NPD February 2012

[Telefrog]

Results from GAF:



Software
01. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzzard
02. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3, 360)** Square Enix Inc.
03. UFC Undisputed 3 (360, PS3) THQ
04. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
05. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3) Ubisoft
06. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PC, PS2) Take 2 Interactive
07. Soul Calibur V (360, PS3)** Namco Bandai Games
08. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)** Bethesda Softworks
09. Twisted Metal 2012 (PS3) Sony - 221k
10. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)** Electronic Arts
**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

Xbox 360 - 426k
Nintendo 3DS - 262k
Nintendo Wii - 228k
Nintendo DS - 135k
Sony PS3 - 360k
PS Vita - 225k

[Theodore Rex DX]

Really surprised to see FFIII-2 and Twisted Metal do so well.

[Canuck]

CoD is still at the top? Really?

[Theodore Rex DX]

CoD is still at the top? Really?

* It's a monster in the US
* It's on the most platforms
* Slow month in general

[Theodore Rex DX]

Looks like Vita is a massive bomb.

GBA June 11, 2001 870K
PSP March 24, 2005 619K
NDS November 21, 2004 480K
3DS March 27, 2011 ~400K
PSV February 22, 2012 220-230K

[sharaleo]

Not sure you can compare those numbers when they are all different months??

[Pogue Mahone]

The months chosen do have certain significance, though.

[BDGE]

Reading GAF, it appears that the numbers for those top ten are actually extremely low. So despite the fact XIII-2, Reckoning, and Twisted Metal made the cut, there is a lot of talk about how well they actually performed. None of it is sounding good, but then again this is February and not November.

[Rock8man]

Results from GAF:



Xbox 360 - 426k
Sony PS3 - 360k
Nintendo 3DS - 262k
Nintendo Wii - 228k
Nintendo DS - 135k


Comparison from last year:

Xbox 360: 535k
Wii: 454k
PS3: 403k

so all 3 are down from last year, with the Wii being the biggest fall, of course.

[Theodore Rex DX]

I think the disaster that is Vita sales has really taken the heat off of the 3DS - because those are pretty damn weak too. RE:Revelations had poor sales also.

[velouria]

Looks like Vita is a massive bomb.

GBA June 11, 2001 870K
PSP March 24, 2005 619K
NDS November 21, 2004 480K
3DS March 27, 2011 ~400K
PSV February 22, 2012 220-230K

Just goes to show why Sony released that PR that combined every launch territory plus two months of Japanese sales. Those are extremely weak launch month sales.

[sharaleo]

Ah, so all those are actual launch months then.

[pyjamarama]

So the two new RPGs make it to the top 5, but the two new shooters, Syndicate, Darkness 2 are not in the top 10 even the car shooter, Twisted Metal, outsold them.
Is this a message that shooter popularity is limited to handful of titles, Call of Duty and friends, or was just these titles that failed. Last year Crysis 2, Bulletstorm and did better but the feeling at the time was they underperformed, same goes for Homefront that followed Call Duty formula more closely.

[Cal]

Just goes to show why Sony released that PR that combined every launch territory plus two months of Japanese sales. Those are extremely weak launch month sales.

Thats suprisingly low, definitely an awful launch, but then again at the price they have set for it, and the memory card prices, i can see why. I would like one, just not any anywhere near the price Sony thinks i will pay.

[The Mad Hatter]

I don't understand how a dedicated gaming device could have expected to do well in our brave new world of smartphones, tablets and 99 cent games.

[Cal]

I don't understand how a dedicated gaming device could have expected to do well in our brave new world of smartphones, tablets and 99 cent games.

Exactly, i would love one, but in the UK i saw it on amazon for £310 for the Vita, and a 16gb memory card, thats $450 nearly.

Defnitely will stick to my iphone and the 99p games to pass my time on the train and stuck in traffic.

[ydejin]

I don't understand how a dedicated gaming device could have expected to do well in our brave new world of smartphones, tablets and 99 cent games.

My opinion too. I'm tempted as it looks great, but I just can't justify it when I'm already carrying around an expensive iPad in situations where I'd carry a Vita. Sure the Vita games are probably better, but the iPad has some decent games, and I'm not dying to carry around over $1k of electronic devices, plus in many situations that's on top of my $1300+ work laptop.

[Brakara]

So the two new RPGs make it to the top 5, but the two new shooters, Syndicate, Darkness 2 are not in the top 10 even the car shooter, Twisted Metal, outsold them.
Is this a message that shooter popularity is limited to handful of titles, Call of Duty and friends, or was just these titles that failed. Last year Crysis 2, Bulletstorm and did better but the feeling at the time was they underperformed, same goes for Homefront that followed Call Duty formula more closely.

Hopefully it sends a message that, unless it's a Triple-A game, developers need to focus on one aspect of the game. For example, Syndicate could've been a great game if they had put all the resources on the multiplayer. Instead we have two modes that are both sorely lacking. I haven't played The Darkness II, but from reading reviews, it seems to have the same problem.


I don't understand how a dedicated gaming device could have expected to do well in our brave new world of smartphones, tablets and 99 cent games.

Tell that to the Sony fanboys in the PSV thread who can't understand why anyone would want to play a game on a phone/tablet.

[ydejin]

Tell that to the Sony fanboys in the PSV thread who can't understand why anyone would want to play a game on a phone/tablet.

I suppose it's partly a matter of favorite genres. I love strategy games, and in a lot of ways an iPad makes for a better strategy game machine than a PSP or presumably a Vita (although I haven't actually tried a Vita). I can imagine for action a Vita is much better.

[Rock8man]

I haven't played The Darkness II, but from reading reviews, it seems to have the same problem.

Darkness II's single player campaign is excellent. I haven't tried the co-op campaigns much, but Tom says those are good as well. Overall, I'd recommend Darkness II to everyone who likes narrative-driven first person shooters.

[Telefrog]

From NPD:


Anita Frazier, analyst at NPD, said the Xbox 360 was the top hardware platform for the seventh month in a row. Most other hardware platforms posted declines in the year. Sales of hardware were up 50 percent from January.

“There are four days of retail sales reported for PlayStation Vita in this reporting period,” Frazier said. “Overall, hardware unit sales increased by 62 percent over January without the Vita included. Including PS Vita sales, that increase is 87 percent.”

She said that new releases contributed 22 more unit sales than new launches in February, 2011. The top ten releases this month were 78 percent of total new release volume, compared to 94 percent last year.

“The top-selling PS Vita game for the month, not surprisingly, was Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which landed in the top 20 for overall title sales for the month,” Frazier said.

The only new intellectual property in the month’s top ten list was Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning from Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios and Electronic Arts.

“Three of the top 10 accessory items for the month were Skylander character packs,” Frazier said. “In total, these SKU’s accounted for more than $17 million in sales for the month, and if added to the sales generated by the software, Skylanders easily claims the top spot for content-related sales.”

[Relayer71]

Really surprised to see FFIII-2 and Twisted Metal do so well.

Why FFXIII-2? Wasn't FFXIII the fastest selling FF game to date?
And the JRPG fans are starving for new games.

[Theodore Rex DX]

FFXIII is widely considered to be rubbish. And truthfully, those sales are pretty bad - I'm just surprised they're as good as they are.

[Brakara]

FFXIII is widely considered to be rubbish. And truthfully, those sales are pretty bad - I'm just surprised they're as good as they are.

Those numbers are less than a third of FFXIII, and abysmal.

[Jason Becker]

CoD is still at the top? Really?

Its gone on sale a couple of times at places like Best Buy for $40.

[JD]

According to Joystiq... (http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/09/asuras-wrath-beats-syndicate-in-first-week-sales-with-all-six/)


Asura's Wrath moved 36,000 copies in its first week of sales at the end of February, NPD tells Joystiq. Despite Syndicate's business-savvy nature, the big reboot came up approximately 2,000 copies short of matching the Capcom god destroyer, with 34,000 copies sold at retail in February. As NPD doesn't track digital sales, the launch sales gives us a comparison of each game's commercial performance on consoles (Syndicate also came out on PC).

[Tom McNamara]

So the two new RPGs make it to the top 5, but the two new shooters, Syndicate, Darkness 2 are not in the top 10 even the car shooter, Twisted Metal, outsold them.
Is this a message that shooter popularity is limited to handful of titles, Call of Duty and friends, or was just these titles that failed. Last year Crysis 2, Bulletstorm and did better but the feeling at the time was they underperformed, same goes for Homefront that followed Call Duty formula more closely.

Well, that's also comparing Final Fantasy and an aggressively marketed game against two titles that never got much ink or advertising push. One of them a sequel to a game that came out five years ago and sold a little over a million units, and the other one too similar to the recently released Deus Ex and a genre shift from a franchise that hadn't seen a release in, I guess, 15 years. (Not counting the PSN re-release of the sequel a few years ago.) Syndicate and Darkness II weren't going to be busting any blocks.

Homefront suffered from poor word-of-mouth, Crysis had never been on the consoles before, and both of their multiplayer models were basically CoD re-skinned, far as I know. Bulletstorm, I don't know. I guess it was too different. The Club (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Club_(video_game)) didn't do too well either. I theorize that murder turned overtly into a sport doesn't sit well with most people.

[theblackw0lf]

Tell that to the Sony fanboys in the PSV thread who can't understand why anyone would want to play a game on a phone/tablet.

I have an iPad. I love my iPad. But when it comes to design that provides for more optimal gaming experiences I'll take the Vita any day of the week.

Hell I'll take the Vita over any console at this point, at least from a design perspective. You really don't know how awesome it is until you've had it and played around with it for a couple of days. Going back to iPad gaming is kind of depressing actually. So much unrealized potential due to no joysticks or buttons.

[Matt Matthews]

I tried to provide a little context for the February 2012 sales in a column over on Gamasutra today. Software and other stuff coming Thursday in a separate column.

For example, I discuss Xbox 360 installed base relative to Wii installed base (U.S.-only, obviously) and provide a visual to help lay out the story:
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/xbox-wii-bases.png

Might be of interest to y'all. If you'd like to read it, this is a link to go there (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/165452/US_hardware_sales_spin_overshadowed_by_the_real_da ta.php).

I'm happy to answer questions or discuss if you find you disagree. Thanks, guys.

[Rock8man]

I tried to provide a little context for the February 2012 sales in a column over on Gamasutra today. Software and other stuff coming Thursday in a separate column.

For example, I discuss Xbox 360 installed base relative to Wii installed base (U.S.-only, obviously) and provide a visual to help lay out the story:
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/xbox-wii-bases.png

Might be of interest to y'all. If you'd like to read it, this is a link to go there (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/165452/US_hardware_sales_spin_overshadowed_by_the_real_da ta.php).

I'm happy to answer questions or discuss if you find you disagree. Thanks, guys.

Nice comparison Matt. I also love the chart you made comparing the first two months of this year to last year's beginning, by doing a chart with shadow backgrounds representing last year. Nice visual.

One thing I'd be curious about going into the future is comparisons between the Wii and the PS2. The Wii was selling at such a phenomenal rate, wasn't it on pace to outsell the PS2 by a lot? And then suddenly Wiis stopped selling, and now it looks like it won't catch up to the PS2 at all maybe? Was the PS2's sales curve just pretty smooth instead of a boom and bust like the Wii? What factors were involved in the PS2 being more successful than the Wii, if that actually is what happens?

[Matt Matthews]

Nice comparison Matt. I also love the chart you made comparing the first two months of this year to last year's beginning, by doing a chart with shadow backgrounds representing last year. Nice visual.

One thing I'd be curious about going into the future is comparisons between the Wii and the PS2. The Wii was selling at such a phenomenal rate, wasn't it on pace to outsell the PS2 by a lot? And then suddenly Wiis stopped selling, and now it looks like it won't catch up to the PS2 at all maybe? Was the PS2's sales curve just pretty smooth instead of a boom and bust like the Wii? What factors were involved in the PS2 being more successful than the Wii, if that actually is what happens?I don't have a graph on hand right now, but I believe software was a key factor in the longevity of the PS2. Here is a graph from just about 2 years ago that shows you what's was happening with Wii software relative to PS2 software:
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/historical-software-sales-trends.png
This is the corresponding article. (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29426/Exclusive_Wii_Software_Growth_Peaking_Falling_Behi nd_PS2.php)

I think it's a good idea to update this graph and compare to hardware too, so I will do that in the near future. Thanks for the kind comments and ideas.

[Dave47]

Yiykes, I wasn't aware that the PS3 was moving less software than the original Xbox.* I'm sure things will have changed by the end of "Year 4" but it's still a surprising metric, given how the original Xbox was generally perceived as having only niche "hardcore gamer" appeal.

(*: I assume these are US-based numbers?)

[pyjamarama]

The hardware number don't seem that surprising, sure they can get an additional bump with lower prices but the market penetration is reaching saturation point, regardless what game publishers want to make you believe the number of households with a game console will be inferior to DVD players. No matter the price a large number of people are not bringing any console in their home.

Now what is more intriguing is the software number so looking forward to the article on that. There were number of good titles released and still the numbers were way down, are the core gamers buying less games at retail? or is just the Wii casual crowd that stop buying completely or a mix of both ?

[Theodore Rex DX]

Nice comparison Matt. I also love the chart you made comparing the first two months of this year to last year's beginning, by doing a chart with shadow backgrounds representing last year. Nice visual.

One thing I'd be curious about going into the future is comparisons between the Wii and the PS2. The Wii was selling at such a phenomenal rate, wasn't it on pace to outsell the PS2 by a lot? And then suddenly Wiis stopped selling, and now it looks like it won't catch up to the PS2 at all maybe? Was the PS2's sales curve just pretty smooth instead of a boom and bust like the Wii? What factors were involved in the PS2 being more successful than the Wii, if that actually is what happens?
Obviously software support - it's been pretty much just Nintendo supporting it (along with Just Dance), and they're clearly moving on to the next generation. Much stronger competition too, that hasn't followed the standard curve of other hardware generations. Sorry, but this stuff just seems obvious to me.

[Matt Matthews]

Part two, on software and other content, is up. (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/165690/February_US_game_sales_paint_bleak_picture_for_ret ail.php)

Here are the top 10 3DS games for its first year on the market in the U.S.
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/top-10-3ds-games-ltd.png

There is also some accessory data. That's rare stuff, unfortunately, but I managed to get data on points cards for three years running.

[pyjamarama]

So an over 50% drop in Wii software and 13% drop in combined X360 PS3. Between tablets, smartphones and facebook I think the casual gamer market in consoles continues to shrink, unless a new novelty appears, there was motion, music games, there still is Kinect and dancing but even then people buy just an handful a games not enough to sustain a big pool of publishers and games. As for the core gamer is no surprise that more and more they buy digital, I don't buy at retail for years but I'm a PC guy, you allude in the article the digital is not rising enough to compensate the loss at retail, but I think that is because only the core gamer would buy enough stuff online to make up for the money they don't spend at retail, the casual gamer is not taking the money of an 50$ Wii game and buying 50 IPad games they probably just spend less money on games, on the other hand free to pay games seem to make some people overspend without noticing but I think think that's positive because once they realize that it may backfire.