Microsoft, in advance of The NPD Group's December report, has noted that it sold 1.9 million units of the Xbox 360 in December, which is the biggest month in Xbox history, helping to solidify the company's biggest year in Xbox history as well.
$6.2 billion was spent on Xbox 360 products during December, and Microsoft said Xbox 360 was the only console to show year-over-year growth at 42%, making it the fastest-growing console in 2010.
As was already indicated by Major Nelson earlier, demand was quite high and supplies were tight. Microsoft said that "in order to keep up with holiday demand in December for Xbox 360 and Kinect, Microsoft pulled units from its January and February production."
The company continued, "Despite this, Microsoft still experienced out of supply situations in late December, and it expects supply constraint to continue in January and February as it works with retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments to replenish the channel."
On the software side, December saw three of the top ten console game titles on Xbox 360: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassins Creed Brotherhood, and Kinect Sports.
Penguin said:Either these numbers are really high or poor Gran Turismo 5.
C-Jo said:The continuing success of Just Dance makes me cry.
PS3 is down YOY.Snuggler said:It'll be interesting to see if all those PS3 deals in the last month (like $100 giftcard on Amazon) did anything to boost sales. Probably not.
Hellsing321 said:Just Dance 2 beat WoW?! Holy fucking shit!
Granted a bunch of WoW must have been online but still.
C-Jo said:The continuing success of Just Dance makes me cry.
Right. Its probably bigger evidence of how strong digital distribution is for PC but still Just Dance is no slouch.Opiate said:It beat WoW at retail.
So two Kinect games in the top 10. Pretty impressive.On an SKU basis, games that are in the top 10 for the month that aren't reflected in our title-level best-selling list include Kinect Sports from Microsoft, UDraw Studio with UDraw Tablet from THQ, and Dance Central from Microsoft.
Grecco said:Hopefully this ends the whole "IT ONLY HAD 5 DAYS TO CHART" nonsesense we always see (And saw last month when GT5 bombed)
05. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) NINTENDO
06. Disney Epic Mickey** (Wii) DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS
Video game sales were flat or down 1 percent in 2010 to $15.4 billion to $15.6 billion, according to preliminary estimates for games of all kinds, according to market researcher NPD.
The number includes sales of games sold in stores such as console video games, PC titles, and handheld games. But, for the first time, NPD also included sales of digital downloads of games, social network games, game rentals, online game subscriptions, and sales of used games.
It basically means that games had a better year than last year, when sales were down almost 9 percent. Thats because of strong holiday sales in the month of December.
Spending on games at retail stores still accounted for the majority of games sold. Sales of game software on the PC, portable and consoles was $10.1 billion, down 5 percent from $10.6 billion in 2010. The bright spots included sales of PC games in stores, up 3 percent thanks to blockbusters such as StarCraft II and World of WarCraft Cataclysm.
The year was marked by a series of blockbuster game releases. Activision Blizzard launched titles such as StarCraft II on the PC, Call of Duty Black Ops on all platforms, and World of WarCraft Cataclysm on the PC. Black Ops was the best-selling game of the year. Microsoft also shipped 8 million units of its Kinect motion-control system in the last two months of the year, while Sony sold more than 4.1 million units of its new Sony PlayStation Move motion-control system.
A year ago, the video game industry was in worse shape. The recession took its toll on gamers in 2009, with overall sales falling 8.6 percent to $20.2 billion in 2009 compared with $22.11 billion in 2008. In December, 2009, sales rose only 4 percent overall.
During 2010, Microsoft said it was the only console to show year-over-year console unit sales growth, up 42 percent. Overall, $6.2 billion was spent at retail on Xbox 360 hardware, peripherals and games. In December, Microsoft said it sold more than 1.9 million units.
During December, three of the top ten console games were Xbox 360 titles: Call of Duty Black Ops, Assassins Creed Brotherhood and Kinect Sports. In order to keep up with holiday demand, Microsoft pulled both console and Kinect hardware units from its January and February production. Consequently, Microsoft expects to have shortages in January and February. For 2011, Microsoft believes that Gears of War 3 will be a big seller; it is also launching more Kinect titles such as Avatar Kinect. Nintendo likely saw a fall off in sales as users may be waiting until March before they buy its new 3DS handheld, which allows users to see 3D images without glasses.
Since 2005, Microsoft has sold an estimated 51 million Xbox 360 consoles, Sony has sold 46 million PS 3 consoles, and Nintendo has sold 84 million Wiis.
plufim said:Retro Studios finally gets the money they deserve.
You mean 3rd party Wii games can sell if the publishers don't treat their audience like lower-class citizens? Who woulda thunk it?ICallItFutile said:Well I guess Epic Mickey did do well.
Edit: Fuck you lawblob
On an SKU basis, games that are in the top 10 for the month that aren't reflected in our title-level best-selling list include Kinect Sports from Microsoft, UDraw Studio with UDraw Tablet from THQ, and Dance Central from Microsoft.
user_nat said:So we know that an individual top 10 would contain:
1-x. Call of Duty (360)
1-2. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
2-3. World of Warcraft
x. Assassins Creed (360)
x. Donkey Kong
x. Epic Mikey
x. Kinect Sports
and most likely
x. Call of Duty (PS3)
Leaving 2 unknowns. Any guesses?
On an SKU basis, games that are in the top 10 for the month that aren't reflected in our title-level best-selling list include Kinect Sports from Microsoft, UDraw Studio with UDraw Tablet from THQ, and Dance Central from Microsoft.
user_nat said:So we know that an individual top 10 would contain:
1-x. Call of Duty (360)
1-2. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
2-3. World of Warcraft
x. Assassins Creed (360)
x. Donkey Kong
x. Epic Mikey
x. Kinect Sports
and most likely
x. Call of Duty (PS3)
Leaving 2 unknowns. Any guesses?