Nintend-owned: Wii to outsell PS3 4:1 in May
Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 at 9:24am by Jack
There’s owning the competition, and then there’s owning the competition. And then there’s whatever the heck Nintendo is doing right now. Therefore, the competition — such as it is at the moment — has officially been Nintend-owned in May.
I know how we all feel about analysts, and how they wear stuffy suits and sit in cubicles and control the fates and dreams of video game companies with their frantic mouse clicks and flow charts — but bear with me on this one. It’s big.
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has forecast that the NPD sales data for May will show a year-on-year increase in game sales of 16 per cent to reach USD 333 million.
First of all. That’s great. I want sales to go up for all software developers and publishers. Even the Hannah Montana direct-to-the-bargain-bin games that are so buggy they don’t have a level 4 or an ending screen. More software in the pool increases the likelihood that tomorrow’s big thing will float to the surface more often and become a monthly occurrence, as opposed to this Rad Racer effect where we wait out 8-12 month cycles for the next system seller to grace the cover of Game Informer.
With regard to hardware sales, Pachter estimates sell-through of 400,000 Wii, 225,000 Xbox 360, and 100,000 PS3 systems - predicting that Nintendo’s next-generation console will outsell Sony’s by a factor of 4:1.
Over at Game|Life, Chris Kohler waxes pessimistically that Pachter is overshooting those PS3 numbers, since the system only sold 80,000 units in April (N.A.), and there weren’t any real titles to speak of for the system that month. Oh, and there’s also the fact that the PS3 finally managed to break below the 10,000 units per month per week level in Japan last month. I heard the Xbox 360 needed some company down in the cellar over there, but this is going a bit too far.
Regardless, the Wii bubble is going to break any day now. It has to. That’s what all the people who’ve been telling me to wait for the next Final Fantasy before I attack the PS3 have been saying. Do I despise the PS3? Not really. The hypocrites that defend it, however, are the poopsky.
June 12th, 2007 at 9:35 am
I actually heard a clerk at GameStop say “Can you go grab a copy of Hannah Montana from the back?” this weekend.
In all honesty, I love seeing tons of games on the shelves regardless of quality (I’m thinking about Wiffle Ball for the DS).
It’s like music .. there’s always a ton of different artists, styles, composers to choose from, not all of it is good. But then once in a while, you find a new band that you like or some new style of music comes along that you can’t resist. I’d love to say something like this for video games one day: “There’s this great game by an unsigned developer you should really download for your DS2!”
And the Wii bubble won’t break until January 2008.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:05 am
JACK,
just a little correction in your article. You say
“Oh, and there’s also the fact that the PS3 finally managed to break below the 10,000 units per month level in Japan last month.”
in the second last paragraph, I believe it is per week, not per month.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:38 am
The Wii bubble is like those green bubbles from a Ghost Mansion in Super Mario World. Get too close and it will kill you.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:47 am
I see two problems with these estimates and predictions:
1) They don’t take in account the selling of PS2s… they are still big on the market!
2) Where are the Wiis?? Even though I already have mine (from day 1!), I still look at the Wii bins in the stores every time I go to check games, and to this day I have NEVER seen one on the shelves! How are all these people going to buy those Wiis?
June 12th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
“Do I despise the PS3? Not really. The hypocrites that defend it, however, are the poopsky.”
Why are they hypocrites? I’m not sure what you mean by that Jack.
I agree with the rest of your comments though. I’m often bewildered by how teh hardcore seem threatened by the influx of “non gamers” to our pastime. The more the merrier I say. Give it a decade and we’ll be saying that the DS & Wii saved gaming from disappearing up its own backside, I’d warrant.
June 12th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
I should have clarified: Anyone who argues that a system (the Wii) is on the verge of busting on the one hand, while simultaneously asking everyone to bear with them and wait until good games come out for their system (the PS3) is a hypocrite.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Where are the Wiis Invisibleman? People buy them when they come in. People preorder them and get called.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Ah, thanks Jack - I should really have got that from your original comment so thanks for clarifying it. That’s a fair point but when do those types ever discuss things reasonably?