DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

It’s that time of the month again. The June 2008 NPD sales figures are out, and there are a few interesting happenings this month. E3 has just concluded, and the Xbox 360 was the winner of this year’s event, although it wasn’t one for the books with very few innovations and surprises, not even from Nintendo. But perhaps Microsoft needed that E3, as you will find from this month’s figures the Xbox 360 isn’t doing very well, not compared to the Wii and not the PS3. Could this be the start of a new trend, or is it just a one off due to the strong software line-up Sony had in June (MGS4). Read on to find out. You can read last month’s analysis here. The figures are from NPD, a marketing research firm that releases games console sale data every month.

The figures for US sales in June are below, ranked in order of number of sales:

NPD June 2008 Game Console US Sales Figures

NPD Game Console Total US Sales Figures (as of June 2008)

 As you can see from the figures and graphs above, it was a great month for the PS3 (and it was pretty good in software sales too, see below). While the Wii maintained it’s high sales figures way above that of both the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined, PS3 sales exploded nearly doubling last month’s effort. Due to this, it comfortably beat the Xbox 360, again nearly twice as many sales. This should be worrying for Microsoft as 2008 has been a great year for the PS3, and a very average one for the 360. While Microsoft blamed stock shortages early on, there aren’t any excuses for the last few months.

When put into this context, the recent price drops and the good showing at E3 is now all the more important for the Redmond based company, as it needs to regain the momentum it had last year when it trounced the PS3 for months at a time. The E3 offerings, including snatching the previously PlayStation exclusive Final Fantasy XIII from Sony’s grasps, securing a free movie streaming service for Xbox Live Gold users from Netflix, and re-designing the 360 Dashboard to try and steal some customers from the Wii.

While Sony can be extremely pleased with recent performances, it needs to be said that June’s performance was largely, if not solely, based on the strong sales for Metal Gear Solid 4, a PS3 exclusive. This is pretty much the first PS3 exclusive title that has reached top spot on the software charts, and if Sony can bring out a few more titles like this, then it can keep the momentum going well into next year. Microsoft had a similar bumper month when Halo 3 was released, but as history tells us, it didn’t last very long. Microsoft, on the other hand, did not have any must-have releases of the same ilk, although Ninja Gaiden II did well.

Going away from the PS3/360, the “Nintendo Family” consisting of the Wii and DS again did extremely well. The PSP also nearly doubled in sales, and it’s easy to see why Sony is concentrating on promoting the “PlayStation Family”. There is no Xbox family though, as Microsoft does not have a handheld device to compete, although one would say that the DS and PSP does seem to have the handheld market locked down.

Let’s have a detailed look at the software charts. Sony’s dominance due to MGS4 is clear to see below, snatching 20.4% of the top 10 sales. The Xbox 360 didn’t do that much poorer though, with two titles in the top 10 and 19% of the sales. The Wii again is the winner with 35% and no less than 4 titles in the top 10. Two DS and one PS2 title rounds off the top 10, including Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS at a high number 2 – it’s even better news for Nintendo because this was not a first party game like most of its other top 10 titles. In fact, the Wii had 2 titles in the top 10 not published by Nintendo, so there’s another criticism of the Wii crossed off the (now very small) list. I know I say this about 10 times every NPD analysis, but again it’s been a good month for Nintendo.

1. Metal Gear Solid IV (PS3, Konami) – 774,600
2. Guitar Hero: On Tour (Nintendo DS, Activision) – 422,300
3. Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360, Tecmo/MGS) – 372,700
4. Wii Fit w/Board (Wii, Nintendo) – 372,700 
5. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii, Nintendo) – 359,100
6. Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360, EA) – 346,800 
7. Mario Kart w/ Wheel (Wii, Nintendo) – 322,400
8. Lego Indiana Jones (Wii, Lucasarts) – 294,500
9. Lego Indiana Jones (DS, Lucasarts) – 267,800
10. Lego Indiana Jones (PS2, Lucasarts) – 260,300

 So that’s it for the month of June. I loathe to make a prediction next month, but with all things considered, I’m going to go for a very similar situation to this month, except PS3 sales may drop a little due to MGS4 sales dropping off. Wii to dominate, PS3 to come second, and the Xbox 360 to struggle a bit as price cuts only come into effect half way through July. See you next month.