Okay, honestly. What the (insert choice 4-letter word) is going on with the Nintendo Wii’s hardware sales? Who is still buying this thing and when is Nintendo going to stop with the “we’re low on supply” response? It’s completely mind bottling! The Wii continues to do it’s best Incredible Hulk impression by seriously crushing the competition in hardware sales. It doesn’t seem like it’s that hard to find to me. And I think it’s safe to say that 714,000 people feel the same.
This is madness! Someone needs to explain to me why everyone seems to be playing with their Wii. That’s a lot of Wii. Perhaps now is the time for that elusive Xbox 360 US price cut eh? I mean the economy isn’t exactly booming ya know.
Grand Theft Auto IV managed to highjack the top software spot from Mario Kart proving that the world would much rather engage in violence than play with plumbers in karts.
April 2008 Hardware Sales
Wii - 714,200
Nintendo DS - 414,800
PSP - 192,700
Xbox 360 - 188,000
PlayStation 3 - 187,100
PlayStation 2 - 124,400
April 2008 Software Sales
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (X360) - 1,850,000
2. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 1,120,000
3. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 1,000,000
4. Wii Play (Wii) - 360,000
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 326,000
6. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (PS3) - 224,000
7. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (NDS) - 202,000
8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (NDS) - 202,000
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) - 152,000
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (X360) - 141,000
I’ve heard and read some strange stories coming out of Microsoft before but this one is a real doozie. According to sources at MTV News, Microsoft has been developing its own answer to the Wiimote for the Xbox 360. No it’s not called the Xmote or Xboxmote but it’s supposedly going to offer all the functions of Nintendo’s nifty controller plus more. What that “more” is, is anyone’s guess at this point. I don’t know what it’s called or will be called if true, but I’m not sure why they would even bother.
The controller itself isn’t much different in functionality or design from Nintendo’s Wii remote, but comes with four face buttons, an analog stick and microphone. There are also plans for the controller to interact with the Xbox Live Vision Camera, the source said. There’s also talk about introducting Mii-like avatars to the Xbox 360 that offer a bit more than Nintendo’s Mii avatar system.
When MTV News contacted Microsoft for confirmation, a spokesperson said that “Microsoft does not comment on rumors and speculation.” And you all should know how to properly identify that bit of PR Speak after reading the latest Truth Serum article.
PR Speak - “We have a policy in place not to comment on rumor or speculation.”
Truth Serum - “We’ll tell you when we’re ready to tell you but what you heard is probably right.”
Aren’t you glad you have a PR Speak Guide now? (smile) So, what say you to this whole idea of a new Xboxmote and the possibilities of Mii-like creations?
While the supposed shortages continue, the Xbox 360 still manages to perform well in any other area beyond hardware. For the second consecutive month, the Xbox 360 remained last in consoles sold with 255,000 in February. However, that didn’t stop the software machine from dominating another Top 10 in software sales.
Microsoft also shared their take on February’s sales below which includes an impressive 9.6 million installed base here in North America that outshines the competition by a good margin. Check out the numbers and then read up on a few more tidbits concerning the Xbox 360.
February 2008 Hardware Sales
Nintendo DS- 587,600
Nintendo Wii- 432,000
PS2- 351,800
PS3- 280,800
Xbox 360- 254,600
PSP- 243,100
Prepare for massive amounts of “what the hell” as January’s NPD numbers make their way around the interweb with a surprisingly last place finish for the Xbox 360. Yes that means that the PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 during the month of January by an amazing 41,000 units. As it turns out just about everything outsold the Xbox 360 last month.
Despite a slow hardware month, the Xbox 360 continues its impressive software performance.
January 2008 Hardware Sales
Nintendo Wii- 274,000
PS3- 270,000
PS2- 265,000
Nintendo DS- 252,000
PSP- 230,000
Xbox 360- 229,000
January 2008 Software Sales
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 330,900
2. Wii Play - 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) - 239,600
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) - 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) - 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy - 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) - 144,100
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) - 140,000
9. Mario Party DS - 138,500
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) 133,000
What’s life in gaming without fancy numbers and fuel for little fanboys to brag about their respective console of choice? Call of Duty 4 continues its domination on the sales charts and the Nintendo Wii continues its lead in hardware sales. And the PlayStation 3 continues its drought in games that matter. Perhaps it is indeed just a Blu-ray player right now.
December 2007 Hardware Sales
Nintendo Wii - 1,350,000
Xbox 360 - 1,260,000
PlayStation 3 - 798,000
December 2007 Software Sales
1. Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360) - 1.47 million
2. Super Mario Galaxy - 1.40 million
3. Guitar Hero III (PS2) - 1.25 million
4. Wii Play - 1.08 million
5. Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) - 894,000
6. Halo 3 - 743,000
7. Brain Age 2 - 660,000
8. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) - 655,000
9. Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360) - 625,000
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - 613,000
I know how you all like numbers and I came across the most recent NPD Group numbers for the month of November. The Xbox 360 continues to push out impressive numbers while the Nintendo Wii continues its amazing ride. I thought Nintendo Wii’s were hard to find?
November 2007 Hardware Sales
Nintendo Wii - 981,000
Xbox 360 - 770,000
PlayStation 3 - 466,000
November 2007 Software Sales
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 1,565,404
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 1,123,070
Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) - 980,000
Wii Play - 564,000
Mass Effect - 472,793
Who knew the Nintendo Wii had a trivia game on it? It was released a few weeks ago from EA’s Casual Entertainment label. Who knew EA had a casual entertainment label? You all might know I’m a trivia fanatic after reading my Scene It? review and joining in on my Scene It? party so there should be no surprise that I’m going to force my uncle or brother to buy this game. They both have a Wii so through them I shall put this game to the test.
It has 20,000 trivia questions in multiple categories all filtered by age which makes it easy for the kids to at least have a chance against me. And it has content that spans North America, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Yep, it has some trivia for seemingly all walks of life. You can take a quick Smarty Pants Trivia Challenge and find more media on the game at EA’s Smarty Pants site. I watched one of the videos and they have a spin-the-wheel mode that looks fun.
I know quite a few of you have Wii’s so I figured I’d toss this up in the ’In Other News’ feature of U360. I hope to display my smarts in Smarty Pants soon so I can give you guys and girls the 411.
I’m finally home in Dallas and because I’m so happy about being here, I wanted to share something that gave me a good laugh while at the Penny Arcade Expo. This is some gameplay I captured of Sega’s Bleach: Shattered Blade for the Nintendo Wii. I sat there both amazed and afraid of what I saw. Someone please tell me that we don’t really want the developers and publishers in the gaming industry to adopt a “port from the Wii” attitude.
Enjoy the video below and also the last few photos from PAX. Stay tuned for more from my PAX escapade.
It’s been a while since I gave you the GameFly Top 10 so here she is. Surprisingly, the Xbox 360 is dominating the cross-platform list well after the launches of both the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3. These lists include what gamers have in their queue and may include unreleased titles. It’s interesting though to see the top requested and rented titles.
There are quite a few people who subscribe to GameFly’s rental service. I was one of them for a brief time in order to get some history and hand’s on before conducting an interview with one of its founders, Sean Spector. There have been a few things from the interview that have come to fruition so I may try to get Sean back on the show.
Until then, check out the GameFly Top 10. This is for the week ending June 18.
Most Popular Games Cross-Platform
1 The Darkness Xbox 360 Take Two
2 DiRT Xbox 360 Codemasters
3 Call of Juarez Xbox 360 Ubisoft
4 Overlord Xbox 360 Codemasters
5 Shadowrun Xbox 360 Microsoft
6 Tenchu Z Xbox 360 Microsoft
7 Forza Motorsport 2 Xbox 360 Microsoft
8 Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree Nintendo
9 Resident Evil 4 Wii Capcom
10 Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer Xbox 360 Take Two
Xbox 360 Most Popular Games
1 The Darkness Take Two
2 DiRT Codemasters
3 Call of Juarez Ubisoft
4 Overlord Codemasters
5 Shadowrun Microsoft
6 Tenchu Z Microsoft
7 Forza Motorsport 2 Microsoft
8 Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer Take Two
9 Transformers: The Game Activision
10 Halo 3 Microsoft
The NPD Group released its holiday sales numbers yesterday and the Xbox 360 outsold both the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii combined during the holiday season. In the month of December alone, the Xbox 360 outpaced them both selling 1.1 million units while the Wii sold 604,200 and the PS3 tuned in with 490,700. This marks a 51% market share for the 360 in December.
Also, the NPD has the top five (5) titles in the month of December with Gears of War at numero uno.
1. Gears of War - Xbox 360 (Microsoft)
2. Guitar Hero 2 Bundle- PS2 (Activision)
3. Madden NFL 07 - PS2 (Electronic Arts)
4. Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess - GCN (Nintendo)
5. Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Wii (Nintendo)
Overall it was a good holiday season across the board for the Xbox 360. I can see those bonuses rolling in right about now for the Xbox team.
