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NPD Sales Results for December 2008

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
jamesinclair said:
Seeing Guitar Hero for Wii in the top 10? Excellent
Seeing Guitar Hero for PS2 in the top 20? Wonderful.

Having no version of Rock Band chart? Priceless.



Harmonix, Hell hath no fury like that of a Wii and PS2 owner.
Did you know Rockband sold over a million on both Wii and PS2?
 

markatisu

Member
jamesinclair said:
Having no version of Rock Band chart? Priceless.

Harmonix, Hell hath no fury like that of a Wii and PS2 owner.

RB2 for Wii came out in the last week of the month and still sold 150k, RB1 crossed 1m in December and was on pace to outsell the 360 (in 2008 it outsold all over versions, overall its neck and neck with 360)

Besides not rolling in even more money I think Harmonix/EA/MTV is living with themselves :lol
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
jamesinclair said:
Seeing Guitar Hero for Wii in the top 10? Excellent
Seeing Guitar Hero for PS2 in the top 20? Wonderful.

Having no version of Rock Band chart? Priceless.



Harmonix, Hell hath no fury like that of a Wii and PS2 owner.
Get over yourself.
 

jarrod

Banned
markatisu said:
RB2 for Wii came out in the last week of the month and still sold 150k, RB1 crossed 1m in December and was on pace to outsell the 360 (in 2008 it outsold all over versions, overall its neck and neck with 360)

Besides not rolling in even more money I think Harmonix/EA/MTV is living with themselves :lol
It was a bit of a squandered opportunity in hindsight though. Then again, I doubt anyone would've predicted the proportionately bigger drop music games took this fall versus other titles.... pretty much everyone expect both RB2 and GH4 to sell better. :/

If they could do it again, I think foregoing a sequel at all for know and paying lip service to the "Rockband Platform" rhetoric would've helped Harmonix this year. RB1 sales would be higher on the HD twins, there'd be less consumer confusion about compatibility and it'd be considered a "victory" when looked against GH's sales slumping on the back of annual releases. They also could've held back to do a proper RB1 Wii launch in the fall then (ie: fully featured with online play/dlc), which probably would've gotten a huge response itself. I think a version of RB1 like that on Wii, timed appropriately, would've easily outsold GHWT Wii. And really, a lot of the RB2 additions could've been reworked into a download upgrade for PS360, building into the whole "Platform" notion and still driving sales for those platforms.
 

markatisu

Member
jarrod said:
It was a bit of a squandered opportunity in hindsight though. Then again, I doubt anyone would've predicted the proportionately bigger drop music games took this fall versus other titles.... pretty much everyone expect both RB2 and GH4 to sell better. :/

Yeah, but at the same time I hardly link Activision is second guessing itself when GHWT is easily on track to cross 2m shortly and approach the level of GH3 Wii sales

Not sure what they expected to gain flooding the market with 3 guitar games essentially (GH3, GH:A, GHWT)

As for Harmonix, yeah it was money left on the table but that is the story of their interactions with the Wii
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
jarrod said:
It was a bit of a squandered opportunity in hindsight though. Then again, I doubt anyone would've predicted the proportionately bigger drop music games took this fall versus other titles.... pretty much everyone expect both RB2 and GH4 to sell better. :/
Guess which platform they didn't fall on though.
 

Chumly

Member
Everyone here is WAY underestimating top 20 sales. I bet that both COD:Wii and Shaun White did around 400k. Look at it this way.....

Top 20 is...

Top 20 Games of December 2008

1. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA - 1.46 million
2. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD - 1.33 million
3. WII FIT WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA - 999k
4. MARIO KART WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA - 878k
5. GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* WII ACTIVISION BLIZZARD - 859k
6. GEARS OF WAR 2* 360 MICROSOFT - 745k
7. LEFT 4 DEAD 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS - 629k
8. MARIO KART NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA - 540k
9. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD - 533k
10. ANIMAL CROSSING: CITY FOLK* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA - 497k
11. WII MUSIC WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA - 487k
12. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA -
13. PERSONAL TRAINER: COOKING NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA -
14. FALLOUT 3* 360 BETHESDA SOFTWORKS -
15. CLUB PENGUIN: ELITE PENGUIN FORCE NDS DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS -
16. LINK'S CROSSBOW TRAINING WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA -
17. GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* PS2 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD -
18. MADDEN NFL 09* 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS -
19. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR WII ACTIVISION BLIZZARD -
20. SHAUN WHITE SNOWBOARDING: ROAD TRIP WII UBISOFT -

We know that 21-30 that SEVEN of the games are Wii/DS which means only 3 can be 360/PS3/PSP.

We know that Little Big Planet did 255k and we know that POP pretty much has to be past LBP on the 360 chart so we know that the following games are for sure ahead of LBP...

7. 360 MORTAL KOMBAT VS. DC UNIVERSE* MIDWAY -
8. 360 ROCK BAND 2* MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS -
9. 360 FABLE II* MICROSOFT -
10. 360 PRINCE OF PERSIA* UBISOFT -


2. PS3 MORTAL KOMBAT VS. DC UNIVERSE* MIDWAY -

That means at the MAX LBP could have been ranked 33rd on the chart but in all likelihood there was more Wii/DS games inbetween which means it could have been as low as 40th or even lower. With at very MIN the 33rd game selling 255k I would assume that the 19-20th best selling game would be selling 350k + easily.
 

donny2112

Member
Chumly said:
I bet that both COD:Wii and Shaun White did around 400k.
...
With at very MIN the 33rd game selling 255k I would assume that the 19-20th best selling game would be selling 350k + easily.

I completely agree. All we know for sure, though, is that the Top 20 are all somewhere greater than 255K.
 

Cipherr

Member
Shawn White really could do a million worldwide then as they wanted it to? Was that goal set for all platforms combined or just the Wii version alone?
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Did any of the reports on NPD's December 2008 figures cite Pachter's comment on the number of titles selling in excess of 100,000 units?
 

Chumly

Member
jvm said:
Did any of the reports on NPD's December 2008 figures cite Pachter's comment on the number of titles selling in excess of 100,000 units?
Wat? Did he say how many titles sold > than 100k ?
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Chumly said:
Wat? Did he say how many titles sold > than 100k ?
Let me just point to this:
EEDAR expects that software sales for December in the US were USD 2.7 billion, up 14 per cent, with unit sales up 12 per cent, as over 145 games sold over 100,000 units.
(source)

I wouldn't be surprised if that were just about right.
 

markatisu

Member
Was that goal set for all platforms combined or just the Wii version alone?

The 1m WW goal was set just for the Wii, its in the same press release they said they expect 1.5m WW sales of Raving Rabbids TV Party

Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez at the UBS Global Media Conference this week. "I believe to date, Nintendo is about 30-35 percent market share. So that means if you are aggressive, and if you come up with the right products, you can gain market share there." Because of this, the company expects Shaun White Snowboarding and Raving Rabbids TV Party to sell 1 million and 1.5 million units each, respectively.

Link said:
Incidentally, Target has all versions of Shawn White on sale for $40 this week.

Target has had that sale going almost every other week since before Christmas, I picked mine up the week after Christmas for $39

Last week Best Buy had the Wii version on sale for $39 as well, while Target went back to full price.

Ubisoft often runs constant sales on top sellers, Shaun White Wii is being sold with the same retailer pricing promotion as Assasins Creed, CoD4 and CoD:WaW.

I went to Target today and Raving Rabbids TV Party was also on sale for $39...and sold out with rain checks being handed out.
 

Spiegel

Member
jvm said:
Let me just point to this:

(source)

I wouldn't be surprised if that were just about right.

jvm, I don't know if you have seen my request here.
"Could ask for the sales of one PSP game in the Top 10 December PSP games? For example GTA: Vice City Stories or The Force Unleashed."

Is that possible?
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Spiegel said:
jvm, I don't know if you have seen my request here.
"Could ask for the sales of one PSP game in the Top 10 December PSP games? For example GTA: Vice City Stories or The Force Unleashed."

Is that possible?
Yes, I saw the request, and I too would like to know more about PSP sales. That kind of thing may come out eventually, but for the moment I have several other projects I'm going to have to finish first.

Please accept my apology.
 
1cesc said:
35hmet3.gif
hahahahahahahaha.....that was fucking hilarious :lol ..i was fucking sitting here for like 3 minutes lmao
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
markatisu said:
RB2 for Wii came out in the last week of the month and still sold 150k, RB1 crossed 1m in December and was on pace to outsell the 360 (in 2008 it outsold all over versions, overall its neck and neck with 360)

Besides not rolling in even more money I think Harmonix/EA/MTV is living with themselves :lol
At least a quarter of Wii RB1 sales were at the $100 price point though. If they could have gotten $150 on average for those 250,000 copies thats 12.5 million dollars left on the table.
 

CrisKre

Member
EEDAR expects that software sales for December in the US were USD 2.7 billion, up 14 per cent, with unit sales up 12 per cent, as over 145 games sold over 100,000 units.

I really hope two of those games where DeBlob and Tales of Symphonia DOTNW. I want namco to bring New Tales Game for wii over here
 

Busaiku

Member
markatisu said:
I posted this in the wrong thread, gives us a glimpse of how well Ubisoft did this holiday
So 1.01 million between the Wii and DS.
I'd imagine the Wii has the biggest chunk by quite a margin.

And it'll probably have some decent legs.
That's definitely great for it.
 

manueldelalas

Time Traveler
markatisu said:
I posted this in the wrong thread, gives us a glimpse of how well Ubisoft did this holiday

OMG! there is a fuck-ton of DS and Wii non games coming from Ubisoft before March!!! (Imagine, Petzzz and Jake something)
 

markatisu

Member
manueldelalas said:
OMG! there is a fuck-ton of DS and Wii non games coming from Ubisoft before March!!! (Imagine, Petzzz and Jake something)

Amazing isnt it?

They release two high quality Wii games (Shaun White and RRTV), one of which charts in the Top 20 and yet their answer is to just release more Imagine games

Guess they want something to fund another 1 or 2 big Wii games
 
Since we were talking about GH WT and Rockband 2 skus. I was wondering if game only AND bundles are accounted for?

I think a significant advantage GH WT has over Rockband 2 is that GH has Guitar + Game bundles while Rockband 2 doesn't. I might be wrong, but I've never seen it. I think that people wouldn't spend ~$180 for Rockband 2 and would rather spend < $100 instead. Harmonix should have made the same move, I think.
 

Arde5643

Member
markatisu said:
Amazing isnt it?

They release two high quality Wii games (Shaun White and RRTV), one of which charts in the Top 20 and yet their answer is to just release more Imagine games

Guess they want something to fund another 1 or 2 big Wii games
RRTV looks to have big legs as all Raving Rabbids games go.

But yeah, Ubi is definitely mind-boggling when it comes to greenlighting projects for Wii and DS.
 

farnham

Banned
markatisu said:
Amazing isnt it?

They release two high quality Wii games (Shaun White and RRTV), one of which charts in the Top 20 and yet their answer is to just release more Imagine games

Guess they want something to fund another 1 or 2 big Wii games
imagine what the nintendo quality games that ubisoft hinted will do.. (ikidikid)
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
Didn't think it was worthy of a new thread, but IGN has De Blob and Warioland Shake numbers


http://wii.ign.com/articles/947/947929p1.html


De Blob- 230K

Warioland Shake- 150K


Also this quote from THQ: "We're pleased with de Blob's performance worldwide," the rep noted. "It's a great intellectual property and you can tell your readers to expect to see more of de Blob in the future."


Pretty decent IMO.
 
schuelma said:
De Blob- 230K

Warioland Shake- 150K


Also this quote from THQ: "We're pleased with de Blob's performance worldwide," the rep noted. "It's a great intellectual property and you can tell your readers to expect to see more of de Blob in the future."

de Blob DS? ;-)

Good results for both though, even if I am a little disappointed that WLS didn't take off in the way I hoped. Still, no advertising and a near-dead (on consoles, at least) genre and it still did a reasonable amount.

I'd be interested to see how well de Blob does worldwide. I'd guess 1 million would be a struggle - even assuming Europe matches the US and then both go on to do another 100k+ each in slowburn sales, that's only 600k-odd. Canada won't add much to it, nor will Australasia and other regions and I doubt Japan will pop more than a token few dozen thousand on top.

Still, not bad going and I'd imagine it's already rewarded THQ's investment. Hopefully Deadly Creatures will do similarly well.
 

markatisu

Member
I doubt very highly that De Blob needs to reach 1 million to make profit. Wasn't De Blob the game that was built of the winning entry in a college video game creation competition?

THQ just added some R&D money for them to expand it and of course publish it, so I would think if they could get to 500-600k they would be extremely content especially given the nature of Wii games selling long past the first few months.
 

botticus

Member
Thank God they're actually quoting NPD this time.

Great numbers for de Blob, probably about as well as can be expected for Wario.
 

Kenka

Member
schuelma said:
Didn't think it was worthy of a new thread, but IGN has De Blob and Warioland Shake numbers


http://wii.ign.com/articles/947/947929p1.html


De Blob- 230K

Warioland Shake- 150K


Also this quote from THQ: "We're pleased with de Blob's performance worldwide," the rep noted. "It's a great intellectual property and you can tell your readers to expect to see more of de Blob in the future."


Pretty decent IMO.

Thanks god. This is a good sign for Deadly Creatures (but just for hell's sake, please THQ, change the boxart).


EDIT : that's LTD ? Oh man, I thought it was only for december...
 

Accident

Member
Guitar Hero World Tour sells 3.4M in '08, Rock Band 2 hits 1.7M
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot Posted Jan 23, 2009 4:24 pm PT
NPD figures have Activision's rocker outselling Harmonix rival two-to-one in the United States last year.

Last week the NPD Group, the industry standard of game-industry research firms, released its US sales figures for 2008. However, the company's top 10 game rankings only tracked individual products, or SKU (Stock Keeping Units), sold at retailers in the US.


As a result, it was unclear how two of the year's biggest rivals--Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2--fared against one another. Besides being multiplatform releases, the two solidly reviewed rhythm games each came in various retail configurations, such as a la carte or with one or more instruments.

Now, NPD has shared the combined US sales of both World Tour and Rock Band 2 across all platforms and SKUs. The result? The first full-band (drums, guitar/bass, and vocals) installment in Activision's billion-dollar franchise sold 3.4 million copies domestically, twice as many as Rock Band 2's 1.7 million haul. Analysts had the latter game, developed by former Tony Hawk shop Neversoft, selling nearly 1 million units in November alone.

Though the two-to-one ratio is a blowout victory in purely dollar terms, several factors play a role in World Tour's success. For one, the Guitar Hero brand is better known than Rock Band, even though the latter series is generally better received by critics. Besides being available in more retail configurations, Guitar Hero World Tour also went on sale on all platforms--the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3--on October 26. By contrast, Rock Band 2 rolled out onto its console on a staggered schedule, hitting the 360 on September 14, the PS3 October 19, and the Wii and PlayStation 2 on December 18. That means that only 13 days' worth of sales on the two latter platforms--which have the biggest installed bases in the US--were recorded by NPD.
 

manueldelalas

Time Traveler
Accident said:
Guitar Hero World Tour sells 3.4M in '08, Rock Band 2 hits 1.7M
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot Posted Jan 23, 2009 4:24 pm PT
NPD figures have Activision's rocker outselling Harmonix rival two-to-one in the United States last year.

Last week the NPD Group, the industry standard of game-industry research firms, released its US sales figures for 2008. However, the company's top 10 game rankings only tracked individual products, or SKU (Stock Keeping Units), sold at retailers in the US.


As a result, it was unclear how two of the year's biggest rivals--Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2--fared against one another. Besides being multiplatform releases, the two solidly reviewed rhythm games each came in various retail configurations, such as a la carte or with one or more instruments.

Now, NPD has shared the combined US sales of both World Tour and Rock Band 2 across all platforms and SKUs. The result? The first full-band (drums, guitar/bass, and vocals) installment in Activision's billion-dollar franchise sold 3.4 million copies domestically, twice as many as Rock Band 2's 1.7 million haul. Analysts had the latter game, developed by former Tony Hawk shop Neversoft, selling nearly 1 million units in November alone.

Though the two-to-one ratio is a blowout victory in purely dollar terms, several factors play a role in World Tour's success. For one, the Guitar Hero brand is better known than Rock Band, even though the latter series is generally better received by critics. Besides being available in more retail configurations, Guitar Hero World Tour also went on sale on all platforms--the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3--on October 26. By contrast, Rock Band 2 rolled out onto its console on a staggered schedule, hitting the 360 on September 14, the PS3 October 19, and the Wii and PlayStation 2 on December 18. That means that only 13 days' worth of sales on the two latter platforms--which have the biggest installed bases in the US--were recorded by NPD.
EA shot themselves on the foot, and I mean it =P. Really stupid move by them.
 

markatisu

Member
Chris FOM said:
So 45% of GH:WT sales are on the platform that will be getting GH: Metallica 2 months late? Good call there Activision.

Apparently they are taking tips from EA/Harmonix now about how to treat the Wii :lol
 

Link

The Autumn Wind
markatisu said:
Amazing isnt it?

They release two high quality Wii games (Shaun White and RRTV), one of which charts in the Top 20 and yet their answer is to just release more Imagine games

Guess they want something to fund another 1 or 2 big 360/PS3 games
Fixed.


EDIT -
Pachael said:
Harmonix money left on table = more for Activision, by now the definitive third party software maker on the Wii
*looks at GH: Metallica*

So much for that theory!
 
Accident said:
Guitar Hero World Tour sells 3.4M in '08, Rock Band 2 hits 1.7M
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot Posted Jan 23, 2009 4:24 pm PT
NPD figures have Activision's rocker outselling Harmonix rival two-to-one in the United States last year.

Last week the NPD Group, the industry standard of game-industry research firms, released its US sales figures for 2008. However, the company's top 10 game rankings only tracked individual products, or SKU (Stock Keeping Units), sold at retailers in the US.


As a result, it was unclear how two of the year's biggest rivals--Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2--fared against one another. Besides being multiplatform releases, the two solidly reviewed rhythm games each came in various retail configurations, such as a la carte or with one or more instruments.

Now, NPD has shared the combined US sales of both World Tour and Rock Band 2 across all platforms and SKUs. The result? The first full-band (drums, guitar/bass, and vocals) installment in Activision's billion-dollar franchise sold 3.4 million copies domestically, twice as many as Rock Band 2's 1.7 million haul. Analysts had the latter game, developed by former Tony Hawk shop Neversoft, selling nearly 1 million units in November alone.

Though the two-to-one ratio is a blowout victory in purely dollar terms, several factors play a role in World Tour's success. For one, the Guitar Hero brand is better known than Rock Band, even though the latter series is generally better received by critics. Besides being available in more retail configurations, Guitar Hero World Tour also went on sale on all platforms--the Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3--on October 26. By contrast, Rock Band 2 rolled out onto its console on a staggered schedule, hitting the 360 on September 14, the PS3 October 19, and the Wii and PlayStation 2 on December 18. That means that only 13 days' worth of sales on the two latter platforms--which have the biggest installed bases in the US--were recorded by NPD.
I still can't believe at how catastrophic EA and Harmonix handled this with regards to the Wii and to a lesser extent, the PS2. Not just in sales but brand equity.

This is a good example of how of broken the HD business model can be if you completely ignore the mainstream platforms.

Chris FOM said:
So 45% of GH:WT sales are on the platform that will be getting GH: Metallica 2 months late? Good call there Activision.


Wait what, are you serious?

Smh Activision, smh. The Wii is their main GH platform to boot!
 

Link

The Autumn Wind
titiklabingapat said:
Wait what, are you serious?

Smh Activision, smh. The Wii is their main GH platform to boot!
Obviously, the Wii version started selling too much compared to the HD versions. They had to do something to temper sales.

I'm guessing the Third Party Guild sat them down and had a long talk with them.
 
What do you expect?

Big publishers like Activision and EA have invested heavily in the HD consoles, and while they -- along with everyone else -- can accept the outcome of this generation cycle, it doesn't necessarily mean that they won't try to compel consumers to purchase an HD console to complement their Wiis.
 

donny2112

Member
Link said:
Obviously, the Wii version started selling too much compared to the HD versions. They had to do something to temper sales.

I'm guessing the Third Party Guild sat them down and had a long talk with them.

Nah. I'm sure it was just a matter of them looking at the top-selling games on the Wii, not seeing their own game at the top, and they decided that the Wii base didn't really like their games, after all. Remember: Profit can only come from a system with third-party sales at the top of the sales listing. *waggles finger*
 

Mrbob

Member
Is there a breakdown of GHWT sales per item?

I mean 3.4 million looks nice, but if 2 million of them only bought the 90 dollar guitar bundle then revenue wise Rock Band 2 sold close to if not as much as world tour.
 

donny2112

Member
Mrbob said:
I mean 3.4 million looks nice, but if 2 million of them only bought the 90 dollar guitar bundle then revenue wise Rock Band 2 sold close to if not as much as world tour.

Because all of the Rock Band 2 purchases were the full band kit?
 
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