Nintendo outsells competition nearly 2 to 1 in May
Video game sales were down by 23 percent in May, according to the latest data from NPD Group. The bright spot of the report is the ongoing domination by Nintendo, whose hardware and associated games outsold the competition by nearly 2 to 1.
As CNET's Lance Whitney reported, "NPD blamed most of the decline on the lack of blockbuster games rather than the weak economy. The report noted that last year's sales were boosted by the launch of popular software titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV. Nintendo's Wii Fit also was a hot commodity in 2008."
While there are a wealth of new games coming in 2009, including what appear to be some winners for PS3 and Xbox, Nintendo platform games made up just shy of 50 percent of the top 10 sales in May:
- UFC 2009 Undisputed(THQ) Xbox 360 - 679,600
- Wii Fit(Nintendo) Wii - 352,800
- EA Sports Active(EA) Wii - 345,800
- UFC 2009 Undisputed(THQ) PS3 - 334,400
- Infamous(Sony) PS3 - 175,900
- Pokemon Platinum(Nintendo) DS - 168,900
- Mario Kart(Nintendo) Wii - 158,300
- Punch Out!!(Nintendo) Wii - 156,900
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged(Activision) Xbox 360 - 120,700
- Wii Play(Nintendo) Wii - 109,800
Total other vendor software: 1,310,600
Nintendo also remains strong in the console business, with sales of the Nintendo DS and Wii nearly doubling the competition.
- Nintendo DS: 633,500
- Wii: 289,500
- Xbox 360: 175,000
- PlayStation 3: 131,000
- PlayStation 2: 117,000
- PSP: 100,400
New games, including a few blockbusters, would certainly alter the scenery a bit.
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Dave Rosenberg dishes up "Software, Interrupted" with nearly 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to multiple start-up IPOs to open-source enterprise software companies. He is co-founder of MuleSource and currently serves as the general manager of Hardy Way. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can contact Dave via e-mail at softwareinterrupted@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @daveofdoom. 
And COME ON!!! Nintendo JUST released a brand new DSi, what the hell do you expect? An already tremendously popular DS with a new remake vs a device that is already 3/4 year old that isnt as popular anyway. I mean really, what did you expect?
Awesome statistics.
Makes me proud to be a DS owner.
One thing I do like a lot are those older platform games. Mario Bros, Mario 64. I think SuperMario DS is the one that is just like Mario Bros. 64. It's pretty amazing that the little DS can replicate that console game so well. Also the battery on the DS seems to last forever. Nintendo made a pretty darn nice hand held with that device.
Another thing you see Nintendo do is refresh the DS from time to time. They continue to make the platform interesting. I am a little surprised we don't see more competitors for the hand held space. Only the PSP decided to take on Nintendo. Hardware for hardware the PSP is good.Perhaps if Sony just kept up with refreshing it with more features to keep it in motion. Is it just me or does the PSP seem to be a product that was almost forgotten?
Alex
I like the PSP design, the graphics are amazing and it really does allot.
But like you said, it's about the games.
I agree that Super Mario 64 DS is amazing.
I recall back with the original Gameboy (I had one of those). It was awful. It had a tiny green display, but it had good games and while others came along with better systems that had color displays, none of them could match the good old Nintendo lineup of games.
The same thing is happening right now with the DS.
People are playing Super Mario, Zelda, Wario, Pokemon, etc.
The big benefit of the DS is the 2nd display.
I will admit that it is more useful than a console.
Sony makes both consoles Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 why are those numbers not combined? Are Nintendo's DS numbers combined between the DS Lite and new DSi?
Why is it not made more clear in reporting that Sony and Nintendo release numbers of systems sold however Microsoft releases number of systems shipped?
Nonsense!
This NPD report is neither from Sony or Nintendo or Microsoft. It's from NPD, which tracks consoles/games SOLD, (NOT shipped), for ALL 3 consoles.
Why do ignorant fanboys keep posting deliberately misleading crap on internet boards all the time?
Again, NPD does NOT, repeat, NOT track unsoldoir returned products, and have never tracked unsold or returned prducts EVER. NPD only tracks new sold products. Get that into your thick head.
Meanwhile, I suggest you take your arbitrary, presumptous, peremptory attempts to order people about elsewhere. How about that eh?
Nintendo, continues their dominance and I expect more anecdotal 'i sold my wii' posts and nintendo hate articles/posts to go up again.
Sony and MS are doing great. Sure Sony can sell more, and they will! I can't wait for their line-up for the rest of the year.
MS, I hope have stabilized their 360 hardware. I'm ready to buy another 360 again and experience their gaming goodness once again!
True.
But then the PS3 is selling for $400, while the PS2 is selling for only $100.
$100 will usually outsell $400 most of the time.
In a reccession, the PS3 wil take that 10% advantage for now.
Not quite.
As a mattter of fact, Nintendo is the # 1 reason why games sales were down 23% from last year.
Let's just take a look at Wi sales from may 2008 and compare to wii sales in May 2009 shall we?
In May 2008, the Wii sold 675,100, whereas in May 2009, the Wii sold only 289,500, that is a drop in sales of a pretty high 57% for the Wii.
By contrast, the 360 only had a drop in sales from may 2008 to may 2009, of only 6%. So far from Nintendo being the "only bright spot" of May video game sales, Ninetndo is the main reason why video games sales fell by so much in the first place.
> Ninetndo is the main reason why video games sales fell by so much in the first place.
But it can be also argued that Nintendo is the reason why video games sales do overall exceptionally well - taking into account scale of financial crisis and meltdown of all other markets.
But the point is video game sales are NOT doing well overall right now at all, let alone doing "exceptionally well" overall. Video game sales in May were down 23%..and it's mostly because of that 57% fall in Wii sales. It's no use still insisting that video games sales are "doing exceptionally well overall" right now, when that is clearly not the case.
What are you, the "Ministry of Truth" in Goerge Orwell's "1984"?
You will also like the integrated web browser because the touch screen and dual screens allow you to surf faster than on the Sony PSP.
http://www.epinions.com/review/Nintendo_DSi_Black_Console/content_471199485572
- by wikoogle June 17, 2009 11:28 AM PDT
- Expect Sony to rebound in microtransactions shortly with a PSP Go Phone?
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(20 Comments)I see the PSP Go and the switch to all direct download games as a stepping stone towards a Sony Ericcson PSP Phone. Yes, I too laughed at the notion of a phone competing with dedicated handheld devices.
But that?s before I found out that EA is porting the excellent Red Alert 3 over the iPhone!! Note that EA never thought it worthwhile to make a version of Red Alert for the PSP.
And then look at the news today, Sega of America?s president and CEO, Simon Jeffery, just left his position to head up the exclusive iPhone game developer ngmoco, who have a reputation of pushing the iPhone?s hardware to deliver killer app titles. Simon Jeffery is no chump. He is hailed by many gamers for his critical role in pushing through KOTOR, and many other killer app games as president of Lucas Arts.
Many many game developers who?ve commented already noted that the iPhone 3G is almost as powerful as the PSP! But the next gen device, the 3GS takes the hardware to a whole another level, it uses a next gen GPU using Open GL 2.0, a much faster CPU and has double the ram, 256 mb! Basically it?s specs blow the PSP?s out of the water (which is expected since the PSP is almost 5 years old).
Currently the 3GS is not a big deal, the iPhone has a marketshare of 50 million, same as the PSP but achieved this in just one third of the time period, but all of them own the last gen hardware. It?ll take some time for enough people to own the newer 3GS. But in an years time, I expect there to be atleast 10 million such owners, and premium games are going to be made to cater to the 3GS owners only, pushing the gaming performance to levels better than anything on current handhelds.
The sheer convenience of being able to play high quality games on a device that you always have with you, whereever you go, and can also take hiqh quality pictures, and videos, and look up directions, browse the internet and make phone calls, is not to be underestimated.
That?s why I fully expect that Sony is already feeling some heat from all the mobile game developers switching over to the iPhone development. How could it not, when the 3G is already lining up big titles like Red Alert 3, and is even getting the president of Sega and the father of KOTOR to switch over to exclusive iPhone game development.
Combine all this with the current upcry of iPhone gamers demanding someone make an iphone shell that sports TWO ANALOG NUBS and two shoulder buttons, now the the recent 3.0 firmware upgrade fully gives apps and games the ability to make use of any hardware shells made for the iPhone, and the rumors that multiple hardware makers are interested in doing just that, in order to capture the sales of the entire iPhone gaming community in one swoop.
I fully expect that Sony is already hard at work coming up with an all in one mobile device and phone, that is capable of playing all the same games that the PSP Go is capable of playing, and serving all the same functions that the iPhone is capable of serving. Don?t forget that Sony is already a major player in the phone industry with it?s beloved Sony Ericcson phones. And this Ericcson brand of phones is feeling quite a bit of heat from the iPhone?s success, same as most phone makers.
They actually should?ve released it this past E3. By making a Go phone, they could?ve put in all sorts of heavy duty features into the Go Phone like an OLED screen, a 5 megapixel camera, a 720p video camera, dual analog nubs, GPS etc, to bring up manufacturing costs to $600 (instead of $250 for the PSP Go) and still have been able to release it for FREE with a 2 year contract thanks to carrier subsidies. That would have sold like crazy, increased the PSP?s market significantly put a stop to bleeding out of the Sony Ericcson brand line marketshare to the iPhone. They also would have made huge amount of money by selling tv shows, movies, and later on apps and ebooks (something that they PSN store already offers, but doesn?t get many sales from).
It would been a huge boon to gamers as well, as they would be able to get a PSP that can do every single thing the iPhone can do, offers even more advanced features like an OLED screen, 720p video and a 5 megapixel camera, and would have been able to access the PSN store, and play games online via 3G from ANYWHERE in the world. But I think this will happen yet.