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Jack Tretton is unconcerned about PS3 sales
Any product compared to the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii is bound to feel some form of inadequacy. Yet, SCEA's Jack Tretton says he is "unconcerned" about the latest PS3 sales figures, despite the fact that every PS3 sold loses money and in comparison, the PS3 is still in third place. Mr. Tretton goes on to solidify his confidence in the PS3's abilities by saying, "we're into this for the next 10 years and beyond. A million units one way or another at this point isn't going to worry us." Mr. Tretton isn't alone in his convictions. Just last week, Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachtor believed the PS3 will be the victor of the current console race, due to it's integrated Blu-Ray player. Will Blu-Ray prove be the victor in the next-gen HD format? Early predictors on sales might indicate so, but we feel our trusty magic eight ball sums it up best. Ask again later.
VideoScan releases HD DVD / Blu-ray "charts," results still inconclusive
Okay, so we're not waxing rhapsodic about a conspiracy theory just yet, but seriously, why can't the general public get a few hard numbers regarding the HD DVD / Blu-ray format war? Since both formats hit the market, we've all been wondering who would be the leader in terms of disc sales once the holiday season was behind us, and although Nielsen VideoScan has finally loosed the deets, we're still (relatively) in the dark. We've wondered exactly what was taking so long for these data to surface, but instead of VideoScan perfecting their report, it has apparently delayed the information only to release several inconclusive "charts" and "ratios" that, quite frankly, aren't what we all want. For whatever it's (not) worth, it looks like Blu-ray titles outsold HD DVD titles by a 2:1 margin during the admittedly slow first two weeks of 2007, but overall, we're still stuck analyzing Amazon's sales figures while trying to piece together the truth. Still, if you're more interested in having the best of both worlds regardless of which is on top (or still around) in a couple years, you know where to go.[Thanks, Jed]
Official Holiday 2006 console sales figures don't surprise
Well despite the fact that CNBC recently reported some erroneous figures regarding console sales for this holiday season, it looks like the official numbers still show a resounding Xbox 360 victory among next-gen systems during the month of December. Official stats being published by The NPD group show that Microsoft sold 1.1 million of its boxes last month, followed by Nintendo with 604,000 Wiis, and PS3 bringing up the rear with 491,000 consoles sold. It's not all bad news for Sony, however: when we add in all systems sold during this time period (not just the three that everyone has been fussin' and fightin' over), the overall king of Holiday Season 2006 was actually the PS2, with 1.4 million systems pushed out the door. Sure these last-gen boxes can be found for much cheaper than their newer counterparts, but at least Sony is making a profit off of them, unlike the $300+ it's losing on each 20GB PS3. We'll leave the analysis of these numbers to the experts (a.k.a. fanboy commenters), and simply note that we were way ahead of the curve on this one -- we picked up Holiday 2006's most popular console way back in October 2000.
A million Zunes
TUAW recently reported how 39 million iPod sales for the 2006 fiscal year worked out to over a hundred thousand iPod sales per day. The Zune Insider blog has proudly posted that they expect to sell one million Zune players by June 30 2007, the end of their fiscal year. The Zune debuted on November 14, so June 30th is approximately 230 days from the first sale date. At a million units, this comes out to about 4300 sales per day. Assuming that Zunes sell around the clock, that's approximately 180 Zunes per hour sold, or roughly 3 Zunes per minute. Assuming a steady 3 Zune per minute sales rate, it will take over twenty days to sell as many Zunes as Apple currently sells iPods in a single day. And that's not even taking the current holiday-spurred iPod rush into account, which itself may be upwards of 15 million units, or about a half-million iPods per day. We did the math, so you don't have to.
Japanese sales charts, May 15-21: .hack on top
This week a new release has sped straight to the top of the chart -- .hack//GU Vol 1: Saitan (Rebirth in the west) dominates the charts with over 90,000 sales. There are two forthcoming sequels in this branch of the popular .hack franchise, though we have to wonder if Bandai will release a corresponding tie-in MMO.1. .hack//GU Vol 1: Saitan [PS2]2. Brain Age 2 (Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu: Motto Nouo Kitaeru Otona DS) [DS]3. Tetris DS [DS]4. Brain Age: Train your Brain in Minutes a Day (Kahashima Ryuuta Kyouju no Nouo Kitaeru Otona DS Training) [DS] 5. World Soccer Winning Eleven 10 [PS2]6. Animal Crossing: Wild World [DS]7. Jikkyou Powerful Major League [PS2] 8. Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Eigo Duke [DS]9. Pokémon Ranger [DS]10. Mario Kart DS [DS]
UK sales charts, April 9-15: Croft unchallenged
The UK sales charts for last week are in, with Tomb Raider: Legend remaining calmly at the top. Movie tie-in Ice Age 2 has been boosted up to number two, but anyone avidly following the chart battle between Guitar Hero and Crazy Frog Racer will be disappointed to know that Guitar Hero has fallen to 35th while the Crazy Frog is ding-ding-dinging along at number 28, thanks to its budget price and better placement on the shelves. The ten bestselling games in the UK for the week ending April 15: 1. Tomb Raider Legend 2. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown 3. Fifa Street 2 4. The Godfather 5. Football Manager 2006 6. Animal Crossing: Wild World 7. Buzz! The Big Quiz 8. King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie 9. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 10. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
