Friday, March 14, 2008

Spin Art: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo's Takes On NPD

Did you know that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all won the console war this month?

Numbers don't lie, but the spin doctors can use them to say anything they want. And the hardware makers' takes on the NPD Group's videogame industry sales results for the month of February are in.

Watch as the masters of media relations twirl and juggle the data before your very eyes, making your head swim with their tricks of language and tempting your taste buds with their chocolaty fudged numbers!

Microsoft's Spin

Xbox 360: Extending The Lead

For February's NPD reporting period, Xbox 360 remained in a supply constrained situation.  The situation is improving and we are confident consumers will soon be able to find the Xbox 360 SKU they seek, in time for the launch of "Grand Theft Auto IV", which we expect to be one of the biggest titles of the year with huge impact on the Xbox 360 platform.

What makes a winning platform? It's more than console sales. It's about consoles + content + community.As you do your reporting this month we thought we’d provide you with what we believe is a complete picture of a healthy console ecosystem, and how Xbox 360 is contributing:

Consoles:

  • $332 million was spent on the Xbox 360 platform this month, capturing 39 percent of the generation’s ecosystem, $235 million was spent on the PS3 and $283 million was spent on the Wii. (February NPD data)
  • The Xbox 360 platform now has a U.S. installed base of 9.6 million; the PS3 has 3.8 million, the Wii has 8.1 million. (February NPD data)
  • February NPD data shows a new Xbox 360 software attach rate of 7.2, nearly twice that of the PS3 or the Wii. (February NPD data)
  • 255,000 Xbox 360 consoles were sold during the month of February.  (February NPD data)

Content:

  • Xbox 360 leads in games, with six out of the top 10 best selling console games in February. (February NPD data)
  • Xbox 360 "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" (Activision) was the best-selling console game across all platforms, outselling the PlayStation 3 version by 2:1. (February NPD data)
  • Xbox 360 has the top selling games on its platform. According to February NPD, Xbox 360 sold $184 million in games, with PS3 selling $97 million and Wii $130 million.
  • Third party partners find more success on Xbox 360.  In February, Xbox 360 accounted for $159 million of all third party game sales this generation, or 45 percent of share. (February NPD data)
  • Xbox 360 has more games available than any other platform, and more than twice the games available on PS3. (February NPD data)

Community:

  • Xbox LIVE is the largest online gaming community currently over 10 million strong worldwide, and growing. The PS3 online network is only 2.9 million (U.S. data only) and the Wii has only four million (this number includes North America and Japan). (Microsoft internal estimates)
  • Xbox LIVE is opening doors to help turn its 10 million gamers into developers. Last month, Xbox 360 announced community games for Xbox LIVE and will be widely available this fall.
  • Today, we are announcing Xbox LIVE experienced 750,000 downloads of seven new community games on Xbox LIVE. They were made available for free, for less than a week. (Microsoft internal estimates)

When you look at lifetime performance of all three consoles, Xbox 360 continues to lead:

Lifetime Ecosystem Performance (US NPD Data):

  • To date, $9.0 billion have been spent on Xbox 360 in the U.S, which is more than the competition’s retail dollars combined. This is nearly $6 billion more than consumers have spent on PS3 and approximately $4.5 billion more than Wii.
  • Third party publishers make 60 percent of their revenue at retail on the Xbox 360 platform this generation.

Xbox 360: Extending the Lead

  • Xbox 360 has six of the top 10 best games, ranked by quality. (Metacritic)
  • No other game platform delivers downloadable digital entertainment, with family favorites like "Hannah Montana" and "Lost."
  • No other platform delivers interactive online experiences to more than 10 million members around the globe.

Now that you've seen the gaming ecosystem from a different perspective, we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

p.s. In case you were wondering, Microsoft is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Disc Association regarding integrating Blu-ray in to the Xbox 360 experience. Games are what are driving consumers to purchase game consoles and we remain focused on providing the largest and best library of blockbuster games available.

Sony®'s Spin

PS3 Sales Eclipse Xbox 360 for Second Straight Month; Year-Over-Year Sales More Than Doubled

Total PlayStation Hardware Unit Sales Top 875,969

PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) outsold Xbox 360 for the second straight month with 280,841 hardware units sold in February, 10% higher than Microsoft (according to NPD February 2008 sales data). Year-over-year this represents 120% sales growth.

  • Wait, There's More… Next month will see the introductions of heavyweights Grand Theft Auto IV and PS3-exclusive Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, and June will usher in the monster 2008 title Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. And let’s not forget DUALSHOCK®3 rumbles to North American retailers in April. The arsenal of 2008 blockbusters including LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, MotorStorm 2, and SingStar, combined with current momentum for Blu-ray, will further PS3 enthusiasm throughout the year.
  • PLAYSTATION®Network Is Burgeoning: Currently in North America there are more than 3.3 million registered PLAYSTATION Network accounts and more than 56 million total downloads life-to-date from PLAYSTATION®Store. PLAYSTATION Network total downloads exceeded 6.3 million in February 2008, compared to 6.6 million at the peak of the holiday season in December 2007. Only on PLAYSTATION Network can you find innovative games like Calling All Cars, Everyday Shooter, fl0w, PAIN, Tekken 5, Warhawk and Super Stardust.

PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) continued its trend of strong sales with 243,115 PSP hardware units sold in February, representing a year-over-year increase of 38%.

  • If You Think February Sales Were Good… Rave reviews of God of War: Chains of Olympus, wipEout® PULSE and Patapon are already pouring in, not to mention the highly anticipated debut of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on March 25, which are expected to further PSP sales growth.

PlayStation®2 (PS2) continues to surprise and delight mainstream audiences with hardware unit sales reaching 351,787 units. Additionally, for the third consecutive month PS2 sold more software units than any other console on the market, not only a testament to the staying power of PlayStation products, but also the incredible PlayStation software library.

Power of the PlayStation Portfolio

The PlayStation brand generated the most U.S. retail dollars in the industry for the second consecutive month with $511 million in sales, 52% and 6% higher than Microsoft and Nintendo, respectively. 

  • Year to date (Jan-Feb), the PlayStation brand generated nearly $1 billion in the U.S. market, 56% and 15% higher than Microsoft and Nintendo, respectively.
  • PlayStation total hardware revenue was $204 million in February, 125% and 11% higher than Microsoft and Nintendo, respectively.
  • PlayStation total software revenue in February was $247 million, 32% and 5% higher than Microsoft and Nintendo respectively.

CEO Perspective

"Consumers are recognizing the tremendous value of PS3 and we believe that Blu-ray becoming the high-def format of choice was the tipping point for many consumers. With monster titles like Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Grand Theft Auto IV launching in April and Metal Gear Solid 4 in June, we’re demonstrating this is the year for PS3."

- Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America

Nintendo's Spin

NPD Reports Nintendo's Solid U.S. Sales for February

The latest video game industry sales figures reported by the independent NPD Group show that Nintendo DS™ and Wii™ topped the U.S. charts for February. Nintendo DS sold nearly 587,600 units and Wii sold nearly 432,000.

"Our momentum has not let up since the holidays and we expect it to continue throughout the year," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "We have the industry’s strongest lineup of games for everyone from core to casual gamers."

February sales, according to NPD, in the United States:

  • Nintendo sold more than 1 million hardware units combined, accounting for nearly half (47.6 percent) of all hardware sold.
  • Nintendo DS games topped all software sales, with more than 3.6 million units sold. Consumers purchased nearly 2.9 million software units for Wii. Four of every 10 games sold were for Nintendo systems.
  • Three games in the top five sellers for February play on Nintendo systems, including two from third-party publishers.
  • Nearly 1.7 million accessories were purchased for Wii, more than for any other system. More than 1.2 million accessories were sold for Nintendo DS as well.

Form : http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/03/spin-art-micros.html