Tag Archives: april npd

NetherRealm’s first non-Mortal Kombat game performed well at retail in the US during April, topping the charts as the best-selling title in an otherwise lacklustre month.

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Analysts at PiperJaffray expect the upcoming April NPD report to continue a trend of year-on-year declines, with a 25% drop in game sales at $375 million.

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In the SCEA press release about NPD figures this morning was confirmation that Americans spent $10.9 million on DualShock 3 in April.

Rumbling for the win. We’re promised the European launch of the new controller is “imminent”, but we still have no release date. Hurry up, SCEE.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael has issued a research note exclaiming “surprise” at sluggish 360 and PS3 console sales in April. Both machines came in well under his previous estimates.

“We were surprised by relatively weak PS3 and Xbox 360 sales, especially given the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV late in the month,” he said. “We had expected sales of both consoles to increase month over month, as we thought that many potential console owners were waiting for the game to launch before purchasing a console.”

The NPD figures for last month showed that 188,000 360s were sold in the US, compared to Pachter’s 275,000 estimate; and 187,000 PS3s were sold, compared to a predicted 290,000 from the analyst.

For all our April NPD coverage, hit this.

Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s Product manager chief and the greenest man in games, told Gamasutra yesterday that April’s NPD data – which showed 360 beat PS3 in the States by the slimmest of margins last month – isn’t truly representative of the current picture of the market in the US. For that you’re going to have to wait until next month.

“We think that May will be a better barometer for hardware sales,” he said.

“We’re sort of happy to be the new home for GTA, much like we’ve seen with Madden and Guitar Hero, other franchises traditionally associated with the PlayStation. There’s a long list of franchises that used to be exclusive to PlayStation or traditionally sold better on that platform. PS3 isn’t performing anywhere near PS2. We’re the system with the most games, and the biggest online community. We know that people buy consoles for games.”

More through the link.

Sony’s post-NPD statement last night was full of big figures, saying that PS3 sales for April 2008 were up 127 percent, with more than 2 million pieces of PS3 software sold representing a year-over-year growth of 410%.

Despite being soundly beaten in the GTA IV sales stakes, SCEA said the PS3 version attached better to the console than the 360 SKU did to Microsoft’s machine, with “23.6% of U.S. PS3 owners purchasing a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, a 29.0% higher attach rate for the title than Xbox 360.”

Full thing after the break.

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In Microsoft’s NPD response statement last night, the company decided to focus squarely on the fact 360 has now sold more than 10 million units in the US and that the machine, apparently, is the most “significant contributor” to American industry spend.

The second half of the release spoke only of GTA IV, rattling off numbers and facts about sales and Live activity we’ve all heard in the past week.

Press release after the link, courtesy of Kotaku.

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Despite destroying the competition in the hardware stakes last month in the US, Nintendo issued another measured statement on last night’s NPD figures, simply stating the facts. There’s no need to spin when you’re this far ahead, frankly.

“Wii sales were buoyed in part by the strong launch of Mario Kart Wii, which sold more than 1.1 million units,” said NoA’s Cammie Dunaway.

“Our belief in appealing to a broad, diverse audience of players continues to resonate with consumers, and we look forward to continuing our outreach to an expanded audience with the launch of Wii Fit next week.”

Press release after the break.

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Huge sales of GTA IV and Mario Kart drove the US games industry up to a value of $1.23 billion in April, it was shown in last night’s NPD figures, up 47 percent on the previous month.

Sales to date this year now stand at $5.47 billion, up 31 percent on the first four months of 2007.

Hardware sales in April grew 26 percent to $426.2 million while software sales exploded, jumping 68 percent to $654.7 million. Accessories sales also grew 39 percent to $154 million.

Thanks, GameDaily.

Well, if that’s all 360 can manage after such massive sales of GTA IV last month, we get the sneaking suspicion summer may not be so pretty for Microsoft. Xbox 360 just outsold PS3 in April in the US, moving 188,000 units compared to PS3′s 187,100.

Wii and DS lorded over it all, destroying the competition with 714,200 and 414,800 sales respectively. It’s almost embarrassing. Dull list:

1. Wii – 714.2K
2. Nintendo DS – 414.8K
3. PSP – 192.7K
4. Xbox 360 – 188.0K
5. PlayStation 3 – 187.1K
6. PlayStation 2 – 124.4K

According to April’s NPD figures, the biggest selling game in America last month was the 360 version of GTA IV by a considerable margin, the SKU selling 1.85 million units.

The PS3 version sold 1 million copies, coming third to Wii’s Mario Kart. Full list:

1. GTA IV – Xbox 360 – 1.85 million*
2. Mario Kart Wii – Wii – 1.12 million
3. GTA IV – PS3 – 1.00 million*
4. Wii Play w/ remote – Wii – 360K
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Wii – 326K
6. Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – PS3 – 224K
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness – DS – 202K
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time – DS – 202K
9. Guitar Hero III – Wii – 152K
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Xbox 360 – 141K*

* includes bundles, collector’s editions, GOTY editions