September 2013 NPD: PS3 finally beats Xbox 360, Wii U gains after price drop
Rockstar's indie game Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling game of September. Price drops help sales, Nintendo discovers as Wii U sales tripled month-over-month after its $50 drop.
Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. Rockstar's indie game Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling game of September. Price drops help sales, Nintendo discovers as Wii U sales tripled month-over-month after its $50 drop.
But here's something surprising. PS3 managed to beat Xbox 360, finally ending Microsoft's 32-month streak of being the front-running home console. But don't think it's because of growing PlayStation loyalty surrounding the upcoming PS4 launch. No, PS3's success this month was largely due to the PS3-exclusive GTAV hardware bundle. (It's a pretty good deal, too.)
And while PS3 may have been the best-selling home console, 3DS remains top overall hardware, for the fifth consecutive month. The recent launches of 2DS and Pokemon X & Y will undoubtedly help bolster Nintendo's figures for next month's report.
Here's the chart:
- Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; new releases bolded)
- Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)
- Madden NFL 25 (360, PS3)
- NBA 2K14 (360, PS3)
- Diablo III (360, PS3, PC)
- FIFA 14 (360, PS3, Vita)
- Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMIX (PS3)
- Disney Infinity (360, WII, PS3, NWU, 3DS)
- NHL 14 (360, PS3)
- Minecraft (360)
- Saints Row IV (360, PS3, PC)
Once again, be mindful that "these sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories, which account for roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games.
-
Shacknews
replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, September 2013 NPD: PS3 finally beats Xbox 360, Wii U gains after price drop.
Rockstar's indie game Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling game of September. Price drops help sales, Nintendo discovers as Wii U sales tripled month-over-month after its $50 drop.-
-
But will they really need to? If parents go to a Best Buy or Target in November and find a $500 Xbox One, a $400 PS3, or a $300 Wii U with a bundled game, what are they more likely to buy their kid for Christmas?
-
Something that's not $300+? Man, my kids are going to hate me.
-
Simple, the one they went into the store to purchase. The one their kid is begging for.
-
Not the Wii U. They don't know it's a new console. It looks exactly like the system they got a few years ago that's been sitting in a closet for most of it's life unless there's a party. Their thought process: "Oh, it's got a tablet? I already have a tablet. I don't need a Nintendo branded tablet. And the graphics look about the same as this $200 system. Hm, I could get a PS3 with the biggest game of the year for less than the Wii U" A Nintendo system with the same power, 1/100th the library, and it's pack in game being a full priced port of a decade old game when every other console re-release of equally old games tend to be much cheaper and include 3 or 4 games just looks sad. "Oh, there's a new Xbox? I love my Xbox. Oh, the PS4 looks great and it's $100 cheaper? Sold."
The Wii U is going to have a really, really bad time of it until that price comes down. And then they lose money on the consoles since that damn tablet that nobody wanted is a hundred by itself.
Nintendo's had this coming for a long time. They've been doing everything possible since the NES to kill off third parties. The N64 was a failure in comparison to the SNES, and the Gamecube a fail compared to the N64. The Wii fad was big but wasn't going to carry over after they decided to just dump the Wii in the past few years of it's life, and their goal market wasn't going to buy a new console every few years. The Wii U may not outsell the Gamecube, that's a disaster.-
-
Um, the problem is people AREN'T buying them. For exactly the reasoning I stated. It's still more expensive than the 360 and the PS3, the library is small and will remain small, and the included game is not a selling point. Nobody's going to choose it over the PS4 and One, and they're not going to pick it over the last gen consoles which are cheaper and have a wide variety of huge games.
-
-
-
I wouldn't be surprise if it was more often a $200 360 or PS3 with $20 games if what their kid was asking for was 'a Playstation' or 'an Xbox'
-
Totally this. Back when I worked at Gamestop in the early 2000s, parents (sans kids) would often come in looking for something and 9 times out of 10 opt for the cheapest "Playstation", which at the time was still the first one, because it had a robust library of cheap games.
PS3/360 will likely be that system for many people this year, especially now that their price points are lower.
-
-
Um, yes. Cus otherwise at that price point parents will buy their kids a ps3 gtav bundle for 30 bucks less. Its edgy and kids want edgy. GTA V is not done topping the charts. Parents who didn't get it for ther kids when it came out are either good parents or very bad parents who are waiting for xmas to do something special for their kids.
-
[deleted]
-
During the holiday season, yes. In America, the older you get, the less cool stuff you get for xmas. I'll be lucky to get socks and underwear for xmas. Kids, on the other hand, get the cool gaming machines because everyone wants to spoil them. And before anyone says the holiday season shopping hasn't begun, Costco has had xmas stuff since the beginning of October.
-
[deleted]
-
-
-
none of those?
-
They will buy the one their kid wants. I don't know anyone who buys a console for their kid just randomly.
-
Most parents are probably waiting for a steam machine
-
I assume this is a joke. Most parents never have, and if I had to bet, never will hear of a "Steam machine".
Unless once they're out they get hooked into a big retail chain to push them.-
-
i think we and those slightly older than us are the first generations with kids to be game-literate. but still, loads of parents my age don't game or know anything about.
previous parents, like boomers or those currently in their 50's and up now, probably have very little game knowledge. -
Because I've been around the parents my age at kids elementary school(s) in recent years and most of them, unless they themselves are gamers, just buy the thing their kids like and/or that they themselves have heard of.
-
-
-
I wonder how many Shack parents this could be true for.
-
-
-
-
-
[deleted]
-
The Wii U does not sell because it has no truly compelling Nintendo software. Nintendo systems live and die off of first party killer apps.
-
And yet sales tripled after a $50 drop. You don't even have to leave the chatty to read that part of the article.
-
yup there is pretty much no reason to buy the damn thing yet
-
-
if it was $50 cheaper you guys would say it needs to be $100. In short, you guys have no clue
-
I would purchase it if it had any games that I was interested in. So far the only reason I would want one would be for the virtual console classic SNES games or Xenoblade 2.
-
Because of: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/07/wii-u-hardware-and-software-sales-continue-to-go-nowhere-fast/
"If the hardware numbers are bad, the software numbers for the new console are worse. Nintendo sold a total of 1.03 million pieces of Wii U software in the last three months, compared to 11.01 million piece of 3DS software in the same quarter (the portable division is doing pretty well, in fact—Nintendo sold 1.4 million 3DS units this quarter, down from 1.86 million a year ago, but software sales are up from 7.39 million a year ago)."
And: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/01/nintendo-cuts-wii-u-sales-projections/ "But Nintendo doesn't think it can keep that momentum up. Back in October, the company said it expected to sell 5.5 million Wii U units through the end of March. That number has now been cut down to 4 million, meaning Nintendo expects to sell fewer than a million systems worldwide in the first three months of 2013."
And: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/report-february-wii-u-sales-appear-far-short-of-nintendos-hopes/ "The Wii U’s track record for poorer-than-expected sales grows longer after February, when only 64,000 consoles went off store shelves in the US ... the company thought it would sell nearly two million units per month worldwide from the beginning of January through the end of March."
And: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/report-wii-u-vita-continue-poor-us-sales-performance-in-march/ "the Wii U sold only 67,000 units in the US during the five weeks running from March 3 through April 6. The leaked numbers continue a disappointing 2013 for Nintendo's newest system, which sold an estimated 50,000 US units in January and roughly 64,000 in February. ... For comparison, the Wii U is so far selling about 28 percent slower than the GameCube did in the five months after launching in November 2001, and about 50 percent slower than the Nintendo 64 and the original Wii did in their first five months. "-
-
Meaning, Nintendo is not selling WiiUs, so they will need to do something.
Should that be price drops? Or will Nintendo's first party games save it? We don't know, but we do know that their sales are extremely low, their profits are down: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/31/nintendo-reports-quarterly-revenue-down/ "the year-over-year fall in revenue was much smaller than the one Nintendo suffered in Q2 2012, and its operating loss was much smaller too -- just under five billion yen in the red." and third parties have abandoned the WiiU - http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/07/why-third-party-publishers-still-arent-thrilled-with-wii-u/ "Ubisoft chairman and CEO Yves Guillemot noted that its exclusive Wii U launch title ZombiU was not even close to profitable, despite a generally positive reception from players and critics ... Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg noted that his company came to the Wii U launch with a "robust slate" of games, but he said they have no new announcements for the system (outside of this holiday's Skylanders Swap Force). EA's Peter Moore said that the games it has released have seen "poor sell-through" and, worse, very little use of online services."
But don't let the facts get in the way of your opinions. -
Sure, spend millions on ads that go nowhere for this system. Or cut a few million off your bottom line and price it into an area where people will actively consider it over a Wii, Xbox360, or PS3 in the budget group. Nintendo is not competing with the MS/Sony platforms anymore, so they are essentially relegating themselves to that odd-ball tier. Platforms in people's hands will mean games purchases will make more sense to people in the long run. Some folks will argue that the Wii languished in people's houses, but I know for a fact that a majority of families looked to the wii for their games when it was in their household before looking for that killer game on the xbone920. If they are selling family software/hardware then they need to price it at a point thats familiar to that audience and 300+ isn't that audience.
-
-
As a Nintendo customer I've rarely seen an ad for the WiiU. Their marketing has been horrible and as we know good marketing will sell even the the most awful of devices. You can look no further than Kinect for this. The WiiU had one of the strongest launch line ups that I can remember, most certainly for Nintendo customers. But there is market confusion. Customers think that the WiiU is a glorified Wii and this is simply not the case.
Almost every single bullet point that the new next-gen consoles are parading are in full display on the WiiU. Tablet, cloud support, digital purchases, screenshots, apps. Limited cross-play and hardware that may not be face-melting but is quite capable.
External hardrive capabilities that reach up to 1 terabyte. The Miiverse is wonderful and getting better, some games have it fully integrated. for every 55 dollars you spend you get 10 dollars back. I believe Sony is just starting this now. Nintendo has been doing it for a year now.
Although I feel sad that Rayman and Splinter Cell did not sell well for Ubisoft I am also delighted, because if they would have been exclusives to WiiU they would have blamed the system for its ills. Instead you have to look at the bigger picture. GTA V, gamers waiting for the next gen (which have less games than the WiiU did at launch). but their Sony and Microsoft and "gamers" tend to forget that we all graduate from the house of Mario.
Nintendo has earned their right to be here and they will continue to be here. They strive for excellence and keep innovating. Throughout the years I have never been disappointed with any of their offerings. Just gotta give credit were credit is due.
This time around. They did not promote their product correctly, instead they opted for Nintendo Direct which is good, but its like preaching to the choir. I think its because they feel they do not have enough software to warrant a global marketing campaign. But, Nintendo has enough money to launch several new hardware console and not blink and eye. So I am sure if they felt that if WiiU was an imminent failure they would just simply make another console and I'm sure that would also be innovative and different. The one thing that would be consistent is that it would be fun.
Charts and numbers don't account for everything. Nintendo has been running against the grain since its inception and Ubisoft knows that better than anybody.-
"Charts and numbers don't account for everything."
'I don't let facts get in the way of my opinions.'
It's nice you, very obviously, like Nintendo. You are a fan and love their output. Do not let that blind you to their challenges or the facts when they go against your opinion.
Saying stuff like this: "Sony and Microsoft and "gamers" tend to forget that we all graduate from the house of Mario." and "Nintendo has earned their right to be here" do not help your point.
-
-
-
-
-
wow you should maybe tell them to do this
http://www.pokemonrumble.com/RumbleU/en/
-
-
-
-
Well, I bought my first PS3 in September because of the price drop. I bought it because I wanted to play the Uncharted Series before the next generation launched. Honestly I've barely touched it. I forced my way through Uncharted 1 because I like the cut scenes, I played Dust and was disappointed rather quickly , played DCU and was dissapointed just as quickly, and I finally realized why Home was considered such a joke. The only positive was that the BF4 Beta was more enjoyable with the textures not included on the 360 version of it.
I can forgive all the above, except maybe that terrible shooting mechanics of Uncharted 1, but I just plain don't like the operating system, menu options, and especially the store.
I normally agree with those who say that too many options is not a bad thing, but I seriously doubt I'd use most of what's available and I miss the polish of the 360. I guess it all comes down to which one someone purchased first and became used to, but I'm seriously regretting my decision to buy the system.-
i've played my PS3 far more than my 360 in the last year. partly because i'm just out of 360 games and compelling new ones aren't coming out (and those that are i tend to get for PS3 due to the system's quiet operation and single-disc approach), and partly because the PS3 just feels more solid at this point in its life. the 360 was great but kind of looks and feels dated now (as hardware / UI goes, obviously the software is the same essentially as on PS3) whereas the PS3 feels more current. and i like its exclusives.
-
-
my guess is xbox owners and potential owners are saving money for xbox one. congrats to sony for outselling xbox for the first time in 3 years, great strategy to include GTA5.
-
I think they're closer than you think if you measure the whole world:
PlayStation 3 (PS3)
NA - 27.27 million
EU - 31.97
JP - 9.54
Other - 11.11
Total - 79.89
Xbox 360 (X360)
NA - 44.74 million
EU - 24.72
JP - 1.65
Other - 7.73
Total - 78.84
http://www.vgchartz.com/analysis/platform_totals/
-
-
