Topic: Official Sales Thread

[BlackNMild2k1]

NPD is pretty amazing for Wii, wow. Guess those who said it was on decline were wrong (again). Looks like NSMB:Wii was a big game after all (as it should be).

[BlackNMild2k1]

I wonder how much of the Wii's success was because of the price drop and how much was because of NSMB. Without those two factors I'm sure it wouldn't have broken records. This will be enough to get Nintendo through the 1st quarter of the year too, but after that the Wii is going to need something else going for it.

Easy Metroid, Zelda, and SMG

I meant during the month of December. Metroid, Zelda, and SMG are all old games that couldn't have been a huge factor in the December charts. NSMB was new, and the price drop was new, so that's why I'm pretty sure those were the main factors for December's results.

Does Metroid: Other M, Zelda Wii & Super Mario Galaxy 2 ring any bells?

[Kairon]

I think part of it had to do with all the Wii commercials. It seemed like every commercial break had a Wii commercial from Walmart (which featured different games, including Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii).

And it's about time. With the Wii the leading console this generation, it makes sense that retailers advertise it like they used to advertise the playstation 2.

[Chozo Ghost]

Does Metroid: Other M, Zelda Wii & Super Mario Galaxy 2 ring any bells?

These games aren't out yet. Zelda may not even be out this year.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Does Metroid: Other M, Zelda Wii & Super Mario Galaxy 2 ring any bells?

These games aren't out yet. Zelda may not even be out this year.

I wonder how much of the Wii's success was because of the price drop and how much was because of NSMB. Without those two factors I'm sure it wouldn't have broken records.
This will be enough to get Nintendo through the 1st quarter of the year too, but after that the Wii is going to need something else going for it.

Did you forget what you were talking about?

[BlackNMild2k1]

NPD: Behind the Numbers, December 2009

Perhaps the bigger story that we perceive in our estimates is that Nintendo Wii has finally overtaken Microsoft's Xbox 360 in life-to-date sales.

Recall that the Xbox 360 launched a year prior to both the Wii and PlayStation 3. With that headstart Microsoft has often touted its strong record in selling a high number of units of software per system owner (also known as a tie ratio). According to Microsoft's latest press release on Xbox 360 sales, the system now has a tie ratio of 8.8, suggesting LTD software sales of 164 million units after 50 months on the market.

While the Nintendo Wii has historically had a lower tie ratio, even when sales were launch-aligned, the system's extraordinary hardware sales have yielded similarly strong overall software sales. According to our estimates, the Wii has now sold in excess of 175 million units of software in a mere 38 months.

After 38 months on the market (December 2008), the Xbox 360 had achieved software sales of around 112 million units.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. I'll just set a box of really absorbent Kleenex on the counter and let all 3rd parties know that we would have been there for them if they had bothered try.

[Kairon]

I'm not even sure what to say about this. I'll just set a box of really absorbent Kleenex on the counter and let all 3rd parties know that we would have been there for them if they had bothered try.

Gosh darn it I'M NOT DEAD YET!!!

[Mop it up]

Looks like the software tie-in ratio is still pretty low. Considering the people like us who own a lot more games than the average, it makes me wonder how many people have just Wii Sports.

Speaking of, these software numbers do not include Wii Sports, correct?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Speaking of, these software numbers do not include Wii Sports, correct?

No. all the numbers are based off of what is reported by NPD and NPD doesn't report on pack-ins.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. I'll just set a box of really absorbent Kleenex on the counter and let all 3rd parties know that we would have been there for them if they had bothered try.

Gosh darn it I'M NOT DEAD YET!!!

I'm just saying that games were being bought and they could have been raking in the cash right next to Nintendo had they brought something other than the rehashed D-Team efforts that most have provided when it either came to developing or advertising their Wii oriented software.

[Mop it up]

I don't know about that, as third-party software has had trouble selling on Nintendo systems for over a decade. What percentage of that software total was Nintendo-published titles?

[KDR_11k]

About tie in ratios, let's not forget that most PS3s and 360s come with bundled games too, often even 2-3 of them.

[Stratos]

The only reason Kung-Fu Panda and Lego Indy sold on 360 as well as it did was last year they had a holiday bundle that included those two games and was advertised with those games like crazy.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Lets look at it this way;

Xbox360
8.8 games per system average
18.6 million systems
8.8 x 18.6 = 163million games

Wii
6.4 games per system average
27.1 million systems
6.4 x 27.1 = 173million games

Wii = 10 million more games sold than 360.

The Wii is 12 months behind the 360 when it comes to time on the market and these figures don't include WiiSports that was bundled in.

You also have to take into account the massive number of new Wii owners who just got their systems this holiday season. Are they really expected to have purchased 6-7 games to go with their new Wii when it already came with one, they likely got WiiPlay for the extra controller and WiiFit was already gift wrapped under the tree?


Mop it up: I don't have 3rd party vs Nintendo figures handy, but I know 4rd parties are making plenty of that pie. It just so happens that most of the games start slow and continue to burn under the radar (outside the Top 20). The Wii has quite a few 3rd party Million sellers and last I checked, 3rd parties had over twice as many million sellers in the US market as Nintendo did themselves.

[SalesBot]

Famitsu: New Super Mario Wii reaches 3 million sold

NSMBW: 3,002,753

[Chozo Ghost]

Did you forget what you were talking about?

No, but it looks like we're on different pages. I was discussing why I thought the Wii did so great in December, and obviously it isn't because of games that are a year away. I also said the Wii will need something after the 1st quarter, and now I get what you guys were talking about. It was just a matter of miscommunication.

[BlackNMild2k1]

It happens.

[Mop it up]

Million-sellers on Nintendo platforms:

Nintendo 64
Total: 41
Nintendo-published: 29
Third-party: 12

GameCube
Total: 26
Nintendo-published: 19
Third-party: 7

Wii
Total: 39 (Wii Sports excluded)
Nintendo-published: 21
Third-party: 18

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games

Historically, Nintendo dominates the charts on their own system and third-parties thrive on other systems, so it is of no real surprise to me that third-parties were and still are reluctant to support the Wii. The numbers of the million-sellers of third-parties on the Wii doesn't compare to the multi-million selling third-party games on the other systems. Seeing the amount of software sold on a Nintendo system doesn't mean much when a good chunk of that is all Nintendo, whereas pretty much 100% of software sold on the XBox 360 and PS3 is third-party. On top of this, the Wii doesn't have most of the traditional values that third-parties are used to, evidenced by something like Game Party selling over a million, which pushes then further away.

[BlackNMild2k1]

This is from April 2009 (can't find the one from Sept.*)


*IIRC Sept. had
Nintendo - 21 
3rd Parties - 45

[Mop it up]

And what kinds of games are those? Low-budget drivel that proves third-parties needn't put in effort to attract sales?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Not sure what kind of games it is, but 3rd parties are making plenty of money on Wii, just not in the Top 20 where they can brag about it.

That may be part of their problem with not advertising, as most Wii games that sell, do it under the radar. I'm sure plenty of those games were not full priced and many were probably bargain bin, but they were still selling.

According to some other chart I saw, 3rd parties are selling more software on the Wii than on the 360, and their money situation could be improved if they just upped the profile of the games they are releasing on the Wii. We don't need Assassins Creed 1 & 2, but it would be nice to atleast get a game of similar effort and scale.

[TJ Spyke]

No. all the numbers are based off of what is reported by NPD and NPD doesn't report on pack-ins.

It's true that they don't report pack-ins, but they do track them. NPD provides subscribers with extremely detailed breakdowns (including how many black DSi's were sold vs. white DSi's, 60GB Xbox 360's vs. 120GB's, etc.). That means that Nintendo would see how many DS Lite/Mario Kart DS bundles were bought compared with regular DS Lite systems.

Most of those unknown Wii million sellers are games that may sell like 60K a month and thus don't get their numbers reported unless the publisher chooses to release that info (even Nintendo doesn't release all sales info, their quarterly financial report only includes games that sold at least 1 million copies worldwide during that 3 month period).

[Ymeegod]

See the problem isn't that software isn't selling is the quality of what is selling.  Here's a list: http://vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?console=Wii
of the top sellers for the WII and you can see why 3rd parties complain.  Alot of crap titles continue to outperform much better games--this is the main problem with targetting casual gamers (or mom's and dad's).

Nintendo used to be all about "quality" and yet this generation Big N is still third place when it comes to AAA-A-B rated games vrs either the xbox or ps systems.  Part of the reason NSBM is selling is because what other AAA title was released last year for the WII?  GI mag does a roundup of the top 50 games for the year and you know how many were for the WII?  9, 6 were exclusives--the 3 non-exclusive games were all music releated).  PS3 actually had the most with 27 (7 exclusives) yet the system doesn't seem to sell.  And the sad thing is it's like this every year with WII. 
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[NinGurl69 *huggles]

GI mag has been a broken press outlet every year.  Let's use a different source.

And looking at that vghchartz list, a lot of the "crap" had much better promotion than the "good" games that didn't make the list.  Quite a number of sellers also came out at an opportune time, when customers were looking for supplements/alternatives to their Wii Sports/Wii Fit activities.  At the same time, it bit both customers and 3rd parties in the ass:  the customers got a good taste for non-Nintendo turdware (wasting their time & money) and they realized some brands should be avoided (ensuring the 3rd parties won't be able to succeed in selling their 2nd/3rd/4th waves of turdware later on).

[broodwars]

GI mag has been a broken press outlet every year.  Let's use a different source.

Yeah, I like GI in general but if you're going to cite something like this you're better off looking at a site with a culmination of reviews from different sources, rather than just using what one source says are the 50 best games of the year.  I don't necessarily think you're wrong, Ymeegod, but you have to use a better source.  Besides, there are a whole lot of reasons behind what's going on with the Wii's software library other than "crap games sell great."  Just ask Ubisoft how well that's working for them.  You have a reluctance by 3rd parties to support the thing with titles that they would put on the HD consoles and expect to sell, an expanded audience that doesn't buy games, the incredibly weak Wii hardware (compared to its competitors) that can limit the experience developers want to make, etc.    Unfortunately, it's probably too late now for developers to reestablish themselves on the console, because the ideal core audience has probably moved to the HD consoles by now.

And you're really citing vgchartz?  Seriously?

[vudu]

People don't buy "crap titles" because they like bad games.  These games are selling better than games of higher quality because something about them appeals to the market.  Maybe it's the advertising, maybe it's a box art, maybe it's the title, concept, price point, or any number of things.  Everything else being equal, I think more consumers would rather play a good game than a bad game, but the publishers/developers of these good games need to better target Wii console owners.