January NPD: Wii and CoD4 Stay Top, PS3 Beats 360 & DS, Makes Everyone Go “Huh?”

 

Here we go again.

Nintendo Wii – 274K
Playstation 3 – 269K
Playstation 2 - 264K
Nintendo DS – 251K
PSP – 230K
Xbox 360 – 230K

Woah. Something looks different. Well, not too different.  As always, the Wii appears at the top of the list, but take a look at second place. Yes, the PS3 managed to defeat both the DS and Xbox 360 in sales numbers for the month of January. Now wait, before some of you get all excited and proclaim “Teh end of M$ has come!” and “Sony FTW!!1!” you have to take a lot of things into perspective. Yesterday morning Microsoft released a statement claiming to have had a hardware shortage after the recent money-makin’ holiday season. Hmmm, believable although somewhat skeptical; upon browsing my local electronic stores I did notice a number of Halo Edition 360’s (they’re not very pretty, are they) but not Premium or Elite models. Either way their statement saved them much embarrassment when the numbers hit the net. In December the Wii and DS went Incredible Hulk sales beasts on us and were definitely supply constrained, so as expected they had Bruce a more Bruce Banner like appearance in January. So with Nintendo and Microsoft having only leftovers (table scraps, even) from the holidays to sell in stores is this a huge victory for Sony? It depends on how you look at it.

It’s like pitting two teams against each other yet one team is without their starting line-up. You could defeat the Lakers by 15 to 20 points, but was it a significant win if Kobe was out injured? No. But the fact that you won in the first place is pretty impressive if the Lakers are considered better than you. Supply constraints or not, it’s a solid effort by Sony to top Microsoft especially with only one game in the top 10. Will they win next month? I doubt it. If the hardware shortages the MS claim are in fact true, Kobe (and a fresh new shipment) will return next and change it all. With the Wii staying undefeated in probably it’s most depleted state means the demand is not going anywhere for a while.

On the software side of things Call of Duty 4 is still tearing sh*t up. Rock Band narrowly eclipsed Guitar Hero III for the 360. No More Heroes apparently sold just over 100K units, which is OK for a new mature IP for a child-friendly console. Burnout Paradise debuts in the Top 10, which is a good thing. Look at that GH3 for Wii…

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 330,900
2. Wii Play (Wii) – 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III (Wii) – 239,600
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360) – 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) – 144,100
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) – 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (DS) – 138,500
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) – 133,000

December Sales Numbers: CoD4 On Top, DS is Hardware King, Halo 3 Owns 2007

Much to my delight, Call of Duty 4 managed to drop an airstrike on the competition and top the software sales charts in December. It’s great to see a game get appreciated for its true excellence even though Master Chief casts a large shadow over it. Super Mario Galaxy was happily gobbled up by hungry Wii owners and came in at a respectable second, only seven thousand units behind CoD4. Guitar Hero III continues to sell to the large casual crowd on the PS2 while Wii Play, the John McClane of the 2007 sales charts (it simply refuses to die), makes the top ten once again. The rest is pretty familiar with Halo 3 and Assassin’s Creed selling well, although Mario & Sonic somehow managed to crash the party.

Looking back at 2007 we find that Halo 3 was the best-selling game of the year (no surprises here) followed by Wii Play and CoD4. Again, the remaining cast is quite familiar.

December Software Sales
1.Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) — 1.47m
2.Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) — 1.40m
3.Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) — 1.25m
4. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) — 1.08m
5.Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) — 894K
6.Halo 3 (Xbox 360) — 743K
7.Brain Age 2 (DS) — 660K
8.Madden NFL 08 (PS2) — 655K
9.Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) — 625K
10.Mairo & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) — 613K

Software totals for 2007
1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) — 4.82m
2. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) — 4.12m
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) — 3.04m
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) — 2.72m
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) — 2.52m
6. Pokémon Diamond (DS) — 2.48m
7. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) — 1.90m
8. Guitar Hero II (PS2) — 1.89m
9. Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) — 1.87m
10.Mario Party 8 (Wii) — 1.82m 

The Nintendo DS is a beast. No, a robeast in fact. It managed to weasel its way to the homes of 2.47 million people in December alone, which is almost as much as the PS3 sold in a year. Scary. It almost doubled the Wii’s numbers, which is saying a lot! The 360 did remarkably well and gave the Wii a good fight, with fists nicknamed Call of Duty and Halo. I’ve got to hand it to Microsoft; with all the hardware failures, bad publicity, and recent Xbox Live issues they still came out of 2007 in excellent shape. Hats off to them. Meanwhile, the PS3 continues to get embarrassed by its older brother as well as the PSP. Hopefully, 2008 will be a different year for them.

December Hardware Sales
DS 2.47M
Wii 1.35M
Xbox 360 1.26M
PS2 1.1M
PSP 1.06M
PS3 797K

Hardware totals for 2007 (life-to-date in parentheses)
DS: 8.50 million (17.65 million)
Wii: 6.29 million (7.38 million)
Xbox 360: 4.62 million (9.15 million)
PS2: 3.97 million (41.12 million)
PSP: 3.82 million (10.47 million)
PS3: 2.56 million (3.25 million)

[Source: GameDaily]

Sunday(ish) Brunch: Ghostbusters, NPD Numbers, GOTY Hopefuls, and Much More

After recovering from the Week of Doom (aka finals week) and a terrible cold I’m back and here to stay. I’ll try my best to keep this a regular weekly article, I promise. Now forgive me and ignore the fact that this is being written on a Monday.

- Sometimes dreams do come true. As a kid I was obsessed with Ghostbusters; they were just so cool at the time. Like, everything about them was cool: their theme song, their proton packs, their car, their Rick Moranis. Cool, cool, cool,cool. Well, a Ghostbusters game was officially announced for the PC, PS3, 360 and the Wii coming next fall. The original cast members are involved in the game’s development and will be lending their voice talents. Please let this game not suck. If there is one game that won’t suck next year PUH-LEASE let it be this one. Check out some screens here. Stay Puft Marshmallow Man boss battle? YES PLEASE!

- COD4’s taking over my life, man. It’s crazy. I haven’t touched any other game in weeks, either. Amazingly, a majority of people on my Live friends list seem to be answering The Call over some quality time with Master Chief. I’m glad COD4’s getting the attention it deserves; its online activity has cruised past Gears of War in the recent week. It’s been reeling in critical acclaim with a Metacritic score of 95 (slightly topping Hal0 3’s 94), which is only surpassed by the likes of The Orange Box, Bioshock, and Super Mario Galaxy. My personal review will be going up as soon as I complete the single player campaign plus Part II of my ongoing piece “COD4>Halo 3?” will be up hopefully by the end of the week.

- NPD sales numbers for October were recently released. In September the Xbox 360 sneaked ahead of the Wii but it all went back to normal this month. The 360 is still doing quite well, as is the PSP and PS2, yet the PS3 is still moving slow. The numbers don’t take the PS3 price drop into consideration so next month should be a much different story for Sony.

• Wii – 519,000
• Nintendo DS – 458,000
• Xbox 360 – 366,000
• PSP – 286,000
• PlayStation 2 – 184,000
• PlayStation 3 – 121,000

On the software side of things Halo and Guitar Hero are rocking the house (literally, in Guitar Hero’s case). It’s good the see Wii version of GH3 do that well. FIFA surprisingly comes in at #9, proving Americans do care about soccer to some extent. And, of course, Wii Play simply refuses to die.

1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) – 433,800
2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (Xbox 360) – 383,200
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (Wii) – 286,300
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (PS2) – 271,100
5. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) – 262,800
6. Wii Play (Wii) – 239,700
7. The Orange Box (Xbox 360) – 238,400
8. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) -231,700
9. FIFA Soccer 08 (PS2) – 129,700
10. Brain Age 2: More Training In Minutes A Day (DS) – 116,900

- December is nearly upon us, which means it’s time choose your Game of the Year. Last year, Elite Beat Agents stole the show for me. This year? It’s looking like Call of Duty 4. But I won’t set anything in stone until I’ve gotten some game time with Mass Effect, Uncharted, Galaxy and Rock Band.

- Brawl has a (somewhat limited) Spectator Mode that includes gambling (to score a quick coin or two). Keep the good stuff coming. And by “good stuff” I mean voice chat in online multiplayer.

- For those who need their FPS fix for the Wii, look no further than Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. It’s no COD, but it just might hit the spot for you starved Wii owners (which are all of you). The controls “beat the pants off” Metroid Prime 3 according to IGN’s Matt Cassamassina, the online play looks solid (although lacking voice support) and it doesn’t use the friend code system (it uses EA Nation instead). The graphics are a bit on the shoddy side (it is the Wii after all) but hopefully the intuitive controls will make you forget all of that. Definitely worth some of your time I think.

- How about that Assassin’s Creed, huh? I knew something was up with it. Worth the hype? I dunno. I buddy was psyched for it but then later told me he’s gonna trade it in for Mass Effect.

- People say I don’t show the PS3 any love. But trust me, Ratchet & Clank Future and Uncharted have me pumped. Hey! Current PS3 owners! How about buying a copy of those games and get them on the Top 10 list?

Just like last time, I’ll leave you with a video. How about an outrageous commercial from New Zealand for the guitar simulator Jam Sessions for the DS?

Later.

[Sales Numbers courtesy of NPD Group]

Sunday Brunch: New Banner, COD4, Smash Bros, Music Games and Assassin’s Creed Hype

I love Sundays. They’re so laid back and you get to wake up late. Plus, I get to have my favorite meal: brunch. There’s just something so soothing about eating breakfast around midday. Brunch makes you feel like such a rouge for being unconventional and eating waffles during lunch hour. Sunday is also a time to sit down and think of the week that’s past and the week that lays ahead of you.

- Sorry I haven’t updated the site in a while. As I near the end of my academic quarter schoolwork becomes inversely proportional to my free time; the more homework I get, the less time I have to write. Finals are in a week so things aren’t looking any brighter.

- I spent an hour or two fixing up a new banner to celebrate the much-anticipated release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This Tuesday will be the day I set Halo 3 aside to make way for a more intense FPS experience. I like my Team Deathmatch battles heated and COD4 serves them like they just came out satan’s ass. I advise people who own a 360 and love shooters (90% of the X360 fanbase pretty much) to pick up the game; it’s worth every penny. Just don’t whine when you see CHUBOI 7 show up on your Killcam.

- Speaking of COD, Circuit City’s got a sweet deal going on. When you purchase Modern Warfare you get a poster and a free copy of Call of Duty 3. Yeah I know COD3 wasn’t great but hey, its free. Nobody hates free stuff.

 

- In the past couple weeks chuboi.com might have been mistaken for a Smash Bros. fansite. Well, it’s not. It’s just that recently they’ve been a host of great new announcements for Brawl. Last week we were told that Brawl now features a stage creator, which gives the game unparalleled replayability. You can send your stages to friends online and even send them to Nintendo who will then pick their daily favorite and publish for all smash brothers to have for one day only. I like where this game is going.

- I’m having a music game dilemma. Guitar Hero III was released last week and is impressing reviewers. Rock Band is coming on the horizon. I don’t know which one to get. Unlike Rock Band, GH3 is said to give a great single-player experience. To have fun with Rock Band you need friends (there’s a mic, drums, lead guitar and bass guitar). It’s not that I don’t have friends (I have lots…I think), I just don’t have friends that are into music games. Screw friends though, Rock Band’s drums are so effin’ sweet! But then I’d look like a dork playing with drums by himself . I’m leaning more towards RB mainly because of the promised downloadable music albums which will have me playing all my favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers tracks in the near future. I guess I’ll have to muster up 3 friends to split the $170 RB bundle with me. Somehow.

- Am I the only one not excited for Assassin’s Creed? The interwebs are going nuts over it, as are my friends, but it’s just not getting me all giddy even if I know it should. It kinda seems like Prince of Persia 4 to me. I guess I’ll find out once I get my mitts on it.

And I leave you with the greatest Walker Texas Ranger clip EVAR! Have a great Monday, because you really won’t.