If you're sick of hearing your grandmother brag about how popular her chosen console is while she rocks your world in
Wii Sports Bowling yet again, maybe this news will finally shut her up. Last week, thanks to a flurry of
price cuts and
slimming waistlines, the
other two players in the console war saw significant sales boosts. Xbox 360 numbers jumped 32 percent over the week before and the PS3 was up an impressive 104 percent. That puts all three consoles neck-and-neck for the American weekly sales lead, each one close enough to 75,000 units that the margin of error more than covers the lot. But, since both price cuts officially went into effect part-way through that week, we're expecting even bigger surges ahead -- and even bigger drops from the Nintendo's offering as we get further and further away from the release of
Wii Sports Resort, seemingly the last game worth playing on the thing.
posted Sep 4th 2009 9:47AM
Is this the end of the Wii?
until the release the Black on in the US....they may say they arent but truth is they dont have a choice if they want to keep sales up
Hopefully, but then again they might of also saturated the market. :P
love how the ps2 is still selling
Re: the PS2 selling:
Up front: I'm a Sony apologist. But I wonder how many PS2 sales come from people who are not upgrading to a PS3, but who's 8-to-10-year-old PS2's have finally called it quits. Consoles don't last forever and those who have large libraries of PS2 games and have a limited budget must make up for a decent percentage of sales.
Additionally, for parents of younger (read 'less entitled') kids who know they can pick up PS2 games cheaply on eBay, getting a new PS2 and a handful of quality games for $150 or so is not a bad entry level purchase.
This just goes to show that Sony are not entirely stupid in some decision they make, now price cuts on all other Sony product, including the phones, and this will be their year. Her's to everyone who said they were done for. Cheers*cracks a Heine*
Why the hell is Engadget posting fake sales numbers from a fanboy site?
Vgchartz is nothing but some little kid typing numbers he makes up into his website. He use to be a guy named ioi on neogaf forums until he got permabanned for pretending to have access to retail sales tracking data.
Are people really that gullible to believe some kid's little website is doing global retail tracking while giant companies like NPD that game companies have been paying for years can only manage the US?
You would think people would think people would wake up and stop linking to that joke site after the countless times the kid has been caught lying and fabricating sales numbers to help his favorite console.
Hardly. Nintendo is finally addressing some of it's functionality shortcoming so the 80%+ of people out there who own a Wii already and are still rockin it SD style can get their media on when they're not playing Wii Sports Resort. Of course it would be nice to see a Rev 2 kit with a built in HDD and a little more CPU/GPU oomph that is backwards compatible with all Wii titles but I'm not holdin my breath or nuthin.
@Yoyodyne
Never knew that, but do know this, this is a blog site where rumors, speculations and facts are always talked about. Take what you need, do your research, make this even better. Thank for the info, I'll go do my research.
@yoyodyne
I find it kind of amusing that you dismiss this report as worthless and mention NPD figures in the same comment. I am a PC gamer, not a console gamer, and almost all PC gamer forums I frequent and fellow gamers I interact with think NPD's reports for PC games is just as worthless as you make out this guys report to be. They do not report sales through Steam, Direct2Drive, Game publishers/developers own websites, small game stores and several retail chains.
Personally as an avid PC gamer with a close circle of friends, around a dozen or so, that play online together we have as a group decided to purchase all of our games through Steam if possible. If they are not available on Steam we try to go with Direct2Drive next and only go with traditional boxed retail games if there is no other way to get the game. We have even waited months for games to be released on Steam as apposed to purchasing through Amazon or Best Buy. I currently have around 125 games on my Steam account, My son has at least 80 and my wife has around 35 or so (puzzle games and dinner dash type games). Also as a member of several guilds across four different MMO's over the last few years giving me access to hundreds of people at any given time the same kind of sentiment has been echoed in allot of chat discussions when websites start talking about PC gaming dying due to the NPD sales figures.
@dennisheadley
Why the F are you babbling about PC gaming?
Do you see anything having to do with PCs in the fake sales numbers posted in this article?
@yoyodyne
I was not referencing the chart for PC gaming, I was referencing your post. I was questioning your opinion that Vgchartz is a worthless source and shouldn't be used by Engadget when you mentioned NPD sales figures which allot of PC gamers (just the group that i have access to) think NPD figures are completely worthless and shouldn't be used by sites like engadget either.
As an owner of the Wii, I'm glad the other two are selling well, their owners deserve to be proud of their console choices.
you did nothing wrong guys, it's the economy.
@Yoyodyne:
It's unfortunate, but even somewhat respectable publications like Forbes have used VG as a source at one point or another. But, of course: the numbers look alright, it makes stories, and who the hell tries to look up where those came from anyway? Really makes you wonder about everything ELSE that's on the news and how real those numbers are too, if this bullshit can make the rounds.
@dennis
...Then don't use NPD numbers for PC games? Your statements are about on-topic as the people that suddenly go on a ragepost and start talking about 360 failure rates when it has nothing to do with the article whatsoever.
My apologies for ever mentioning PC gaming. I over compensated in my post by pre-answering a projected response to the point of my initial post, which should have just read along the lines of:
"I find it kind of amusing that you dismiss this report as worthless and then mention NPD figures in the same comment since most of the people I know think NPD's numbers might as well be made up as well."
I post on numerous websites and on most that would have received an immediate response to prove it, or give a reason for that opinion, or even something stating NPD is perfect and so are their numbers etc..
I only used the PC gaming angle because that is the one I have discussed in depth perviously, but I fail to see how my replying to someone who used NPD in their post, and stating my opinion of NPD is anymore off-topic that all the other numerous posts to this article that state VGChartz Bad / NPD Good.
I'm no big fan of the Wii, but sourcing "VGChartz" is really silly. News outlets/blogs should not be reporting VGChartz estimations.
I wonder what xbox 360 sales numbers would look like if people didn't have to them over and over again to keep a working console.
BUY, buy is the missing word there.
thats not even funny anymore....anyone with a BRAIN knows that the 360 has a 3 year Warranty.....I seriously doubt that many people are buying new ones because an old one broke
@Chris D.
You have too much faith in people. Not everyone reads engadget.
you have to read engadget to know something that is in the Manual? or better yet something you can find out from calling the warranty dept when you 360 does die??
Actually as an impartial observer that does not own any of the current consoles, I would tend to believe that there are a great number of people that have repurchased the Xbox 360 consoles, either due to failures or to get HDMI output to go with their HDTV's. My sons best friend has a 360 that is his 4th unit to date, one was replaced under warranty but the other was to move to the Halo edition when it was released. My brother has had two units so far and the first one was purchased the month after release and when it failed just over a year later Microsoft would not replace it for free and for the price they wanted to charge for repairs to the system it was not even worth it to him to have it repaired ( >50% of the purchase price) so he waited and got another when the Elite came out. My brother-in-law and my wife's nephew both also repurchased Elite units. The brother has, between the two units sent them back for repair four times and the nephew has sent his original unit back once before buying the elite and giving the repaired one to his other aunts three kids. They all "like" their 360's, and I stress the like over love there because they all get a bit hot when this subject comes up as they all feel they were burned by Microsoft to varying degrees. My son's friend went so far as to tell us not to bother buying one and to go with the PS3 when we finally get around to buying a new console, as their other friend that lives down the street has a launch PS3 and they all love playing it. He wants to get rid of his 360 and all the games and get a PS3 because of his troubles so far with the consoles. Right now it is doing some error that is not the RROD problem but it randomly locks up while playing games, sometimes it wont play more than 15 minutes, sometimes it goes all day without locking up.
@dennisheadley: and... breathe...
@Chris
The 360's been out long enough for warranties to have expired. I've got about six months left on mine. If it conks out after the date, I'll either end up buying an Arcade to swap it out or an Elite to replace it. Of course, if it wasn't for Halo or Mass Effect, I'd just stick with my PS3. My buddy ended up buying two consoles already, and anothers is on it's way out.
Sometimes I think that's the reason the Arcade doesn't have an HDD-it's meant to replace consoles.
yea the 360 has been out long enough to be out of Warranty...a friend of mines warranty JUST ran out a few days BEFORE his RRoD'd luckily MS honored it anyways....and sadly if mine does kick it after 3 years I dont think I would buy another one...it would just be gone....the only Games I have right now are Gears 2, Fable 2, Mass Effect, and 2 others....Gears and Fable are the only ones I really play like that so it would hurt too much.....the only 360 Exclusive that I could see myself wanting over the next year is Alan Wake....
My 360 is about to go out of warranty. Murphy's law suggests that the thing will conk out the day after it is no longer warrantied, but I'm not losing sleep over it.
I know the source is VGchartz and that noone trusts them (I have no opinion on that one way or the other), but it's incredible to me that the PS3 doubled in sales week over week, and is still only basically on par with the sales of the 360. Both consoles, despite their high numbers, are only on par with the Wii during what appears to be a slump for the console. Who do you have to screw to sell over 100k units a week?
The first sentence of this article is golden.
that's what I thought too
god I hate the wii and what nintendo has done
"god I hate the wii and what nintendo has done"
Nintendo made games fun again - how can you possibly hate that?
"If you're sick of hearing your grandmother brag about how popular her chosen console is while she rocks your world in Wii Sports Bowling yet again, maybe this news will finally shut her up."
Shit, I'm trying to beat mines in C.O.D. Help me shut her up. :(
"Nintendo made games fun again" - What? I'm fairly certain that I found games to be fun before the Wii.
@FNG: You "hate" a video game console? Seriously, get over yourself. If you choose to miss out on stuff like Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, No More Heroes 1 & 2, Smash Bros., Metroid Prime 3 plus a few dozen excellent core games that people like you refuse to give the time of day to, that's your prerogative, but don't hate a whole system just because it's the popular thing to do among your friends...and I'm sorry, but that's exactly where most of the Wii hate comes from. All three of the current consoles have their share of glaring flaws; gamers just tend to focus more on the Wii's flaws because ragging on Nintendo has been the popular thing to do for the past decade or so.
@Andy:
In your list of great Wii games, 2 of them aren't even out yet. I just thought I'd point that out. ;-)
That being said, I agree with you. While the Wii is certainly not my favorite console, hating it is ridiculous. Nintendo has broaden the market and I really don't see how that's bad for gamers.
@Cody
Personally speaking, I have not found video games enjoyable for many years because they all tend to be tired rehashes of games that I'd already played. Further, back in the "good ol' days" of gaming your interface with the game was a D-pad and a couple of buttons that delivered games that, frankly, were much more fun than what is produced today. Today we've got controllers with various sticks, D-pads and more buttons than my shirt that have simply overcomplicated games without actually making them good. Nintendo have made games simple and accessible again, even more so now that you can physically interact with the game.
I am in complete agreement with Kelmon. After being a very enthusiastic gamer during the NES and SNES/Genesis eras, I basically all but stopped playing games for the passed few generations, for the same reasons he mentions: The games were all the same, over and over again, and the controllers just had waaaaay too many buttons, knobs, sticks, etc... for me to take the time to learn. With the Wii, I have gotten back into gaming quite seriously. Granted, the games STILL aren't much different then what's been made for the past few decades, the different interface made me want to play again. If Nintendo had gone with another controller with a ton of buttons again, and a never-ending parade of FPSs again (yes, shoot them in the head, I get it, thanks), this would have been another generation of gaming I, most likely, wouldn't have taken much interest in.
Andy,
Why no love for Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure? Why is there never any love for Zack and Wiki?
I sold my Wii about a year ago, and I haven't followed Wii games much since then, but out of my 25ish games, this was one of the best in my collection, and by far the best third party game I found at the time.
It's a shame this game didn't get the advertising these other games are getting, as fans of King's Quest, Torrin's Passage, and other point and click adventure games are truly missing out! I only paid $20 for it, too!
@Kelmon and Ozzman
You keep mentioning that the games are the same over and over again yet turn around saying you started gaming again because of the Wii or game are better. Hasn't Nintendo brought Mario games for every console they got? How many button you have to use in a racing game? Super Nintendo controllers had 6, no? Complain for nothing much. IMO, games were fun and still no matter the console.
@Monkey with glasses
To be perfectly honest, I haven't played a Mario game for many years because Nintendo ruined them by making them over complicated. While I realise that many hold Mario 3D are being a seminal classic, I find it to be the death of the game and not a patch on the likes of Super Mario. When it comes to the Wii I like the games like Wii Sports and such that require me to physically interact with the game rather than just wave the Wiimote around a bit like a glorified laser pointer. This is a very simple way of interacting with the game but yet is the sort of interaction not seen in gaming since the introduction of the lightgun (with the possible exception of arcade boxing machines) and certainly makes for a more interesting game than a joypad, even one that you can wave around a bit.
My point is very personal to me. I have been playing games since the old Commodore 64 and therefore I've "been there and done that". For those who are relatively new to gaming I am sure that current titles are interesting but they are boring to me and relatively inaccessible to non-gamers. Due to this I have a lot of respect for what Nintendo has done in giving us a new way to interact with games and doing so in a way that makes it very easy to pick-up and play. I do not expect everyone to agree with this position but I am sure many of the older gamers will.
"bigger drops from the Nintendo's offering as we get further and further away from the release of Wii Sports Resort, seemingly the last game worth playing on the thing."
COME ON!!!! "New Super Mario Bros." will be out soon Wii Sports Resort is the LAST game worth playing....lol /sarcasm
28,205 Ps2's sold last week its the really winner
agreed
Dont vgcharts just make their numbers up?
Those numbers seem to be very loose guesstimates, especially when this months NPDs have not yet been released.
They do make them up... he bases his numbers on some algorithm that he changes on the fly... then when NPD and other numbers are released, he updates his numbers to a range where he "feels" is right.
actually no, we have a good number of reference data sent to use by many retail sources.
I'm sorry, but does that chart say"Source: VGChartz"?
Oh, well then, who could argue with THAT source.
I always find the most trusted sources for information end in a "z".
@JPN hell yea TMZ ends in a Z too. Always the most trusted news sources end in a Z or begin with Onio..
What does TMZ have to do with news?
so does this mean you would rather believe someone like hiphop gamer if he posted his own sales numbers? I'd say a registered company like VGC is more trustworthy than 99% of the random game websites there are on the web.
Also the website that did that stupid algorithm thing with nextgenwars.
Can anyone recommend some of their favorite party games for the Wii? TIA
"If you're sick of hearing your grandmother brag about how popular her chosen console is ..."
Anyone who brags about how popular their chosen product is deserves to be beaten around the head with a large haddock. Try it - it's fun.
*hits the grandmother*
oOo that was nice..
the video game industry makes me laugh why do ppl take it so serious and personal the price cuts are obviously going to see a rise in numbers but seriously look at the numbers there nothing special lol but i love the fact the people hate the wii so much its a piece of plastic with a few components inside lol damn, and about Nintendo, i do agree with a lot of people with there anger towards Nintendo, but Nintendo had to do what any business would have to, to stay afloat. And it worked, it was a massive success game cube had amazing games but you hardcore ppl didn't support it, the Nintendo 64 had some of the best games but yet again none of you so called fans of hardcore supported that either, lol so don't be hating on Nintendo because of what they have done, expanded the market because when they unleash the titans ZELDA AND MARIO AND YOU NEVER KNOW A NEW STAR FOX AND A FEW OTHER CLASSICS you will all totally forget what you all was saying today. Look back at 2007 a game called super Mario galaxy came out and cleaned up the industry and there is more coming, im also a PlayStation and x box fan to but god damn it why cant ppl just have all three and enjoy the best of all three worlds because you will never get Mario on x box or PS and you will never get Zelda on them either, so each console has its values but don't diss the wii until you have played every single game on it and it does have some gems. But like i said get em all and have all the fun with all three instead of hating and dissing millionaire companies but i still have to say it Nintendo got there asses kicked by the mighty play station lol for the last fifteen years and in less then three years Nintendo have reclaimed the crown so just accept it ppl and if you cant afford all three then im sorry lol because i got them all and its so much more better then hating on the other lol PEACE GAMERS JUST BE COOL EXCELLENT TO ONE AND OTHER
Paragraphs = Friends
This is where things will get interesting. I want to see what sony is going to do now that theyre still losing money on the PS3.....
This is only semi-related, but anyone here who owns a Wii should check out Muramasa: The Demon Blade, which releases today. It's a 2D action style game that's absolutely gorgeous; it looks like a painting in motion. There's definitely more out there for the Wii this season than just Wii Sports Resort if you pay attention, and Muramasa hasn't received the coverage I feel it deserves.
Hopefully this is the start of a new trend. The Wii has to be the most overhyped piece of consumer electronics to come out this decade.
I am not a gamer yet I stood 4 hours in the queue to get a Wii
VGChartz?!? Really? You can do better than this Engadget.
Ummmm they only JUST beat Wii!! We'll see next week when all the fuss has died down and Wii is back on top.
Also not the slim/price didn't dent Wii sales that much and they sat on similar numbers to week before, so Xbox/PS3 still have miles to go before they catch up!
and STILL no one beats the DS! major lol!
I'm just happy to see Sony do well, for once.
and i thought the last game worth playing on the wii was mario galaxy. even my kids are bored with it, fighting for time on the ps3 and 360.
VGChartz...
Uh can't Engadget come up with a real source, or better yet contact NPD for preliminary infos. I hope Engadget never uses VGChartz again to source, well, anything...
Why? VGChartz has gained a really good collection of publisher contacts for our game reviews and news. We have had a good amount of publishers using our numbers to help estimate trends for their games. Our game database is one of the largest on the web. 9/10 times our sales numbers are within 5% of the professional sales tracking service while we only have a marginal ~7% of source material to use versus the NPD Groups' ~35%.
What I want to know is how accurate the NPD Group can be when they can't even track more than ~35% of the USA/Canada. The only main reason you "respect" them is because they track a bigger percentage of North America while failing to track Wal-Mart and several other major B&M chains that sell video games. From my prospective, their estimates are just as good as VGC's.
VGChartz? You might as well be using a dart board to come up with numbers. It's probably more reliable. I love how they go back and fix their numbers once NPD, Chart-Track or Media Create announce their figures.
I have been reduced to playing on the Wii cause my kids (Boy 7/Girl 4) prefer to play on my PS3. I will hit PRO on Wii Sports in another week.
*Sigh
Hmm... Why did the PSP increase by 81%???
exactly
Because of Dissidia..... obviously.
I find it interesting that nobody has mentioned that these numbers are basically meaningless. Here's why...
The PS3's price cut came during the previous week, giving it a sales advantage for the entire week analyzed. The Xbox 360's price cut came at the end of the week, giving it only two days during that week to see any sort of effect. Sony had 7 days during the week at a lower price, Microsoft had 2.
Until we get numbers for sales for complete weeks AFTER the price cut took effect, these numbers don't mean a thing.
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