March NPD US Hardware/Software Sales: FF13, God of War 3, Pokemans

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6 (100%)
NDS 700.8K
Wii 557.5K
360 338.4K
PS3 313.9K
PSP 119.9K
PS2 118.3K

Top 10 Software

1 - PS3 - God of War 3 (Sony) - 1.10m
2 - NDS - Pokemon SoulSilver (Nintendo) - 1.02m
3 - PS3 - Final Fantasy 13 (Square-Enix) - 828.2k
4 - 360 - Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA) - 825.5k
5 - NDS - Pokemon HeartGold (Nintendo) - 761.2k
6 - 360 - Final Fantasy 13 (Square-Enix) - 493.9k
7 - Wii - New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo) - 457.4k
8 - PS3 - Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA) - 451.2k
9 - Wii - Wii Fit Plus w/Balance Board (Nintendo) - 429.6k
10- PS3 - MLB 10: The Show (Sony) - 349.2k

NPD's Anita Frazier:
OVERALL:

Excluding Sept '09, which was up close to 1 percent, March 2010 represents the first overall revenue increase for the industry outside of the holiday timeframe since Feb 2009. Drilling into the data, we see prices were down 16 percent for console hardware; flat for console software; and up for all other categories. Lower prices exacerbates decline in dollar sales for console hardware, so while unit sales down only 5 percent, dollar sales were down 12 percent due to declining average retail prices (ARP).

In terms of total revenue, March 2010 is the third best non-holiday month on record behind March 2008 and June 2008.


HARDWARE:

Wii experienced its best non-holiday sales month (hardware) since March 2009. Compared to February 2010, on an average sales/week basis, Wii is the only hardware platform to increase sales velocity over February.



Looking at Nintendo DS sales, March 2010 marks the first non-holiday month the platform has broken the 700K mark since June of '09, and was the top selling platform across consoles and portables for the month.

Sony's PS3 hardware posted its eighth consecutive month of year-over-year increases. For the first time since its launch in the U.S., the PS3 has four titles in the Top 10, and was also the leader in console software sales.



SOFTWARE:

God of War III (GOW3) bested the introduction of God of War II (GOW2 - 3/07 PS2 launch) by 32 percent.

Thanks in large part to its multi-platform launch on Xbox 360 and PS3, Final Fantasy 13 is the best launch for any item in the franchise. The next closest was Final Fantasy XII, a PS2 exclusive, which launched and sold 896K units in Nov '06. FFXIII sales in its introduction month were 48 percent greater than that of FFXII .

In its first month of sales in the U.S., Battlefield: Bad Company 2 bested the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company by +170 percent. Even considering that the first was launched later in its introduction month while BC2 enjoyed nearly a full month of sales, the increase is impressive.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now the second-best-selling game of all time, after Wii Play.

Sony PR Response:
With today's release of the March NPD data, Sony Computer Entertainment America boasted that PS3 "continues to be the only hardware console to see double digit growth both year over year (44%) and year to date (36%)." PS3 software, hardware, and peripheral sales accounted for 26% of the video game dollar share in March, which was the highest of any console, Sony said. The company also noted that the PlayStation brand made up 31% of the total video game dollar share in March.

The PS3 business was given a great boost in March by God of War III, which sold 1.1 million units for the month. Additionally, the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII sold nearly double the Xbox 360 version. Sony couldn't be happier with the momentum it's gained for the PS3 business, but the hardware continues to be slightly hampered by supply problems.

"The huge appetite for PS3 content and gaming experiences has never been stronger as we continue to bring out great games like God of War III which was the #1 software title in March with more than 1.1 million units sold in less than 3 weeks. We also remain the only console to see double digit growth of 44% when compared to last March and are up 36% at this point in the calendar year. It's no surprise, consumer demand remains incredibly high and PS3 supply will continue to be tight across our retail channels in the next few months," said Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at SCEA. "We're experiencing healthy momentum from an already blockbuster lineup of games such as MAG, Heavy Rain, White Knight Chronicles, MLB 10 The Show, and God of War III in just the past 3 months -- which some would call a great year, but for us it represents just the first quarter of many anticipated games like ModNation Racers, Gran Turismo 5, and others we have yet to announce this year. "
 
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Good job Kratos.

I'm kinda surprised that the 360 outsold the PS3 though... I understand there were shortages but I'm still surprised.
 
Impressive GoW numbers. I'm amazed that so many people are buying games like GoW and Heavy Rain (which also recently surpassed a million units sold).

Reasons being that Heavy Rain always seemed like it would have limited appeal (suspense mystery game), and that GoW games on PS2 only sold over 2 million each throughout their lifetime with a 10x larger console userbase.

Also that they are both relatively short games and priced at $60. It's pretty impressive.

Anyways, looks like FFXIII will top out around 6 million worldwide sales by the end of the gen -- similar to most of its predecessors.
 
I'm surprised by how well MLB 10 sold. Its a great game, but I didn't think there were that many baseball game fans.
 
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I guess its not incorrect to say that FF13 will sell similarly to its predecessors. But its also the worst selling mainline game in nearly 20 years by a wide margin.

It sold 1.5 million in Japan in 4 days and now is stalled at ~1.8m. Massive frontloading. So it is selling similarly to the other games on bottom tier end of sales.

finalfantasyhistory.png


While 13 has launched almost identically to 12 in the US (both versions combined), its also going to trail off much quicker for one, and secondarily 12 didnt sell that great as far as the series is concerned.

Lifetime US:
Final Fantasy X - 2.46m
Final Fantasy XII - 1.85m
 
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@CaptainJoel - Nice, but not surprising. You can expect to see it in the top 5, or at least the top 10, for a long time.
 
[quote name='Brownjohn']I'm surprised by how well MLB 10 sold. Its a great game, but I didn't think there were that many baseball game fans.[/QUOTE]
I'm not a sports fan, but maybe it's because baseball season just started :)
 
[quote name='Brownjohn']I'm surprised by how well MLB 10 sold. Its a great game, but I didn't think there were that many baseball game fans.[/QUOTE]

If you look back to 08 and 09, that's about how many units it sells each March. It's one of the strongest exclusives Sony has. Lots of people in STL, and lots of users here on CAG, have gotten PS3's exclusively for The Show.
 
[quote name='Brownjohn']I'm surprised by how well MLB 10 sold. Its a great game, but I didn't think there were that many baseball game fans.[/QUOTE]
It's charted in the past few years on PS2 and now PS3, so it shouldn't be a surprise.

[quote name='MSUHitman']If you look back to 08 and 09, that's about how many units it sells each March. It's one of the strongest exclusives Sony has. Lots of people in STL, and lots of users here on CAG, have gotten PS3's exclusively for The Show.[/QUOTE]
Not really. It sold 300k last year and didn't chart the year before (~225k at most), so it's improving each year. It seems like The Show may be the only sports series in the US that's gaining sales each year, though I'm not going to do the research to back that up.
 
No one should be surprised by The Show. I guess the FF13 numbers are higher than I expected (I expected 650k for PS3, 325k for 360). So are the God of War numbers. I mean...it beat Pokemon...sorta. Battlefield is unsurprising.

Also, these NPD's prove how little Wombat knows about game sales.
 
[quote name='KingBroly'].

Also, these NPD's prove how little Wombat knows about game sales.[/QUOTE]

Thats alittle over dramatic, I was mostly wrong, but not crazy wrong.
 
Take note, game developers.

2 of the top 3 games sold are single player only experiences.

I know it's only one month, but I think this makes a case that you don't need some half-assed hacked on multiplayer mode if you concentrate on making the single player good.
 
[quote name='Wombat']Thats alittle over dramatic, I was mostly wrong, but not crazy wrong.[/QUOTE]

what were you wrong about exactly?
 
[quote name='Thomas96']what were you wrong about exactly?[/QUOTE]

Cheapy had a "bet" on what games would sell more. I picked against his choices, my thoery was based on attach rate, and before the games were released. Of course in hindsight I was way off about FF XIII, which I knew as soon as it came out, but I felt having the same list as Cheapy's would be boring (yes we actually spoke about it) so I didn't make any changes.

Either way my picks are wrong but what can you do, I obviously know nothing.

Also I said that Sony doesn't know how to hande God of War properly, which I still believe is true. The strong sales are despite that.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']They mishandled it to the tune of 300k more sales than II.[/QUOTE]

My point was that if they had a GOW game on the PS3 earlier, they may have moved more consoles earlier in the PS3's life span and that Sony didn't realize how powerful a franchise they have. Those sales kinda confirm my theory. Hooray for my patented Wombat spin!
 
It's also possible, though, that GOW3 wouldn't have sold nearly as well had they put it out earlier in the PS3's life. I'm not convinced that any game could have sold the PS3 at its original price point, so the end result might well have been that GOW3 would have sold fairly poorly. Now, though, with a more reasonably priced slim, more people have a PS3, and more people might have been motivated to buy one due to GOW3.

Not myself, though. I tried GOW2 and couldn't see what the fuss was about. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, though.
 
[quote name='Wombat']My point was that if they had a GOW game on the PS3 earlier, they may have moved more consoles earlier in the PS3's life span and that Sony didn't realize how powerful a franchise they have. Those sales kinda confirm my theory. Hooray for my patented Wombat spin![/QUOTE]
If they mishandled the series so badly, would the latest entry in the series have sold better than the others?

I don't know why making God of War II a PS3 exclusive launch title would've been better than a PS2 game that PS2 and PS3 owners alike could enjoy. I don't see it selling nearly as well as it did on the PS2 and that possibly could have hurt the future of the franchise just to satisfy people that couldn't handle Sony continuing to work on new PS2 games at that point.
 
[quote name='Wombat']Thats alittle over dramatic, I was mostly wrong, but not crazy wrong.[/QUOTE]

You said crazy, not me.

You said FF13 would sell more on 360 because of a 'bigger install base' and GOW3 was mishandled.

But hey, I was wrong in saying Pokemon would be the top two spots. But you were wrong on the "bigger games".
 
OK Frisky & KB. I also said that I thought GOW2 should have stayed a PS2 game, I think we should be up to GOW IV. I know they said it’s a trilogy, but there will be a GOW IV. You don't sell a million games in a month and the abandon the franchise.

But thats just my 2 cents.
 
[quote name='DrMunkee']Take note, game developers.

2 of the top 3 games sold are single player only experiences.

I know it's only one month, but I think this makes a case that you don't need some half-assed hacked on multiplayer mode if you concentrate on making the single player good.[/QUOTE]

To be fair, it's usually FPS games that they seem to feel a need to absolutely have a multiplayer mode tacked on.

Single player games in other genres have always sold fine. FPS can as well, of course as Bioshock showed. But devs/publishers really want the multiplayer due to the success of Halo, Call of Duty etc.--and the ability to sell map packs etc. of course.
 
[quote name='Wombat']OK Frisky & KB. I also said that I thought GOW2 should have stayed a PS2 game, I think we should be up to GOW IV. I know they said it’s a trilogy, but there will be a GOW IV. You don't sell a million games in a month and the abandon the franchise.

But thats just my 2 cents.[/QUOTE]
So how would they be up to III that quickly? II came out in March of 07, so unless you bring another developer in well before the PS3's launch, you're not getting the third game out anywhere close to the launch without running into God of War II and potentially Guitar Heroing the franchise to death.

March 05 - God of War
November 06 - PS3 Launch
March 07 - God of War II on PS2
November 07? - God of War III/Milked to Death?

You're rushing one of those games to make your plan work and I doubt you get the great products that you're expecting just to sell PS3s that early after the launch.

They never said III was the end of the series, just the end of Kratos' story and maybe the end of Greek mythology for this series.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']They never said III was the end of the series, just the end of Kratos' story and maybe the end of Greek mythology for this series.[/QUOTE]
A shiny new nickel says they go Norse.

...

Nickle? Nickel?

...

fuck!
 
Wow, Heavy Rain still selling, and GoW Collection now over 650,000 units sold!
That game was pure massive profit. Created in 6 weeks for almost nothing!

C'mon Team ICO collection!

Titles in top 20

PS3 - 7
Wii - 5
NDS - 4
360 - 4

Red Steel 2 :lol:
Surprised JC2 didn't chart at all, and Bioshock 2 dropped like a rock.
 
[quote name='Wombat']Cheapy had a "bet" on what games would sell more. I picked against his choices, my thoery was based on attach rate, and before the games were released. Of course in hindsight I was way off about FF XIII, which I knew as soon as it came out, but I felt having the same list as Cheapy's would be boring (yes we actually spoke about it) so I didn't make any changes.

Either way my picks are wrong but what can you do, I obviously know nothing.

Also I said that Sony doesn't know how to hande God of War properly, which I still believe is true. The strong sales are despite that.[/QUOTE]

Never underestiemate the power of the franchise... FFXIII. Santa Monica should be pissed with Sony.. here they are putting together a superior system selling game, and Sony doesn't have the consoles available for those that were willing to buy the system to play GOW3. If MS was handling the PS3 and GOW3 there would have been a red God of War inspired console with GOW3 game in the box. ... and that's the way the game needs to be handled... but hey who I am to tell the experts what to do.
 
[quote name='FriskyTanuki']If they mishandled the series so badly, would the latest entry in the series have sold better than the others? [/QUOTE]

Most sequels are selling better than last entry in the series:

God of War III (GOW3) bested the introduction of God of War II by 32 percent.

FFXIII sales in its introduction month were 48 percent greater than that of FFXII .

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 bested the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company by +170 percent.
Click to expand...

Overall trend for sequels +
GoW Collection has sold 650K copies +
GoWIII is a 93% rated game =
GoWIII underperformed it's potential.

Of course that doesn't change the fact that Wombat was wrong. Looking at Amazon sales it seems like the hardware shortage definitely hurt GoWIII in March. It's the #4 product in April while FFXIII has dropped #38.
 
[quote name='jkanownik']

Of course that doesn't change the fact that Wombat was wrong. Looking at Amazon sales it seems like the hardware shortage definitely hurt GoWIII in March. It's the #4 product in April while FFXIII has dropped #38.[/QUOTE]

Fine I was wrong, GOWIII has been handled just fine. I'll stick with the poop jokes.
 
[quote name='Thomas96']Santa Monica should be pissed with Sony.. here they are putting together a superior system selling game, and Sony doesn't have the consoles available for those that were willing to buy the system to play GOW3. [/QUOTE]

Everybody should be pissed off at Sony. And Sony should be pissed off at themselves too for letting this happen. They basically blew a huge opportunity to gain some serious momentum.
 
there could be a bundle down the road though. how hard would it be for them to toss in all 3 gow games and an extra controller and pretty up a ps3 slim with some paint and pictures?
 
[quote name='Wombat']Fine I was wrong, GOWIII has been handled just fine. I'll stick with the poop jokes.[/QUOTE]

The game analysts are also wrong all the time, so it's not like it's a bad thing. People that are right in guessing game sales are usually more lucky than good. The rationale behind the guess is more important than the guess itself. I did an analysis on NPD estimates by Pachter, Jesse Divnich and the NEOGAF average for October 2009 and they all had a similar accuracy (+/- 20%) on their estimates for the month.

Pachters estimates were actually the most valuable because he listed the rationale for his estimates. He usually states something along the lines of: "because of X and Y, I believe Z will happen". Because he gives the rationale for his guess you can learn from his mistakes.

Along those same lines because you stated the rationale for your guess you weren't entirely wrong. It's very possible that had a PS3 version of God of War been released earlier, it would have driven GoW fans to buy a PS3 earlier. That could have potentially limited the impact of the hardware shortage on GoWIII in March.
 
Probably Yakuza 3. Red Steel 2 had the WM+ bundle, so even if it doesn't sell amazingly the first week, it'll sell over time as long as that bundle exists.

Also, the XL outsold the PSP after only a week of sales. That's an ouch for the PSP.
 
OK, I know nothing about Pokemon, but just noticed a curious thing there. Why did the SoulSilver version sell about 250K more than HeartGold? Looking at the boxes in the store, personally I was drawn to HeartGold over SoulSilver. Now, that's just packaging and my preference (I was considering getting one for the hell of it using the GS $25 trade-in promo but ended up geting Lunar Silver Star Harmony - hey, wonder what the sales were on that? ;))

But in case I should ever get one, is there some significant difference? It is my understanding they are only different in starting Pokemon or somesuch? Or am I thinking of the Mystery Dungeon games? These Pokemons confuse and anger me...
 
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There are different pokemon in each game, but the starters are the same. The cover pokemon may have something to do with it. Lugia had a movie made about him, Ho-Oh hasn't.
 
[quote name='io']OK, I know nothing about Pokemon, but just noticed a curious thing there. Why did the SoulSilver version sell about 250K more than HeartGold? Looking at the boxes in the store, personally I was drawn to HeartGold over SoulSilver. Now, that's just packaging and my preference (I was considering getting one for the hell of it using the GS $25 trade-in promo but ended up geting Lunar Silver Story - hey, wonder what the sales were on that? ;))

But in case I should ever get one, is there some significant difference? It is my understanding they are only different in starting Pokemon or somesuch? Or am I thinking of the Mystery Dungeon games? These Pokemons confuse and anger me...[/QUOTE]


silver has something gold doesnt
pokemon love hotels
.
 
God of War is done in a day or two, it doesn't sell consoles. Very few people buy a console to play one game for one weekend. There were more PS3's sold in February than March, 360k vs 314k and God of War III came out in March so what does that say? The PS3 shortage was also worse in February than it was in March because they ramped up production for the March releases.

I just find it ridiculous these days to call any one game a console seller.
 
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