Tag Archives: march npd 2009

Gamasutra won the graph war. The site’s posted up its March NPD analysis feature, having acquired ex-Edge chart-man Kris Graft earlier this month. There will be no more silo face-off in the world of NPD analysis.

All that’s left is scorched earth. Scorched earth covered in coloured graphs. Take a look. Remember the good times.

NoA’s Reggie Fils-Aime has nonchalantly responded to the March NPD’s – which showed Wii sales at 601,000 for the month – saying Nintendo has “a number of important” new games incoming for both Wii and DS to boost hardware figures.

According to Reuters, Reggie is “confident that we’ll continue to see very strong hardware sales behind those launch titles.”

GameStop rumored yesterday that a Christmas blockbuster was in the works at Nintendo.

Sega’s MadWorld managed a paltry 66,000 units in the US last month, according to this Gama report.

The Wii game has been well-received in general, hitting 82 percent on Metacritic.

Rockstar’s GTA Chinatown Wars, the big “core” DS game of last month, only managed 89,000 units in the US.

More through there. Thanks, Blerk.

However you dress it up, the 17 percent year-over-year revenue drop for the US games industry announced yesterday is “wince-worthy,” to put it mildly. Worse, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter said today that he expects the gloomy weather to stay with us for “months”.

He said in a note:

We believe investor concern may be heightened, with double-digit negative sell-through implying that the video game consumer has “rolled over”. The weak March results follow strong sales in prior months with last month’s +9%, January’s +10%, December’s +16%, November’s +11% and October’s +35%. In addition, combined next generation console and handheld hardware unit sales were down 19% year-over-year with 2.0 million hardware units sold in the month, giving us less confidence about the a reversal in software sales over the near term, especially given tough comps for the next four months.

And added:

We expect negative market reaction to the sales data. Overall sales were down double-digits for the first time since May 2006, and the year-to-date trend of –2% gives credence to conservative publisher views about the year. We expect investors to trim positions in most video game publisher and retail stocks, and think that lingering concerns about the economy will limit share price appreciation until we see a reversal to positive sales growth. We think that negative sentiment could provide an opportunity, as solid hardware sales over the last several months imply continued software sales strength later in 2009. We expect the negative sales trend to reverse by May, and continue to believe that the video game software sector remains highly recession-resistant.

Got a hat? Hold onto it.

Nintendo’s shares dropped 6.6 percent to close at 26,180 yen yesterday off the back of weak March NPDs, according to this Bloomberg report.

It’s the stock’s biggest drop since February 2.

“The severe sales result in the US prompted disappointment among investors,” said Takagi Securities analyst Shigeo Kikuchi.

“Nintendo had been perceived as one of the winners.”

March Wii sales dropped 17 percent from a year earlier to 601,000, according to last night’s figures.

We’re pretty sure this is all of it. In a nutshell: everything down, everyone a bit edgy, Resi Evil did OK, Killzone’s a bit of a shocker, Chinatown Wars am cry, DSi’s a flyer, 360 was up over last year.

See? Wasn’t hard, was it?

• March NPD – Frazier calls for restraint as sales crash 17%
• March NPD – Resident Evil 5 takes top spot for 360
• March NPD – Wii still on top with 601,000 in hardware sales
• March NPD – All the raw data
• March NPD: DSi sells 435,000 in first week
• March NPD: Microsoft points to YoY 360 rise in response
• March NPD: Nintendo sticks to hardware domination in press release
• March NPD: Sony sticks to software in figures response
• March NPD: GTA Chinatown Wars sales less than 100,000 in US, says report
• March NPD: Killzone 2 sales put into perspective
• March NPD: Chinatown Wars likely to be “marginally” profitable
• March NPD: Nintendo shares fall on “severe” US sales data

March NPD figures, released yesterday, have confirmed that the American DSi sold 435,000 units in its first week on sale.

The machine released April 5, preceded by a April 3 launch in Europe.

More on GI.

Xbox 360′s sales were up 25 percent in March compared to last year, Microsoft said in its NPD response last night, making it the only console that actually increased sales in what was otherwise a dismal show.

The machine moved 330,000 units, with four 360 games included in the top 10. The 360 version of Resident Evil was top, with almost 1 million copies sold.

Full thing after the break.

More »

Nintendo stuck to the fact its hardware accounted for nearly 60 percent of all sales in the US last month in its NPD press release, while also making noted of Pokemon Platinum’s number two position in the software rankings.

“Nintendo systems accounted for 58.4 percent of the video game hardware sold in March, more than all other systems combined,” said NoA marketing head Cammie Dunaway.

“Consumers continue to be attracted to the wide range of software available and the great value of Nintendo systems.”

Full thing after the break.

More »

Sony didn’t mention hardware sales at all in its response to last night’s NPD figures, instead talking up Killzone’s 1 million worldwide sales and the success of platform exclusives such as MLB 09 The Show.

And inFamous, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, MAG, Heavy Rain, God of War III, and Rachet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time are all on the way, the company said.

Sony promised solid PS2 sales for April on the back of its price cut earlier this month, but made no mention of PS3′s fortunes in March.

Full thing after the break.

More »

SAI is citing “industry sources” as claiming GTA: Chinatown Wars achieved only 88,704 sales in the US last month.

There’s been no official comment from NPD as yet.

Predictions on the game’s sales varied heavily in the run-up to last night’s figure-release, with 200,000 the lowest guess.

Looks as though it was worse than anyone imagined.

Hopefully we’ll get solid confirmation soon.

Killzone 2′s sales figures were one of the shock stories of last night’s NPD release, the game being outsold in the US last month by the likes of Halo Wars and MLB ‘09: The Show.

That’s probably not so good if you’re Sony. Want some context? Here’s how it compares to other 360 and PS3 titles in terms of speed sold at various levels of install base, thanks to Psychotext posting over on the EG forum.

360 Sales

• Gears 1 – 1.00m in 3 weeks to ~3.4m 360s
• Bioshock – 0.49m in 10 days (0.64m over 40 days) to ~6.1m 360s.
• COD4 – 1.57m in 4 weeks to ~7.8m 360s.

PS3 Sales

• COD4 – 0.44m in 4 weeks to ~2.4m PS3s.
• GTAIV – 1.0m in 5 days to ~4.2m PS3s.
• MGS4 – 0.74m in 3 weeks to ~4.8m PS3s.
• CODW@W – 0.60m in 2 weeks to ~6.1m PS3s
• Killzone 2 – 0.62m in 5 weeks to ~7.2m PS3s

The game was announced last night as having sold more than 1 million units worldwide. For a game that was supposedly pre-ordered 1.1 million times in Europe. Should we call Poirot?

NPD analyst Anita Frazier has called for calm after NPD figures released today showed a year-on-year revenue drop of 17 percent in the US market to $1.43 billion from $1.72 billion in March 2008.

She said in a statement:

“While it might be tempting to jump to the conclusion that the sky is starting to fall on the video games industry given this months results, it’s important to remember that two very big things are different this year than last. First, Easter fell in March last year whereas it fell in April this year, and last March included the release of Super Smash Bros.: Brawl, which went on to become the fourth best-selling game in 2008.”

“You might not think that Easter is that big of a gift-giving holiday, but our consumer data shows that 8% of industry unit sales were purchased for the Easter occasion in March 2008, accounting for $121M of that months’ sales. We expect that most of Easter sales this year fell into the April reporting period and we’ll see that reflected in next month’s data.”

“This is very much like September of last year, which did not compare favorably to September of 2007 as the result of a huge game launch, Halo 3. Besides March 2008, this month’s sales are 31% higher than the previous highest March which was March of 2007, so it was a pretty healthy month for sales, overall.”

US hardware sales dropped 18 percent to $455.55 million compared to last year, while software revenue fell 17 percent to $792.83 million.

Peripheral sales were down 15 percent to $185.67 million.

The 360 version of Resident Evil 5 was the biggest selling game in America last month, with almost 1 million units shifted.

Pokemon Platinum came second with just over 800,000 units moved, and Halo Wars came a solid third with 639,000 games sold.

The most shocking bit? MLB ’09: The Show outsold Killzone 2.

Top ten below:

1. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, 360) – 938K
2. Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo, DS) – 805K
3. Halo War (Microsoft, 360) – 639K
4. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, PS3) – 585K
5. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) – 541K
6. MLB ’09: The Show (Sony, PS3) – 305K
7. Killzone 2 (Sony, PS3) – 296K
8. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 281K
9. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 278K
10. Major League Baseball 2K9 (Take 2, 360) – 205K

Wii sold 610,000 units in the US last month, according to just-released NPD data, a far smaller figure than predicted.

Both 360 and PS3 sold below analyst predictions as well, with over 330,000 and 218,000 units sold respectively.

• PS2 – 112K
• PS3 – 218K
• PSP – 168K
• Xbox 360 -330K
• Wii – 601K
• DS -563K

Michael Pachter forecast earlier this week that 800,000 Wii, 400,000 360, and 350,000 PS3 consoles were sold in America during March.

By comparison, EEDAR predicted that 900,000 Wiis, 395,000 360s and 300,000 PS3 were sold during the period.

Hardware Units

PlayStation 2 112K
PlayStation 3 218K
PSP 168K
Xbox 360 330K
Wii 601K
Nintendo DS 563K

Top 10 SKU’s March 2009

Title Publisher Platform Rank # Units
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA 360 1 938K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 2 805K
HALO WARS* MICROSOFT 360 3 639K
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA PS3 4 585K
WII FIT W/BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 5 541K
MLB ’09: THE SHOW SONY PS3 6 305K
KILLZONE 2 SONY PS3 7 296K
WII PLAY W/REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 8 281K
MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 9 278K
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE 360 10 205K

Dollar Sales

3/1/2008** Mar-09 CHG Qtr 1 2008 Qtr 1 2009 CHG
Video Games $1.72B $1.43B -17% $4.24B $4.25B 0%
Video Games Hardware $552.04M $455.55M -18% $1.41B $1.43B 1%
Video Games Software $952.14M $792.83M -17% $2.24B $2.21B -2%
Video Game Accessories $217.55M $185.67 -15% $588.92M $604.47M 3%

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has predicted that, despite another massive month for Wii in the US in March, PS3 significantly closed its gap on 360 compared to February.

The analyst guessed today that 800,000 Wii, 400,000 360, and 350,000 PS3 consoles were sold in America
last month.

PS3 was soundly beaten by 360 in February, selling 276,000 units to the Microsoft console’s 391,000.

“Our console sell-through forecasts reflect our belief supply and demand for Wii hardware are finally in balance, with most of the upside in unit sales attributable to growing demand for the Xbox 360 and PS3,” Pachter said in a note this afternoon.

By comparison, EEDAR predicted today that 900,000 Wiis, 395,000 360s and 300,000 PS3 were sold in the US last month.

March NPD figures will release on Thursday.