When you dont drop the price, April is usually the slowest month of the year.
PS2 2002: 204,863
PS2 2003: 264,273
PS2 2004: 188,669
In Europe the 360 arcade(199) is 50€ cheaper then the Wii (250€) and it still doesn’t help sales.
It helped sales even if they’re still behind the PS3. In the US where it’s already ahead of the PS3 the result would be different.
The Wii and the PS3/360 are targeting two different markets, if the Wii didn’t exist the sales numbers would probably be almost exactly the same. I don’t understand this “Wii is winning” stuff, it’s like saying the Honda Civic is beating the Audi A6…
Just for comparison, the UK prices are (all taken from Amazon):
£284.99 - PS3 40GB
£249.99 - 360 Elite
£189.99 - 360 Normal/Premium/Whatever
£179.98 - Wii
£149.99 - 360 Arcade
Huge numbers of Wiis are being purchased by seniors and senior’s care providers as essentially fun exercise machines for people with physical issues.
I’m told that the bowling and tennis games are especially popular with the old peeps.
It’s hard to say how true this really is. For me personally, the 360, Wii and PS3 all compete for my limited entertainment budget. I might have bought the PS3, for example, if I hadn’t already spent my money on the 360 and Wii.
For consoles, I usually end up eventually buying every hardware in a generation, but for software purchases, the Wii and 360 compete every month. If I end up buying several Wii games, I won’t spend as much money on 360 games and vice versa.
I dont normally touch these statistics threads with a bargepoll, people are saying that they expected GTA to sell more software and more hardware, but if i recall it was only released on the 29th april wasn’t it? 1.9m and 1m sales in a few days seems pretty good to me. Hell i would kill for sales like that!
Surely the people who will buy a console solely for gta4 have waited years anyway and likely wouldnt rush out to do it between apr 29 and april 31? I would have thought may would show up any hardware spikes for the two HD consoles, rather than just a few days in april.
The Wii really is Opium for the masses. I still know many parents being unable to buy one for their kids as no stock to be found anywhere. It goes to show what a big influence the under 13’s have on their parents in buying up these things! Then again, from my opinion the Wii doesn’t really appeal to the hardcore gamer and older gamer, so don’t expect it to reach the what? 35-45m the PS2 must have sold over the years? MS and Sony must be praying that the Wii keeps on making its party type games, and the Mario franchise, and doesnt start making some FPS/Racing Genres to try and get some of the traditional MS/Sony crowd onboard.
Then please explain to me why some nights I have to almost force myself away from Mario Kart and Boom Blox to get around to finishing GTA4.
Even the “hardcore” can feel the pull of the Wii.
Sorry, im not saying the more traditional hardcore gamer doesnt play one, hell my family has one, but for me it only comes out at a few parties and when my son has friends around. It’s just my experience that people who own the 360 and the Wii, tend to buy games for the 360 and spend much more time with the 360. My son says the Wii is much better, but then only nags me for new games on the 360!! He is happy to just play Wii Sports over and over.
In my case, I think the fact that I also have a gaming PC makes me buy a lot less 360 games. I’d rather play FPS and strategy games on the PC, so that kinda limits my options. The last 360 games I bought were Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect, and I never would’ve bought the 360 versions if I hadn’t gotten really good pre-order deals for them.
Dead Rising and Senko no Ronde are about the only really unique gaming experience that I can think of that are exclusive to the 360 and those plus Earth Defense Force were basically the reason I bought the console back then. Nowadays it’s mostly gathering dust as I game on the PC + Wii.
This is outrageously ridiculous speculation. You think there are 35-45 million “hardcore” gamers?
Think of all the tie-in software sales he deprived them of.
Ha! The same thing’s happening in my house. If you’re not enamored of friends lists, Maro Kart Wii’s online multiplayer is impressively smooth and and pleasantly chat-free.
Boom Blox is pretty good, but I’m not convinced it’s $50 good.
Wasteland? I suppose so, if you’re not counting MGS4, Little Big Planet, Haze, Gran Turismo 5, etc. (I know there are more I can’t think of at this early hour).
Why? When those people who purchased the Wii realize that it’s only really entertaining for a week or so, maybe they’ll purchase another system. Also, it’s not like they’re competing for the same market either. We’ve reached a point in the lifetime of these systems where they probably aren’t going to be blasting through new systems all the time.
If this has been within the first few months of launch, I’d be impressed, but this is quite some time afterwards.
Sorry if I’m not amazed by NPD reports from April, AKA the beginning of the worst season for video games in general, especially since Nintendo has released one of its 4 games (the Nintendo standard of releasing 3-4 good games per console is right on track) that will be enjoyable on the Wii.
I think the price certainly has something to do with it. But I don’t think price drops are in the cards; I mean Sony is still losing $200+ on each PS3 they sell. But Sony doesn’t have much to be worried about, what with sales of the PSP and the PS2.
Can’t we just accept that the Wii is going to win this generation far and square and move on? Sure, it doesn’t have the games nor the experiences that most of us here want to play but it isn’t like the games and systems we want to play aren’t available.
I wonder how this will affect the next generation of consoles. It seems that in the console wars, he who has the least powerful system wins.
Of course not. Thats what the PS2 sold, and i beleive the Wii wont hit that target by targeting casuals and kids, and parents of kids alone. And if you quoted the rest of my post i went on to say that if they target more typically 360/PS3 genres they will be unstopable. The Wii is so easy to program for i can see it pumping out a lot of party type games non stop for years to come, Whereas the PS3 game me severe headaches, and the 360 was inbetween the two. I Hope the Wii switches tactics further down the line.
Sony has actually sold about 125 million PS2s worldwide, just FYI.
Quite often but its also who has the most affordable system.