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NPD Sales Results for February 2011 [Update 4: PS3 Hardware, TONS Of Games]

ascii42 said:
Rock Band 1 was released on the same day for both systems.
This is correct. I also forgot God of War 3. The original LBP had an underwhelming launch and didn't catch on until heavily discounted. Orange Box 360 was several months ahead of the PS3 version.

Upon closer inspection, the original LBP and R2 sold over 600k in the holiday 2008 period.
 
Sho_Nuff82 said:
This is correct. I also forgot God of War 3. The original LBP had an underwhelming launch and didn't catch on until heavily discounted. Orange Box 360 was several months ahead of the PS3 version.
it was still a *defining* game this generation i would say. Little Big Planet 2 wasn't one of those sequels that revitalised a tired franchise. it was popular entirely because the original was popular. whether it took discounting to spur on sales or not, it had a very nice tail, and certainly became synonymous with the PS3.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Was this already posted? I don't go into Sales-AGE often so apologies.

Off of MvC3's official twitter:
MvC3 #1 in February. The Gamasutra article was incorrect. COD was in fact #2. http://fb.me/HuDDXnmX
190576_190458390992673_114724748566038_425976_7698242_n.jpg

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=425976&l=c9f9b7a654&id=114724748566038

Oddly enough, even the source in OP says this:
February sales were led by new release Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (PS3, 360), with continued solid sales of Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2.
And the graph is only ranked by retail $, not # sold like both of these articles say. So I guess an update of that first list is in order considering it ranks by # sold?
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
enzo_gt said:
Was this already posted? I don't go into Sales-AGE often so apologies.

Off of MvC3's official twitter:

190576_190458390992673_114724748566038_425976_7698242_n.jpg

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=425976&l=c9f9b7a654&id=114724748566038

Oddly enough, even the source in OP says this:

And the graph is only ranked by retail $, not # sold like both of these articles say. So I guess an update of that first list is in order considering it ranks by # sold?
There needs to be a note in the OP or something:
  • The top 10 list sent out by NPD is correct, since it includes PC unit sales. That puts Black Ops first in that ranking.
  • If you are going to exclude PC sales, then MvC3 is at the top.
Frustrating.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
jvm said:
There needs to be a note in the OP or something:
  • The top 10 list sent out by NPD is correct, since it includes PC unit sales. That puts Black Ops first in that ranking.
  • If you are going to exclude PC sales, then MvC3 is at the top.
Frustrating.
Ah I see. Well I guess the OP needs an update regardless to clarify. Was looking at it myself in confusion between contradictory sets of information.
 
Ultima ratio regum said:
I'm still amazed ps3 is in 3rd in the USA. It doesn't make sense.



you weren't paying attention to the first couple years of the PS3, were you?

I mean, I could write a book about the ways the PS3 launch and subsequent year or two were screwed up. Needless to say, it would have killed a lesser company.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
jvm said:
Frustrating.

What's frustrating is that NPD seems to think having a bunch of people saying contradictory things is better than simply releasing the data themselves in a manner that actually represents reality.
 
Kyoufu said:
PS3 needs to be 199. Then I can see it outselling Wii monthly.
I too agree with this, there must be some logic to why ps3 is neither second nor first despite the quality of the software, massive innovation and uber unrecommended bad hacks.
 

kswiston

Member
Stumpokapow said:
What's frustrating is that NPD seems to think having a bunch of people saying contradictory things is better than simply releasing the data themselves in a manner that actually represents reality.

I still don't get why NPD felt the need to remove numbers from the top 10, especially after they combined platforms. Especially since we seem to get even more numbers now than before they stripped them out of the top 10 (though the numbers we get are a lot more random).

I really wish videogame sales tracking followed the Box office or record sales model. Or hell, at least announce when games hit major milestones like they do in the UK.

Pureauthor said:
So I just caught the latest update and I'd like to take time out from the Kinect discussion to say that 50K sales for DQVI is far too low.

Ya, sales were definitely too low. But it's not like the game received much advertising. I am just happy that we have finally received versions of DQ5 and DQ6 in the west, even if they'll be selling for $70-80 in a few years because too few people bought them new.

North American/European sales of DQ8 and DQ9 have been strong enough that I am not worried about newer titles making it over. But I was concerned that S-E wasn't going to bother releasing DQ6 here after DQ5 sold next to nothing.
 

Cheech

Member
Ultima ratio regum said:
I too agree with this, there must be some logic to why ps3 is neither second nor first despite the quality of the software, massive innovation and uber unrecommended bad hacks.

I am curious as to what "massive innovation" you think the PS3 is responsible for this gen.

The Wii has waggle. 360 has Kinect and Live. The PS3 has Blu Ray, which really has nothing to do with gaming.
 
Cheech said:
I am curious as to what "massive innovation" you think the PS3 is responsible for this gen.

The Wii has waggle. 360 has Kinect and Live. The PS3 has Blu Ray, which really has nothing to do with gaming.

Home, of course.
 

Bizzyb

Banned
A shame about De Blob 2 but I'm honestly waiting for the 3DS version to come out. How is it possible that this game isn't doing at least as well as the first one?? Esp considering the first was was only on 1 platform?
 

kswiston

Member
Cheech said:
I am curious as to what "massive innovation" you think the PS3 is responsible for this gen.

The Wii has waggle. 360 has Kinect and Live. The PS3 has Blu Ray, which really has nothing to do with gaming.

Well, I for one appreciate that PS3 uses a lot of standard computer accessories, instead of going proprietary for everything like most consoles in history have. Simple USB cables for controller charging, standard 2.5 inch hard drives and a system designed to make them easy to upgrade, compatibility with almost all USB jump drives, and external hard drives for media storage. Compatibility with standard USB keyboards and mice (never tried anything with blutooth).
 

Cheech

Member
kswiston said:
Well, I for one appreciate that PS3 uses a lot of standard computer accessories, instead of going proprietary for everything like most consoles in history have. Simple USB cables for controller charging, standard 2.5 inch hard drives and a system designed to make them easy to upgrade, compatibility with almost all USB jump drives, and external hard drives for media storage. Compatibility with standard USB keyboards and mice (never tried anything with blutooth).

I can't say that any of this stuff is on par with the Wii introducing waggle to the masses, Live bringing online gaming to the masses, or Kinect introducing Waggle 2.0.

And, honestly, I prefer the removable batteries in the 360/Wii pads.

Didn't mean to divert the discussion, but I was genuinely curious as to what you thought Sony brought to the table this generation, besides an atrocious price point and Blu Ray. I think even Sony themselves is rapidly trying to branch out, via 3D, but it's a technology that is too far ahead of the curve to find traction with gaming customers, IMO. It's HD 2.0, 1.0 was back in 2005, where you had Microsoft and Sony trumpeting the HD capabilities of their brand new consoles; Sony even was going to include 2 HDMI ports on the PS3 at one point.

Unfortunately for them, Nintendo knew that the majority of the market either did not own or care about HD gaming, and ate their lunch. Now it's 2011, most people own non-3D capable HDTVs, and Sony finds themselves in the same place they did back in 2005/2006. They have an expensive product, after the new TV and glasses, in search of a market that does not yet exist.
 
Cheech said:
I can't say that any of this stuff is on par with the Wii introducing waggle to the masses, Live bringing online gaming to the masses, or Kinect introducing Waggle 2.0.

And, honestly, I prefer the removable batteries in the 360/Wii pads.

Didn't mean to divert the discussion, but I was genuinely curious as to what you thought Sony brought to the table this generation, besides an atrocious price point and Blu Ray. I think even Sony themselves is rapidly trying to branch out, via 3D, but it's a technology that is too far ahead of the curve to find traction with gaming customers, IMO. It's HD 2.0, 1.0 was back in 2005, where you had Microsoft and Sony trumpeting the HD capabilities of their brand new consoles; Sony even was going to include 2 HDMI ports on the PS3 at one point.

Unfortunately for them, Nintendo knew that the majority of the market either did not own or care about HD gaming, and ate their lunch. Now it's 2011, most people own non-3D capable HDTVs, and Sony finds themselves in the same place they did back in 2005/2006. They have an expensive product, after the new TV and glasses, in search of a market that does not yet exist.
By innovation I mean software, first party in particular. Like little big planet, home, and also 3rd party software which it shares with 360. The camera in particular if it had more processing computational power could actually match kinnect in functionality but you'd need petaflops likely, not sure clever hacks could allow the cell processor to match human brain stereovision performance(about a fourth to a third of the brain is dedicated to visual performance, so estimates for processing power are in petaflops range.)... remember even a one eyed man can tell and process 3d imagery effortlessly.

In terms of art the next game from the guys behind ico and shadow of the colossus is sure to be a masterpiece and quite innovative, one can tell before it is released.

I also consider low security that allows for easy hacking a plus due to homebrew possibilities, low security is innovative in my eyes.
 

3rdman

Member
Cheech said:
I am curious as to what "massive innovation" you think the PS3 is responsible for this gen.

The Wii has waggle. 360 has Kinect and Live. The PS3 has Blu Ray, which really has nothing to do with gaming.
Installs! When else would I have the time to make a sandwich.
 
Cheech said:
I can't say that any of this stuff is on par with the Wii introducing waggle to the masses, Live bringing online gaming to the masses, or Kinect introducing Waggle 2.0.
It´s more like: Move is Waggle 2.0 and Kinect is EyeToy 2.0.

It´s easy to understand the increased sales numbers of 360 consoles going by the Kinect bundles, but what is driving the increased sales numbers of the PS3? It´s obviously not the Move bundles. Any theories?
 
painful fart said:
It´s more like: Move is Waggle 2.0 and Kinect is EyeToy 2.0.

It´s easy to understand the increased sales numbers of 360 consoles going by the Kinect bundles, but what is driving the increased sales numbers of the PS3? It´s obviously not the Move bundles. Any theories?
well they did have a big exclusive come out in February in Killzone 3. also 3D tv penetration could be doing *something* for it, though i doubt it's anything other than minimal, but hey, i bought one this month cause i got a 3D tv.
 

kswiston

Member
painful fart said:
It´s more like: Move is Waggle 2.0 and Kinect is EyeToy 2.0.

It´s easy to understand the increased sales numbers of 360 consoles going by the Kinect bundles, but what is driving the increased sales numbers of the PS3? It´s obviously not the Move bundles. Any theories?

All consoles seem to be up this month.
 

V_Arnold

Member
painful fart said:
It´s more like: Move is Waggle 2.0 and Kinect is EyeToy 2.0.

It´s easy to understand the increased sales numbers of 360 consoles going by the Kinect bundles, but what is driving the increased sales numbers of the PS3? It´s obviously not the Move bundles. Any theories?

Call of Duty: Black Ops.
People wanna play that. If they got friends with PS3, or they want a Blu-Ray player as a bonus, they buy a PS3.
If they got friends with 360's, and they wanna try Halo or they wanna jump in cheapest way possible, or they have heard Kinect is also cool somewhere, they buy a 360.

I think it is clear that COD is increasing hardware sales now.
 
painful fart said:
It´s more like: Move is Waggle 2.0 and Kinect is EyeToy 2.0.

It´s easy to understand the increased sales numbers of 360 consoles going by the Kinect bundles, but what is driving the increased sales numbers of the PS3? It´s obviously not the Move bundles. Any theories?

According to JVM's Gamasutra article just posted, 44k Killzone 3 bundles (which is a lot for a week, MW2 bundles sold 100k in a month) were moved during the month, which probably bumped up the numbers a little. That puts the total KZ3 sales at ~323k for the month, which is actually the exact same amount as KZ2 from February 2009. I guess the question is, does this change anyone's analysis of KZ3's performance?

Aside from the obvious CoD effect, it seems like KZ did actually move some units.
 
painful fart said:
Yeah, you are right, I just fail to see any logic behind it.

Have there been any massive discount drives on amazon, best buy or whatever?
The PS3 usually had a $50 gift card (from many stores in February) and/or a free game included.
 
I really think Microsoft is going to seize the moment and drop the price and or make the 250gb Kinect unit 299. Then you might see some enormous numbers and Wii will be challenged even moreso. Again the position that Microsoft is in is really a position of strength, their next move will be very interesting.
 
doicare said:
Thanks for only being mildly insulting about the typo, in all fairness i did spell the word correctly in my last reply. Nevermind crisis over.


Well not to ad insult to injury, but....

doicare said:
You still have no point. To begin with you'll never know the exact break down of Europe vs the rest of the worlds sales and the combined rest of the world sales are just as important as Japan's sales which was my point.

Some how you are trying to compare 360's Japanese 1 year head start sales advantage to the 360's european/rest of the world year and a half head start which is completely flawed as obviously the 360 gains an extra half a years worth of sales which isn't a straight comparison.

To break down the actual numbers for you, in Japan despite the 360 having a years head start the ps3 has outsold it by 4.66 million as of the end of 2010. For Europe/rest of the world doing the same thing, the ps3 has outsold the 360 by roughly 1.76 million but the big difference is the 360 had a year and half head start compared to Japan's 1 year head start. Even if you want to use that flawed comparison then Europe/rest of the world accounts for 27.5% of the ps3's gain on the 360.

The best way to show what is happening is by taking each of the two regions and comparing the gains made from when the ps3 launched in each region. In Japan since launch the ps3 has gained 4.82 million compared to what the 360 sold during the same time and in Europe/rest of the world the ps3 has gained roughly 5.2 million. Like i said combined rest of the world sales are just as important as Japan's sales which is my point.

....you told me I have flawed logic and honestly I'm beginning to think you don't understand English either because at no point in our discussion was I trying to do anything like what you are suggesting above. I did have a point, and my point could be boiled down to one sentence.

In my original reply to the poster, what I did was simply point out that using his numbers: if you consider the only market where one of the two systems is basically a non-competitor, Japan, then the actual amount the PS3 has made up since launch world wide has been statistical noise.(and I do apologize for the subtraction error. Yes my number was incorrect, it should have been 1.3, not 400k units.....it was like 3:00am for me). And then I just added that if you took out the launch period in Europe then it hasn't actually made up anything since May 2007.

Again, all of this was outside Japan and even stated in the same post that someone was probably going to say it's not fair for me to only exclude Japan, but I only did it for the point of perspective. OTH, I have no freaking idea what you are trying to do, other than to come up with different parameters to compare the two or come up with calculations to prove a point that I had already implied is a given in my original reply to the poster anyway.


PS: If you just look back at some of the other members replying to my point, everyone else got what I was saying, whether or not they agree with it, except you.
 
doicare said:
Hahaha o my that was one of the funniest posts/rants i've ever read in an NPD thread thanks for that.
I'll hopefully see you in the Quarterly sales thread next month and also the one at the end of the year when the ps3 will have cut the 360's lead even further, it would be good to hear your perspective.


yes it also would be good to hear your perspective when Holiday 2011 strolls around when PS3 is getting crushed yet again and still in 3rd place in hardware.
 

evangd007

Member
DMeisterJ said:
It's so weird this late in the generation there are really sales-age wars still waging... My god, the amount of cheer-leading and defense on both sides is almost sad... As if people are truly happy or upset over the sales of multi-billion dollar companies...

Don't worry, it followed the natural progression of NPD threads and devolved into arguing about the English language, something so far removed from the point of these threads that I need to follow these things post by post, 24/7 to understand how we even got here.

For something on-topic: Does anyone know why exactly every hardware was up YoY? Was there holdover demand from Christmas for every console?
 
evangd007 said:
Don't worry, it followed the natural progression of NPD threads and devolved into arguing about the English language, something so far removed from the point of these threads that I need to follow these things post by post, 24/7 to understand how we even got here.

For something on-topic: Does anyone know why exactly every hardware was up YoY? Was there holdover demand from Christmas for every console?
It is probably because the economy is doing better. I am not sure though.
 

see5harp

Member
MrCookiepants said:
Except that's not exclusive. Also, it's old as fuck. I doubt it sold any 360s this February. It's pretty clear that Kinect is what's driving hardware atm, not any generation defining exclusive games (or lack thereof).

Gears of War didn't come out in February but Gears of War 3 will no doubt be the top seller come release day.
 

Huff

Banned
Beam said:
It is probably because the economy is doing better. I am not sure though.

I'm not sure that the economy really is getting better, so I don't really think that has much affect on why all consoles are.
 
evangd007 said:
For something on-topic: Does anyone know why exactly every hardware was up YoY? Was there holdover demand from Christmas for every console?

I'd imagine more people kept more of their tax returns in savings last year due to the economy being shakier at the time. This year more people were probably back to spending their returns on stuff.
 

Zen

Banned
Sho_Nuff82 said:
According to JVM's Gamasutra article just posted, 44k Killzone 3 bundles (which is a lot for a week, MW2 bundles sold 100k in a month) were moved during the month, which probably bumped up the numbers a little. That puts the total KZ3 sales at ~323k for the month, which is actually the exact same amount as KZ2 from February 2009. I guess the question is, does this change anyone's analysis of KZ3's performance?

Aside from the obvious CoD effect, it seems like KZ did actually move some units.

Wait, the NPD numbers don't include bundled sales? The 44k worth of bundled sales should be added to the info in the OP.
 
Sho_Nuff82 said:
According to JVM's Gamasutra article just posted, 44k Killzone 3 bundles (which is a lot for a week, MW2 bundles sold 100k in a month) were moved during the month, which probably bumped up the numbers a little. That puts the total KZ3 sales at ~323k for the month, which is actually the exact same amount as KZ2 from February 2009. I guess the question is, does this change anyone's analysis of KZ3's performance?

Aside from the obvious CoD effect, it seems like KZ did actually move some units.

Well, it was a free game so can't really be counted as a sale. Even if you hated the game and wanted a PS3 system you would have been a fool not to get the bundle and sell the game. That's why NPD doesn't count bundled games.

painful fart said:
Yeah, you are right, I just fail to see any logic behind it.

Have there been any massive discount drives on amazon, best buy or whatever?

Yeah, everyone was offering $50-$100 cards for PS3's pretty much the entire month and along with the free game packed in.

Zen said:
Wait, the NPD numbers don't include bundled sales?

Of course not. If they did, then Kung Fu Panda for the 360 would be one of the best selling games.
 

Zen

Banned
OldJadedGamer said:
Well, it was a free game so can't really be counted as a sale. Even if you hated the game and wanted a PS3 system you would have been a fool not to get the bundle and sell the game. That's why NPD doesn't count bundled games.

There are other bundles out there that don't include Killzone 3. A sale is a sale as far as everything is concerned and the majority of they people who would buy the Killzone 3 bundle would be people that wanted Killzone 3 and didn't have a PS3. It shouldn't just be included in the total, but it should be noted towards the total number of units moved, it's data just like anything else in the NPD.

Do you think that close to 100k worth of those Modern Warefare bundles weren't people looking to play Modern Warfare?

Killzone 2 didn't have a bundle, so people that didn't have a PS3 and wanted to buy Killzone 2 had to buy both separately.
 
Ultima ratio regum said:
By innovation I mean software, first party in particular. Like little big planet, home, and also 3rd party software which it shares with 360. The camera in particular if it had more processing computational power could actually match kinnect in functionality but you'd need petaflops likely, not sure clever hacks could allow the cell processor to match human brain stereovision performance(about a fourth to a third of the brain is dedicated to visual performance, so estimates for processing power are in petaflops range.)... remember even a one eyed man can tell and process 3d imagery effortlessly.

In terms of art the next game from the guys behind ico and shadow of the colossus is sure to be a masterpiece and quite innovative, one can tell before it is released.

I also consider low security that allows for easy hacking a plus due to homebrew possibilities, low security is innovative in my eyes.


Oh. My. God.

2837153271_61c88aa4f9.jpg
 
Zen said:
Do you think that close to 100k worth of those Modern Warefare bundles weren't people looking to play Modern Warfare?

The modern warfare systems were priced higher because of the bundle. The KZ bundle was the exact same price as the non-bundled version. Hence, it was a free game if you wanted it or not.
 

Zen

Banned
OldJadedGamer said:
The modern warfare systems were priced higher because of the bundle. The KZ bundle was the exact same price as the non-bundled version. Hence, it was a free game if you wanted it or not.

That's sort of neither here nor there, you're extrapolating something that you have no idea about. People still opted to purchase Killzone 3 and a PS3 for a low price, and you have no way of knowing how many people traded in the game or didn't.

What you can say is that statistically speaking there was a far higher chance that people purchasing the Killzone 3 bundle wanted to play Killzone 3.

There would also be people whom purchased the Bundle and ended up playing the game.

There would also be people whom purchased the bundle and traded in the game.

And anyone who didn't have a PS3 and wanted to purchase Killzone 3 almost certainly would have bought the bundle.

Maybe that number is just 70% of the total, but you can't pretend that they sales of 44k over 5 days is irrelevant. Even people who had 'no interest' in Killzone 3 might have ended up playing it, that's part of the point of bundling software.

It's probably more likely that people with 'no interest' in Killzone 3 ended up playing the game before deciding if it would be traded in.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
see5harp said:
Tax returns. I know I got a nice new Plasma with mine.

yeah, I was about to suggess Tax Returns as a possible reason why hardware sales were up across the board. I may have opted for a new X360 with my tax return if I hadn't already bought one back in Dec with my Christmas bonus.



Zen said:
There are other bundles out there that don't include Killzone 3. A sale is a sale as far as everything is concerned and the majority of they people who would buy the Killzone 3 bundle would be people that wanted Killzone 3 and didn't have a PS3. It shouldn't just be included in the total, but it should be noted towards the total number of units moved, it's data just like anything else in the NPD.

:lol. Nice edit there. ;) Looks like you realized the point OJG was trying to make, then edited your post.
 

Zen

Banned
I'm honestly not sure what I edited in that post, aside from 'not included in the total' which didn't contradict anything I'd had before but was adding clarification.
 
V_Arnold said:
Call of Duty: Black Ops.
People wanna play that. If they got friends with PS3, or they want a Blu-Ray player as a bonus, they buy a PS3.
If they got friends with 360's, and they wanna try Halo or they wanna jump in cheapest way possible, or they have heard Kinect is also cool somewhere, they buy a 360.

I think it is clear that COD is increasing hardware sales now.
Yep, It's this generation's GTA except that it's spread across multiple systems this time. I wonder if Nintendo realizes how much not having a platform capable of delivering CoD in the same manner that the PC/360/PS3 do has hurt them this gen and if they'll make the same mistake with their next console?
 
Zen said:
and you have no way of knowing how many people traded in the game or didn't.

You're right... I don't. And you don't either and neither does NPD. I'm not saying every game doesn't count as a sale just like I'm not saying every game counts as a sale. No one knows... which is why bundled games are not included in NPD numbers and it's generally better to just leave them out regardless of what game it is.
 

mintylurb

Member
duk said:
Rham, you missed out on the last 4 years where 360 was the laughing stock and could do no right even though it continued to sell incredibly well software, hardware, online, etc.

There was a reason the 'year of the ps3 meme' came around 3 years ago when this place was mostly inhabitied by sony fanboys. They are all somberly napping after eating so much crow.
Darn those sony shills! http://digg.com/news/gaming/NeoGAF_...fake_accounts_to_promote_Sony_products_shills
 
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