Another big month for the Wii, selling more than double the number of either of its competitors. The PS3 made a strong showing, coming in well higher than the Xbox 360. We’ll have to see if Metal Gear Solid 4 will make the trend continue next month.
- Wii: 675.1K <down> 39.1K (-5.5%)
- DS: 452.6K <up> 37.8K (+9.1%)
- PS3: 208.7K <up> 21.6K (+11.5%)
- PSP: 182.3K <down> 10.4K (-5.4%)
- X360: 186.6K <down> 1.4K (-0.7%)
- PS2: 132.7K <up> 8.3K (+6.7%)
Pretty nice month overall for hardware and software sales. You can check out the software numbers after the jump.
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The NPD Group released their list of the top 10 selling games of all time. I’m a bit confused by the list, since games like Halo 3 aren’t listed. Here’s what they have:
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 2004 – 9.4 million
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - 2007 – 8.2 million
- Madden NFL 07 - 2006 – 7.7 million
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - 2002 – 7.3 million
- Madden NFL 06 - 2005 – 6.7 million
- Halo 2 - 2004 – 6.61 million
- Madden NFL 08 - 2007 – 6.6 million
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - 2007 – 6.25 million
- Grand Theft Auto 3 - 2001 – 6.2 million
- Madden NFL 2005 - 2004 – 6.1 million
I guess Halo 3 just missed out, although I thought it was well over 6 million in sales. I’m sure this will be a completely different beast at the end of 2008, with GTA IV and Halo 3 up near the top.
[via Forbes]
This is big news. Not many games since 2000 have done this and those are games like WoW, Wii Fit, DS Titles, and The Sims. Halo 3 has only sold around 8 million. To be fair, COD4 is on 2 consoles and Halo is just on 360. Call of Duty 5 is rumored to be another WWII titles from Treyarch and we all are sacrificing chickens to ensure that does not happen. Nevertheless, great job and congratulations in making a phenomenal game.
Over the past five to six months, gamers looking to buy a PS3 haven’t had a choice of which SKU to pick up, as the 80GB MotorStorm bundle has been out of stock at almost every retailer here in the US. Sony has only now officially discontinued that bundle. In the meantime, new PS3 gamers have been forced to buy the 40GB SKU or wait patiently until early June for the release of the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle.
I know quite a few people who have been waiting since early February to buy a PS3, simply because they care about backwards compatibility with PS2 titles. Gamers with large PS2 games libraries they still play aren’t too keen to having multiple consoles hooked up when one could do the job. With the 40GB console lacking any type of PS2 capabilities, these potential customers have had two choices: leave the PS2 hooked up or wait a few months. Most that I know have been waiting.
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Everyone by now is familiar with the voice of Niko Belic, GTA IV’s main character. What you may not be aware of is that the voice actor that is provided the voice for Niko, which is almost iconic now, only got paid $100,000 for the job and does not see a residual penny after that.
In a New York Times article, Hollick revealed that he earned about $100,000 for 15 months of work recording dialogue for his role as GTA IV’s protagonist. The game, however, has gone on to rake in over $600 million in a mere two weeks.
Hollick does not hold a grudge against Rockstar, but instead says the following:
I don’t blame Rockstar. I blame our union for not having the agreements in place to protect the creative people who drive the sales of these games.
A weak union is to blame for this voice actor and possibly many others getting left out in the cold while the GTA IV money train and others like it roll on by. Some are speculating that this could lead to a possible strike of voice actors against Hollywood, if you think about it the voices in a video game are pivotal to it’s success, just imagine GTA IV without Roman or Niko.
[Via Yahoo Game!]
With GTA IV smashing every record in the books, we thought it would be a good idea to share with you the best launches of XBLA to date:
- Rez HD, 25k units
- Ikaruga, 22.5k units
- Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 1, 16.5k units
- N+, 13k units
This was requested by Gabe, one of the creators behind the Penny Arcade series. A few things to note here. First, these are just the XBLA numbers. You can get Penny Arcade on PC, Mac, and Linux. Second, PAA: OtRSPoD costs 20 bucks. That is a lot for an XBLA game; almost twice the normal price. We can expect much more from Gabe and Tycho with this just being the first episode, albeit a successful one.
Fanboys, start your engines. A recent Cnet article has predicted that by the time 2012 rolls around, PS3 will be the undisputed champion of the next gen universe. How did they come to this conclusion? A lot of speculation and some liberties were taken in finding this conclusion. They believe that future price drops in the PS3, its built in WiFi, Blu-ray, and more exclusive titles, it will be the console to have. No one predicted the 360 to hit 10 million sales. The above graph shows the PS3 and Wii dominating and the 360 almost flatlining. Just to be safe, I bought all three of ‘em. What do you guys think?
We got the monthly NPD numbers last night showing off console sales for the month of April. The Wii continues its utter dominance of the console market, selling more than all non-Nintendo consoles combines. Yes, combined. The Xbox 360 and PS3 sold essentially the same numbers for the month.
- Wii: 714.2K <down> 6.8K (0.94%)
- DS: 414.8K <down> 283.2K (40.6%)
- PSP: 192.7K <down> 104.3K (35.1%)
- Xbox 360: 188K <down> 74K (28.2%)
- PS3: 187.1K <down> 69.9K (27.2%)
- PS2: 124.4K <down> 91.6K (42.4%)
Pretty big month for everyone, given GTA being released at the tail end. For software numbers, hit the jump.
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The year and a half head start has a lot to do with it, but this number does not mean that the 360 is a better console, but this is significant for gaming in general. These fuckers are expensive and it means that people are shelling out the dough. It also means that the gaming market has really reached a whole new demographic. Xbox Live has also hit 12 million members. For the complete breakdown, hit the jump.
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So everyone thought that GTA IV would do well, but Guinness was keeping their eye on this one for some time now. Looks like Rockstar with GTA IV has spanked the previous record for the highest grossing video game in it’s first 24 hours on the market. This title previously was held by the MS juggernaut that is Halo 3, it also beat out Spider Man 3 and Harry Potter. GTA has already solidified it’s place in the record books and in gamer’s hearts already. Bravo to Rockstar.
Here is the official word:
The famed Grand Theft Auto series has made headlines yet again! As newly-released sales figures show, Grand Theft Auto IV has crushed the competition by selling 3.6 million units and earning $310 million in its first day of release, earning Guinness World Records™ for the Highest Grossing Video Game in 24 Hours and the Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours. These records establish GTA IV as the most profitable entertainment release of all-time, far surpassing other video game, film and book releases. According to Guinness World Records™, this is how the game stacks up against the competition:
Fastest-selling video game in 24 hours: Halo 3 at $170 million
Fastest-selling theatrical movie in 24 hours: Spider-Man 3 at $60 million
Fastest-selling book in 24 hours: Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows at $220 million
