AfterDawn: Tech news

Wii, PS3, Xbox 360 sales drop significantly in US for March

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Apr 2009 1:53 User comments (9)

Wii, PS3, Xbox 360 sales drop significantly in US for March According to the latest figures from the NPD Group, overall U.S. video game sales fell sharply in March, with hardware sales dropping 18 percent and software sales falling 17 percent.
Overall, industry sales fell 17 percent to $1.43 billion USD, a somewhat surprising number in an industry that has so far seen sales increases despite the global recession.

Hardware sales fell to $455.6 million USD while software sales fell to $792.8 million USD.

The Nintendo Wii was once again the best selling console, moving 601,000 units for the month, but sales fell 20 percent from February. The Microsoft Xbox 360 came in second selling 330,000 units, but sales fell 15 percent from last month. The Sony PlayStation 3 lagged behind again, selling 218,000 units, but sales only fell 7 percent from February.

"While it's not unusual for March hardware sales to be lower than February, I thought we'd see higher unit sales on most platforms,"
added NPD's Anita Frazier. "The Xbox 360 was the only platform to achieve a year-over-year unit sales increase."

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9 user comments

117.4.2009 14:19

Could be....this is a lul in between big name titles and general new releases?

217.4.2009 16:37

There's record breaking summer coming. Bionic Command, Batman: Arkham Asylum, X-men origins: Wolverine, Harry Potter HBP and Sims 3 just to name a few. And holiday season looks promising too. I'm waiting for the three games I mentioned first, and GH: Metallica, Assassin's Creed 2 at the end of the year, and of course the last Fallout 3 DLC. I don't remember when was the last time I had this much games to wait. Oh yeah, almost forgot about Diablo 3, but I doubt it's not going to be released in 2009.

318.4.2009 18:33

I agree... we are probably just between big titles which has had some stunting of the sales at this time. We have some big guns coming later like GOW3(ps3), Tekken. Well then again SF5, and RE5 should be moving some consoles. Hmmm... dont know. Maybe everyone has decided not to buy anything right now in anticipation for a PS3 price drop. I know it is still probably a ways off but you have a lot of PS2 supporters who still havenot turned to xbox360 or Wii and are still waiting on the PS3 to be more affordable when compared to its competitors prices.

418.4.2009 23:21

Yeah I was one of those PS2 owners that was hoping Sony would pull things off this gen. But then I noticed that I had just waited 3+ years this gen and decided that I should stop waiting for PS3 to reach all this potential it promises to live up to. The PS3 was ahead of its time. It was too early to force Blu-Ray on the consumer. It's also doubtful that devs are going to abandon the 360 after they established themselves as the dominant third party choice for 3+ years. They'll just release multi-platforms more often and 360 exclusives less as PS3's user base grows.

And quite frankly, I say multi-platforms ftw. First-party exclusivity is expected but third-party exclusivity is bad for console gaming. What do companies have to lose releasing games on both 360 and PS3? You're sure to make profit on both ends. Heck, why not release on the PC as well? The PC needs more love.

519.4.2009 04:39

Originally posted by inagasake:
Yeah I was one of those PS2 owners that was hoping Sony would pull things off this gen. But then I noticed that I had just waited 3+ years this gen and decided that I should stop waiting for PS3 to reach all this potential it promises to live up to. The PS3 was ahead of its time. It was too early to force Blu-Ray on the consumer. It's also doubtful that devs are going to abandon the 360 after they established themselves as the dominant third party choice for 3+ years. They'll just release multi-platforms more often and 360 exclusives less as PS3's user base grows.

And quite frankly, I say multi-platforms ftw. First-party exclusivity is expected but third-party exclusivity is bad for console gaming. What do companies have to lose releasing games on both 360 and PS3? You're sure to make profit on both ends. Heck, why not release on the PC as well? The PC needs more love.
Its not sonys(or nins) fault persay for following shallow trends but gaming is stuck in one huge pot hole of a trend.... its not jsut one system the whole industry is lopsided and drunk....

621.5.2009 20:01

Quote:
Originally posted by inagasake:
Yeah I was one of those PS2 owners that was hoping Sony would pull things off this gen. But then I noticed that I had just waited 3+ years this gen and decided that I should stop waiting for PS3 to reach all this potential it promises to live up to. The PS3 was ahead of its time. It was too early to force Blu-Ray on the consumer. It's also doubtful that devs are going to abandon the 360 after they established themselves as the dominant third party choice for 3+ years. They'll just release multi-platforms more often and 360 exclusives less as PS3's user base grows.

And quite frankly, I say multi-platforms ftw. First-party exclusivity is expected but third-party exclusivity is bad for console gaming. What do companies have to lose releasing games on both 360 and PS3? You're sure to make profit on both ends. Heck, why not release on the PC as well? The PC needs more love.
Its not sonys(or nins) fault persay for following shallow trends but gaming is stuck in one huge pot hole of a trend.... its not jsut one system the whole industry is lopsided and drunk....

No not really...i believe it has something to do with the economy over your side of the world (assuming your from the other side ) games and consoles are booming down this end.....sony has dug their own grave i'm afraid,i was one waiting for the price drop as well,but there is no price drop to be seen in the forseeable future for the PS3,so i went out and bought one anyrate am happy with it but also in the same token i'm also happy with the 360 and wii.
Sony just wanted to get in on the action as well, M$ admitedly rushed their console out but in the end it all worked out for them,sony also released a console with problems (from what i have read from other PS3 owners)i heard the other day that sony has only just allowed their dev kits to be sold to developers....for sony to be back into the race they had better do some marketing strategy and pretty quicly if they want to stay in the race..thats just my opinion :)

721.5.2009 20:15

Originally posted by heraldsun:



No not really...i believe it has something to do with the economy over your side of the world (assuming your from the other side ) games and consoles are booming down this end.....sony has dug their own grave i'm afraid,i was one waiting for the price drop as well,but there is no price drop to be seen in the forseeable future for the PS3,so i went out and bought one anyrate am happy with it but also in the same token i'm also happy with the 360 and wii.
Sony just wanted to get in on the action as well, M$ admitedly rushed their console out but in the end it all worked out for them,sony also released a console with problems (from what i have read from other PS3 owners)i heard the other day that sony has only just allowed their dev kits to be sold to developers....for sony to be back into the race they had better do some marketing strategy and pretty quicly if they want to stay in the race..thats just my opinion :)
Look at the power graphics trend in gaming look at hardware costs, they industry has already hit the point where the next generation or 2 of gaming will be the end of the traditional console war model, its not going to take much where the price of the console is to high and the profit made is to low the interest to pay back the loans for the R&D will wind up being more than what they made.

We are on the slippery slope and IMO the sooner we have standarized hardware for the gaming which has become as diluted in qaulity and high in cost as film is the better.

Nin got the the idea half right in lower hardware,lower overhead=more games, but I have not seen them striving to make better games and precision equipment hell as far as I can see we have taken a decades step back in precision gaming, better interfaces and more software based control options.

821.5.2009 21:01

Quote:
Originally posted by heraldsun:



No not really...i believe it has something to do with the economy over your side of the world (assuming your from the other side ) games and consoles are booming down this end.....sony has dug their own grave i'm afraid,i was one waiting for the price drop as well,but there is no price drop to be seen in the forseeable future for the PS3,so i went out and bought one anyrate am happy with it but also in the same token i'm also happy with the 360 and wii.
Sony just wanted to get in on the action as well, M$ admitedly rushed their console out but in the end it all worked out for them,sony also released a console with problems (from what i have read from other PS3 owners)i heard the other day that sony has only just allowed their dev kits to be sold to developers....for sony to be back into the race they had better do some marketing strategy and pretty quicly if they want to stay in the race..thats just my opinion :)
Look at the power graphics trend in gaming look at hardware costs, they industry has already hit the point where the next generation or 2 of gaming will be the end of the traditional console war model, its not going to take much where the price of the console is to high and the profit made is to low the interest to pay back the loans for the R&D will wind up being more than what they made.

We are on the slippery slope and IMO the sooner we have standarized hardware for the gaming which has become as diluted in qaulity and high in cost as film is the better.

Nin got the the idea half right in lower hardware,lower overhead=more games, but I have not seen them striving to make better games and precision equipment hell as far as I can see we have taken a decades step back in precision gaming, better interfaces and more software based control options.
even though it hasn't been officially stated...there was a rumour going around that M$ had their next gen console already on the design board..IMO and if Sony can stay a float the video games industry will only get better especially with the way TV's are these days ...HDTV games will in the future look like watching a movie,the realism will be incredible...ol bill gates will never go broke,in fact he is concentrating on the video games and consoles now more than his PC software,he just wants to be the out right winner...bit greedy but hey it's just buisness,he wanted to buy sony out(consoles dep't) and he even put an offer on the table for nintendo, if M$ are the only gaming/console manafacturers left well yes we will see a deteriation in quality thats why sony need to ship up or they will be shipped out. they got it right with the PS2 but somehow buggered up with the PS3....blu ray is pretty popular down here but it just doesn't make economic sense to by a PS3 just for that feature as blu ray players are well below 1/2 the cost of the PS3.Sony made one serious blooper when they removed the $20 chip to play PS2 games just to reduce their console by nearly $300 ??? makes no sense to me,yeah sure some could afford it..it took me awhile but i got there to get a PS3 even without aprice drop...as i was hoping was to come.

921.5.2009 21:44

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by heraldsun:



No not really...i believe it has something to do with the economy over your side of the world (assuming your from the other side ) games and consoles are booming down this end.....sony has dug their own grave i'm afraid,i was one waiting for the price drop as well,but there is no price drop to be seen in the forseeable future for the PS3,so i went out and bought one anyrate am happy with it but also in the same token i'm also happy with the 360 and wii.
Sony just wanted to get in on the action as well, M$ admitedly rushed their console out but in the end it all worked out for them,sony also released a console with problems (from what i have read from other PS3 owners)i heard the other day that sony has only just allowed their dev kits to be sold to developers....for sony to be back into the race they had better do some marketing strategy and pretty quicly if they want to stay in the race..thats just my opinion :)
Look at the power graphics trend in gaming look at hardware costs, they industry has already hit the point where the next generation or 2 of gaming will be the end of the traditional console war model, its not going to take much where the price of the console is to high and the profit made is to low the interest to pay back the loans for the R&D will wind up being more than what they made.

We are on the slippery slope and IMO the sooner we have standarized hardware for the gaming which has become as diluted in qaulity and high in cost as film is the better.

Nin got the the idea half right in lower hardware,lower overhead=more games, but I have not seen them striving to make better games and precision equipment hell as far as I can see we have taken a decades step back in precision gaming, better interfaces and more software based control options.
even though it hasn't been officially stated...there was a rumour going around that M$ had their next gen console already on the design board..IMO and if Sony can stay a float the video games industry will only get better especially with the way TV's are these days ...HDTV games will in the future look like watching a movie,the realism will be incredible...ol bill gates will never go broke,in fact he is concentrating on the video games and consoles now more than his PC software,he just wants to be the out right winner...bit greedy but hey it's just buisness,he wanted to buy sony out(consoles dep't) and he even put an offer on the table for nintendo, if M$ are the only gaming/console manafacturers left well yes we will see a deteriation in quality thats why sony need to ship up or they will be shipped out. they got it right with the PS2 but somehow buggered up with the PS3....blu ray is pretty popular down here but it just doesn't make economic sense to by a PS3 just for that feature as blu ray players are well below 1/2 the cost of the PS3.Sony made one serious blooper when they removed the $20 chip to play PS2 games just to reduce their console by nearly $300 ??? makes no sense to me,yeah sure some could afford it..it took me awhile but i got there to get a PS3 even without aprice drop...as i was hoping was to come.
Define better, I see little being done with control, options even writing and dialog are not getting better.... sine gaming is stigmatized a "kids medium" they have stopped striving for innovation and qaulity in everything instead opting for maximizing effortlessness.

The 360 IMO is a joke hardware wise they have had the new console in development for a couple years now , I jut hope the damn thing knows what BWC is or for 9$ a month you can rent any 2 games for free though a proper gold live subscription anyhting is better than putting the blinders on about past software.

Sony is doing fine and has already started to steadily outsell the 360 on a monthly basis, they messed up as much as MS did on the front end of things but bit by bit devs are choosing it over the 360.


MS has not made much profit off the Xbox brand tho they have managed to juggle a ton of money. The console hardware if done right has the ability to make more money than anything else consumer electronic wise MS got on the bandwagon and used exclusivity to drive sales, thankfully exclusivity is on the wane as developers can not aford to release a game on one system.

That's not what I mean by universal hardware it would be run like the DVD forum were competing manufactures get together around one format to spend their combined time and energy on, it would lower development costs and make it easier to gain a profit off software sales remove the issues surrounding the deep dark side of individualized hardware.

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