AfterDawn: Tech news

Nintendo outselling competition

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Mar 2007 12:19 User comments (10)

Nintendo outselling competition As February came to a close, one thing was very clear. Nintendo was blowing away the competition in console sales. The company sold 485,000 DS units and 335,000 Wii consoles for the month. During the same period Microsoft's Xbox360 sold 228,000 units and Sony's PlayStation 3 lagged behind with 127,000 units sold.
By using some simple math, we can see that Nintendo's latest console, the Wii, almost outsold it main competitors' combined sales for the month.

However, Sony's PlayStation2 continued to see well, selling almost 300,000 consoles for the month.

Nintendo noted that the game systems "represented 54 percent of all hardware sales in February, more than those of all other manufacturers combined."

In general, all console sales on a "year-to-date" basis increased by 106% from 2006.

The report was not a complete loss for Microsoft and Sony however. The PlayStation 2 sales were a shining spot and so was the best seller Guitar Hero 2. Crackdown and Gears of War sold very strongly for Microsoft.



Why are the Nintendo consoles selling so well? Envisioneering Group Research Director Richard Doherty gives a simple answer: "Keeping it simple, stupid, is winning...Both Wii and the DS don't require big instruction books and that's expanded the audience...Sony and Microsoft took a different path, producing consoles of stunning power and complexity ... and price."

"They've gotten complicated and both companies are following a core gamer audience ... whereas Wii and DS are working for both young and old [newcomers to gaming]...the DS has games that go down to pre-school level and the Wii has games where you don't even need to crack the instruction manual at all to play."


It is good to see a console war many of us did not expect.

Source:
TechNewsWorld

Previous Next  

10 user comments

117.3.2007 12:41

Good for Nintendo. Im glad theyre back in the spotlight.

As for 300K ps2's, its gotta be God of War 2. That game is stellar!!

217.3.2007 13:19
pstamer
Inactive

Agreed. It's nice to see nintendo back on top again. They deserve it after the whole nintendo64 and gamecube thing. Rock on Nintendo. I will definetely buy a Wii when more are made available.

317.3.2007 13:53

Anybody who has played Zelda or Mario on the 64 knows that the new mario and zelda games alone will be worth buying a wii for.

I heard that there might be a remake of goldeneye for the 360 which will be online enabled. I love nintendo,,,but that I'm afraid would beat everything!!! I really hope that if it does happen,,,the wii gets a version to show off the contoller!

418.3.2007 10:02

even the crappy wii sports games were a blast. That alone made me want one. Theres just none in any stores.

518.3.2007 10:24

the Wii is a great pick up and play console with no complications,just wish i could trade my N64 cartridge collecton,for wii points so i can have the n64 games on the wii,instead of re-buying them

618.3.2007 11:47

I noticed that too the other night when my friends were over. We tried playing 360, and they kept asking what "these" buttons do, and how do you do this? Turn on the Wii, and we were up and running within minutes. So frickin' easy to pickup any game, including Zelda.

Wii Sports is the sh-t! Except for the golf, which is sh-t!!!

718.3.2007 12:11

Originally posted by chrisfunk:
Anybody who has played Zelda or Mario on the 64 knows that the new mario and zelda games alone will be worth buying a wii for.

I heard that there might be a remake of goldeneye for the 360 which will be online enabled. I love nintendo,,,but that I'm afraid would beat everything!!! I really hope that if it does happen,,,the wii gets a version to show off the contoller!
I dunno MArio SS was weak,but the wii dose have enough something something to be worth the price,the PS3 is jsut to weak and pricey right now to be worth the price.

The 360 is stable enough on all fronts to be worth the price altho the hardware is still buggy .....

818.3.2007 14:00
jazo132
Inactive

I think I'm gonna stick to my 360 until Metal Gear comes out xD

918.3.2007 15:00

"I dunno Mario SS was weak"

Yes,,it was rubbish! but that was on the game cube,,Mario on the 64 is still one of the best games ever made! I don't know what they were thinking with the cube,,,messed up mario and zelda big time but the wii zelda is like a true follow up from the 64 games,,,it as if they realised the cube version was a mistake and forgot it ever existed when they made the wii zelda!

Mario too, although different in many ways looks much like the 64 game,,,,nothing like sunshine at all THANK GOD!!!

ps, for anybody who thinks the wii sports gold is poop,,,have you seen the tv comercials for PGA tour 2007!!!! Now let them say wii sports looks too cartoony,,,now there is a 'grown up' golf game that can't be beaten by the 360 or PS3!

1019.3.2007 00:21

chrisfunk
Bear with me
the only thing I hated about mario SS was the flow in levels makeing thos hell jump zones a non skipable part of levels really hurt the game in my eyes,the waterpack idea was not to bad in all its less than M64,butM64isfarfromprefect to me tis a good game but far from great...

Metroid prime 2 was a bit off smaller more complex levels and the weapons could use more polish.

Zelda WW's main problem was the sea/saling I loved the look.
ZeldaTWP is a bit better but not "great"

My point is Nintendo is declining at a rate slower than main stream gamedom this worries me.

But then gamings hollywood like fall into shallowness should not suprise me..

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 19 Mar 2007 @ 12:33

Comments have been disabled for this article.

News archive