Analysis: Wii Overtakes Xbox 360 LTD Software Sales

Gamasutra: When we examined U.S. game software sales at the end of September 2009, we noted that year-to-date Wii software sales were essentially flat at that point when compared to the same period in 2008. With the figures for the full year now in, and further illuminating comments from Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities, we now estimate that Wii software sales grew by a modest 1.0 – 1.5% in 2009.

While the Wii had been showing year-over-year declines in both October and November, we expect that December sales more than made up for those misses. By our estimates, well over 30 million units of Wii software were sold in the final quarter of 2009.

In fact, Nintendo's utter software dominance becomes manifest when we combine our software sales estimates for all platform stakeholders, including Microsoft and Sony, during the last quarter of 2009.

[Xi]

still overtaken the 360 LTD software sales?

[FamilyGuy]

Has anyone ever told you that you're arrogant?

You mention Wii sports as though every 360 sold HASN'T been bundled with one or more games that added towards its total software sales. How foolish.

Notice the "one or more" part of that? How many Wii bundles have you seen with more than one game included?

What a ridiculous comment :/

It has more hardware out and so it's sold more software. What's so hard to believe here?

[Jamescagney]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Simon_Brezhnev]

subtract halo 3 and what do you get

[ceedubya9]

Some Gears of War 1 and 2
Some Call of Duty games here and there
Yearly Maddens as well
Then you have your other million sellers, whatever they may be.

Its amazing how much Nintendo's first party games sell. I bet that just about 9 out of every home that has Mario Kart, Wii Sports Resort, and some of their other quirky titles.

[StanLee]

Dude, even the Wii shovelware sells. It's not really surprising and their big franchise like Mario and Wii sports sell 20 million easily. But surprisingly, the good games on the console like Metroid, Zack and Wiki, A Boy and his Blob and Little King Story, don't sell. It's just ridiculous.

[Seferoth75]

@Stanlee, Wow kid you pulled up a million seller and 2 niche titles that wouldnt sale on ANY console. I'd suggest bending over, pulling your head out, and getting some sort of clue before trolling again. At least have something valid.

I think it's more important and telling that AAA must own games like Bioshock, Borderlands, Dragon Age all bombed on Ps3.. Of course like any idiot troll you care nothing of the truth and probably have some stupid reason for why SP3 cant seem to sell 3rd party games while they sell more on Wii and we have idiots like you trying to make something out of it and trying desperately to ignore your own consoles extreme short comings

[EVILDEAD360]

Lol @ no one actually having to buy Wii Sports and it gets counted in the LTD of the console.

Hell we ALL know why we all bought Wii Play.

But the truth is the Wii's first party games sell amazing numbers..just look at anything with Mario or the crazy gazillion sales of Wii Fit.

But, wow take a look at what happened to Madworld and Dead Space.

As for the other figures..you'd have to be on drugs to think that PS3 outsold the 360 in software sales in the fourth quarter. Just look at the top 10..and them up and it's not even close.

I own like 100+ games on the 360..about 15 games on the Wii and 12 games on the PS3 (in 3 months).

Not that my buying habits matter to the numbers..but as a Wi owner you know which few games that acually matter and the rest is truly software for publishers trying to make a quick buck.

[asdr3wsfas]

"But, wow take a look at what happened to Madworld and Dead Space."

Madworld is in black and white, 6 hours long, and 480i. That is not a AAA title. It's a purposeful B movie of video games. I like brawlers and it's so repetitive I can't stand the thought of beating it again even with a double chainsaw. For a game of this quality it sold extremely well, which sega has stated over and over. The low production value and costs are obvious from the moment you see your tv switch resolution to 480i.

On ps2 a game like this that sold like Madworld would make money - the high def sales numbers are only required for systems that require heavy development costs to make a game. What did you expect, 1mil sales for a black and white 6 hour game with no multiplayer? It's outsold enough ps3 and xbox titles with huge budgets that it's a terrible argument to make right now.

Dead space is a rail shooter for people who hate rail shooters. Arcade rail shooter fans like tons of action, enemies, and frantic twitchy shooting. This is why HOTD 2 and 3 and even overkill sold much better than it. I bought Dead Space extraction for 50 and heard so much story and talking in the first level that I haven't played through any others. There were a handful of enemies and one or two on screen at a time.

No old rail shooter fan likes games like this. It's cinematic FPS made into a lightgun game and frankly is less entertaining than wild west guns or target terror, both of which are arcade style rail shooters. I love rail shooters so much I spent 2 years practicing until I beat Time Crisis 2 in the arcade without getting hit, at which point I could beat it consistently on one credit. I spent 45 hours on HOTD 2 and 3 and have every mode completely cleared, everything unlocked, and all the cool original mode weapons and powerups. I can't finish Dead Space.

Sometimes good games sell poorly too. Usually this isn't the case and there's an obvious reason why. Black and white graphics or a rail shooter in a saturated market with the top arcade classics are obviously disadvantaged. Note okami sold better on wii than ps2.

The only wii games from a developer of the same caliber or with the same funds as the top HD console releases were released by nintendo. MH3 is on wii because they couldn't afford to finish ps3 development. Red Steel is trash and it broke a million. Over 1mil wii owners buy crappy RE rail shooters. COD gets ports years late with no budget and they all break 1mil over time. You know 2 people did the wii cod 3? There's a neogaf thread from a treyarch dev all about it. Look up COD reflex.

"I own like 100+ games on the 360..about 15 games on the Wii and 12 games on the PS3 (in 3 months)."

I now own like 55 wii games, 10 ps3 games and 8 xbox games. Counting wiiware and vc ups my wii collection to 75+. About half of my ps3 or xbox games are console fighters or games like geometry wars. The other half were from Hollywood video's 5 dollar sale on games under 30. I'd have picked up some wii games there too but they had sold out.

[Mahr]

"Lol @ no one actually having to buy Wii Sports and it gets counted in the LTD of the console."

Wii Sports does not get counted in the LTD software of the console by NPD because NPD does not count it as software. That's why it's never in the Monthly Top Ten -- or even top Twenty -- Software Sales lists.

They don't count it for the exact reason that people are asserting it should be discounted.

[Mahr]

"now subtract wii sports.
still overtaken the 360 LTD software sales?"

Uh, considering that NPD doesn't include Wii Sports in their calculations, yes.

[Nihilism]

wiki 'top 20 best selling video games' article

17 out of 20 are Nintendo games, there is a game from each nintendo generation I believe.

Nintendo rules, I forgive you for the Wii.

But seriously if the next wii doesn't offer full B.C until the gamecube era as well as 1080p and upscaling, I will castrate them.

[asdr3wsfas]

Nintendo regularly considers how mom's would view the console. They kept B.C. and added virtual console to help them accept one console to replace several taking up living room real estate. So that will likely stay.

1080p and upscaling would be nice but who cares otherwise? Nintendo makes some great games and I don't mind if they're lower resolution. Distance smooths all jaggies. If I wanted a great graphical experience I'd play my PC (I believe I've read you say the same so don't think I'm just attacking you). When I want a console game I play the wii.

This is a great article, I'm bookmarking this for the weekly no one buys wii games threads. I'm glad to see third-party publishers too arrogant to spend money for cross-platform releases or quality wii software hemmorage funds. The wii is now the repository of odd niche games that the other systems have too high dev costs to allow.

I have an xbox and ps3 for odd games and blueray but dual analog is such trash for shooting. I play all FPS on the wii and pretty much refuse to buy it on other systems. I'd have purchased RE5 for wii and MW2 if they'd released it. MW reflex is better despite the graphics simply because I can actually aim.

[TheMART]

Now lets get the 1st party Nintendo games out of these and see how happy the 3rd party developers are and do well on the Wii.

Lets see how real games aka non shovelware does on the Wii.

The Conduit
Madworld
House of the Death: Overkill
Dead Space
RE Umbrella Chronicles

Most of those hardly hit 250k in sales, RE UC even couldn't hit 20k in its first weeks/months.

Pathetic.

[Jamescagney]

Real games? It's funny how people bring up Madworld, The Conduit and on rails shooters as real games (or 'hardcore' games, haha) and haven't even played them.

They aren't very good, that's why they didn't sell.

[TheMART]

Uhm wrong.

I've played all these games. I am happy I don't OWN them all as I've borrowed some from a friend of mine.

Furthermore its not ME saying these are specifically the real hardcore games, it was NINTENDO THEMSELVES who did, I believe at last years E3 they mentioned HotD: Overkill, The Conduit and Madworld as games for hardcore gamers. Research more than speak please.

And as far as hardcore on the Wii goes, this IS the hardcore genre, as all the other games are pretty much shovelware and digitainment (I call it that way as they're not even under the definition of games anymore), besides 1st party Mario and Zelda which can be hardcore and good games.

The Conduit isn't great, admit it, but Madworld is a good game, not great. HotD: Overkill is actually one of the few games I really enjoy, some arcadehall like shooting in between real shooters on the 360/PS3 for me.

With over 60mln. Wii owners out there these sales are pathetic either way you twist it.

Plus, if these aren't hardcore games on the Wii, name me other 3rd party games for hardcore that sells well. A list please. Or even less hardcore games that sell well on the Wii from 3rd party, other than these sport and partygames. I am waiting....

"They aren't very good, that's why they didn't sell."

If that REALLY was the fact these games didn't sell well then why the hell does other shovelware digitainment discs on the Wii sell so great?

Why does Mario & Sonic on the special retarded olympics sell a lot?
Why is WiiFit (+) selling millions and millions to fat moms and lazy sisters?
Wiiplay? That huge list of rubbish that sells many times the sales of these pretty alright games? If I look at the review ratings of those dumb arse 'games' and compare it to these games that got rated 7 or 8 out of 10 average, it even explains further why your statement smells like donkey shiat. Don't defend the sadness going on on this Wii partymachine

[Jamescagney]

Research more? I own most of them, that's my research. The only one I haven't played is Umbrella Chronicles, which sold over 900k if I remember correctly, maybe more now. So don't assume what I know. I'd rather not make a list, I've got better things to do, you can make one if it makes you feel better.

And is it Nintendos fault that 3rd parties can't make games up to the standard of Nintendo titles? And it's not their fault when those games don't get marketed very well, they shouldn't have to hold the publishers hand, the pubs should actually do some advertising themselves. Although it wouldn't hurt Nintendo to do a bit more admittedly.

There's a lot of games on all platforms that should have sold better, but they didn't. That's just the way things are.

And there's also a lot of shovelware on all platforms as well, the Wii has more because it costs less to develop on.

[Udidntlistenpunk]

They are incredible losers in life.

They bragged about inferior games and great sales all 2008 but when their last argument left standing is being destroyed, they stop talking about sales.

Hahaha bots suck and that is a fact. 360 has no games. Enjoy those mediocre games. Ill be enjoying triple A exclusives AGAIN. Just like last year and the year before that and next year.

Best games, best aps, best of everything like 3D, Blu Ray and Motion controll.

THATS PS3. Play beyond.