Nov NPD: 360 wins big with Gears 2 and WaW
by Dustin Burg 
{ Dec 12th 2008 at 2:05AM }
No need for analyst predictions, the official November '08 NPD numbers are in and we have a hunch Microsoft is more than satisfied with the 360's sales success last month.
With the help of new triple A titles and a relatively low price, Xbox 360 sales totaled 836K units, while the Playstation 3 was only able to sell 378K. No surprise, the Nintendo Wii trumped all hardware sales, selling an astonishing 2.04 million consoles during the month. Looking at software sales, Gears of War 2 was the big winner with 1.56 million copies getting gobbled up from retailers, which isn't as hugely huge as was initially speculated, but still big. World at War's 1.41 million copies and Left 4 Dead's 410K were also surprising sales standouts. Check the break for the November NPD video game hardware sales and the top ten game sales.
November NPD Hardware
Wii - 2.04 million
DS - 1.57 million
Xbox 360 - 836K
PSP - 421K
PS3 - 378K
PS2 - 206K
November NPD Software
1. Gears of War 2 - Xbox 360 - 1.56 million
2. Call of Duty: World at War - Xbox 360 - 1.41 million
3. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii - 796K
4. Wii Fit - Wii - 697K
5. Mario Kart - Wii - 637K
6. Call of Duty: World at War - PS3 - 597K
7. Guitar Hero: World Tour - Wii - 475K
8. Left 4 Dead - Xbox 360 - 410K
9. Resistance 2 - PS3 - 385K
10. Wii Music - Wii - 297K
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mitino @ Dec 12th 2008 2:13AM
LOL. Sony has lost America. Left 4 Dead outsold their HUGE title. OWNED
Tann @ Dec 12th 2008 2:32AM
xDD
you're right!!
B @ Dec 12th 2008 2:35AM
That's rather sad =/ One of their key titles gets curb stomped by a PC centric game that snuck out from under the rug.
There's also no LBP on this list either... the PS brand deserves more sales.
Whatever, good showing for 360.. Nintendo's untouchable
BLOL @ Dec 12th 2008 5:13AM
No big deal, the 360's been whipping the PS3 all this while. Most multiplatform games worth looking at sell more copies on the 360. Sometimes even twice the sales of the PS3 version. Some games had better graphics on the 360 version. MGS4 came and went in a few weeks, resistance 2 came and went in a few days, blah, blah, blah...... it just goes on. The only thing that's left is for the PS3 crowd to admit they lost. maybe when killzone 2 flops they'll finally get it.
Arnon @ Dec 12th 2008 9:09AM
NPD 2008 (December pending):
Xbox 360:
3,295,200
Playstation 3:
2,818,800
Wii:
8,021,000
Jkrincon @ Dec 12th 2008 2:32AM
Just Amazing! Well deserved numbers for a very good console!
Hope this means more high quality games in the near and far future! :)
zero @ Dec 12th 2008 3:36AM
thats nice but the NPD is only for America...im sure the Japanese numbers say another story but i would like to see all of the sofware sales combined from all the regions
thedonandmikeshow @ Dec 12th 2008 3:41AM
Can't wait to hear what the pro-Sony folks on the Joystiq Podcast have to say about this AND Little Big Planet not selling consoles AND Home not looking to be what Sony had hoped it would turn into AND Blue Ray players not being cheaper than buying a PS3 AND 2008 IN NO FRIGGIN WAY BEING THE YEAR OF THE PS3! It is time to gloat boys Sony you had such a huge following during the PlayStation 2 era than Microsoft came out of nowhere and ripped more than half your audience away from you...WE WIN...YOU LOSE!!! Kisses...
thedonandmikeshow @ Dec 12th 2008 3:45AM
And your controller looks like it was born in 1992!!!! Hahahahahahaha !!!!!!!!!
Numion @ Dec 12th 2008 4:23AM
That's so true. Even my friend who's got a PS3 agrees. Apparently people voted that to be the best controller ever, and Sony decided to stay with it .. if true, that just shows democracy does not work ;-)
marauder800 @ Dec 12th 2008 9:14AM
That's so true. The controller is the #1 reason I buy ALL multi-platform games on 360. If a 3rd party manufacturer were smart enough to make a PS3 controller with the same layout and comfort as a 360 controller, they'd move a lot of units.
I DeX I @ Dec 12th 2008 10:37AM
I have to totally agree on the PS3's controller. I had a PS3 and sold it a while back. I wouldn't mind getting one again for LBP and such, but that damn controller cramps my hands up. The way the stiqs are convex instead of concave is just retarded. It is just a "pain" to play games on the PS3. Sony needs to wise up and make a more comfortable controller.
B1663r @ Dec 12th 2008 6:13AM
Not all is good though. The wii is poised to destroy gaming forever.
I mean... is it me? I got my wii almost exactly one year ago... I have not touched it since I was offended by SSBB(Soul Calibur on XBLA is a better fighter...) and yet, who is buying this thing?
The wii is sort of like when the Republicans won in 2000. Nothing good can come from this.
guttertalk @ Dec 12th 2008 7:08AM
People waving their weenies over numbers is silly.
I have a 360 and a Wii. I play them for different reasons, as do others I know. But all in all, I probably play them equally, maybe the Wii more. I'm not interested in shooters any more, so half fo the 360's big titles don't appeal to me. In fact, I went 4 months without being a 360 game. But that doesn't mean the 360 sucks and no one else plays it.
But that's the logic I see.
B-rad @ Dec 12th 2008 8:40PM
ahh yes, much in the same way as Democrats winning in 08' as well.
zourskittles @ Dec 13th 2008 7:05PM
B-rad,
Nothings come out of it yet, he isn't even in office yet. Have some common knowledge before you try to make a witty comment.
/end politics conversation
Anticrawl @ Dec 12th 2008 6:43AM
And Gears of War 2 curb stomped my soul.....
I'd really rather not get into it, you all know it, even the fans who defend it til the death know it.
Ahh well I have so many other games to fall back on, at least my collectors box is of the highest quality...
Cal @ Dec 12th 2008 12:55PM
I'm having trouble getting rid of my Gears 2 LE, but hopefully it will be gone forever tomorrow...
UNSCleric @ Dec 12th 2008 6:45AM
God the PS3 is so terrible. I already knew it would do bad since early 2005, but this is pitiful, and it only gets worse with time.
Please Sony, go officially bankrupt already and go away forever.
Numion @ Dec 12th 2008 7:14AM
That's a bit harsh. Kudos to Sony for the technical prowess and power of their system. Too bad it resulted in too high price and games can't utilize it fully (yet), but the game plan itself was sound.
Keep in mind that MS has burned through 4 billion $'s selling xboxes at loss. It's the better gaming system than PS3, but why wish death on Sony? Competition is always good for the consumer, and Wii isn't competition for X360 from my POV.
guttertalk @ Dec 12th 2008 10:03AM
Numion:
You're right to chastise UNSCleric, but it's more than having competition.
This can be a very cyclical market, as Nintendo has proven. Who's to say that Sony won't be back on top selling their next console?
Plus, it's arguable that we're at a point with consoles where hardware improvements aren't nearly as significant as services, like downloadable content, social applications and features, etc. True, with Home, Sony hasn't shown themselves to be very quick in developing and releasing services, but they can do it and they have a very solid platform on which to do it.
B-rad @ Dec 12th 2008 8:52PM
Hey man competition is good for Microsoft. We should be THANKING our lucky stars that Sony made the PS3 because the PS3 is what fanned the flames of Microsoft's quest to make a kick ass console.
tom @ Dec 12th 2008 7:11AM
im i dunno really the ps3 is a pretty awesome console! good games and good prospects! little big planet is pretty much unheard of for some reason but ive got it and its really good just sony are crap at promoting there big titles really and also i played home last night and it is excellent and shows great promise for sony. There is no doubt the xbox has america you guys love your first person shooters which is fair enough so do i lol but in europe and japan sony are doing very well and there are more exclusives to come from sony. There are some random ps3 titles that i think people arent giving a fair chance, like mgs4 for instance, it has to be one of the best games ever! everyone needs to play that game, also the online is great. overall i must admit im a big sony fan but im getting an xbox this xmas so ill have both consoles and all the great exclusives! i do need to play gears of war 2 though which is shocking as i need to play that game to fill the void in my life lol
tom @ Dec 13th 2008 2:56PM
also one more thing, killzone 2 will be a great game and i cant really see that going down the pan as quickly as people make out! and i do agree with numion, competition is good, it keeps both sony and ms on their toes so they will keep trying to better eachother!
Procris @ Dec 13th 2008 6:09PM
Killzone 2 has something huge going for it though, its realising at a time where it has almost no other competition, whereas in November, Gears 2, WaW, L4D all came out competing for our money.
Its always a gamble releasing titles to compete with other titles and this time, sadly for Sony they it didn't pay off for them in a way they might of hoped for.
Killzone 2 will have no excuses though in February or march, whenever its released. Looks like a solid game that'll no doubt do much better than Resistance 2, graphically it looks very impressive.
Sbeeze @ Dec 12th 2008 8:36AM
the important numbers are game sales, and your software attach rate becuase this is how devs and ms make money. if you combine all the wii games on the top 10 they do not amount to the 3 games the 360 has on the list.
in month where you sell 2.04 million consoles thats bad. nothing against people who enjoy the wii but most people just play wii sport or wii fit, and maybe mario kart. where as MS and Sony have a much higher software attach rate.
Numion @ Dec 12th 2008 8:51AM
Good point. With XBox 360s attach rate it's still the better platform to develop big games than the Wii in terms of sales.
Nintendo decided to cater to the lowest common denominator and that's what they're reaping. Shovelware by the truckloads and low attach rate.
Now, that's not a bad thing, especially for Nintendo. But it's not a bad thing for the industry either. It gets more people into gaming, and once they realize there's more to videogames than Mario Kart they might get the box or PS3.
For more 'mature' (as in the rating, not real maturity (surest sign that a game is immature is the 'M' rating ;-))) content the 'box is clearly in the lead.
Also I'd hope that with HDTVs costing so little people would want some HD content - unfortunately this isn't the case as proved by the % of people who never figured to connect their new HDTV to _any_ HD content :-|
guttertalk @ Dec 12th 2008 6:21PM
Okay, let's think about it for a sec. You have at least 2 major AAA titles that just released for the Xbox, and Left 4 Dead has gotten major advertising.
Nintendo did not release a major title. In fact, they've been criticized for leaving such a big hole in the holidays with really no core games.
That said, you're talking a difference of about 400,000 games between those top 10 Wii and 360 games. The difference has been even closer in recent months.
Sure, a lot of those Wii sales went to folks who probably won't buy much beyond Wii Fit or a couple of other games. But not all. This is a pretty large gamer base, and next holds a lot of promise for excellent Wii games.
Also, Gamasutra recently showed that after the same amount of time on the market, the rates are PS3 at 5.3, Wii at 5.5, and 360 at 6.8.
The Nielsen Group also found in a survey that people play the Wii consistently with no apparent dropoff.
The idea that the Wii games are doing badly is wrong. Could it be better? Sure. With 40 million consoles out in the wild already, that's a pretty irresistible base to ignore.
Sbeeze @ Dec 12th 2008 9:07PM
Actually the software attatch rate was released today for the 360 at 8.1 per console, thats more then the wii and ps3 combined.
LegendaryRedass @ Dec 12th 2008 8:17AM
If you look at waw's sales for both consoles, it looks like there's a lot of money lost going exclusive for other games. It may mean more in hardware sales, but I don't think devs get any of that.
john paul @ Dec 13th 2008 9:37AM
they got money for making it exclusive... They also saved money for not having to develop it on another console(s)
Rob Cannon @ Dec 12th 2008 8:23AM
November NDP = PS3 + Coffin + Nail
magicianoffear @ Dec 12th 2008 9:39AM
I don't see why all 360 only owners bash the PS3 so much(I own both and while I play the 360 more, I am more then happy with my PS3)? The PS3 may not be outselling the 360 but it's far from a flop (especially given the price), Sony wiped the floor with Xbox last gen to the point where most assumed that Microsoft would pull out of the race, and the festering pile that is Nintendo with their Gamecube sold horrible compaired to MS and was no where near Sony. Sony and Microsoft switched positions this time, Microsoft made a strong machine with enough power but enough "safe bet" internals to be able to cut costs much easier (like the PS2) and Sony took Xbox's place as the be all end all of high tech console gaming by including a hard drive with every console, Blu-ray, and an open network structure (all very similar to the position Microsoft took last gen) So I hardly think that after only 2 years and 17 million consoles sold the PS3 is a flop and that Sony should go bankrupt, especially given how Nintendo managed to hold on for two straight generations of coming in third.
Everyone always makes like there is some real war here, like one side winning means the difference between democracy (Microsoft) and slavery(Sony), ummm it's not that serious. What you all should be taking seriously is while Microsoft and Sony stand firm on making real games the thrid part of the equation does not. See that is what everyone should be realizing that even with a cheaper console 360 did not even come close to the Wii, even with better games it still lost. Nintendo stands as the only real problem this generation, their entire console is shifting the market in a direction no one here would want to follow. Do you honestly want a Wii-mote set up and waggle controls for the next Xbox or Playstation? Nintendo is pretty much making that to be true. When I look at these numbers I see 1.214 million people helping to make sure I don't have waggle controls, low grade software and edutainment and low grade tech for the next gen, and 2 million people who stand in the way of me being able to game the way I want to.
Nintendo is ruining the industry much like Atari did back in the late 70"s. Think about it Nintendo's best selling titles are not even real games Wii Sports, Wii Play, Wii Fit, and their latest release Wii Music is barely a game at all. The way things are now would be like those "Play TV sports" things from Radica out selling the PS2 and Xbox last gen(if you don't know what I am talking about look it up and try and tell me thats not the Wii). Take a moment and browse the upcoming Wii release list at ebgames.com, you will find things like Dragonology (a digital book) countless pet games ending with a Z, and total garbage like Calvin Tuckers Redneck Jamboree. Is this what you want? Everyone needs to stop this "Wii60" and "PSwii" mentality and realize that Nintendo is ruining gaming, and that to me is a real problem.
Van Faulk @ Dec 12th 2008 10:15AM
I find it ironic that you go on about how stupid it is for people to treat one console as the end of the world...and then do just that with the wii.
rrdmxjedah @ Dec 12th 2008 10:16AM
finally someone with some sense
Mattchewie @ Dec 12th 2008 12:24PM
I agree. I own all the systems and I can tell you Sony has stepped up their feature game. The only thing they are really missing right now is direct voice. Other than that the system is solid.
I'm just blown away by the wii. I own one and its a huge dust collector. So I don't understand what the rage is about.
magicianoffear @ Dec 12th 2008 10:36AM
Van Faulk said...
I see your point, but do you see mine? I did not say it was "the end of the world" and do not treat is as such. Rather I view it as an unwelcome change to something I enjoy, and that if said change occurs I will no longer be able to enjoy gaming. I am quite fond of gaming in it's current form and in my opinion Nintendo is trying to prevent that from continuing. So while no one should treat this pass time as anything but I feel that our hobbies are important to us, don't you agree? It would be like telling a painter that he can no longer use oil based paint and can only use those 99 cents water paint sets for kids.
Ziggy @ Dec 12th 2008 10:48AM
I own all 3 consoles and have 2 Xbox 360 Elites. One of which is mostly used for streaming video for my kids since I dont want them scratching the DVD's we buy them.
However, the Wii does sell and does sell well. But, how many Wii's get played after 6 months of use? I have several friends on co-workers who agree that the novelty of the Wii wears thin or off after 6 months or so. And Wii Fit gets you back in it for a bit but then same old. It goes back to just sitting there. The only time I turn it on now is if I want to play old school Mario.
The PS3. There is only a few games that I have or want to play on it. By FAR MLB 08 Road to the Show is the best baseball game out for any console. But, the rest of the games that were hyped fell thin. And the streaming is not as convenient to a Windows PC than with the 360. There are 2 reasons I got a PS3. One was Blu Ray won the HD war (even though I thought HD DVD looked better) and two the price I got it at. I got the 60gb for 149 off ebay because the person thought it was dead. Turned out that my gamble paid off and it was the 60gb drive that was dead. Threw in a 320gb drive and all is well and it has run for the past year +. But still only use it for Blu Ray.
The 360. Xbox Live is where it is at. Love the bloody thing. I play games all the time on it.
Numion @ Dec 12th 2008 2:47PM
Ziggy, good point about the Wii losing its appeal pretty fast among the casual group. This week at a conference I saw a co-worker from my previous workplace for the first time in months, and I asked him how's the Wii doing? Real casual player, but he was pretty excited when he got it last winter.
He said "Haven't started up the thing in .. uh .. 6 months". Anecdotal, I know, but combined with your observations there might be something to this.
Numion @ Dec 12th 2008 2:54PM
Just a general comment: it's nice to see that most of the XBox 360 Fanboys aren't the rabid kind, but there's been some interesting commentary here.
Myself I was very close to buying the PS3 instead of 360. Last may I was looking for a next gen console for the sole purpose of playing GTAIV. I had bought PS2 for the sole purpose of playing San Andreas, so I was going for the PS3.
I didn't know anything about Live or anything like that, but I was going to use the console with my computer monitor since I hadn't bought a big-ass TV at then. Just the small fact that 360 is easily connectable with VGA cable versus the stupidity that is PS3 monitor connections (== HDMI which my monitor doesn't support), I ended up with 360.
Well, GTA IV was sold out, I bought CoD 4 instead to pass the time, got hooked on Live 1-month offer, never looked back. I think PS3 still has a lot going for it, but a couple of small but in some ways significant things keep it from winning (controller, connections, Live).
Still, most of my friends have PS3 instead of 360 ... Blu-Ray got them, I think.
Procris @ Dec 13th 2008 6:06PM
I am super happy that the 360 version of Left4Dead is doing ok in the sales. Would i love it to sell even more? Of course but those are solid numbers whatever way you look at it! :) World wide i can easily see L4D selling a million just on 360 alone! In fact, i'll be disappointed if it doesn't!
I do feel bad for PS3 owners though, the fact WaW outsold Resistance 2 which is Sonys first party game is really shocking. That would be like CoD:WaW outselling Gears 2.. kind of embarrassing. Also huge shame LBP has dropped off the charts as that looked like an amazing game that i would have loved on 360. No doubt Sony won't be as worried as people think, they are still doing better than 360 in Japan (sales increasing for PS3) and doing solid in Europe.
The Wii did fantastic, i really didn't see it selling 2 million. Just goes to show that it does sell to normal people, that really wouldn't normally care about gaming. Not a bad thing at all, though it does seem like Nintendo have become the Apple ipod of the gaming space.
Tom @ Dec 13th 2008 6:29PM
Ah, Gears of war 2, how I hoped you would do well. How I hoped everyone online wouldn't be shotguns whores, and that said shotgun whores wouldn't be a problem. I like it when playing with friends, but that's all. Alas, that's what you get when you try and give idiots a game that involves strategy...
Anyways, rock on 360! I hope the awesome collection of games that's on you grows even more in 09!