Last week we posted a story where Nintendo refuted claims that its third party games weren't selling by producing a colorful little chart that was apparent proof of its dominance in software sales. Microsoft, however, has some fancy figures of its own which fly in the face of Nintendo's claims.
Here are the sparkling NPD figures, as taken from Microsoft:
- Total third party sales for the Xbox 360 since launch is currently 67,929,999 units, followed by the Wii at 33,394,311 units and the PlayStation 3 at 19,976,325 units.
- Third party sales for the Xbox 360 since the launch of the Wii and PS3 is 54,065,728 units, still almost double the Wii's 33,394,311 units.
- If you take the total number of units sold and divide that by the number of titles released since November 2006, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are selling more units per title on average than the Wii. This puts the Xbox 360 at 217,252 units per title, the PS3 at 156,065 units and the Wii at 132,517 units.
MS' David Dennis went as far as to say: "No matter how you slice it, the Wii third party game story is not a pretty one." Certainly a far cry from Nintendo's claims that its third parties were selling "better than our competitors." If these figures are to be believed, then that's just a blatant falsehood.
Let's face it, PR departments are going to dredge up whatever facts and figures they can to portray their companies as the victors, so we can't be sure of the truth either way. I'm certainly more inclined to believe solid figures over a colorful little graph though. That's just me.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:39 AM on 08.11.2008
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However, for good third party titles EVERY real gamer will go out and buy a copy of the same game.
Wasn't Nintendo's point that the NPD numbers they had were for the first 18 months of each consoles life, and wasn't life to date? So Microsoft added on the extra year they had seem to be more lying, and deceptive doesn't it?
Mircosoft is comparing 3 year on the market to Sony, and Nintendo's two years on the market so of course they will have a massive lead in software sales. They can't say the same for hardware sale anymore, but at least they can still cling to the software sales for now.
Nintendo's chart looked at the first 19 months of 3rd party sales after each console's launch. The Wii wins because of record pace at which the Wii userbase has grown.
MS's figures look at 3rd party sales over the course of the whole generation. 360 wins because it's had an extra year on the market. It also wins in the "Since the Wii has been out" category, because it got to start that period with a sizable userbase while Wii started with zero. And finally, it's damn good that it wins in the units per title category, since the typical 360 title costs at least twice as much to bring to market as the typical Wii title.
Nobody is lying here. They're just taking the figures which make them look better and ignoring the complexity of the situation.
I'm usually just interested in the interesting games.
Forgive me while I cry in a corner.
Microsoft is counting the TOTAL amount (360 being out a year before the Wii and PS3). Some games for the 360 came out for the PS2 and GC, it was that early.
So they are both right.
The Wii shortage is on purpose. Nintendo knows that if they blow their load now, profits will nose dive in future quarters. With the shortage, the buzz and initial excitement can be stretched out over a period of years (not to mention the buzz created just by the shortage itself). But it will end eventually, and when it does, a smart Nintendo will come back swinging with hardcore games again.
Fact of the matter is, the Wii has 10 million more consoles out there than the 360 and it's per unit sales are still paltry in comparison.
Hell, even WORTHY 3rd party games on the Wii (and there aren't many) don't sell well. Just look at No More Heros, Blast Works, and Boom Blox. Low sales all around.
Nintendo's chart shows that, during the first 20 months, the Wii sold more third party titles.
Both are right.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/09/nintendo-releases-third-party-sales-chart-npd-clarifies-some-de/
Nope, reread the article. SINCE THE LAUNCH OF THE WII AND PS3, Microsoft has still sold way more third-party titles. The headstart means nothing, in this case.
Ah yeah it does mean something because its Microsoft 2nd, and 3rd year in the market place. How can you compare the 2nd year of a consoles life to ones that literally just come out, and expect it to be fair?
The Wii didn't have 30 million units sold from day one it had to go from 0 just like Microsoft did. So comparing Sony, and Nintendo's year 1 to Microsoft year 2 is like comparing apples to oranges. Its just Microsoft working the numbers in they're favor.
In a date for date comparisons from the launch of the Wii/PS3 you are correct, but DonWii (and Nintendo's graph) are clearly referring to a life cycle comparison (ie the same point in the console's life). So if MS thinks "No matter how you slice it, the Wii third party game story is not a pretty one." Then they are also saying they think at the same point in the 360's life it was doing even worse.
Nobody was saying the 360 had terrible 3rd party support in May of '07 so its pretty clear that this is just PR spin.
Nintendo has 3rd party stuff?
AND IT SELLS?!
Mind=blown.
Funny you mention Blast Works dryad, that game sold SO BAD, I mean like 6,000 copies in a month, its like 10 bucks now. :(
'No More Heroes' sold well relative to Suda's other games, but nowhere near the Million Seller Metric of Success that is often used.
'Blast Works' ... yikes at what Kyousuke said.