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[pieatorium]

13 hours later and Sony still hasn't released a statement.

Yikes.

We still haven't gotten launch PR for WiiU in Europe yet, not that were likely to now but it's absence is a statement all it's own.

I think somone else earlier in the thread said "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" I think that fits both of these situations.

 

[confuziz]

NSMBU sold more than WiiU itself???

confused moms buying it for the Wii? Who knows..

 

[Cheech]

Even if each title had +50% digital sales, the PSVita software data would still look horrendous. The bundled software is deceptive.

Also, significant DD uptake on Vita assumes that everyone went out and bought the 16/32 gig cards. Considering most Vita sales were bundles that included a 4 gig stick, that's not a safe assumption to make.

 

[pieatorium]

NSMBU sold more than WiiU itself???

your looking at the wrong NSMBU number. the 580k is LTD vs 890k WiiU ltd. This month 337k NSMBUand 490k WiiU

 

[metalslimer]

To think that the Wii could have surpassed DS in sales during this month if only they'd been available on store shelves. Nintendo could have really milked the first two years of Wii if they had been a little less self-congratulatory about the Wii breaking records and focused on getting systems on the shelves.

I honestly don't know what people expected from Nintendo during the early years of the Wii. They were selling faster than any console in history and was trying to get the situation under control. Opening up a bunch of factory space only to have the system slow down would have cost them a lot of money. In retrospect Nintendo did a crazy job getting Wiis out there which makes the claims of artificial shortages such bullshit my eyes roll to the back of my head everytime i hear it.

 

[Chiaroscuro]

your looking at the wrong NSMBU number. the 580k is LTD vs 890k WiiU ltd. This month 337k NSMBUand 490k WiiU

Ah, ok, thanks.

 

[Quentyn]

Wii U Dec

nsmbu
jd4
su
sonic
zombi
mickey
cod
skylanders
batman
nland
ac3
sing party
nfl
espn
wipeout
avengers
rabbid
nba
fifa

Top 10 from November for reference:

1. New Super Mario Bros. U 243k
2. ZombiU
3. Scribblenauts Unlimited
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II 23k
5. Just Dance 4
6. NintendoLand
7. Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
8. Batman: Arkham City Amored Edition
9. Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed
10. Skylanders Giants

Can somebody explain Just Dance and Sonic to me? Did they actually sold more copies than in November or did everything else just fell off the cliff?

 

[SmokyDave]

Also, significant DD uptake on Vita assumes that everyone went out and bought the 16/32 gig cards. Considering most Vita sales were bundles that included a 4 gig stick, that's not a safe assumption to make.

Not necessarily. Much fridge-shuffling would need to be done but in theory you could own every Vita game released and still only use a 4GB card.

 

[shinra-bansho]

Can somebody explain Just Dance and Sonic to me? Did they actually sold more copies than in November or did everything else just fell off the cliff?

They sold more copies than in November, as ZombiU likely matched its November sales for a LTD>100K.

Also you're NSMBU number is wrong, it was 243K in November.

 

[test_account]

Even if each title had +50% digital sales, the PSVita software data would still look horrendous. The bundled software is deceptive.

Deceptive in what way? The included game(s) works as a carrot that leads to hardware sales. If there was no interest in the game or hardware to begin with, bundling it probably wont have any affect on the sales.

 

[Cheech]

Not necessarily. Much fridge-shuffling would need to be done but in theory you could own every Vita game released and still only use a 4GB card.

How big is stuff like Fifa/Uncharted/CoD? I was under the impression that they were around a gig each.

My local Target has all Vita accessories except for the memory cards on red tag clearance; they aren't coming back. Selfishly, I am hoping they ditch the Vita itself for $99 or so. I'd pay that for a bathroom entertainment device that plays FIFA.

 

[CadetMahoney]

Well ask yourself which region the vast majority of developers are targetting? Where do the majority of game sales come from? Which region sets the most trends for whats popular?

Now you have your answer for why the 360 dominating in NA/UK is a big deal, and PS3 catching up due to Japan and other non-English speaking countries is not nearly as influential.

yep, ppl constantly downplay the NA region as not important in the big picture, doesn't make sense.

 

[SmokyDave]

How big is stuff like Fifa/Uncharted/CoD? I was under the impression that they were around a gig each.

My local Target has all Vita accessories except for the memory cards on red tag clearance; they aren't coming back. Selfishly, I am hoping they ditch the Vita itself for $99 or so. I'd pay that for a bathroom entertainment device that plays FIFA.

The biggest stuff is about 3.5GB. I don't know if they're intentionally keeping stuff below 4GB but I haven't seen anything larger than 3.5GB and I've bought 20+ retail titles from PSN.

Edit: actually, it's probably 15-20 retail titles. I can't remember and I don't have my Vita with me. Off the top of my head, Uncharted and MK were the biggest file sizes.

 

[metalslimer]

How big is stuff like Fifa/Uncharted/CoD? I was under the impression that they were around a gig each.

My local Target has all Vita accessories except for the memory cards on red tag clearance; they aren't coming back. Selfishly, I am hoping they ditch the Vita itself for $99 or so. I'd pay that for a bathroom entertainment device that plays FIFA.

Damn, it's already begun. I just don't see how Vita is going to be on shelves by next Christmas in any meaningful manner. Most stores have a pretty limited amount of shelf space to offer. Right now stores are selling the Wii, Wii U, DS, 3DS, PS3,360, and Vita. Now what happens when you add to potentially huge launches next year with the PS4 and 720. Something has to give, and out of all those Vita is probaby make stores the least amount of money especially if people are right about Vita digital sales being significant.

 

[Quentyn]

They sold more copies than in November, as ZombiU likely matched its November sales for a LTD>100K.

Also you're NSMBU number is wrong, it was 243K in November.

Yea, I noticed that after I posted it thanks. I wondering how much Just Dance actually improved. There must be a huge gap between NSMBU and everything else.

Hopefully we will get some more numbers to put everything in better perspective.

 

[TheDrowningMan]

Damn, it's already begun. I just don't see how Vita is going to be on shelves by next Christmas in any meaningful manner. Most stores have a pretty limited amount of shelf space to offer. Right now stores are selling the Wii, Wii U, DS, 3DS, PS3,360, and Vita. Now what happens when you add to potentially huge launches next year with the PS4 and 720. Something has to give, and out of all those Vita is probaby make stores the least amount of money especially if people are right about Vita digital sales being significant.

This concerns me about Wii U in the UK, actually - Most of the supermarkets, which are the biggest gaming retailers in the UK and basically essentially if you want to hit casual mass are not stocking it.

Sure, some of their branches have the console lingering apologetically with a smattering of games intermixed with Wii software, but most of the stores aren't carrying it at all. You're never, ever going to find anything but a super-niche audience if you're reliant on Game and HMV to drive sales, almost entirely forgoing promotion elsewhere.

The casual market is essential - That is what drove Wii, that is what stopped the HD consoles from being a damp squib when the prices finally became realistic after a couple of years on the market. You can go into an Asda or Tesco in the arse-end of nowhere and find massive queues for midnight FIFA or CoD, whereas the others need Oxford Street for such numbers.

 

[Tobor]

NPD is going to be worthless at reflecting the overall state of software next gen. DD on consoles is going to continue to ramp up, while software at retail continues to decline.

 

[OmegaTreeFish]

Damn, it's already begun. I just don't see how Vita is going to be on shelves by next Christmas in any meaningful manner. Most stores have a pretty limited amount of shelf space to offer. Right now stores are selling the Wii, Wii U, DS, 3DS, PS3,360, and Vita. Now what happens when you add to potentially huge launches next year with the PS4 and 720. Something has to give, and out of all those Vita is probaby make stores the least amount of money especially if people are right about Vita digital sales being significant.

The vitas store presence in the UK has been terrible for ages. I dont remember seeing any Vita stuff in any of the supermarkets. Game has an OKish amount of stuff while blockbuster have about 6 games on display. I havn't seen it get worse but that doesn't mean much. I can only imagine most its purchases are from sites like amazon.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

NPD is going to be worthless at reflecting the overall state of software next gen. DD on consoles is going to continue to ramp up, while software at retail continues to decline.

NPD already track digital sales, although I'm not sure as to what extent and if those are made available publicly like these.

 

[Duxxy3]

I still think the Vita has a future, just not in its current incarnation. It's way too expensive to make and the accessories are even worse. Add $50 portable games when the vast majority of portable games are free or $.99 and you can see why it's been a failure.

The vita needs to be made more affordable. I think it's time to redesign everything - the system and the overall plan.

 

[Opus Angelorum]

Deceptive in what way?.

If people thought there were some big sellers on the chart.

 

[TheDrowningMan]

The vitas store presence in the UK has been terrible for ages. I dont remember seeing any Vita stuff in any of the supermarkets. Game has an OKish amount of stuff while blockbuster have about 6 games on display. I havn't seen it get worse but that doesn't mean much. I can only imagine most its purchases are from sites like amazon.

It's more common in supermarkets than Wii U! But not PS3 / 360 / Wii / DS ubiquity by any means.

It's troubling if they're not going to give new systems a full roll-out from now on. If that's the case, I wouldn't be expecting the next PlayStation or Xbox in every entertainment section if the launch prices aren't right. Times have changed.

 

[electroplankton]

Some of the highest grossing apps are free downloads.

That is the beauty of mobile for firms. How many F2P games on Vita or 3DS?

Fixed.
And no thanks to a Persona 4 free to play.

but the fact that most of them are basically free doesn't mean that's an healthy environment for developers.

 

[NBtoaster]

NPD already track digital sales, although I'm not sure as to what extent and if those are made available publicly like these.

It only estimates them for quarterly reports, see the small print under the software sales.

 

[Tratorn]

Wii U Dec

nsmbu
jd4
su
sonic
zombi
mickey
cod
skylanders
batman
nland
ac3
sing party
nfl
espn
wipeout
avengers
rabbid
nba
fifa

Where is ME3?

 

[Cimarron]

AssCreed 3 sold more than ME3 for the entire year!?! :-/. This makes me sad. The ending wasn't great for neither and ME3 was sooo much better. *sigh*

 

[Road]

Mario Kart Wii. 1 year after launch Mario kart was already over 15 million

Nope.

15m is U.S. only.

Nope.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=465949

Wii Play (13.06 million), Mario Kart Wii (11.3 million)

That 15m is WW right?

Yes, one year after launch.

It only estimates them for quarterly reports, see the small print under the software sales.

NPD does monthly estimates of digital sales: http://www.gamespot.com/news/npd-black-ops-ii-is-us-top-selling-game-of-2012-6402271

When you consider our preliminary estimate for other physical format sales in December such as used and rentals at $217 million, and our estimate for digital format sales including full game and add-on content downloads including microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and the consumer spend on social network games at $765 million, we would estimate the total consumer spend in December to be over $4.1 billion

 

[Cheech]

The vita needs to be made more affordable. I think it's time to redesign everything - the system and the overall plan.

The incredibly annoying thing about Vita is Sony hauling out an ancient business plan from the Minidisc era to sell this thing. Vita would have had a shot if:

1. It ran bog standard Android, with an overlay like Amazon's but not as punishing. In other words, full Google app functionality, with a special section for Android games that work with the sticks/buttons. Have a driver interface/app so the sticks work with Touch interface games, similar to an iCade. Giving people the ability to play both the huge assortment of cheap Android games, as well as premium Vita-only experiences like Uncharted, would have been a boon.

2. At least 8 gigs of flash built into the device. The fact the Vita launched without this is standard Sony arrogance; they're competing with Apple, so their device needed to be competitive with the iPod Touch. It launched at the same price as a Touch, but without any flash whatsoever. FFS.

The market they were aiming at clearly didn't exist, which Nintendo had already illustrated for them a year prior! There is simply no demand for dedicated gaming handhelds at a premium price point, and Sony's ignorance of this fact resulted in untold sums flushed down the toilet.

That said, overblown Vita discussion as it pertains to US sales is probably a waste of time. Apple owns the market in the US, lock and key. Nintendo makes money here, but has been seriously marginalized thanks to Apple, Amazon, and Google. The real story with Vita is the device's failure in Japan, which clearly illustrates the device is not going to see another Christmas.

 

[Solo Act]

confused moms buying it for the Wii? Who knows..

I know that I sold my copy on Amazon and it was returned because it wouldn't play in their Wii system. I mean, the game is called New Super Mario Bros U, but it speaks to the market confusion people have brought up over and over on GAF lately.

 

[AdventureRacing]

The problem for both the 3DS and the vita is that they approached the market the wrong way. The goal should be getting cheaper HW and SW and getting as many games as possible. Quite frankly i'm surprised the 3DS is going as well as it is. The software line-up for it is terrible in the west and the price doesn't help.

Sure smartphones are eating into the handheld market but i don't think the handheld market has to suffer this much.

 

[AzerPhire]

So I have to ask this since we had the thread yesterday about Sony overtaking MS in overall sales for this generation.

If the 360 exceeded every other console by 2x we can safely say PS3 sold at the most 700k units in December. Since the 360 has been outselling PS3 here in North America for the majority of this generation that must mean for Sony to overtake MS this generation the sum of the sales from every other region must exceed the difference in sales between the 360 and PS3 here in North America.

So if 360 sells 1.4 million and PS3 sells 700k then sales from every other region must be higher than 700k for Sony to overtake MS. Is this possible? Not saying I don't believe it is but with such huge numbers in NA it just doesn't seem to add up.

 

[test_account]

If people thought there were some big sellers on the chart.

I see what you mean. But at least it can be an indicator to how the hardware sales is doing. And there is always the unanswered question how much it would have sold without bundling (most likely less, but how much less is impossible to know for sure).

 

[electroplankton]

By the end of March 07 Ubisoft announced Red Steel sold 950,000 copies (globally). I doubt ZombiU is going to match that.

How much Red Steel sold in its first month and a half?

 

[Yoshi]

I know that I sold my copy on Amazon and it was returned because it wouldn't play in their Wii system. I mean, the game is called New Super Mario Bros U, but it speaks to the market confusion people have brought up over and over on GAF lately.

These people are great, I got my Mario for 40€ because of someone who thought his or her Wii could play it .

 

[AdventureRacing]

So I have to ask this since we had the thread yesterday about Sony overtaking MS in overall sales for this generation.

If the 360 exceeded every other console by 2x we can safely say PS3 sold at the most 700k units in December. Since the 360 has been outselling PS3 here in North America for the majority of this generation that must mean for Sony to overtake MS this generation the sum of the sales from every other region must exceed the difference in sales between the 360 and PS3 here in North America.

So if 360 sells 1.4 million and PS3 sells 700k then sales from every other region must be higher than 700k for Sony to overtake MS. Is this possible? Not saying I don't believe it is but with such huge numbers in NA it just doesn't seem to add up.

As mentioned in the thread about that the numbers are almost certainly wrong.

 

[test_account]

The market they were aiming at clearly didn't exist, which Nintendo had already illustrated for them a year prior! There is simply no demand for dedicated gaming handhelds at a premium price point, and Sony's ignorance of this fact resulted in untold sums flushed down the toilet.

This wouldnt have mattered anyway though. The Vita was shown in working/playable state in January 2011, about 1 month before the 3DS launched, meaning that the Vita developement had started a long time before the 3DS was released. The Vita specs and plan were already set in stone before we saw how the market reacted to the 3DS. The only things Sony could have done after looking at how the 3DS initially sold was to cancel the Vita before even trying to see how it would sell (this would be unrealistic when developement was already far on the way), or have the launch price $50 lower than what they had, meaning that they would take a bigger loss on it from day 1. I do agree that it might have been wise to have some built-in flash memory for savegames etc., but i'm not sure that the sales would have been a lot higher because of this.

 

[Pooya]

Skylanders Franchise Reaches More Than $500 Million in U.S. Retail Sales

Skylanders Giants U.S. Sales Surpass Domestic Holiday Box Office for Top Kids' Films

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that, according to data from the NPD Group, the Skylanders franchise crossed $500 million in retail sales in the U.S., inclusive of accessory packs and figures, and reached this milestone faster than any other kids' gaming property. Additionally, together Skylanders Giants™ and Skylanders Spyro's Adventure® figures have outsold the top action figure lines in the toy category in the U.S., outselling such popular toy lines as Beyblades, WWE and Star Wars.[1]


Skylanders Giants, the sequel to Skylanders Spyro's Adventure — the #1 best-selling kids' game of 2011 [2] — generated more than $195 million in U.S. sales, inclusive of accessory packs and figures, in 2012. [3] Additionally, Skylanders Giants eclipsed domestic box office sales for each of the top holiday kids' feature films including "Wreck-It Ralph" and "Rise of the Guardians" in 2012. [4]

"Just a year ago, the concept of bringing toys to life in a virtual world was an untested play pattern that Activision and Toys For Bob believed in. Now the category has been


[.............................]

The franchise is supported by a robust licensing program that includes more than 120 licensees worldwide in categories including Plush, Apparel, Home Décor, Bed and Bath, Party Goods, Board Games and Back to School, among others.

"Even before the concept was fully formed, we were immediately taken with the charm and magic behind the Skylanders property and following the highly successful introduction of Skylanders Spyro's Adventures, we knew that Skylanders Giants would be a top-seller in 2012," said Richard Barry, Executive Vice President, Chief Merchandising Officer, Toys"R"Us, Inc. "We believe that Skylanders is one of the most innovative and exciting toy properties to hit the market and are thrilled to continue our strong support of the brand."


1 According to The NPD Group Data from January through November 2012

2 According to The NPD Group, Gfk Charttrack, and internal estimates.

3 According to The NPD Group

4 According to boxofficemojo.com

got Activision PR about Skylanders just now^

 

[confuziz]

So I have to ask this since we had the thread yesterday about Sony overtaking MS in overall sales for this generation.

If the 360 exceeded every other console by 2x we can safely say PS3 sold at the most 700k units in December. Since the 360 has been outselling PS3 here in North America for the majority of this generation that must mean for Sony to overtake MS this generation the sum of the sales from every other region must exceed the difference in sales between the 360 and PS3 here in North America.

So if 360 sells 1.4 million and PS3 sells 700k then sales from every other region must be higher than 700k for Sony to overtake MS. Is this possible? Not saying I don't believe it is but with such huge numbers in NA it just doesn't seem to add up

There are over 700 million people in europe.

Ofcourse it's possible. Very Very unlikely though.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Zombiiiiiiiiiii is the only 3rd party Wii U game > 100k (LTD)
And super super wonder wonder book still < 40k (LTD)

OK, see you next month.

ZombiU did just under 50k last month, so that gives us a reference for the Wii U software list.


Wii U Dec

nsmbu: 337k
jd4
su
sonic
zombi: > 50k
mickey
cod
skylanders
batman
nland
ac3
sing party
nfl
espn
wipeout
avengers
rabbid
nba
fifa

 

[electroplankton]

This wouldnt have mattered anyway though. The Vita was shown in working/playable state in January 2011, about 1 month before the 3DS launched, meaning that the Vita developement had started a long time before the 3DS was released. The Vita specs and plan were already set in stone before we saw how the market reacted to the 3DS. The only things Sony could have done after looking at how the 3DS initially sold was to cancel the Vita before even trying to see how it would sell (this would be unrealistic when developement was already far on the way), or have the launch price $50 lower than what they had, meaning that they would take a bigger loss on it from day 1. I do agree that it might have been wise to have some built-in flash memory for savegames etc., but i'm not sure that the sales would have been a lot higher because of this.

Or they could have just learnt from PS3 and PSP.

 

[michaelius]

This wouldnt have mattered anyway though. The Vita was shown in working/playable state in January 2011, about 1 month before the 3DS launched, meaning that the Vita developement had started a long time before the 3DS was released. The Vita specs and plan were already set in stone before we saw how the market reacted to the 3DS. The only things they could have done was to cancel it before even trying to see how it would sell (this would be unrealistic when developement was already far on the way), or have the launch price $50 lower than what they had, meaning that they would take a bigger loss on it from day 1. I do agree that it might have been wise to have some built-in flash memory for savegames etc., but i'm not sure that the sales would have been a lot higher because of this.

Being premium isn't that much of a problem for Vita after all more it's selling less than 3DS at 250$ did- it all comes down to lack of games - if it received handheld versions of stuff like GTA, Skyrim, Mass Effect etc it would be selling several times better.

It's a catch 22 situation - lack of big games from lack of big software sales and lack of hardware sales from lack of big well known IPs.

 

[Wildstar75]

Sony had an lackluster holiday. It shouldn't be a surprise. It was obvious after their dissapointing e3 press conference. It was funny how so many people thought Sony actually had a good E3. Sony is focused on CES this week and wants to rack up as much positive press as possible before so no wonder they are quiet on ps3 front.

Oh we'll let's hope that this means they will try even harder to launch ps4 properly. This E3 will be interesting!

 

[electroplankton]

ZombiU did just under 50k last month, so that gives us a reference for the Wii U software list.


Wii U Dec

nsmbu: 337k
jd4
su
sonic
zombi: > 50k
mickey
cod
skylanders
batman
nland
ac3
sing party
nfl
espn
wipeout
avengers
rabbid
nba
fifa

Nice for Scribblenauts and Sonic; the latter might have its best-selling version on Wii U, lol

 

[Subaru]

I don't know where to ask, so:

Does Nintendo DS really surpassed Playstation 2 sales?

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Nice for Scribblenauts and Sonic; the latter might have its best-selling version on Wii U, lol

It's safe to say Sonic is selling best on Wii U. In November the Wii U version doubled sales of the 360 version and tripled sales of the PS3 version.

The first game also bombed hard on PS360, pretty much all it's sales came from Wii/DS/iOS.

 

[DrWong]

ZombiU did just under 50k last month, so that gives us a reference for the Wii U software list.


Wii U Dec

nsmbu: 337k
jd4
su
sonic
zombi: > 50k
mickey
cod
skylanders
batman
nland
ac3
sing party
nfl
espn
wipeout
avengers
rabbid
nba
fifa

Nintendo Land not being in this list means Zombi U bundled sales are not counted...?

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Nintendo Land not being in this list means Zombi U bundled sales are not counted...?

There is no ZombiU bundle in the US.

Also, Nintendo Land did make the list.

Full titles:

New Super Mario Bros. U: 337k
Just Dance 4
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
ZombiU: > 50k
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Skylanders: Giants
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition
Nintendo Land
Assasssin's Creed III
Sing Party
Madden NFL 13
ESPN Sports Connection
Wipeout 3: The Game
Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth
Rabbids Party
NBA 2K13
FIFA Soccer 13

 

[Yoshi]

It's safe to say Sonic is selling best on Wii U. In November the Wii U version doubled sales of the 360 version and tripled sales of the PS3 version.

The first game also bombed hard on PS360, pretty much all it's sales came from Wii/DS/iOS.

Really? I think that's suprising. It seems that Sonic fans and Nintendo-fans are very hard to differentiate nowadays. There can't be too many "casual" Sonic-buyers on Wii U yet...

 

[Subaru]

So, Sonic BOMBA?
That's sad, the game is really awesome.

 

[Road]

I don't know where to ask, so:

Does Nintendo DS really surpassed Playstation 2 sales?

In the United States, it did two years ago.