Nov 13 2009
Microsoft announced earlier today that the Xbox 360 has passed the 10 million-sold mark in the EMEA region, which includes Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In other words, it’s the PAL market,…
Nov 12 2009
The U.S. videogame market fell 19% versus last year in October 2009, although certain games showed solid performance, the NPD Group reported Thursday.
Average weekly sales of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 declined from last month, NPD said, although sales of PSP, Nintendo DS and Wii were up. PlayStation 3’s price cut did keep the console ahead of Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
Sony’s excellent PlayStation 3 game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (above) enjoyed a well-deserved run at the top of the software charts, followed closely by Nintendo’s Wii Fit Plus.
NPD said that “roughly half” the sales of Nintendo’s upgraded exercise game were the $100 version bundled with the Balance Board controller, suggesting that it is bringing many new players into the franchise.
Software sales and analysis below.
One of the big questions going into this holiday season was always whether Nintendo would be able to shore up its software lineup with games that, unlike Wii Music, its casual audience was going to want to buy. If Wii Fit Plus can, as NPD has pointed out, bring in many new customers as well as give current Balance Board users something new to do with the hardware, then combined with Wii Sports Resort Nintendo has probably done just barely enough to shore up its expanded-audience customers for another holiday.
We can add to this the wildcard of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Yes, it’s going to sell well, but the question is whether it does what the Nintendo DS version of the series did and explode, becoming a massive casual success to rival Brain Age.
Sony has to be happy that it’s beating the Xbox 360, but a month-on-month sales decline heading into the holiday season the month after a massive price cut and hardware refresh doesn’t sound like entirely positive news.
NPD points out that, generally speaking, its research suggests that the holiday season could be a restrained one all around: “Our latest Economy Tracker indicated that although consumers’ general opinion about the economy is improving, their outlook on their own personal situation is worsening. If consumers’ personal outlook continues to erode, they could very well be much more conservative with their holiday shopping this year,” said a spokesperson in an emailed statement.
Oh, and if you’re still following the saga of how many copies did Beatles Rock Band sell on each platform, the update for this month is that we have no idea, since everything in the music category slid off the Top 10.
Image courtesy Sony
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Nov 12 2009
Looks like Sony has started sending out Home newsletters. Anyways, checked my mail and this month’s feature is at the bottom of the email which lists a sampling of upcoming Featured Game events that will take place in the Central Plaza.
For those who have not read my previous news post, the new Featured Game parties take place every night for Online-Enabled games to launch into within Home’s Central Plaza. Every day should be a new game and the feature only just kicked off Tuesday with the release of Modern Warfare 2. Here’s the list they have within the email (remember, it’s only a sampling, but there are new games everyday).
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves // Saturday, November 14th
NBA 2K10 // Thursday, November 19th
Borderlands // Sunday, November 22nd
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising // Friday, November 27th
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 // Tuesday, December 1st
Brutal Legend // Saturday, December 5th
FIFA 10 // Monday, December 14th
I’m not sure if this carries over to holidays or not, though. All events take place between 6:00 – 10:00PM PT (9:00PM – 12:00AM ET). There currently isn’t a complete list of what games will be featured from day to day, but if I come across one, I’ll post it if anyone is interested.
Nov 12 2009
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Nov 12 2009
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Nov 12 2009
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Nov 12 2009
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