tie-ratio
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PS3's tie ratio creeps above Wii's
Gamasutra's new piece on tie ratios is the most dangerous kind of analysis: The kind that requires some modicum of thought to really understand. Let us try to help. So, the PS3's tie ratio is just slightly above the Wii's now. Though Sony fans may want to declare this as a victory, it isn't necessarily one when you consider that the Wii has been selling like portable defibrillators at a butter carnival. Crazy console sales can make it hard for the tie ratio to keep up.On the other hand, the stats include Wii Play, which is basically a controller, so we guess it's all in your perception. We'd encourage you to read Gamasutra's piece and form your own opinions.
100 comments at least: Console attach rates
Gamasutra Ah, attach rates. We know how much you love them. Gamasutra has compiled a fascinating and pleasingly colorful set of graphs highlighting the latest known tie ratios, both for first- and third-party titles, of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. As the article notes, tie ratio can used to gauge the "health" of a system, with a higher number indicating more games being sold for every system escaping its retail self.Comparing each system within their first 23 months on sale, the Xbox 360 had the highest third-party software tie ratio at 5.2, followed by the PS3 with 4.4 and the Wii with 3.1. The Xbox 360 has since gone on to establish a combined first- and third-party ratio of 8.1 after 35 months on the market. Interestingly, the Wii's ratio has remained quite consistent throughout 2008 -- certainly a positive result in the face of continued success in the hardware arena. Remember, a high attach ratio may sometimes indicate diminishing hardware sales, with consumers spending more on software as a system matures.
Wii's decent software tie ratio highlighted by SCIENCE
It's that time again, readers -- time to roll our sleeves up and get elbow-deep in some graphs. Woo! These examples are from the graph experts at Gamasutra, and smash a myth that has hung around the Wii too long for our liking: that the console has a rubbish tie ratio (the number of games sold per console). Indeed, the PS3 is marginally behind Nintendo's platform in this respect. Not bad for a console that, unlike the PS3, comes with a free game to get started! A second graph at Gamasutra confirms that the Wii's tie ratio has very slightly improved during 2008.One Wii myth this data does reinforce is that Nintendo totally dominates the Wii software scene; again, it's a familiar complaint, but there's obviously some credibility to it.
NPD's latest software tie ratios for consoles
With Nintendo announcing its global software tie ratio (attach rate) this morning, we were curious to know what the current software sales ratio was in the States for current-gen consoles. We contacted NPD, which gave us its latest figures. The data represents the amount of software sold per console divided by the number of consoles sold in the US. Xbox 360: software sales ratio: 7.5 Wii: software sales ratio: 5.3 PS3: software sales ratio: 4.6 Just for kicks, we asked about the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, which have the ratios of 4.7 and 4.2 respectively. The data shows a significant change since the last time we checked in half a year ago. The Xbox 360 has maintained its solid lead, but the Wii has rallied from 3.4 to 5.3. As always, we do have to take "software" top-seller Wii Play skewing the data into account, but Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Guitar Hero III also helped. The PS3 has ticked up one game from 3.5 to 4.6. The real takeaway from this data is that console owners are growing their software library no matter which console they own.
Poking holes in the New York Times's claims
Refuting perceived negative statements against your console of choice is usually a very petty, fanboy kind of thing to do, but the New York Times' recent coverage of the Wii's terrible attach rate deserves it. The article has some problems that make the Wii seem to be in a worse situation than it is, though we don't know whether it's an intentional angle or a bit of haphazard reporting. John Scalzo of the Video Game Librarian blog identified some of the issues. Scalzo identifies the paper's dependence on numbers from VGChartz (a "a team of analysts who study video-game sales"), their claim that Smash Bros. sales have tanked, and their spurious analysis of Guitar Hero III sales as noticeable problems with the coverage. The last is especially startling: the NYT claims that "Guitar Hero, for example, sold 2.2 million copies for the Wii, but 2.8 million copies for the Xbox 360 and almost 5 million for two versions of the PlayStation," bringing in the PS2 to make its point. "The only way the author could get the numbers he was looking for," Scalzo said, "was to combine the sales of Guitar Hero III on the PS2 and PS3 to push it past the Wii."Hit the break for some of our own thoughts on the article.
NYTimes looks at Wii's software sales problem
Despite consistently strong hardware sales, the Wii has thus far lagged behind its competitors when it comes to the all important software tie ratio. The New York Times looked into the problem today, with an article highlighting Wii owners' reluctance to buy games at the usual rapid pace.On average, Wii owners only buy 3.7 games a year, compared to 4.7 and 4.6 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively. "These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine," the Times author states. "They don't buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation."Analysts say fixing the problem will require changing the way third parties market their games to the new audience of casual Wii gamers. "Advertising on Game Informer and 1up.com just isn't reaching this audience," Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter said. Advertising on Joystiq.com, though? Always a great idea!
Analyst: Judge not GTA IV on sales, success is in tie ratio
Ben Schachter, analyst at UBS, tells investors that they shouldn't judge Grand Theft Auto IV's success on total sales, but on the game's tie ratio. What Schachter means is that GTA IV's success can't be compared to previous GTA's raw sales numbers because there just aren't as many now-gen consoles in homes as there are (were) PS2s and Xboxen. He believes the game must be measured by the number of units sold divided by the number of consoles available to play it in consumer's homes.Schachter postulates that if GTA IV receives a Metacritic score above 95 that the tie ratio could hover around 30% of the available market, meaning US sales could eventually reach between 7-8 million units. He believes globally that sales could reach 10.5 million units by the end of this year. Schachter concludes that GTA IV sales will meet or exceed expectations but the strong sales won't protect Take-Two from the grasp of Cthulhu EA.
Wii tie ratio 8:1 in December, still trailing life-to-date
The Nintendo Wii saw a surge in game sales in December, with NPD Group reporting (via IGN) the software to hardware tie ratio for console reached reaching 8.11 for the month. That means approximately eight games were sold for every Wii console sold during the month. Top software sales for Wii in December include Mario Galaxy (1.4 million), Wii Play (1.08 million) and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (633,000).It should be noted that the 8.11 statistic doesn't reflect the overall tie ratio -- if 7 people who already owned a Wii bought Mario Galaxy and an eighth person bought Galaxy and a Wii, the figure still holds -- but it does boost the console's life-to-date tie ratio, now resting at 4.64.The tie ratio for PlayStation 3 was 5.04 in December and 4.24 life-to-date, while the Xbox 360, with one year ahead of its predecessors, still holds the dominant position with 7.76 in December and 7.0 overall.
