Depends on who you ask. This past week I received press releases from both Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s PR companies where each declared it is ahead of the competition, citing research results recently released by NPD Group.
Before you read on, here are NPD Group’s actual numbers of units sold for March 2007 in the US (from Red Herring):
- Nintendo DS: 508,000
- Sony PlayStation 2: 280,000
- Nintendo Wii: 259,000
- Microsoft Xbox 360: 199,000
- Sony PlayStation Portable: 180,000
- Sony PlayStation 3: 130,000
Lifetime unit sales per system in the US (also taken from Red Herring):
- DS (released November 2004): 10.4 million
- PSP (released March 2005): 7.2 million
- Xbox 360 (released November 2005): 5.3 million
- Wii (released November 2006): 2.1 million
- PS3 (released November 2006): 1.2 million
Commence the clever wording.
From Microsoft’s press release:
“The latest numbers have been released by NPD, and we’re happy to announce that Xbox 360 continues to lead Sony’s PS3 in next-generation gaming console sales with 199K units sold in the month of March.”
Here’s the first line from Nintendo’s release:
Nintendo once again claimed the top two spots among the best-selling new video game systems in America in March, according to independent sales data gathered by the NPD Group.” It goes on to say …”Wii was once again the top-selling new home video game console.”
So the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 and PSP but that was about it. While the DS is the top selling console for March (and the top selling console of all time) Nintendo does not hold the top two spots in either category but instead holds the top spot in both categories. Also, note the word *new* in the second Nintendo quote clip.
If you want to play the semantics game, as any good PR person will do for their company, Sony could also declare the PS2 the top selling game console for March 2007 since the DS is actually a handheld system.
So, who really is the top selling video game system for March 2007? Like many statistics you’ll get different answers depending on who you ask and how they interpret the numbers.
Which is #1 in your book?
Ps3 almost sold 1 million in a short time period in europe nobody talks about that hmmmmm?
Well, the week after that it sold horribly, so no, it's not a speaking point.
either way you spin it, most people can see that basically nintendo is dominating the crap out of everybody else. for now.