July NPD

[Simplayer]

Data care of NPD Group
Reporting period: 7/4/10 - 7/31/10


PlayStation 3 214.5K
PSP 84.0K
Xbox 360 443.5K
Wii 253.9K
Nintendo DS 398.4K


NCAA FOOTBALL 11 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jul-10 368.0K
NCAA FOOTBALL 11 PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jul-10 298.8K
CRACKDOWN 2 360 MICROSOFT Jul-10 208.8K
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 WII NINTENDO May-10 193.0K
LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 NDS WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE Jun-10 141.7K
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10
LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 WII WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE Jun-10
DRAGON QUEST IX: SENTINELS OF THE STARRY SKIES NDS NINTENDO Jul-10 132.0K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO Nov-09
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09

(*includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)


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Analysis from NPD's Anita Frazier:

Overall

"While video game retail sales show a very slight decline versus last July, we have to consider the success of Starcraft II this month, which helped the PC games category to realize a 103% increase in dollars over last July. PC Games and video game industry sales combined for an increase of 4% in revenues as compared to July'09."

Hardware

"The PS3 and the Xbox 360 platforms both saw significant increases over July'09. In fact, Xbox 360 was the top-selling hardware platform for the month, driven by sales of the new slim format SKU. It's the first time since September '07 (Halo 3 launch) that the 360 was the top-selling hardware platform."

Software

"The top selling video game for the month, combining platforms, was NCAA Football 11 at 692K units. Achieving even better results this month was Starcraft II (PC), which sold 721K units at retail in July."

"LEGO Harry Potter was the second best-selling game for the month with 401K units across all platforms. It bested its intro month sales in June of 355K, although it must be noted it released late in June. In just over a month at retail, it has already sold enough to put it just outside of the top 20 games year-to-date."

Accessories

"The Xbox 360 1600 point card was the best-selling accessory SKU for the fifth consecutive month. The general success of the Points and Subscriptions cards category within Accessories points to the activity that is happening in the industry outside the traditional retail channel."

Courtesy of Evilore from Neogaf.

[ariakon]

I would like to know how many of those xbox sales are upgrades. It seems every X fan in the US wants a shinier system. Plus, it helps to have a $120 arcade at Target. The sales will probably drop pretty heavily in aug and do well again for Reach. I don't personally think that many new people bought systems, seeing the awful software tallies. PS3 did okay, but needs some momentum. Putting the 250 gig at 299 would help.

[cheaitsjustin]

Originally Posted by ariakon

I would like to know how many of those xbox sales are upgrades. It seems every X fan in the US wants a shinier system. Plus, it helps to have a $120 arcade at Target. The sales will probably drop pretty heavily in aug and do well again for Reach. I don't personally think that many new people bought systems, seeing the awful software tallies. PS3 did okay, but needs some momentum. Putting the 250 gig at 299 would help.

Doubt it. The new Arcade system just launched last week for $199.99.

[Terjyn]

DRAGON QUEST IX: SENTINELS OF THE STARRY SKIES NDS NINTENDO Jul-10 132.0K

I'm very curious as to how this would have done on a console instead of the DS. Of course, it's utterly impossible to know.

[ariakon]

I seriously doubt that 4 gig arcade will sell as much as the $120 arcades and $200 Elites, which are finally dwindling down to a handful.

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by ariakon

I don't personally think that many new people bought systems, seeing the awful software tallies. PS3 did okay, but needs some momentum. Putting the 250 gig at 299 would help.

It's hard to tell if there were a bunch of new buyers or not based on the software tallies we have. People buying new consoles might not be buying new games but picking up some cheaper back catalogue titles. If we had some monthly total software revenue per platform we might be able to see the changes month to month or year to year.

As for PS3 momentum, it's still selling quite well compared to last year. It's up 75% yoy. I don't think you can really expect it to sell much better than the 360 in the States. Worldwide it should be doing better than the 360.

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by Terjyn

I'm very curious as to how this would have done on a console instead of the DS. Of course, it's utterly impossible to know.

Probably worse. DQ8 sold around 80k first month, and that had a FF demo packed in.

This just proves that tweens can't resist the charms of Seth Green.

[ariakon]

I didn't mean the ps3 was doing badly, I just wish I didn't have to hear fanboy crap about the ps3 getting pwned when I'm not even sure how many 360s were purchased by previous owners. The software tallies were down throughout the industry, which means the catalogue for 360 didn't light the world on fire. Then again, plenty may have bought the 120 arcade solely for halo reach.

[cheaitsjustin]

Originally Posted by ariakon

I seriously doubt that 4 gig arcade will sell as much as the $120 arcades and $200 Elites, which are finally dwindling down to a handful.

You never know. Microsoft was pretty smart in their timing of the new hardware launches. I don't think the sales will drop by that much for this month. Maybe by 100k but it'll probably still be above 300k for the month.

[ariakon]

I seriously doubt there won't be a decent drop. The arcade s doesn't have the hype behind it. Plus, there was actually a big drop from the last weeks of june into july. Those 450 k in june came mostly from the price drops after e3. A 100 to 150 dollar arcade attracts the casual consumer more than a 300 dollar ps3. I believe the sales will drop simply because stores don't have a monstrous supply of Arcades and Elites anymore. They're still out there, but not for much longer. I think the Halo Xbox bundle will make a bigger impact than the new arcade.

[androvsky]

Originally Posted by ariakon

I didn't mean the ps3 was doing badly, I just wish I didn't have to hear fanboy crap about the ps3 getting pwned when I'm not even sure how many 360s were purchased by previous owners. The software tallies were down throughout the industry, which means the catalogue for 360 didn't light the world on fire. Then again, plenty may have bought the 120 arcade solely for halo reach.

The fact that Modern Warfare 2 for the 360 is back in the top 10 strongly suggests that there's a fair number of new purchasers.

[kjacobs03]

Originally Posted by Simplayer

Probably worse. DQ8 sold around 80k first month, and that had a FF demo packed in.

This just proves that tweens can't resist the charms of Seth Green.

I bought DQ8 for the FFXII demo and ended up getting a great game. Got and beat DQ/W1-7 after that.

[ariakon]

MW 2 barely did a 100k and still got in the top 10. That is not indicative of a ton of new buyers, just a horrible software month. The ps3 version might still be in top 20. Plus, as I said before, software was flat for 360 compared to last july. Usually there is a big boost with an influx of buyers. Last July didn't really have any big games either.

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by ariakon

The software tallies were down throughout the industry, which means the catalogue for 360 didn't light the world on fire.

Do we have a by platform breakdown? I saw that Pachter stated that while software sales were down overall, that was mainly due to low software sales on the Wii, but the PS3 and 360 were seeing better growth (no numbers).

[ariakon]

Good lord, I'm not saying no new consumers bought a 360, just that the total number sold is likely misleading. An inordinate amount of people that owned a 360 seemed to have upgraded. Shoot, I've had to buy 3 myself over the years, so I'm not ready to put too much stock in the 360 consistently outselling the wii yet. Once the upgraders and clearance xboxes are gone, I think a truer number will emerge. I'm just rolling my eyes at the internet comments of certain people that the 360 is now going to own the us until the end of the generation. It seems more temporary than that.

[cheaitsjustin]

Originally Posted by ariakon

Good lord, I'm not saying no new consumers bought a 360, just that the total number sold is likely misleading. An inordinate amount of people that owned a 360 seemed to have upgraded. Shoot, I've had to buy 3 myself over the years, so I'm not ready to put too much stock in the 360 consistently outselling the wii yet. Once the upgraders and clearance xboxes are gone, I think a truer number will emerge. I'm just rolling my eyes at the internet comments of certain people that the 360 is now going to own the us until the end of the generation. It seems more temporary than that.

This is why Sony needs to allow PS3 owners to replace their HDD without having to format it. The data transfer is fine, but you need two working PS3s to do it. It would be so much easier if we could just swap HDDs.

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by ariakon

Good lord, I'm not saying no new consumers bought a 360, just that the total number sold is likely misleading. An inordinate amount of people that owned a 360 seemed to have upgraded. Shoot, I've had to buy 3 myself over the years, so I'm not ready to put too much stock in the 360 consistently outselling the wii yet. Once the upgraders and clearance xboxes are gone, I think a truer number will emerge. I'm just rolling my eyes at the internet comments of certain people that the 360 is now going to own the us until the end of the generation. It seems more temporary than that.

Oh, for sure, there's a ton of people upgrading.

The hardware/software releases for MS are pretty well spaced, so I'm sure they'll do better than last year pretty easily, but there's no way they're going to consistently outsell the Wii through till January. The Wii will atleast crush them in November/December.

[ariakon]

That was the point I was trying to make, sorry if it was a little cluttered. The xbox is having a good year, but the last two months seem more like price drop / slim bump than a permanent upheaval. We'll see just how popular kinect is, though. Move looks better to me, but tech guys are slathering over kinect. Games look horrible, in my opinion, but I guess I'm a pretty hardcore gamer.

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by ariakon

That was the point I was trying to make, sorry if it was a little cluttered. The xbox is having a good year, but the last two months seem more like price drop / slim bump than a permanent upheaval. We'll see just how popular kinect is, though. Move looks better to me, but tech guys are slathering over kinect. Games look horrible, in my opinion, but I guess I'm a pretty hardcore gamer.

I completely agree.

[FinalEvangelion]

Originally Posted by ariakon

Good lord, I'm not saying no new consumers bought a 360, just that the total number sold is likely misleading. An inordinate amount of people that owned a 360 seemed to have upgraded. Shoot, I've had to buy 3 myself over the years, so I'm not ready to put too much stock in the 360 consistently outselling the wii yet. Once the upgraders and clearance xboxes are gone, I think a truer number will emerge. I'm just rolling my eyes at the internet comments of certain people that the 360 is now going to own the us until the end of the generation. It seems more temporary than that.

I'm pretty sure 360 has more replacements being sold than new units. Software sales rate is the best indicator of this - which has been fairly stagnant.

However, I think the 360 will also always play first fiddle in the HD contest in America (and UK). The 360 main focus has always been about America, Shooters, Halo, and Xbox Live. I think Knect will go down the same path as MS trying to crack the jRPG market. Unfortunately, I've only met about 2 other "hardcore" gamers besides myself in the States (where I live) that have a generally disfavorable opinion of Shooters.

The price cut and slim is showing it had a long term price cut effect. 76% yoy is pretty nice for taking 25% off the price and making a slim model. $199 is really going to raise some hell. At that point on, I bet it will be the best selling console easily in all three regions.