March TRSTS Have Arrived: Zelda Dominance

[BreakABone]

Well, I guess the numbers were real after all.

March 2003 NPD Video Game Sales Data

OVERVIEW
On Monday afternoon, NPD Funworld released its March 2003 (5-week period ending April 5) TRSTS sales data for U.S. console video game software sales. Total sales were $439 million, up 32% sequentially from February’s $334 million, and up 8% compared to March 2002. The sequential increase is attributable to a rebound from the post holiday sales slowdown as well as several mega hits released in the month. Year-to-date sales are $1,094 million compared with prior year-to-date of $1,075
million (a year-over-year increase of 2%).
Projected $'s (millions)

We had anticipated software sales of $425 million, so the overall sales figures were above our expectations. We believe that the
year-over-year increase was attributable to the relatively strong release schedule in March 2003, compared to last March. We
believe that industry sales figures will wax and wane in correlation with the number of mega hit titles released each month and
remain confident that sales will continue to be strong into 2003 and expect to end the year up over 20% from 2002.

March sales were dominated by Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (GC), Pokemon Ruby (GBA), and Pokemon
Sapphire (GBA), representing a combined $78 million in sales. March sales were also driven by continuing sales of Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2), Electronic Arts’ The Sims (PS2), Konami’s Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelists of the Roses (PS2), and Sony’s The Getaway (PS2). Other top March releases include baseball titles (lead by Electronic Arts’ MVP Baseball 2003), Electronic Arts’ Def Jam Vendetta (PS2 and GC), and Activision’s Tenchu 3 (PS2). There were 10 games selling more than 100,000 units apiece in March (this compares to our expectation of 10 and seven last month). The top 200 games (out of 3,000 games sold in March) captured 62% of unit sales and 74% of dollar sales, compared with 62% of unit sales and 70% of dollar sales in February, with the top 250 games capturing 78% of dollar sales. The top 10 captured 28% of dollar sales versus 19% last month.

Top 10 Selling Games for PS2 for March 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 TENCHU 3:WRATH HEAVEN Activision 8,123,724 $ 164,282
2 DEF JAM VENDETTA Electronic Arts 6,732,114 $ 135,162
3 GRAND THEFT AUTO:VICE Take-Two Interactive 6,559,611 $ 131,817
4 ************************ EPISODE 1 Namco 6,117,863 $ 122,969
5 YU-GI-OH! DUELISTS Konami 5,788,056 $ 118,108
6 MVP BASEBALL 2003 Electronic Arts 5,675,670 $ 114,016
7 THE GETAWAY Sony 5,562,740 $ 139,796
8 SOCOM:U.S. NAVY SEALS Sony 5,334,616 $ 89,461
9 DYNASTY WARRIORS 4 Koei 4,171,301 $ 85,734
10 THE SIMS Electronic Arts 4,029,014 $ 81,027

Top 10 Selling Games for Xbox for March 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 T.CLANCYS GHOST RECON Ubi Soft 2,737,034 $ 56,818
2 HALO Microsoft 2,654,686 $ 57,756
3 TAO FENG: FIST LOTUS Microsoft 2,393,245 $ 48,140
4 WORLD SER BASEBALL2K3 Sega 2,001,524 $ 40,223
5 T.CLANCY'S SPLINTER Ubi Soft 1,821,470 $ 40,268
6 MVP BASEBALL 2003 Electronic Arts 1,506,047 $ 30,277
7 THE SIMS Electronic Arts 1,502,511 $ 30,204
8 INDIANA JONES:EMPEROR LucasArts 1,410,560 $ 28,342
9 DOA: BEACH VOLLEYBALL Tecmo 1,297,595 $ 26,083
10 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 947,980 $ 19,766

Top 10 Selling Games for GameCube for March 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER Nintendo 40,956,360 $ 826,352
2 MARIO PARTY 4 Nintendo 2,030,154 $ 61,400
3 SUPER SMASH BRO MELEE Nintendo 1,812,481 $ 60,514
4 METROID PRIME Nintendo 1,586,908 $ 53,815
5 ANIMAL CROSSING Nintendo 1,201,529 $ 24,324
6 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 1,051,372 $ 21,439
7 THE SIMS Electronic Arts 968,511 $ 19,527
8 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE Nintendo 917,366 $ 18,927
9 DEF JAM VENDETTA Electronic Arts 904,205 $ 18,164
10 STAR FOX ADVENTURES Nintendo 869,755 $ 27,149

Top 10 Selling Games for GBA for March 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 POKEMON RUBY Nintendo 19,453,640 $ 652,595
2 POKEMON SAPPHIRE Nintendo 17,356,770 $ 585,098
3 YU-GI-OH! DUNGEONDICE Konami 2,547,598 $ 85,457
4 ZELDA: LINK TO PAST Nintendo 2,387,113 $ 79,719
5 SONIC ADVANCE 2 THQ 2,017,267 $ 70,170
6 DRIVER 2 ADVANCE Infogrames 1,938,473 $ 95,878
7 SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 2 Nintendo 1,325,919 $ 43,512
8 YU-GI-OH! ETERNAL Konami 1,199,575 $ 40,650
9 METROID FUSION Nintendo 1,177,957 $ 39,545
10 KIRBY: NIGHTMARE Nintendo 1,103,482 $ 36,834