I apologize for ignoring my precious little blog for the past couple weeks. I’m a mess. School’s been kicking Ultra Combo-ing my dumbass on a regular basis for the past three weeks but it should all end by 10am tomorrow when I finish my last final exam. There’s so much to write about, too: GTA4, Mario Kart, The World Ends with You, my unhealthy addiction to Call of Duty 4…I’ve missed out on a lot.
Things will change this weekend. Promise.
Oh, what’s that? You’ve heard enough of CoD4? Too bad.
The 360 managed to outsell the PS3 by a mere 5,000 units, proving the few months that MS was beaten by Sony might have just been a fad. We’ll see if that holds up. The Xbox Rainbow Six Vegas faithful probably had something to do with this with R6V2 selling strong on the software side of things. The PSP had two solid releases in Crisis Core and God of War: COO and it performed considerably well.
And then there’s Nintendo. They’re still printing money. That’s about it, really. Oh, and some game called Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out in March, too. Maybe that has something to do with the Wii performing incredibly well. Maybe, I dunno. Just a wild guess.
Nintendo Wii – 721,000
Nintendo DS – 698,000
PlayStation Portable – 297,000
Xbox 360 – 262,000
PlayStation 3 – 257,000
PlayStation 2 – 216,000
[Kotaku]
Ah, memories. About two years ago I remember a friend of mine bursting into my room at 1 AM to show me the megaton of all trailers. Yes, it was the E3 2006 trailer of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The same trailer that wet your pants when you found out Solid (effin‘) Snake would be breaking necks in the Nintendo beat ‘em up. Now that its way in the past, I can safely say I watched that trailer about a hundred times (yes, really) within the next couple of days. The next two years would test my patience unlike any other two years of my life.
Today, I’m almost as happy as I when the game was finally released. Why? Because Brawl sold 2.7 million copies in the month of March. That’s Halo 3 statues people, without the $10 million marketing budget. I’m happy because I can safely that my favorite franchise is now a franchise that can not be ignored. The numbers, please. Continue reading ‘March Software Sales Madness: Consider the Competition “Final Smashed”’
It’s “as you were” for the big three in February’s sales numbers. The Wii and DS run rampant like always and the PS3 beats out the Xbox 360 for a second month straight. Is this going to be a trend? Microsoft expect hardware shortages for another month or so. Hmm. I could have believed that back in January but I’ve seen plenty of 360’s in-stock recently. This is going to get interesting especially with GTA 4 on the horizon.
On the software side of things Call of Duty 4 keeps sniping ass even though Devil May Cry 4 was released in the month of February. I’m glad to see Rock Band stay in the top ten. Wii Play, not so much.
01. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 296,200
02. Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360) – 295,200
03. Wii Play (Wii) – 289,700
04. Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) – 233,500
05. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) – 222,900
06. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) – 205,600
07. Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360) – 203,600
08. Turok (Xbox 360) – 197,700
09. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) – 183,800
10. Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 161,800
[Kotaku]
Here we go again.
Nintendo Wii – 274K
Playstation 3 – 269K
Playstation 2 - 264K
Nintendo DS – 251K
PSP – 230K
Xbox 360 – 230K
Woah. Something looks different. Well, not too different. As always, the Wii appears at the top of the list, but take a look at second place. Yes, the PS3 managed to defeat both the DS and Xbox 360 in sales numbers for the month of January. Now wait, before some of you get all excited and proclaim “Teh end of M$ 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
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]
My Christmas break wasn’t the most exciting on for a couple reasons. First, I’m not much of a Christmas person to begin with; I stopped believing in Santa when I was about 6 years old and the whole holiday season is way too commercial in my opinion. Plus, I was in New York City…during shopping season…which means you will get trampled in Manhattan if you’re not careful. Not fun. I was strictly there to be with my family which is the whole point of Christmas where I’m from, not gift-giving. Aside from the sightseeing and shopping I had a lot of downtime with my (shiny) spankin’ new Limited Edition Zelda DS Lite. Much time was spent trying to achieve S-Rank in Survivor by Destiny’s Child on Hard Rock mode in Elite Beat Agents (which I have deemed nearly impossible) but when my EBA-arthritis kicked in I decided to slow down the pace with Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. Fortunately, it took the boredom away.
Continue reading ‘Chu Is Now Playing: Mario & Luigi – Partners in Time (DS)’
It’s seems pretty odd to think it took Nintendo three years to bring Mario Party, probably the most abused video game franchise in the past decade, to the DS. Although the Wii seems to be the powder keg of the mini-game phenomenon, the DS was the match that lit the fuse when it released late 2004. With its two screens, stylus, microphone and wireless multiplayer capability the DS seems like a great place for Mario to throw a bash. Sadly, this game’s brand name is its own worst enemy.
Mario Party DS would be a great game if we hadn’t seen its idea repeated a billion times over the years. Every year we see the MP formula repeated; you and your friends scurry around a themed board game levels collecting coins and stars by facing each other in a slew of mini-games. Oh, but now you can take it with you wherever you go. Sweet. I’ve simply gotten bored with it all.
Last week Gizmodo ran a bold article giving 8 reasons why the Playstation Portable might trounce the Nintendo DS eventually. That’s a very bold list if you consider the fact that the DS has sold a staggering 15 million more units than the PSP worldwide. Although this hypothesis seemed far-fetched, each of the 8 points are definitely valid arguments. Being the good journalists that they are, The Giz ran a separate article giving 8 reasons why the PSP will do no such thing. Both are a good read and help explain the current state of the portable console war.
8 Reasons Why The PSP Might Overtake the DS
8 Reasons Why the PSP Will NEVER, EVER Overtake the DS
[Gizmodo]
Looky what came in the mail today.
I’m usually not a fan of the color gold but this DS Lite is something special, and not just because it was the Triforce on it (although that’s a huge plus). I’m feeling the choice to go with a matte sheen, which makes the Lite look a lot less cheesy than it could have been.
The verdict: Sexy. Très sexy if you’re French. Just the look itself makes me forget about my Polar White DS (which will be making a trip to eBay soon). The Gold DS Lite is a limited edition for a reason so I doubt it will be easy to find this holiday season. But my guess is that sometime next year you might be able to buy it without Phantom Hourglass. That’s if it follows the same footsteps of the Crimson DS Lite that previously bundled with Brain Age 2. Either way it’s a great gift, especially for that special someone who’s a Zelda fanboy at heart. Don’t miss out on it.
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