Tag: Sales
Nintendo full of itself – claims 99% of US video game growth is down to Wii and DS
It’s like the last days of the Roman Empire in Nintendo’s American HQ. Fresh from selling a record-breaking 3m DS units and 2m Wiis in America during December alone, the power-crazed toy company has now claimed it’s two machines are responsible for 99% of the growth the game industry saw during 2008.
Nintendo sent out a graph. This might mark the precise moment in time the company got too big for its boots.
The stat behind this ludicrous claim is that the US games industry took $3.35 billion…
The UK has gone GAMING MAD – 22 million consoles in use, PS3 dead last
Gfk-ChartTrack, the Europe-wide sales-counting conglomerate that tracks how many games and how much hardware we’ve all been buying, has sad there are now a staggering 22 million games consoles in the UK.
That’s an increase from January 2008’s 13.5 million, a figure which presumably doesn’t include all our childhood Mega Drives and SNESs that are sitting in mum & dad’s loft. Nintendo sold 2.9 million Wiis between Jan 2008 and Jan 2009, Microsoft shifted 1.4m Xbox 360 consoles and Sony moved a rather poor 1m PS3s, making it…
Guitar Hero III has made more money than any other videogame ever
$1,000,000,000.
That’s how much money has been spent, since its release on October 28th 2007, on Guitar Hero III. That’s enough money to buy 1.3 million 16GB pay-as-you-go iPhones, 18 million Thrustmaster T.16000M joysticks, or 50,000 blinged-up Macbook Airs.
Of course, the whole thing is helped by the fact that the game cost about $90 when it was released, almost twice the price of a normal game, due to its plastic guitar peripheral. Expect sales of Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band, however, to eclipse this figure once again, due to their massive full-band instrument packs.
XKCD Guitar Hero (via Kotaku)
Related posts: Guitar Hero cupcakes are packed with star power | Serious about Guitar Hero? So is Logitech
Xbox 360 shifted "almost double" the units this Christmas compared to 2007
Credit crisis, financial disaster and aura of commercial misery everywhere you look? What credit crisis, financial disaster and aura of commercial misery everywhere you look?
That’s what Microsoft UK will be thinking at this very moment, having sold “almost double” the number of Xbox 360s in the UK over the Christmas period compared to Chrimbo 2007, thanks to the price cuts and its zany new casual interface for girls/children/the elderly…
Apple's iPhone manages the extremely possible – overtakes Motorola's RAZR in America
The fact that Motorola’s RAZR is the best-selling mobile in America one of those inexplicable regional events that defies all logic. Americans just like it and its flimsy, feature-light charms. So much so that it’s consistently been the best-selling phone out there for the last three years.
But not any more, as recent stats have shown that Apple’s popular-with-everyone iPhone has overtaken it, shifting 6.8 million units in the last business quarter. The RAZR was pushed down to second and RIM’s Blackberry Curve came in third, followed by LG’s Rumour and enV2…
Stat-counters of the world reveal the best-selling video games of the last three months
What’s been the biggest-selling game around the world over the last three months? You’re probably thinking GTA IV or Mario Kart, or perhaps you’re being clever and thinking it’s something weird for girls and old people like Ubisoft’s mind-numbingly odd Imagine: Interior Designer?
If you are, you are WRONG – the best selling game around the entire world is Electronic Arts’ Madden 08, the latest annual update in the long-running US football sim. It shifted a ludicrous 2.994 million copies to inhabitants of Earth, beating Wii Fit (!) into second place, with the bizarre balancing exercise “game” amazingly managing to convince 2.089 million people that what they really need to start getting into is video game yoga…
As the nights draw in, sales of SAD lamps go through the roof
It’s getting darker and darker at the moment, and I’m not just talking about the economy. As the seasonal cycle goes on, and the nights set in earlier, and the weather gets gloomier, it’s only natural that some people might get a little bit down. Maybe that’s why lamps targeted at sufferers of SAD are selling like hot cakes.
SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it’s a psychological disorder caused by a lack of sunlight. Symptoms include lethargy, low mood and anxiety. SAD lamps produce a more sunlight-like output than a normal lamp, and so they’re supposed to help your mood.
DSi sells 170,000 units in two days at Japan launch
A refreshed model of the Nintendo DS, featuring a camera and larger screen, has been selling well in Japan in its first couple of days on sale. More specifically, it has sold just over 170,000 units. That’s a decent amount for an only incrementally-changed version of a console that’s already owned by one in five members of the population – 23.6 million people.
Stores across the country were sold out, but iPhone-like queues weren’t seen because Nintendo didn’t really go for a media-friendly early-morning launch event. Many avoided queuing by reserving a unit beforehand and showing up later to pick it up. There’s no specific date for a western release of the DSi yet but, as previously reported, I’d be very surprised if it was later than next Spring.
Nintendo DSi (via PC World)
Related posts: New Nintendo DSi to hit the shelves in Spring ’09 | Nintendo DS to relaunch with a camera and MP3 player
Video games set to outsell video and music in the UK this year, thanks to FIFA, GTA and your mum
Huge launches like FIFA 09, GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii have already made 2008 a landmark year for video game sales – and the total cash blown on gaming could out-do music and video for the first time this year.
Projecting a total spend of £4.64bn on video games software and hardware by the end of 2008, Verdict Research says this figure will, for the first time, overtake traditional fun purchases of music and video, which will come in at £4.46bn…
ATTENTION NINTENDO: Half of all people in the UK are planning on buying a Wii this Christmas
Whoever’s in charge of Nintendo’s manufacturing facilities needs to get themselves a big stick and start poking – Nintendo’s Wii looks almost certain to be a sell-out across the UK again this Christmas.
A survey by the bean-management specialists at Moneysupermarket Shipping has found that more than half of people who’ve already decided what they’re buying this year are going to go through the LIVING HELL of trying to track down an in-stock Wii….
