RSSWii Continues Sales Dominance in February
By Ed Oswald | Published March 16, 2007, 10:59 AM
Nintendo's Wii outsold all other next-generation consoles in February, the NPD Group reports, further solidifying its second place market share among new consoles in the US. Meanwhile, PS3 sales continue to lag.
It was not all bad news for Sony, however. Sales of its PS2 are still strong, selling 295,000 units during the month. This was about the same as its performance in January, when it sold 299,000 consoles.
The Wii sold 335,000 units in February, a drop of 23 percent from the previous month. Xbox 360 came in second with 228,000, down 22 percent. However, the PS3 showed the biggest drop with some 127,000 consoles sold, falling some 49 percent.
Sony's obvious sales problems with the PS3 are beginning to lend credence to reports that the consoles are beginning to sit on shelves while consumers opt for the cheaper Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii.
A sales associate of an EB Games location in central Pennsylvania told BetaNews that since February, the location's stock of PS3's had either stayed the same or grown, whereas new shipments of Wiis -- few and far between - would sell out within hours.
Overall, the Xbox 360 still maintains a considerable lead in the US, with 5.1 million consoles sold, with the Wii selling 1.9 million and the PlayStation 3 1.1 million units.
Microsoft says it is satisfied with its position, and that the biggest challenge for it now is to expand the market, much like Sony has done with the wildly successful PlayStation 2.
It's simple, X-Box 360 got a head start, the Wii is catching up, selling more units monthly, and the PS3 is too expensive. I haven't played any of them, so I couldn't say which is better, but I've read alot, and most attention is going to the Wii, because it doesn't focus on graphics, but rather the gameplay, which is what video games are all about. A game with good graphics doesn't make it good, a game with good gameplay makes it worth the money. Buying a game soley for the graphics is stupid.
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|I'm a neutral person when it comes to video game consoles...any other neutrals out there? :) Give me some feedback on this. I have no next gen console and was planning on getting a Wii...but I can barely tell the difference from it and the GC besides the controller and built in 16x9. I much prefer my PCs for now...and besides I already have a Wii...or more correctly, a Wii Light, AKA GC, lol.
Ok, PS2 outselling PS3 I think is just like how people are slow to adopt new PC hardware and PC OS software...but then it will catch on and be inevitable and unstoppable.
Being more inclined towards Nintendo and Wii...I don't think any outsell of Wii vs PS3 or Xbox360 means anything. I can't stop thinking that, ok, let's say Wii outsells them 100 to 25...ok. but Wii owners might buy a game or 2 each, whereas PS3 and Xbox360 owners will buy 20 games each. So you can do the math on that.
Logistics and all that blah blah. Maybe I'll get a Wii in another 2 years. :D
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|Nobody will remember the WII in 2 years.. LOL..
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|It's pretty funny to see the PS2 outsell the PS3 at more than a 2:1 ratio. But, I'm sure next month Sony will announce they're the clear winners of the next generation console war. You know, after the (crippled) PS3 is released in Europe and enjoys a short lived surge in sales. Even if the PS3 only outsells the Wii and Xbox360 for a few weeks, Sony will surely take the opportunity to blow it out of proportions in an attempt to try and make the PS3 look good.
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|PS3 Fanboy: Bu, but...the Wii is just a f..f...fad!! (fanboy runs away and cries)
I also find it hilarious that the PS3 is still getting owned by the seven year old PS2 in sales.
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|At least PS2 is also owned by Sony - They are beating themselves. While that's not necesarily a good thing, it could be worse.
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|It's good for them that the PS2 is selling well, true. Probably what is keeping them going right now. I was just amused at how lame the PS3 is doing that it's being beaten by it's own nearly decade old predecessor.
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|their PS1s still had a pretty good share even after years of PS2 being out.
So probably PS2 is going to continue selling though.
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|Yeah... but you don't see people running out and buying Gamecubes like crazy, meanwhile ignoring the Wii.
It's funny to be sure.
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|Same goes for Microsoft's consoles. You don't see people running out to buy the old Xbox and ignore the new Xbox360. Really paints an ugly picture, showing how badly the PS3 is really doing.
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|I'm just waiting for Ray to pop in and spinning this positive Nintendo news into positive Sony news...I will put money on that happening by the end of the weekend.
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|What amazes me is that if those numbers are correct the almost decade old PS2 (295k units) is also outselling the Xbox 360 (228k units). That's not a good sign for Microsoft. Nintendo is clearly winning this round.
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|Stupid argument.
Nobody is buying the original GC and xbox because those machines sucked.
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|http://www.gamesindustry...tent_page.php?aid=23643
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|...because those machines sucked.
You forgot: in my opinion.
A lot of Gamecube and Xbox owners would disagree with you.
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|I've said it before...Start marketing the PS3 as a Blu-Ray DVD player that can play PS1/2and 3 games. They will do better that way then kids trying to convince parents to buy them a $600 toy. Marketed as a DVD player, Dad would convince himself to buy it to go with the new HDTV plus the kids could play games on it.
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|Nothing is going to help the ps3 but a price drop. A 400 dollar price tag makes more sense than 600. No one wants to spend that much money for a game system.
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|I just dropped over a grand for my game system. :)
Of course, I can do all kinds of other wonderful things with it, and I can upgrade it later without having to buy a whole new unit.
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|I doubt that will work - most people don't even know what Blu-Ray is or why they should want it.
The price is the problem - I could have had one in early February - I happened to be in a Toys-R-Us for another purpose and they had about 15 of them. But $600 (and no games) was too much to spend on a whim.
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|Yeah you can upgrade it later without buying a whole new unit, but of course those upgrades, at least the graphic ones seem to cost as much or more than a whole new console system.
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|...And you can keep using it for years to come, perhaps not as your main PC but ive got my previous PC (several years old) turned into a small home network server. Using it for various things like Ventrilo server, dedicated game server or whatever. Best is that i dont have any display or controls connected to it, just connected to the "hub" and using it over network with remote desktop.
My consoles are rotting in the living room shelve. Xbox - modded - is being used, once in awhile. Playstation is dead and Nintendo consoles barely work. If i want to play i rather use emulator and my logitech gamepad instead.
If i really have to buy console, it would probably be Xbox 360 or Wii. Wii provides some new gaming experiences and 360 would probably be turned into a media center - modded media center.
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|well yes thats true...
but if you dont have the $$$ flow to keep you hardware on the cutting edge, and the others that you game with do, you are at a dissatvantage imeditly.
as for the counsoles everyone is going to be using the exact same hardware...
until xbox live goes live with the crossplatform with pc gamers and xbox games being able to play with each other
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|If you're going to top-of-the-line, yes. If you stay sane and stick within the price/performance range, you'll do quite well.
You can get a 512MB 7300GS now for under $100. Unless you're trying to go all hardcore, that should be plenty for the next year or so. Another $100 then, and you're still way under the price tag of a console system.
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|Cutting edge is a marketing gimmick. My system can play damn near any game on the market at the highest quality settings just fine with my $100 video card.
The very few that don't still run very well with only a few tweaks.
Nothing close to putting you at a disadvantage.
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|But you also get significantly better quality than any console, and far more options in games and general function of the unit. The PC vs console argument is really ridiculous: there is no comparison.
Apples and oranges.
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|hell my 512mb 6800GT is still good enough for any game out there, and they sell for like $49 at compusa, before the sales. granted i bought it for $150 but that was at least a year ago, i think...
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|The problem with that logic is that it's a losing strategy for Sony.
Sony -LOSES- money on each PS3 it sells (Nintendo is actually making money on each Wii it sells). If someone buys a PS3 just for the Blueray support, Sony just lost money, because those Blueray discs don't feed licensing rights back to Sony like games.
I've owned game systems going back to Atari 2600, Colecovision, etc. But this round, I bought a Wii. And unlike the above, already I've picked up and purchased 6 games, and enjoy them all... plus a ton of games I've bought through the Virtual Console. Nintendo just figured it out by making a system that was fun. That's all I wanted.
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