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DS sells 2 million in Korea
The Wii has had a tough time in Korea, but the same cannot be said of the DS. The little handheld that could has sold over 2 million units in the region since it launched little over a year ago -- a surprise considering the company only passed the 1 million milestone last month. Keep it up, Koreans. You have excellent taste![Via Go Nintendo]Source - Telecoms Korea (subscription required)
2008 showed World Tour defeat Rock Band 2 in sales
In 2008, Guitar Hero World Tour sold a lot of copies to anxious would-be rockers. Its competition, Rock Band 2, also sold a lot of copies, but, in the end, was not enough to best Activision's title. So, you want exact figures? Well, World Tour unloaded 3.4 million copies on consumers, across all platforms, whereas Rock Band 2 only sold 1.7 million, across all platforms, according to the NPD. Interesting stuff.What we'd like to know, however, is how World Tour stacks up against Rock Band when including the first game into the mix. Has the Rock Band franchise sold more than 3.4 million units? Guess we'll have to wait and see on that one. Considering how well Rock Band did on Wii and other platforms, it would be very interesting to see them stacked side-by-side.%Gallery-23491%
Wii on track to beat PS2, PS3 selling like GameCube
The fine folks at Venture Beat have been pouring over NPD data and have discovered one universal truth: Nintendo has sold a lot of video game consoles. Crazy, huh? We thought the same thing.A closer dissection of the numbers shows the Wii is on pace to topple the PS2, as the Wii has outsold the PS2's comparable initial sales by 10 percent in its first 26 months of availability. In layman's terms, that means that the PS2's first 26 months on store shelves saw it unloading 15.9 million units in the U.S., whereas the Wii has sold 17.5 million here. If these sales continue, the Wii could sell 55 million consoles in America by 2014 and 154 million units worldwide. When you count up the money, that's like 257 hojillion dollars.On the reverse side, the PS3 is performing much like Nintendo's last console did, the GameCube. The PS3 has sold 6.79 million units in the U.S. in its first 26 months, which is a hair more than the 6.75 million GameCubes that were unloaded on consumers. Of course, Nintendo finished in third last generation with that console, which made them rethink their approach and, inevitably, succeed this generation.
Nintendo: 99% of 2008 industry growth is all us
In this tough economy, it's nice to see that gaming has been relatively untouched, saved for all of those layoffs. Despite the weak economy, people are still buying games. Why? Well, if you ask Nintendo, it's all because of them.Throughout 2008, Nintendo sold 10.17 million units in the U.S., claiming to be the first company to sell 10 million consoles in America in a single year. We're not sure if that, combined with DS sales and software, is enough to claim that you're 99% responsible for industry growth. But, Nintendo certainly has more money than anyone else, so we guess they can say whatever they want. We'd hate for them to pull another Alderaan if we questioned them. [Via Joystiq]
Rock Band Wii sold more than any other version, RB2 not selling so well
As much as we all like to complain about how Harmonix gimped Rock Band, not everyone thought it was so bad. The first Rock Band game has served over a million customers in 2008, with the Wii version of the game outperforming all other consoles. Odd, considering the game had practically no features.As for Rock Band 2, it's been less of a success story. Since the game released in mid-December, it has managed to sell only 150,000 copies. Will it eventually catch up to the first game? Doesn't seem likely, but only time will tell.%Gallery-19119%
Wii owners exceed 14 million in Europe
14.2 million people across Europe own a Wii, according to Nintendo of Europe. Over the course of 2008, Nintendo managed to unload 8.3 million Wii consoles which, when compared to 2007 sales figures, is a 58% rise in sales. Not too shabby, when you consider the console suffered from supply issues throughout the year.Nintendo set a European record for annual sales for home consoles. Breaking it down even more, Nintendo managed to sell 2.9 million alone in 2008 in the UK, bringing the total there to 4.9 million. We're waiting on official word from Nintendo on worldwide sales figures, but it's expected to be more than 40 million. What's next for Nintendo? Moving their corporate HQ into a volcano and fighting superheroes? They've certainly got amounts of money only Supervillains ever see ...
2K exec criticizes casual titles on Wii
2K Games Global President Christoph Hartmann doesn't see 2009 as a great year for casual publishers. He sees the console flooded in a flurry of casual games, what he dubs "crappy titles." He thinks that for every ten casual titles produced, publishers expect two to be hits, financing the other eight. The problem is that all of those titles flood the market, making it tougher for casual games to prosper and only servies to confuse consumers. He points to his own 2K-published Carnival Games as an example. "Had we released it last week, it would have been much tougher," he says. "There's far too much stuff in the Wii market [now] and it's hard to shine."Regardless of a game's focus, we've always been big advocates of fun. If a game is only a collection of minigames, it's fine so long as they're fun to play. We think even pushing for that ten can mean that more than two are engaging and not "crappy," as he puts it. What do you all think? Too many casual games out there?[Via Joystiq]
Nintendo dominates 2008 UK game sales
Mario Kart Wii was a popular title for the Brits and their neighbors, as sales data shows it to be the best-selling game in the UK under the category of "individual SKU" during 2008, topping a list that is comprised mainly of games available only on Nintendo gaming systems. Considering how many amazing games released over the course of this year, we believe this to be quite the achievementThe Wii is just so darn popular over there. So popular, in fact, that the top 5 best-selling games for the year were all on Nintendo platforms. Coming in at the second spot was Wii Fit, followed by Wii Play, Brain Training on DS, and our favorite game to poke fun at, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. Full list is past the break.%Gallery-4772%
Guitar Hero III first game to make $1 billion
You may recall a similar headline from the past, where the Guitar Hero franchise earned over $1 billion. Well, another milestone for Activision comes thanks to the previous title to release in the franchise, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. That game alone has generated over $1 billion in sales, making it the first game in history to do so. The news was presented by Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith during a keynote speech at CES. We're not sure how much an impact the Wii version itself has had, but consider it to be significant. The Wii version of the game has been very popular for quite some time now. Well, up until World Tour released, anyway.
3 million copies of Wii Fit sold in Japan
The Japanese love themselves some Wii Fit, as the game has managed to sell 3 million copies in just a year of being available over there. Of course, selling 3 million copies of anything is incredibly impressive, but, for Nintendo, it's just another drop in the company's bottomless money well. Must be nice!How many of you ended up snagging a copy of Wii Fit? Does it still get used in the house? Or is it gathering dust in some dark closet somewhere?%Gallery-23928%[Via Kotaku]
Wii Play back on top of UK sales charts this week
Wii Play has finally regained its spot at the top of the charts in the UK, as it has bested previous top-seller Mario Kart Wii this week. Not since February of last year has Wii Play been the top dog in the UK, which is just plain surprising, if you ask us. Sure, we may not all agree on the bundle's worth, but it's still a pretty tempting package, especially to someone who hasn't even tried the bundled software for 5 minutes, gotten bored, and wandered off to make a sandwich.%Gallery-18693%
Wii Sports best-selling game of all time?
Super Mario Bros. has been the best-selling game of all time for years now, but that throne may have been usurped by another Nintendo title: Wii Sports. According to VGChartz, Wii Sports has surpassed that coveted 40.24 million mark.We're keeping this a rumor because, uh, it's VGChartz. They're never too good about sourcing their stuff and, to tell the truth, we've only ever heard one person claim their data was correct (it was in our interview with 2D Boy here). It's not that we don't believe Wii Sports could top the original NES game, we're just skeptical of VGChartz.[Via Joystiq]
Nintendo dominates Amazon in 2008
The Nintendo Wii has been a hit since it released over two years ago. For popular retail site Amazon.com, Nintendo's latest console has been a big cash generator for Amazon during its time on the market, especially in 2008, as the site has released its 2008 best-of lists and guess what was the top-selling video game in 2008? You guess it: Wii.Aside from being the top video game, Wii Fit enjoyed the best reviews through 2008, as well as being the product most wished for by users. Last, but certainly not least, was Mario Kart Wii (with Wii Wheel), which was the item gifted the most by Amazon users throughout this year. In the end, Nintendo ended up being
EA cutting 10% of its work force
Publisher EA has hit some tough times, as the company has detailed plans to restructure itself and release 10% of its workforce by March 31, 2009. That 10% comes down to about 1,000 jobs, so it's nothing small. And, part of that 10% includes EA Black Box, the developers behind Need for Speed, Skate, and its Wii port, Skate It.Black Box aren't the only ones affected, however, as EA will be closing nine studios and publishing locations overall. The remainder of Canada-based Black Box will be merged with another EA Canada studio, based out of Burnaby, BC.%Gallery-22799%[Via Joystiq]
Ubisoft: It's not hopeless for third-party devs on Wii
The biggest competition for a third-party developer on Wii is, obviously, Nintendo. But, that doesn't mean it's hopeless. Ubisoft is just one of the third-party developers that have found success on the console. How? Through strategic and careful planning."We saw that at the end of this year, there were not so many Nintendo products, and we thought there was a window of opportunity," said Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez at the UBS Global Media Conference this week. "I believe to date, Nintendo is about 30-35 percent market share. So that means if you are aggressive, and if you come up with the right products, you can gain market share there." Because of this, the company expects Shaun White Snowboarding and Raving Rabbids TV Party to sell 1 million and 1.5 million units each, respectively.It's not like Nintendo is making it so that third parties need to wait for the stars and planets to align, however. "Nintendo is surely not making it impossible for people to make good games [on its systems]," Martinez added. "They've been helping us make games. So it's up to us."Of course, this isn't to say that Ubisoft has had nothing but luck with the Wii. They've tried to pile some stinkers on us in the past. But, monkey see, monkey do. The more successful third-party developers are on Wii, the more it attracts others to reach for their own slice of that pie. %Gallery-23883%
DS Lite breaks its own UK sales record
The DS is an amazing little handheld. People have been snatching up all models steadily for many years now. This week, so many people bought DS Lites that the handheld broke the weekly sales record in the UK.ELSPA/GFK-ChartTrack figures show us that during the week ending December 6th, the DS managed to break its own record, which many of you might remember occured last year. The previous record, which was for 191,000 units over the span of a 7-day period, was no small feat.
Surprise! Walmart sold a lot of Wii consoles yesterday [update]
Well now, who could've expected this? Surely not us! We're not being sarcastic at all. Walmart promotes a healthy supply of Wii stock and, sure enough, the retail giant has sold a lot of consoles. Tens of thousands by Monday afternoon, in fact.Spokesperson Ravi Jariwala said the company saw a "very strong response to the additional inventory" that Walmart sold online and that they blew through stock ranging in the "tens of thousands" by "early Monday afternoon." What's surprising, though, is that despite selling all of those consoles, they're still in stock on the retailer's site. If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, then hit up this linkage. Or, you know, just bash Walmart in the comments.Update: Looks like the consoles are out of stock now. Bummer.[Via Gamasutra]
Wii serious business during Thanksgiving week
Behold what the Wii can do when it's actually available to shoppers. During last year's Thanksgiving holiday week, the console shifted 350,000 units in the U.S., even though shortages were pretty major at the time. With more Wiis in stores this year, that number jumped to 800,000. In a single freakin' week. To put that in perspective, Nintendo sold 803,000 Wiis in the whole of October. Italics. Yikes.Satoru Iwata broke the happy news in an interview with Reuters, adding that "When the economy is strong, people tend to buy three things from the top of their wishlist. But when things are bad, people often buy only the first thing on their list. Fortunately for us a lot of shoppers put our products at the top of their list." That's a pretty sizeable "nyah!" to the competition.[Via Joystiq]
Unsurprisingly, Wii Fit sells big on Black Friday
Even though the Wii reigned supreme on eBay, other retailer sites saw crazy demand for Nintendo's fitness package, Wii Fit. For major retail site Amazon.com, the Wii and Wii Fit were the top-selling video game items throughout the day on Friday. On eBay-owned Shopping.com, the top searches were for Wii Fit and the Nintendo Wii. And during a season that is expected to generate $29 billion, that's a lot of green for Nintendo.Any of you snag a Wii or Wii Fit to gift someone this holiday season?%Gallery-4745%[Via Gamasutra]
Demand for Wii dying off in Japan
Even though the Wii has surpassed the 7 million mark in Japan, it would appear the console has lost some of its appeal there. During its first year on store shelves, the console sold an average of 386,000 units a month. In its second year since release, that figure is down 24% to 292,000 a month. With the holiday season upon us, the Wii would have to sell 2 million total units over the season to bring its average back up to where it used to be.It's not just Japan, as well. The NPD figures have shown that the Wii has been selling less and less in North America, as well (although not in October, where Nintendo moved more consoles than in the last 4 months or so. Could this be the beginning of the end for the Wii? Well, with all of the games coming in 2009, we're inclined to think not.
