Xbox 360 Tops Console Sales in September and outsells PS3 5:1

[Bond]

Xbox 360 Tops Console Sales in September and outsells PS3 5:1

As the holiday season heats up, September 2007 is sure to go down in history as one for the record books. The launch of one of the greatest properties in entertainment history, “Halo 3” (Microsoft Game Studios), was largely responsible for driving the biggest month in US video game history with consumer spending on games reaching an all time high for 2007.


· NPD reported that in the US, Xbox 360 was the #1 console for the month; outselling PS3 5:1
o Xbox 360 sales built upon its growth from last month, showing a 50 percent increase for the month of September selling an average of 105,600 consoles per week. Total sales were more than 528,000 Xbox 360 consoles sold, compared to 501,000 for Wii and 119,000 for PS3.
o PS3 sales posted an average weekly decline of 27 percent.

· Xbox 360 software revenue at retail outsold PS3’s software portfolio 8:1 and Wii’s 4:1, selling 3 times more than both platforms combined.
o For the month of September according to NPD, Xbox 360 software represented 74 percent of total software sales for the next generation market compared to 17 percent for Wii and 9 percent for PS3. Even without the sales of “Halo 3” the Xbox 360 portfolio outsold the PS3 portfolio 2:1.

· Additionally, Xbox 360 is home to the best-selling games with the top-rated next-generation titles. According to the world-wide authority in entertainment reviews, Metacritic, Xbox 360 has 80 titles with a Metacritic review score of 80 or higher compared to just 31 for PS3 and 11 for Wii.
o Newly released title “The Orange Box” (Valve) and the highly anticipated title “Mass Effect” (Microsoft Game Studios) have both generated rankings of 97 and higher according to Metacritic. And not to forget “BioShock” (2KGames) which remains one of the year’s highest rated games.

Source: Microsoft Public Relatons/NPD Numbers

Someday, I hope I have more time to do more than simply post press releases.

[Angrist]

Read: Halo 3 caused Xbox 360 to barely outsell Wii.

What's Metacritic?

Aaaaaaanyway... all these shooters on the 360 don't really interest me. Ok, the biggest reason is that I just don't have a 360.

[Fox 6]

The Orange Box alone, is reason to buy a 360 IMO.

[Bond]

Originally Posted by Angrist

Read: Halo 3 caused Xbox 360 to barely outsell Wii.

What's Metacritic?

Aaaaaaanyway... all these shooters on the 360 don't really interest me. Ok, the biggest reason is that I just don't have a 360.

Metacritic is like gamerankings, but deals with entertainment in general.

[BreakABone]

I agree with Angrist.
While the 360 did well.

It is a very telling story that after a price cut, it's biggest game yet and one of the best games this gen last month.

The fact that the 360 outsold the Wii by ~27k when Nintendo released nothing is not a good sign for the 360 and let's not even talk about Ps3.

[Bond]

This is the really telling ratio in my mind: "Xbox 360 software revenue at retail outsold PS3’s software portfolio 8:1 and Wii’s 4:1, selling 3 times more than both platforms combined."

[Professor S]

Even without Halo 3 in the equation, I still think the 360's attach rate is much higher than either competitor.

The Wii is fun, but it needs more and better games. Wii Sports is still the game that is selling the console, and not much else (not saying that there aren't other great games for Wii, just what is and what is not selling) Right now the 360's library is the best on the next gen market and with all the japanese developers jumping on, its only going to get better over time.

Wii needs some third party killer-apps... fast... if they want to cash in on the game revenue as much as 360 is.

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Even without Halo 3 in the equation, I still think the 360's attach rate is much higher than either competitor.

The Wii is fun, but it needs more and better games. Wii Sports is still the game that is selling the console, and not much else (not saying that there aren't other great games for Wii, just what is and what is not selling) Right now the 360's library is the best on the next gen market and with all the japanese developers jumping on, its only going to get better over time.

Wii needs some third party killer-apps... fast... if they want to cash in on the game revenue as much as 360 is.

I agree with you to a large extent.

Except would add Wii Play is also selling the console.

Personally, I think the Wii has a very solid first year. it has had it's fair chare of crappy games.

But Wii Sports, which to me right now stands at the most important game of this generation.
Zelda, metroid, RE 4 wii, Godfather wii (why more people don't give this a chance is beyond me), Super Paper MArio, Sonic and the Secret Rings and Excite all are very good games and offer different experience.

On the same hand, really happy got my 360 for online.

[manasecret]

Originally Posted by Bond

This is the really telling ratio in my mind: "Xbox 360 software revenue at retail outsold PS3’s software portfolio 8:1 and Wii’s 4:1, selling 3 times more than both platforms combined."

Except that that statement is misleading --

"Even without the sales of “Halo 3” the Xbox 360 portfolio outsold the PS3 portfolio 2:1."

Which is to say, this is still all about Halo 3 selling a lot. Contact the presses, I have another urgent announcement!

"Duh."

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by manasecret

Except that that statement is misleading --

"Even without the sales of “Halo 3” the Xbox 360 portfolio outsold the PS3 portfolio 2:1."

Which is to say, this is still all about Halo 3 selling a lot. Contact the presses, I have another urgent announcement!

"Duh."

Um, I still think outselling the PS3 2:1 without Halo 3 is a pretty substantial number. The 360 is doubling PS3's game sales without incuding their most popular title? Thats embarrassing to say the least...

[Angrist]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Um, I still think outselling the PS3 2:1 without Halo 3 is a pretty substantial number. The 360 is doubling PS3's game sales without incuding their most popular title? Thats embarrassing to say the least...

But without (hypothetically) Halo 3 sales, Wii outsold it 2:1 in software.

I can't wait to see what Super Mario Galaxy and all the other awesome games will do.

[manasecret]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Um, I still think outselling the PS3 2:1 without Halo 3 is a pretty substantial number. The 360 is doubling PS3's game sales without incuding their most popular title? Thats embarrassing to say the least...

Let's see, does the number of Xbox 360s equal the number of PS3s sold? According to this site http://nexgenwars.com/ the 360 has outsold PS3 in number of systems by about 2.4:1. Give the article benefit of the doubt that they rounded down, and you get -- tada -- a 2:1 ratio.

But Angrist made my real point -- the Wii is outselling 360 in software without Halo 3.

So again I say, Halo 3 is selling a lot? ORLY?

[GameMaster]

Wii will smother Xbox 360 in its sleep with a pillow when Super Smash comes out.

Super Smash will basically ravage Halo 3 sales up the rear end forcefully when it arrives.

[manasecret]

Nah I doubt Brawl will beat Halo 3. Too much mainstream love for Halo.

I agree that the single biggest game making the Wii such a hit is still Wii Sports, and that's because it's still the only game that I really love for it. I disagree on Metroid, though. (Really? Five minutes?) I find the motion controls have helped me get into the game unlike the last two could do for me. The better story IMO, story presentation, and the voice acting also help that, though.

Metroid is fun but it's not a game I will come back to after I'm finished, and it's definitely got nothing on the fun factor of Wii Sports. Wii Sports is universally fun, more than any other game I can think of besides perhaps Tetris or Bejeweled or Sims... okay well more than most games. And Wii Sports 2 is the game I want next over anything else. Or another game that really goes full throttle on the motion controls, like a Jedi game that is only about light-saber battles. Or that ping pong game they converted to Wii from 360.

I'm all rambly and off topic. Ah wells

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by manasecret

Nah I doubt Brawl will beat Halo 3. Too much mainstream love for Halo.

I agree that the single biggest game making the Wii such a hit is still Wii Sports, and that's because it's still the only game that I really love for it. I disagree on Metroid, though. (Really? Five minutes?) I find the motion controls have helped me get into the game unlike the last two could do for me. The better story IMO, story presentation, and the voice acting also help that, though.

Metroid is fun but it's not a game I will come back to after I'm finished, and it's definitely got nothing on the fun factor of Wii Sports. Wii Sports is universally fun, more than any other game I can think of besides perhaps Tetris or Bejeweled or Sims... okay well more than most games. And Wii Sports 2 is the game I want next over anything else. Or another game that really goes full throttle on the motion controls, like a Jedi game that is only about light-saber battles. Or that ping pong game they converted to Wii from 360.

I'm all rambly and off topic. Ah wells

Smash reached a pretty similar audience on Cube as Halo did on Xbox so it within realm of reason that Smash could keep up or do better than Halo 3.

Being on a more popular system this time.
And adding online.

I understand why people point to Wii Sports as the game that is pushing Wiis. And Wii Play to an extent but for some reason think it wouldn't do as well without the free controller.

But, I think there are a few examples of games that work on Wii that just wouldn't work anywhere else. The issue is most of them are mini game collections.

But Rayman and Wario Ware are two such games that really shine in that department. Especially, Rayman.

I also think, and this may be a stretch that Wii has helped some developers with simplicity. Not always a good thing.

But compare something like sonic and the secret rings where they took a simple and novel approach to something like Sonic the Hedgehog on 360/ps3 and sometimes having limited resources can be an asset.

Also just because I don't think this game doesn't get enough credits, look at Godfather Wii. They took the concept of... well we will remap what buttons do to motion controls but they actually make sense in the context of the game and in a sadonstic manner add to the experience. There is nothing like committing an execution and feeling that it was at your own hands.