http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=15503
Nintendo Dominates February; Total Industry Sales Up 53%
If Nintendo keeps this up, they actually will be No. 1 again. The one-two punch of the DS and Wii is absolutely dominating. Overall, the industry had a spectacular month also. NPD's Anita Frazier tells GameDaily BIZ that she was "surprised by the sheer size of the increase." Data and comments within... Update: Comments from Michael Pachter
The NPD Group has released its video game sales data for the month of February, revealing an absolutely stellar month for the video game industry in what is typically a slower time.
Total video game sales were up 53 percent to $978 million. Video game hardware was up 98 percent to $402 million ($289 million for consoles and $113 million for portables). Software sales rose almost 28 percent to $441 million ($334 million for consoles and $107 million for portables). Video game accessories totaled $136 million. Year-to-date (YTD), the industry is up 66 percent at $2.23 billion, but it's important to remember that YTD February '07 includes an additional week as compared to YTD '06.
Taking a closer look at the data, it's clear that Nintendo is dominating. On the hardware front the DS sold more than any other platform with 485K units, followed by the Wii with 335K units. The PS2 once again outsold the Xbox 360, 295K vs. 228K. Meanwhile, the PS3 sold a disappointing 127K, far below analysts' estimate of 200K. In fact, the old GBA even outsold the PS3, with 136K. Sony's PSP managed to sell 176K. Finally, trailing the pack (essentially on life support) was the GameCube with 24K.
On the software front, four of the top ten selling games were for Nintendo platforms. Here are the top ten, ranked by units, led by Microsoft's
Crackdown.
Top Selling Games
1.
Crackdown (Xbox 360) – Microsoft – 427K
2.
Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) – Nintendo – 371K
3.
Diddy Kong Racing (DS) – Nintendo – 262K
4.
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) – Nintendo – 130K
5.
Guitar Hero 2 w/ guitar (PS2) – Activision – 130K
6.
Gears of War (Xbox 360) – Microsoft – 119K
7.
Major League Baseball 2K7 (Xbox 360) – Take-Two – 113K
8.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360) – Capcom – 111K
9.
WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii) – Nintendo – 109K
10.
NBA Street Homecourt (Xbox 360) – Electronic Arts – 102K
GameDaily BIZ spoke briefly with NPD analyst Anita Frazier, who said that she was really surprised by the February sales numbers. "The sheer size of the increase surprised me, because it's one of the slower months of the year," she remarked.
While all the focus is on the battle between 360, PS3 and Wii, Frazier pointed out that it's still the older systems driving the industry. "Yes, the newer platforms are certainly ramping up, and the 360 is now a major contributor each month to industry performance. But the #1 platform in unit contribution and the #2 platform in dollar contribution is still the 'oldest' of what I'll call the 'Now-Gen' platforms: the PS2. Using the term 'legacy' or 'previous gen' certainly seems inappropriate for a platform that is continuing to provide such a solid foundation for the industry - certainly it did last year during the console transition, and it is still holding its own against the newer entrants."
Frazier also cautioned that despite the slow sales for PS3 right now, it's way too early to make any judgment on the console race. "I stick with what I've said for a few months now - we won't know how the console race will turn out for months to come. Remember that the first few months of PS2 sales were relatively slow, and we know what happened with that platform. I think we will need to weigh this question at the end of 2007 - only then will we really know how all the new content and features will ultimately affect sales of the hardware," she concluded.
[UPDATE] Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has now issued his report on the February results, including some additional data. There were 10 games that sold over 100,000 units apiece and the average selling price was up 11 percent to $33.31. Cumulative hardware sales in the U.S. through February for Xbox 360 stood at 5.1 million units, while Wii has sold 1.9 million units, and PS3 has sold 1.1 million units.
(Even for just the U.S., those are still conservative numbers compared to others I've seen.)
Regarding Sony, Pachter said, "Demand for the PS3 is tracking below our expectations, while demand for the Wii remains strong. Once demand for the PS3 picks up later this year, we expect a greater decline in PS2 software sales. Although we expect a year-over-year decline of 30 – 35% for overall current generation software sales in 2007, we believe that next generation software sales growth will more than offset this decline."
He also said that he was "pleasantly surprised by software attach rates and overall sales for the Wii and PS3 platform," adding, "Although overall hardware sales for the two platforms fell short of our forecast by 16%, overall software sales exceeded our forecast by 17%. This was due to this month's tie ratios of 3.4 and 3.6 for the PS3 and Wii, respectively, compared to last month's 2.2 tie ratio for the Wii and 2.7 tie ratio for the PS3. While some detractors may consider the next generation cycle off to a poor start, we think that improving tie ratios indicate strong demand for the relatively light software lineup on the next gen consoles, and we believe that once a greater variety of compelling software is released later this year, demand for the new hardware will increase."
Looking ahead, Pachter expects the good times for the video game industry to continue into the summer. "We expect double digit monthly sales growth to persist through July, with releases such as God of War 2 (March), Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, and Spider-Man 3 (April), Shrek the Third and Mass Effect (May), Ratatouille (June), and Transformers, Harry Potter, and The Simpsons(all in July) driving favorable year-over-year sales. Total 2006 software sales (including PC) were +6% compared to 2005, and we believe that 2007 software sales will be +17%, with strong sales in the first quarter (+41% in the first two months) moderating to low double-digit growth during the second and third quarters when year-over-year comparisons become more difficult."
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