January 2012 NPD - weird

[Elandyll]

The videogame industry did poorly in January 2012, down 34% when compared to 2011. Now, this can be easily explained by the lack of big launches as opposed to last year (DCU, ME2 on PS3, Dead Space 2, Little Big Planet 2...).

http://www.gamespot.com/news/us-game...ry-npd-6350115

Hardware also tanked apparently, down 38%, but MS is laready boasting having outsold (for the 13th month in a row) both rivals, with 270.000 units in Feb, and accounting for about 49% of total hardware sales.

That would put the combined Wii+PS3 sales around 280.000, and estimating about equal sales (or a slight edge on one side or the other, that would end up giving around 140k for each).

One has got to wonder why the preference in 360 sales, without any big exclusive, with a more than a year old Kinect and no price cut.
This being said, it was about the same in 2011, but this year sales are way down:

2011
360: 381.000 units
PS3: 267.000 units
Wii: 319.000 units

2012:
360: 270.000 - down 30%
PS3: 140.000 (estimate) - down 45%
Wii: 140.000 (estimate) - down 55%

[QuasidodoJr]

I've gone through eight 360's, so maybe it's people re-buying.

[LIONSFAN20]

Originally Posted by QuasidodoJr

I've gone through eight 360's, so maybe it's people re-buying.

Thats what I think it is, Xbox leads in sales because some many people are on the "X" console. I wish there was a better way to track real sales.

[Monkey]

Originally Posted by QuasidodoJr

I've gone through eight 360's, so maybe it's people re-buying.

You aren't alone.. And it wouldn't surprise me if that is a big part of it. The number of working Xbox360's versus PS3's and the Wii's would probably show quite a different ratio.

With consoles you become heavily invested on the software side, some via disc some vie downloads. So when your system dies you pretty much have to buy another one.

I also think the Kinect (they market it heavily and discount it on a regular basis) is probably doing very well compared to the Move.

[krazeyeyez]

Originally Posted by Monkey

You aren't alone.. And it wouldn't surprise me if that is a big part of it. The number of working Xbox360's versus PS3's and the Wii's would probably show quite a different ratio.

With consoles you become heavily invested on the software side, some via disc some vie downloads. So when your system dies you pretty much have to buy another one.

I also think the Kinect (they market it heavily and discount it on a regular basis) is probably doing very well compared to the Move.

It would surprise me, if your still blowing new 360's your clearly doing something wrong, and i mean really wrong

At this point in the lifespan people buying systems, are doing so based on the prices etc... in combination with being very casual gamers (just sports for example). I would venture to guess a lot of the 360 not taking the drop of the others has more to do with people buying based on what there friends have then anything else. Sony better be careful to not give MS the lead on release they did last time around or they will lose the lemmings.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I know quite a few of first time X-Box buyers recently. The price is good, software prices for catalog games were fantastic the past few months.

If you get Live, the service offereings have never been better, ESPN3, Hulu Plus, Netflix, ePix, YouTube, etc. Also, the Kinect is clearly the best motion offering out there right now.