It is not often that a game lives up to its potential. It is even more rare when a game shatters expectations. You can put Street Fighter IV in the latter category. Capcom has released a statement saying that SF IV, the arcade phenom, has sold 2 million console copies. In today’s economic climate, that is nothing short of remarkable. Factor in that the game is a fighter as opposed to the more well versed genre such as FPS, MMO, etc. Capcom killed it with SF IV. People are already buzzing how they plan to top it. Hit the jump for the press release from Capcom HQ in Japan.
Hit the jump for more »
Did you honestly think Nintendo wouldn’t come out on top again? One of these months, either the Wii or DS will fall to number 3 or lower. Who knows when it’ll happen.
Overall sales saw a 13% year of year increase, which is pretty damn good considering the current economic climate.
- Wii – 679.2K
- Nintendo DS – 510.8K
- Xbox 360 – 309K
- PlayStation 3 – 203.2K
- PSP – 172.3K
- PlayStation 2 – 101.2K
Hit the jump for more »
For whatever reason the current economic crisis didn’t smack around the game industry like other industries, instead it flourished. Across the three main global gaming markets there was an overall sales increase. The U.S. saw an increase of 15 percent while the U.K. had an increase of 26 percent. The Japanese market didn’t fare as well, declining 13 percent. Still, the three markets totaled 409.9 million units in 2008 or an 11 percent increase. Not too shabby.
The global sales list was compiled by totalling the numbers from NPD, GfK Chart-Track and Enterbrain, the three main stat trackers from each region. Before you take a peek at the list, guess which game took the top spot? I said no peeking!
- Mario Kart Wii – 8.94 million
- Wii Fit - 8.31 million
- Grand Theft Auto IV – 7.29 million
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 6.32 million
- Call of Duty: World at War – 5.89 million
I bet you didn’t see that coming. Nintendo owns three of the top five spots on the list, all of which are first-party titles. Grand Theft Auto IV and Call of Duty: World at War both benefit from being multi-platform titles. Makes a person wonder.
Any guesses on which game will lead next year’s global sales list?
[Via Joystiq]
It seems no one is immune to the economy. Earlier today Microsoft released their 2Q earnings, and although it was in the green, it wasn’t as high as they would have liked; 16.63 billion vs the over 17 billion expected (which was low to begin with). However, their Entertainment and Devices revenue grew by 3% due to the high Xbox 360 sales. Microsoft has come out and said they are going to cut spending by 1.5 billion, and over 5000 jobs in the next 18 months; this is the first time in the company’s history they are going to cut jobs.
But this begs the question, what sectors of the company are going to be hit the hardest? It seems that since the Xbox 360 has increased in sales, they probably will not cut jobs and spending in the gaming sector. It also asks the question, what will Microsoft do with the Xbox 360 over the next 18 months when, as they said last week, they will not be creating a new console or instituting a Blu-Ray addition. It’s obvious, from companies like Apple and Nintendo, that innovation succeeds so Microsoft must begin thinking about how best to innovate and make, not only the Xbox 360 better, but the company overall. But from what I have heard around the news, “the future is so opaque it’s not going to be able to provide a forecast for the coming year.”
[Microsoft stock chart courtesy of Yahoo Finance]
The NPD Group released the top selling console video games for 2008. Going over this list, a few things popped into my mind. Have a look, then we’ll discuss.
- WII PLAY W/ REMOTE – 5.28 million
- WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL – 5.00 million
- WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD – 4.53 million
- WII SUPER SMASH BROS: BRAWL – 4.17 million
- 360 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV – 3.29 million
- 360 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR – 2.75 million
- 360 GEARS OF WAR 2 – 2.31 million
- PS3 GRAND THEFT AUTO IV – 1.89 million
- 360 MADDEN NFL 09 – 1.87 million
- NDS MARIO KART – 1.65 million
First off, only one PS3 game makes the list and only at 1.89 million units sold, which isn’t a good sign for Sony’s console. Second, and more importantly, is that a game released in November 2005 is still in the top 10 games sold in 2008. Mario Kart DS has some damn long legs. In my eyes, it’s the best Mario Kart, but still selling that many copies three years later? Just wow. Finally, Wii Play outsold both console versions of GTA IV combined. Impressive.
What are your thoughts? Remember, this is just for console games, so don’t go throwing that PC stuff in here. Those numbers aren’t out yet.
Even though we’re in a recession, a lot of product got sold in December. All in all, the industry saw a 9% year over year increase in sales. Not too shabby. Who came out on top in hardware? Do you even have to ask? Surprisingly, though, the DS took the top spot with over 3 million units sold. Pretty insane. Also interesting to see the Xbox 360 best the PlayStation 3 by a 2-to-1 margin. Sony needs to step up their game, even though the PS3 saw a nice increase in year over year sales as well.
- Nintendo DS – 3.04 million
- Wii – 2.15 million
- Xbox 360 – 1.44 million
- PlayStation Portable – 1.02 million
- PlayStation 3 – 726K
- PlayStation 2 – 410K
Again, Nintendo is wiping their asses with $100 bills. Check out the software numbers after the jump.
Hit the jump for more »
The economy sucks and now Sony is feeling the hurt. According to a report from Reuters, the PlayStation maker will be posting its first loss in 14 years to the tune of $1.1 billion. With a “B”.
It’s believed that because of the global economic downturn, Sony has stock piling up all over the world and have been forced to slash prices to accommodate the changing markets. More bad news is that Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Kazuharu Miura said, “I think there’s a good chance the company will further accelerate its restructuring from what has been announced in December.” Accelerating job cuts is never a good thing.
No word yet from Sony on the issue or what departments will be the first affected by the restructuring. We’ll keep you posted.
According the ELSPA press release today, games sales for 2008 in the UK came in at GBP 4.034 billion, a 23% increase over 2007. That is simply great growth for the past year. The credit crunch started to hit the UK towards the end of 2007 and has continued strong through today so its great news to see an industry going strong.
Here is a glimpse at the software sales for the top systems:
- Nintendo Wii: 20 million units in 2008 vs 7.9 million in 2007 a 153% increase
- Nintendo DS: 19.1 million units in 2008 vs 14.9 million in 2007 a 29% increase
- Sony Playstation 3: 10.4 million units in 2008 vs 4.2 million in 2007 a 145% increase
- Microsoft Xbox 360: 14.9 million units in 2008 vs 9.8 million in 2007 a 51% increase
This is a doubling of the UK market in 5 years. Given the present economic conditions these numbers are impressive. Hopefully some good news from the UK retail market will bring some of the development and publishing power back to the UK.
Hit the Jump for the Press Release.
Hit the jump for more »
Looks like Microsoft isn’t quite yet finished bragging about the Xbox 360 sales figures from last year. The Xbox 360 had it’s best year ever, selling more consoles in 2008 than any other year previous.
The Xbox 360 has seen it’s install base climb to 28 million units worldwide, expanding it’s lead over the PS3 by more than 8 million units. The Xbox Live community has also seen a great increase in users. Xbox Live now has more than 17 million active members. Microsoft has seen an 84 percent increase in online spending from the previous year. Since the launch of the Xbox 360, more than 1 billion dollars have been spent on Xbox Live.
Microsoft’s gaming division seems to have found a groove. All of the new online content coupled with the release of NXE probably had a hand in all of the increased sales figures. It seems that Microsoft is happy as long as they are beating the PS3 because there is no mention of that other white console in any of these figures.
Microsoft gleefully revealed today that the Xbox 360 had it’s best Christmas sales period ever in it’s six year European history with sales almost doubling that of Christmas 2007. The awesome holidays sales have attributed to the eight million total consoles sold in Europe which has helped widen it’s lead over the PS3 in the region to more than one million units.
Chris Lewis, Regional Vice President, Interactive Entertainment Business EMEA, said: “Christmas 2008 was a resounding success for Xbox 360. 2008 saw us grow faster than any of our competitors and we over-achieved in sales during the crucial Christmas selling period. We reduced the entry-level Xbox 360 ERP in September, understanding the need for great value, and European consumers have responded enthusiastically. With eight million consoles sold since we launched, and consistently out-selling PlayStation 3 in EMEA, we’re poised to build on this success in 2009. This success was only possible through our partnerships with retail and with publishers, with whom we’ve worked closely to build a strong ecosystem in the region and to bring value to our shared customer base. As we move into 2009 and an uncertain economic climate, we continue to be committed to offering the right blend of gaming and entertainment experiences at the right price.”
Let’s see if Sony can spin some numbers to make this not seem like such a beating. It looks like the fight is on for 2009.
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