
Seth,
I’m tired of people like you running their mouths about not wanting to switch your massive DVD librarys over to blu ray and you will stick to a DVD upconverter. News flash, blu ray players come with DVD upconverters, so you can play your DVD’s on it. Now this sounds mind blowing, but with a blu ray player you can spend the extra cash on the movies you want the best picture on. So in your case, when you buy Sex in the City season 1 you could buy the cheaper DVD. But if you want Iron Man maybe blu ray would be the better choice.
October 21st, 2008
Like anyone cares about your opinion you broke ass hillbilly. You should probably look if they have any used lives for sale when you go pick up metroid fucktard.
October 21st, 2008
Nice one. Too bad you are probably 15 years old and think being rich is having 100 dollars. Kiss my ass and I don’t give a shit if anyone cares about my opinion just like no one cares about yours. Also, I live in a major city in a house that your entire family probably couldn’t afford. Just because I don’t buy shitty new formats or not that many games doesn’t mean I am broke. Suck it bitch.
October 21st, 2008
Oh and thanks Wylie for the blue ray tip, but since I already have a DVD upconverter there is no point for my to buy one since I don’t care to buy overpriced blue ray movies. I suppose you have a point for people that just have regular dvd players though. Maybe once the price drops over time then more people will feel inclined to buy one. I just never liked Sony since they sold me a first generation ps1 that started overheating right when the warranty ran out. Should I hold a grudge just because of that probably not. I have heard numerous problems with ps1 / ps2 with people having to either buy another one or ship it to them and get it replaced or fixed. Once they show they are more reliable I might think again about buying a Sony product. From what I have heard there aren’t too many problems if any with ps3. So maybe they are getting their act together with reliability. At least you showed a little more class Wylie than LOL@U, or at least you actually said something that made sense.
October 22nd, 2008
Seth- Sony is far from perfect, I won’t disagree there. I don’t care what console you buy, as long as that’s the console you enjoy, than good for you. I just want to set some people straight. My preference is PS3 and I just hope they can sell enough consoles to make a PS4 sound like a good idea to them. And yes, I am a fan of blu ray, but not just because its in the PS3.
October 22nd, 2008
Wylie – I agree with you on no company is perfect. Nintendo has always treated me pretty good even when I ran into controller problems with the wired controllers for GCN (buttons were sticking for no reason, and the c stick was malfunctioning). They kept replacing them for me yet they kept messing up. Then I finally switched to wavebirds and never encountered the problem again. As much as I like Nintendo I do see a need for competition. It is and would be a sad day in any market if there was no competition. So I hope and know Microsoft and Sony will keep producing consoles considering they are such huge companies and even if they take these early loses (selling consoles at a loss) they will eventually make money from their game divisions. Every cycle each console introduces at least one good idea that all others eventually include in their future console. I bet Nintendo may eventually include a hard drive next cycle even though it probably won’t be more than 20 gigs. At least it is a start. I really don’t care too much about sales figures for any system. If all systems sell a lot then that means the gaming market is doing just fine. A few years back it seemed that the game industry could only support 2 systems with the 3rd company eventually having to withdraw from selling consoles.
October 22nd, 2008
sony’s done. stick a fork in them. the holidays will be much worse facing GeOW II, and a more valuable 360.
we get it, fanboys.. bluray is nice for watching movies with, but you forget:
1. the picture quality is nice, but nowhere near the picture quality one would need to see to justify spending $2000 for a 50″ 1080p display on top of a $500 bluray player.
2. it’s hilarious you claim dvd is dead technology when EVERY SINGLE retail store has dvd collections that far outpace that of bluray by HUGE margins.
3. it’s even funnier watching you guys claim “bluray is the future”, when the future is clearly d/l… music and movies. technology moves forward. it doesn’t stop at bluray… sorry..
this is great news for the 360, this holiday. with this kind of momentum, it’s gonna be hard to stop.
October 22nd, 2008
@ Mr. Sachz
The last time I checked profitability is a functional return on investment. You can try to spin all you want but M$ game division has not turned a profit based on ROI. They’re barely meeting operational costs and they’re bleading tons of money from m$ other divisions… So much so for the first time in it’s history m$ is issuing DEBT in an effort to raise “revenue”. If you actually owned some M$ stock you would know. So please learn some facts and take some finance classes before try to fool people with your fuzzy logic.