Tag Archives: march

Major Nelson’s detailed the highlights from Xbox Live Marketplace schedule for March.

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Sony has officially taken the PR laser to yet another rumorous growth on its back – this time, a potential PS3 price cut. In short, no price slashing in March 2009. None. Definitely not.

“There are no plans for a price reduction on PS3 in March 09, and anything reported on or discussed otherwise is purely rumor or speculation,” a Sony Computer Entertainment America rep told Edge.

They say things change over time. In “their” grand spirit, we’re waiting until March to toss our hearts behind this one.

By Nathan Grayson

Here it is: Next-Gen’s published its monthly NPD analysis feature, which is pretty much starting to be an essential read. Good graphs this month, with solid use of line and bar charts, including a nice “fantasy” extrapolation for hardware sales.

The rainbow culminative revenue graph on page eight is right up there with the best: a visual masterpiece.

There are some words, too.

“What is perhaps more astonishing is that the first three months of 2007 included an extra week – a so-called ‘leap week’ – that NPD uses to keep its retail calendar aligned with the real calendar. Put another way, more revenue has been generated in the first 13 weeks of 2008 than was generated in the first 18 weeks of 2007,” said author Matt “Axis” Matthews.

Take a look.

Sleep, like lunch, is for wimps. We don’t need it. You do, and we accept that, which is why we get up when Mr Sun is still sleepy-bobos to make sure you know absolutely everything you need to know about last night’s NPD data when you need to know it.

You can look at other sites, but no one will offer you more complete coverage of the US games market’s figures for March than videogaming247.com. See for yourself:

• March NPD data: Wii wins US hardware race
• March NPD data: Month was “perfect storm,” says analyst
• March NPD data: Xbox 360 outsells PS3
• March NPD data: Explosive US market up 57% year-on-year
• March NPD date: Smash Bros. Brawl bestselling game for the month
• March NPD data: Supply will beat PS3 going forward, says Microsoft
• March NPD data: Sony ignores 360 in statement, focuses on growth
• March NPD data: Microsoft talks GTA and “#2 position” in statement
• March NPD data: Nintendo lords over it all with statement
• March NPD data: Wii wins in Canada

In a note based on last night’s NPD figures, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich called March a “perfect storm” for American games sales.

“Super Smash Bros. Brawl fulfilled the needs of the casual, social, and sub-13 year old markets,” he said. “The hardcore gamers seeking heavy action and strong multiplayer support had Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Even Army of Two played its role by attracting in consumers with its flashy marketing campaign and catchy theme song!”

Divnich added: “The industry is finally large enough to support numerous AAA titles during an off-season month and going forward, publishers need not fear a PS3/Xbox 360 title hindering their Wii title (or vice versa). March has proven that the PS3/Xbox360 and the Wii can co-exist perfectly together.”

Read more here, thanks to Gamespot.

Speaking to Next-Gen, Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg has expanded on the company statement about March’s NPD figures – which showed that 360 gained a slight lead on PS3 for the month, saying that full supply of the Microsoft machine is the key to staying ahead in the months to come.

“We had a lot of shortages where you couldn’t even find Xbox 360s on sale in January and February,” he said. “That really impacted our ability to effectively market at retail in March. We had retailers pull a lot of circular ads, we weren’t being featured in-store. We were on-shelf for most of the month, but the barn was sort of empty. Believe it not, those retail circulars do drive part of the sales. We didn’t have that support in March, but we will have that in April and around the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV.”

Plenty more through the link. Well worth a look.

Woohoo! There should be more Canadian involvement in all this NPD stuff. Nintendo Canada issued a press release last night saying Wii had won above the diving line for March, saying that Wii “has reached another milestone by becoming the top selling next generation home console video game system in Canada.”

Brawl sold more than 200,000 units in Canada in March, apparently.

“Since launch, the Wii console has consistently been a top seller in the Canadian market,” said Darrel Ryce, Director for The NPD Group, Inc. “Seventeen months after the launch of the system and it still remains one of the hottest items at retail, selling out almost as quickly as it hits retail shelves”.

Full thing after the link. Thanks, GoNintendo.

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Sony steadfastly ignored the fact PS3 was outsold by Xbox 360 in the US in March in a press release issued last night, instead focussing on NPD data showing “100% Year-Over-Year” growth for the machine.

PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) continued the strong momentum with 257,120 units sold in March. (according to NPD March 2008 sales data). This represents a year-over-year sales growth of over 98%. More than 1.9 million software units were sold for PS3 in March, representing a year-over-year growth of 139.2%.

SCEA CEO Jack Tretton sounded very pleased with himself.

“Our sales momentum continues to defy what is traditionally a sluggish sales month,” he said.” PS3 continued the strong momentum with a year-over-year sales growth of over 98%. It is proof that, in these economically challenging times, consumers recognize the long-term value of our platforms and the tremendous heritage of our brand in delivering the best entertainment experience.

“PSP expanded the portable market with more than 297,011 in hardware sales this month, driven by the monster releases of the two best-selling handheld games in March, God of War: Chains of Olympus and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. This further proves the trend that 2008 is the year for PlayStation.”

Full thing after the link.

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Microsoft must be feeling very pleased with itself. It didn’t even feel the need to mention PS3 once in its NPD statement, instead focussing heavily on GTA and the fact it expects retailers to be fully stocked with 360 hardware for the launch of the game at the end of March.

Consumers continue to make the ultimate vote for Xbox 360 as the console of choice by investing $9.4 billion to date this lifecycle in the Xbox 360 experience, far outpacing that of other game consoles. (March NPD data)

Going into March, some key U.S. retailers were still experiencing the trickle down effect of Xbox 360 console shortages. By the end of March, supply issues had improved and we expect retailers to be fully stocked with Xbox 360 consoles in time for the “Grand Theft Auto IV” launch. According to NPD, 262,000 Xbox 360 consoles sold in March, reclaiming the #2 position in the next-gen console category.

In just two weeks, Xbox 360 will extend its industry lead with the year’s most anticipated game launch, GTA IV. Launching April 29, GTA IV will be coming to Xbox 360 on day one. GTA IV will feature the first ever online multiplayer for the franchise and Xbox 360 is also the only place you can earn GTA IV Achievements and increase your gamerscore.

Starting this fall, only Xbox 360 owners will have access to exclusive GTA IV episodic content. Whether it’s the results of online polls or data from pre-sells, consumers have made it clear that the benefits of Xbox LIVE and exclusive access to GTA IV episodic content are making Xbox 360 the chosen place to play GTA IV.

Read the full thing after the link. Thanks, Kotaku.

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Nintendo issued a muted statement last night to its stellar success in the US last month, saying only that its American business defined momentum for the industry and it expected its run to continue.

“Nintendo again defined industry momentum in both home and portable video games sales,” said the press release.

“Nintendo systems represented 58 percent of all video game hardware sold in March in the United States,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We expect our momentum to continue with big upcoming game launches like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit.”

Read the full thing after the link.

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NPD figures released last night show that both Michael Pachter and Colin Sebastian underestimated sales in the US last month – the analysts predicted growth of 47 percent and 35 percent respectively – as the American sector increased 57 percent year-on-year.

The total value of the US games market in March was $1.7 billion, compared to the $1.1 billion posted in March 2007.

Figures below:

• Software: $945.6m (+63%)
• Hardware: $551.3m (+46%)
• Accessories: $220m (+58%)
• Total Games: $1.7 billion (+57%)

Probably not the most giant surprise of all time, but Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the biggest selling game in America last month, with 2.7 million units sold. It was the only game to clear 1 million units in March, with Vegas 2 in second place selling just over 750,000 games and Army of Two in third, selling just over 600,000. Full list below, courtesy of Gamespot.

Title / Publisher / Release Date / Units

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) / Nintendo / March 2008 / 2.7M
2. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2* (360) / Ubisoft / March 2008 / 752.3K
3. Army of Two (360) / Electronic Arts / March 2008 / 606.1K
4. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) / Nintendo / Feb. 2007 / 409.8K
5. God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) / Sony / March 2008 / 340.5K
6. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP) / Square Enix / March 2008 / 301.6K
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) / Activision / Oct. 2007 / 264.1K
8. MLB 2K8 (360) / Take-Two Interactive / March 2008 / 237.1K
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare* (360) / Activision / Nov. 2007 / 237K
10. Army of Two (PS3) / Electronic Arts / March 2008 / 224.9K

*Includes Collector’s, Limited, Legendary, Bundles (Guitars) Editions

Pachter was wrong: March’s NPD data shows that Xbox 360 outsold PS3 last month in the US, moving 262,000 units to PS3′s 257,000. Microsoft’s obviously rather happy about that, as you can see here. It’s all rather academic, obviously: Wii destroyed both of them with 721,000 units sold, but them’s the breaks.

Wii was the biggest selling games hardware in America in March, NPD data released last night has shown. The only serious challenge to the result came from DS, so Nintendo’s probably quite pleased about that. List in full:

1. Wii–721,000
2. Nintendo DS–698,000
3. PlayStation Portable–297,000
4. Xbox 360–262,000
5. PlayStation 3–257,000
6. PlayStation 2–216,000

Reuters is reporting that Wii sold three times as many consoles than Playstation 3 in Japan in March.

Based on the latest Enterbrain figures, Wii sold 265,542 units compared to PS3′s 81,579.

Further, PSP is still top of the tree in the Japanese handheld stakes, selling 415,415 units in March compared to DS’s 255,124: that figure means the PSP sold more than the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 put together.

Regarding the latter, Microsoft’s console remains somewhat off the pace of its rivals, with only 13,127 units for the whole month.

By Mike Bowden