Aside from that, Kid Icarus: Uprising, Mario Party 9, and the 3DS sold well in one of the worst gaming sales months in recent memory.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/30130
Xenoblade Chronicles, released exclusively through GameStop and Nintendo's website in early April, wasn't factored into this month's NPD sales because NPD does not release retailer-exclusive sales data. In general, due to very few major releases, the month of April was a slow sales month for the industry.
That didn't keep the 3DS down, though, as NPD Industry Analyst Anita Frazier said "One thing to keep in mind is that the 3DS has outsold the DS by about one million units in their respective first 14 months in the market, and the DS went on to become the best-selling gaming hardware system ever."
On the top-selling games list, Mario Party 9 was the only Nintendo-exclusive title to chart on the top 10, coming in at seventh. Other Nintendo releases to chart were Modern Warfare 3 (third), NBA 2K12 (fifth), and Just Dance 3 (ninth).
Kid Icarus: Uprising, which came out in late March, was among the top 10 individual releases for the month (NPD reports sales of all platforms a title comes out on as one number), selling around 83,000 units. Spirit Camera, which came out in mid-April, reportedly sold around 6,500 units.
The sales of points and subscription cards, however, were up 75% from last April, highlighting the industry's move to the digital marketplace. Also, Skylanders characters are still selling a whole bunch. "The three character pack SKU's have sold just under 10 million units in the U.S. since their launch into the market last October," Frazier said.
Overall, video game sales were down 32% compared to last April. Frazier said that part of the reason for the lackluster sales was because Easter was in the first week of April this year, compared to last year where it was later in the month. "We usually find that Easter-related purchases generate an extra 10 percent in revenue in the month they occur, so some of the softness compared to last April could be attributed to the shift in Easter timing."
@joshnickerson - That makes sense, considering Xenoblade was rumored to be the #3 on the sales chart by an analyst.
Still, 220k for Xenoblade is pretty solid. I don't think it has a ton of legs, but I think a limited release of that game 300k+ is decently successful.
Gamestop runs ads for exclusive preorder bonuses. The fact that there wasn't anything for Xenoblade would be even more of a testament to 220K sales.
220k for an unadvertised Gamestop exclusive isn't bad. Had it been given a full blown release at all retailers and with promotional support it might have done 10 times better. So maybe 2.2 million in sales.
The only way i knew Xeno blade was coming out was thru NWR.
The average person wouldnt have a clue and a nonNintendo fan (multiplatformer)
Would probably only know if they heard a Multiplatform Podcast/gaming site
The worst thing ever happen when I got my purchase from GameStop. First, the game came in one week late, and when I went to pick up my copy, it had no Club Nintendo insert, and to top it all off, the cashier wouldn't give me a new code, even though he knew the copy was jacked. I really, hate gamestop.
Gamestop runs ads for exclusive preorder bonuses. The fact that there wasn't anything for Xenoblade would be even more of a testament to 220K sales.
But the thing is, Xenoblade DID have a preorder bonus. It's a very nice artbook and not-too-thin full color stock. Very attractive looking.
Of course, I wouldn't blame you for not knowing about the preorder bonus, because I also didn't know about it, and I preodered the freakin' thing. I didn't know about the preorder bonus until I walked into my local gamestop a month ago, picked up my preordered copy, and the kid who worked there said "And here's your pre-order bonus."
I saw multiple commercials for the game in the weeks leading up to and after the release, more than even other first party Wii games like Kirby's Return to Dream Land got.
220k for an unadvertised Gamestop exclusive isn't bad. Had it been given a full blown release at all retailers and with promotional support it might have done 10 times better. So maybe 2.2 million in sales.
Yeah, that never would have happened. RPGs are still a very niche genre, JRPGs even more so, and Xenoblade (despite the "Xeno-" moniker) is still a new IP . Being extremely late to the party on Wii after all the RPG fans have gone elsewhere certainly doesn't help as well. I could see Xenoblade maybe crossing the million-seller threshold with a proper marketing campaign, but there isn't a chance in hell that Xenoblade could have sold 2.2 million copies this late in the Wii's life cycle.
