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Game Consoles – January 2008 NPD Sales Figure Analysis

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

In the excitement over the end of the HD format war, I had almost forgotten about the January 2008 NPD game console sales figures for the US. As expected, sales dropped quite a bit after the Holiday sales, but were still quite respectable. 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 January are below, ranked in order of number of sales:

  •  Wii: 274,000 (Total: 7.7 million)
  • PS3: 269,000 (Total: 3.5 million)
  • PS2: 265,000 (Total: 41.3 million)
  • DS: 251,000 (Total: 17.9 million)  
  • Xbox 360: 230,000 (Total: 9.5 million)
  • PSP: 230,000 (Total: 10.8 million)

    • NPD January 2008 Game Console US Sales Figures

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

    There’s a bit of a controversy over this month’s figures. Microsoft has claimed that stock shortages, due to January stock being sold in December to cover the unexpected strong demand, has severely affected sales figures in the month. Nintendo has claimed the same reason for the low Wii sales numbers. This confirms my personal experience during December here in Australia, where most stores had no stock for Xbox 360 and Wii’s, while the only game console on sale was the PS3. Sony’s PS3 did not suffer from similar stock problems, and with the positive vibes coming from Warner’s decision to support Blu-ray exclusively, the PS3 recorded the first ever monthly victory over the Xbox 360. But as mentioned before, these numbers should be treated with some suspicion. And as such, I will limit my analysis for this month, which is also due to the low figures being reported as compared to last month.

    Probably more indicative of the actual market was software sales. It was another strong month for the Xbox 360, with 5 titles in the top 14, including the coveted number one spot (once again taken by the excellent Call of Duty 4). The Wii also had 4 top selling software in the same list, while the PS3 had two (one of them is, you guessed it, Call of Duty 4). The Xbox 360 therefore accounted for 40% of the top 14 selling software, Wii at 33% and the PS3 at 10%. If you look at the total console sales figure graph above, the ratios do look similar.

    Next month, hopefully, will see some figures that aren’t possibly affected by stock shortages. See you then.

    Posted in Gaming, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, NPD Analysis, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | 2 Comments »

    Is the High Definition Format War Over? (Yes, it is)

    Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

    So how does one end a format war? Do you do it quickly and out of the blue, like Warner’s Blu-ray exclusive announcement? Or do you do it gradually as to soften the blow? Or perhaps news is leaked and your hand is forced.

    It certainly sounds like the third of the above scenarios has come true for Toshiba and HD DVD. Just before the weekend, reports circulated that Toshiba was about to drop HD DVD. Toshiba did not issue any statement since their press department was closed for the weekend, although most news services took the earlier report’s word that Toshiba had officially made the announcement. It was only on Monday that it was revealed Toshiba had not made any official announcement yet, and that the earlier reports only cited unnamed sources that may not even have worked for Toshiba. But the earlier leak had the effect of forcing Toshiba to respond, and with all major news outlets writing off the format and no doubt affecting consumer sentiment, it has really forced Toshiba into a corner. If it doesn’t drop the format, it will be accused to extending the format war unnecessarily. While this is tinfoil hat category stuff, you’ve got to wonder which parties were responsible for the leak in the first place. Some say it’s Toshiba wanting to soften the blow, but there are surely better ways to do this with a gradual withdraw over months, not days. The fact that Toshiba’s PR department was caught unawares during a weekend suggests something a bit more unplanned.

    While Toshiba are still denying that they have made the decision to cut back, if not completely stop, HD DVD development and production, the rumours about the format’s imminent demise haven’t stopped. The latest news says that Tuesday (that’s today) will be the day Toshiba officially announced something.

    Update: Toshiba has, as expected, announced the discontinuation of their HD DVD business. In a press release available on the official Toshiba website, the following statement was made:

    Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

    Toshiba HD DVD: RIP?
    Toshiba HD DVD: RIP

    Whether a format declaration is forthcoming or not, I think it is clear that if there was to be a winner of the format war, it will be Blu-ray and not HD DVD. Unless Toshiba can pull a rabbit out of a hat and get another major studio to back its format, the format war is all but over, and it has been since Warner’s announcement.

    Those that have followed my ramblings will know that I hold a soft spot for HD DVD. While I have both formats, and I’ve spent more money on Blu-ray (mainly due to it having more movie sales), I like HD DVD due to it’s more consumer friendly approach, and I have recently grown to dislike Blu-ray due to a reason not entirely related to the technical aspect of the format (more on that below). No region coding, no excessive DRM in BD+, and no messing around with unfinished specs, are all major advantages of the format. And from an environmental point of view, HD DVD’s usage of existing DVD manufacturing technology means it is more Earth friendly than Blu-ray’s demand for new manufacturing plants and assembly lines to be built (and it will be cheaper for us consumers in the long run, because the cost of building these new facilities will be passed onto us eventually). It is a shame that HD DVD as a format looks to have failed, but the positives is that it may signal the end of format confusions. HD DVD’s role in the format war has also allowed prices to drop faster, forced some studios to turn away from region-coding (Warner, Paramount and Universal all haven’t used region coding, so far) and has given us a preview of what Internet connected features will be like when Blu-ray Profile 2.0 (“BD-Live”) is launched later in the year.

    As for how Blu-ray has (almost) won the war? Well, I think it has to do with the greater studio support (thanks to its studio-friendly, consumer un-friendly features), greater support from CE manufacturers, and of course, the PS3.

    It is unfortunate that the format war, towards the end, has gotten a bit out of control. With personal insults flying between the two camps, one again wonders why people invest so much into supporting proprietary formats and multi-national corporations. Now I mentioned earlier that I’ve grown to dislike Blu-ray over recent months. And much of it has to do with these Fanboys. While I could write another blog twice as long as this one to explain how I feel, I think this post by AdamNZ that I found on the DTV Forum Australia sums up what I feel best, and I shall end this blog entry with his words:

    When Blu-ray and HD DVD began to be discussed at the end of 1995/early 1996 I had no particular preference for either. I still don’t really. There were enthusiasts who preferred one over the other, but everyone realised it was about the movies and the discussion focused mainly on what movies would be coming out on which format. There were a lot of home theatre enthusiasts who really looked forward to the prospects of both formats.

    When HD DVD came out people were very pleased about the quality and features straight out of the gate. I expected the same from Blu-ray; and while it wasn’t as smooth out of the gate it improved very quickly and soon caught up. I was pleased that HD DVD was feature-complete, and that Blu-ray had the potential to be even better (the potential it still has). I wasn’t happy about region coding, but I was there at the outset of DVD so I knew this would be overcome eventually so it was an annoyance and no more. I and my friends bought both formats and enjoyed the films.

    Then it became clear that the most vocal advocates of both formats were youg people who bought Xbox 360s or Playstation 3s. I thought that was good for adoption, but their annoying arguments based entirely on theoretical benefits and without any direct comparisons or personal experience with the other side really turned me off. I feel this grew at an alarming rate as the formats’ fans (who often weren’t genuine home theatre enthusiasts, just people who supported the format that their console supported) became more and more dominant. People stopped talking about movies and began talking about bandwidth, Profiles and BD+ and all sorts of other issues that aren’t directly relevant to watching movies (and their supplemental materials) in high definition.

    This was when I started to become biased. Not toward a particular format, but to the followers. Blu-ray’s most annoying ‘fans’ all seemed to me to have one common denominator: a Playstation 3. I really resented the future of a format being decided by gamers with no direct interest in home theatre. These people had the same 12-year-old’s self-righteousness as the Xbox 360 buyers, but there were more of them. A seemingly unending army of them it seemed.

    Sony and Buena Vista were producing some great looking titles, but the people who supported it most were watching discs on 19″ LCD monitors and using the optical output to get stereo, and going on and on about 1080p this, bandwidth that. Most of them only had a vague notion of what they were talking about (not uncommon) but because they seemed so much younger they were quite belligerent that they knew best. Xbox owners suffered a similar affliction, but at least I knew that those with HD DVD had knowingly and deliberately sought out an add-on specifically to play movies. Many of the Playstation 3 posters admitted that they didn’t own a single Blu-ray Disc themselves.

    Today I continue to buy Blu-ray (played on a standalone so I can listen to lossless audio via analogue outputs) and HD DVD, and I have seen some great movies in both formats. I am not unhappy that Blu-ray has won the war, but I hate seeing the insufferable gloating of these same owners who claim credit for apparently single-handedly winning the war. I feel like the war was won by children on the back of a game platform.

    I just want to throw my slippers and pipe at them and yell at them to get off my lawn. Well, not really as I’m only 32. But I think Blu-ray would have a much better image among home theatre enthusiasts if it wasn’t for its game platform fans. Damn kids! This format war had created more vitriol and division in the last two years than any format war I can remember (including DIVX and Betamax) and I’m glad it’s over. Now if only Blu-ray’s younger fans would shut up and start buying some movies.

    Posted in High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | 3 Comments »

    Weekly News Roundup (17 February 2008)

    Sunday, February 17th, 2008

    I’ve never completely trusted February. How can you trust a month that isn’t 30 or 31 days, and not only that, seems to change length every couple of years as well. February is well shifty, I wouldn’t trust it to give me the time of the day, let alone the day of the month. This issue of the roundup is a bit short of news, just like February is short of days. Don’t blame me, blame February (hey, that’s not a bad slogan).

    In copyright news, the “War on Torrents” has been declared a success by the outgoing Bush administration. In a time when terrorism, the economy, the environment and many other issues are causing concern, it’s nice to see where the White House’s priorities are. The “War on Canada” continues, with a US Group calling Canada a top copyright violator. Canada is still deciding on whether to adopt tougher copyright laws, so the scare campaign is not surprising. After all, the same tactic has been applied time and time again in other countries, including Australia. Here, we’ve been forced to adopt the same harsh laws as part of our free trade agreement with the US – no DMCA, no trade, is apparently the message the Bush administration is sending out on behalf of the MPAA.

    But this week really has been about HD news, and actually, mainly bad news for HD DVD. As I type this, the vulture and their fanboy riders are circling, as rumours suggest Toshiba will call it quits. It’s probably the right decision *if* Toshiba believes they can’t win or sustain the format war, and I hope they bring their expertise in producing the XA2/XE1 to bring a cheaper, new Blu-ray/dual format Profile 2.0 player, that’s also region-free. One can still dream, right? As someone who is format neutral, it’s sad to see HD DVD go along with cheap hardware prices and region-free discs, if the rumours are true. But on the other hand, being neutral was all about avoiding and mitigating the potential risks of a format dying, while being able to enjoy all available HD movies from the get go. I have a Toshiba HD-XE1 player, the best DVD upscaler you can buy for under $1,200 (and I got it for $500) and will be my main DVD player and HD DVD player to service the 30 HD DVD movies that I currently own (and I will add more titles to my collection if there are clearance sales and such). My Xbox 360 add-on drive will now become an external drive for my (as yet un-purchased) new computer for testing HD stuff. My PS3 remains my main Blu-ray player until something better comes along (Profile 2.0, bitstreaming/decoding for all audio formats, fast loading and response like the PS3). All bases covered, as they say. Anyway, the whole week started on a sour note for HD DVD when Netflix decided to go Blu-ray exclusive. This was followed by Best Buy deciding to recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD, while still stocking both types of players and movies. The biggest blow came when, previously HD DVD exclusive Wal-Mart, went Blu-ray exclusive as well. Then the rumour surfaced that Toshiba was going to drop HD DVD, and this rumour, plus possibly some fact behind it, is now what’s causing the media circus. Monday is supposed to be the day Toshiba officially announces their decision, and the official end of the format war, and I will cover whatever happens in more detail in a blog entry. In between all of this HD DVD bad news, there was one bit of “good” news for HD DVD in that Warner has not ruled out still providing movies on HD DVD after the end of May. Probably a bit pointless now.

    In gaming news, I’ve not yet had the time to go over the January NPD figures for game sales (next week, I promise). Apparently, the PS3 beat the Xbox 360 for the first time in monthly sales figures, although it was largely a quiet month in terms of game console sales compared to the feverish December period. Both the Wii and 360 sold considerably less units as compared previously, and both Nintendo and Microsoft has blamed it on stock shortages after unexpected demand in December forced them to sell January stock ahead of time. This corresponds with my experiences during December, when store after store I visit would not have any Wii or 360 stock, while the only game console available was the PS3. But hardware stock issues should not affect software sales, and the 360 has another good month with 4 titles in the top 10, including the number one item (Call of Duty 4). The Wii also did well 3 titles, while the PS3 only had 1 item (Call of Duty 4 again) at 8th, the remaining two spots belonging to the Nintendo DS. More details in a blog entry next week.

    And so that’s it for this week. The next few days will prove interesting for HD enthusiasts. And by HD, I mean both Blu-ray and HD DVD. People often forget that Blu-ray is HD (High Definition) as well. HD DVD is a brand just like Blu-ray, while HD is just a description of a certain type of video, like SD being used to describe DVDs.

    Posted in Copyright, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (17 February 2008)

    Weekly News Roundup (10 February 2008)

    Sunday, February 10th, 2008

    Okay, I’ve learnt my lesson. No more controversial intros for the roundup. Just to be clear, if I ever unintentionally mention I might quit writing this feature in the future, I’m most likely only kidding, unless I follow up the statement with THIS IS NOT A JOKE!! In fact, I don’t think you should take anything I write here seriously, since 90% of the stuff I write are actually complete lies.  Or perhaps the last sentence was a lie. Or was the last sentence a lie …

    Copyright vs consumer rights is being fought around the globe, this time a Japanese perspective on the issue of Digital TV recordings and copy protection. Sometimes content owners just need to take a step back and see the bigger picture, because if they had their way, half of the products on the market would be “illegal”, and the other half will be filled with DRM. The RIAA, being the leaders of the Senseless Copyright Brigade (SCB), talks about forcing computer hardware and software manufacturers to implement “piracy filters” to prevent people from transferring and playing pirated music. Luckily, the people in the IT industry, who have been affected by piracy more than anybody else, will take a more sensible approach and ignore RIAA’s request. The most recent example being Verizon rejecting another SCB member, the MPAA’s, request for filtering. Good for Verizon, and I hope people reading this will buy their products and use their services to support them.

    It’s been nearly two weeks since the Blu-ray free movies promo has ended, and there does not seem to be any signs that a new promotion will start in place of the expired one. The BDA seems to have stopped trying on the promotional front, maybe because they think they’ve won, or because they are saving up for one big final push. It’s not that great being a Blu-ray owner at the moment, with only two rather pathetic sales on at Amazon (one for 6 titles only, the other for 10 titles from Fox, but only a 10% discount on normal Amazon prices). If this is what we should expect if Blu-ray wins the day, then I for one hopes the format continues on for a bit longer so I can buy more cheap movies. Netflix is the most recent of companies to suggest higher HD movie prices are on the way once the war is over, so the lost revenue during the war can be recouped. On the other hand, the HD DVD people have been doing a lot more on the promotional front, with the Superbowl ad now aired (although by all accounts, it was a pretty lame effort), player price drops (which has been better received, with hardware and software sales both up compared to the horrible weeks following Warner’s announcement), movie discounts at Amazon (a new 140+ title 50% off sale is gathering immense interest) and in store promotions (at least here in Australia). Microsoft dropping the price of the Xbox 360 add-on drive is just another part of the promotion, and sales of the drive at Amazon went up an amazing 71,900% after the price cut. Perhaps some will view it as “too little too late”, but there’s still a long time between now and June, when Warner officially drops HD DVD, and anything could happen in between. Then there is also the issue of the Chinese market, which HD DVD has been making huge investments in with both an official Chinese HD format (CH DVD), and also staying out of the Chinese HD DVD market to allow Chinese manufacturers to profit from HD DVD player sales. I know for a fact that the Chinese government does not like Blu-ray (or HD DVD, for that matter) due to the excessive royalties and licensing fees, and so going with the royalty free CH DVD format is their aim, which might be even cheaper than producing DVDs since DVDs have licensing costs too. For a comprehensive and detailed view at the HD format war, the Warner’s decision, the CES, the past, present and future, there is a good article on AV Forums (not to be confused with AVS Forum). There are lots of good points made in the article, as well as some facts that weren’t so clear before – regardless of which side you’re on, it’s worth a read.

    And it’s not been great time for Samsung, after being threatened with a lawsuit over their poorly designed BD-UP5000 dual format player, they are now being sued proper for their allegedly “defective” BD-P1200 Blu-ray player in a class action lawsuit. The article goes on about BD+, but the real issue is behind an update to BD-J, which Samsung promised to provide over a firmware update, but has not done so for some reason, causing certain discs to be unplayable. As a owner of a brand new Toshiba HD-XE1 player, I’m extremely pleased to be able to buy such a player (for $USD 490 with 11 free HD DVD movies, which is a steal for a player of this quality). There is currently no Blu-ray player that can match the quality of the XE1 and it’s almost identical twin, the XA2, even without considering price, and that’s something the BDA will have to address soon. A fully featured Blu-ray Profile 2.0 player with Reon upscaling, made by a company known for high end equipment such as Denon or Onkyo, is what many Blu-ray owners are waiting for. But it will take a long time before such a player can be made available, since according to a Denon rep, the reason they have not released a Profile 2.0 player is because Profile 2.0 is not even finalized yet. The worrying thing is that, because Profile 2.0 is not finalized and new things can still be added to it, the PS3 is just a proprietary connector away from being ever able to achieve Profile 2.0 compatibility. For example, if the BDA decides WirelessHD has to be a mandatory part of 2.0, then the PS3, which I have recommended to everybody as the safest bet for Profile 2.0, will never get certified. Let’s hope the BDA come to their sense and allow the PS3 to be 2.0 compatible.

    Not much gaming news this week. EA predicts the PS3 will be the top selling player in 2008, while Activision predicts the Xbox 360. Microsoft says they “own” GTA IV due to the exclusive content. And other such PR nonsense, which I won’t even dignify with links (you can search Google News if you’re really desperate). There is one piece of interesting news, reporting that game arcades are suffering because people can now play the same type of games at home on the Wii. An unintended victim of the console wars, no doubt.

    That’s it for this week, same time, same channel, next week (I think I’ve used this joke before).

    Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, Nintendo Wii, Wii U, Switch, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Comments Off on Weekly News Roundup (10 February 2008)

    Weekly News Roundup (3 February 2008)

    Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

    Sometimes I wonder if anybody is actually reading this, and that if I should bother continue writing this roundup. But I think I will continue, because I like routine and there’s nothing like a Sunday afternoon spent in front of your computer writing something nobody reads. No, really, it’s good.

    In Europe, record labels are now blaming ISPs for music piracy. ISPs have been fearing something like this for a long time, to be blamed for inappropriate content that its users are obtaining online, be it copy protected content or child pornography. They know that if they are held responsible, they will have to start monitoring user traffic. The privacy issues apart, it’s a huge task and responsibility to be placed on a company that sometimes has less than 20 employees. And do we really want a private company to monitor everything we download and to tell us what is appropriate and what is not? The targeting of ISPs might be a change of direction of content owners, since a court has ruled that personal privacy is more important than upholding the rights of content owners. It seems like a very reasonable decision to me, but we now live in a time when reason has fallen victim to corporate greed. And to no surprise of anybody, The Pirate Bay has finally been charged with breaking copyright law. I have a feeling the guys over at TPB have been waiting for this and are prepared for the battle. It will be interesting to see what happens.

    And while not strictly copyright related, the beta version of Qtrax was finally launched. Qtrax promises access to millions of songs from record labels free to download in P2P form, with the playback/download application being advertising supported. I for one don’t think this will work, since Internet advertising is not what it used to be, and with a few content owners coming out to say they don’t know what’s going onand that they have had no dealings with Qtrax, things are not looking too bright.

    HD DVD is still fighting the good (?) fight, and will spend millions on a 30 second Superbowl ad spot. I just hope they make it funny like most other Superbowl ads. Toshiba’s price cuts to HD DVD players seems to be having an effect, clawing back some of the market in player sales after being beaten senseless in the week following Warner’s Blu-ray exclusive decision (although news has now filtered out that the figures from that week represented a Blu-ray player give-away plus a plunge in HD DVD player sales, meaning total HD sales dropped after Warner’s announcement, which is not what Warner had hoped for in choosing to go with a single format). Here in Australia, the Toshiba HD-XE1 high end player is selling extremely well, not surprising for a $1,000+ player being sold for half of its value. Rumours suggest that HD DVD player sales out-did Blu-ray player sales by 2 to 1 in Australia this last week (led by the XE1), even with the PS3 is included. Going by some of the posts I’ve been reading on Australian HD forums and testimonials from people who have visited electronics stores to enquire about the XE1, that’s not totally surprising. The US is also seeing HD DVD player “clearance” sales, although as Circuit City points out, the “clearance” tag is just used for promotion, and they plan on continuing to carry HD DVD since sales has been quite good since the “clearance” started. Low prices sell stuff, it’s not rocket science. Although with Blu-ray in a strong position, will we start seeing the end of free movie redemption and movie discounts? I hope not. High definition movies still have a long way to go before consumers are convinced that it is needed to replace DVDs, and discounts will definitely help. And speaking of discounts, here in Australia, we can buy The Jack Ryan HD DVD Collection (four movies: The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games and The Sum of All Fears) for about $USD 35. This title is part of Paramount’s HD DVD line up for Q1 2008, and has a retail price of $USD 99 in the US. People in the US might want to buy from Australia, since HD DVD is region-free and any disc will work anywhere. This store in Australia ships to the US for those that are interested.

    A couple of short items in terms of movement between HD camps, some Italian distributors have gone HD DVD exclusive; rumour suggest Imation might be scrapping HD DVD production through its TDK brand (even though TDK has never released HD DVD, and TDK company is a Blu-ray exclusive backer and became a major shareholder in Imation in a deal that allowed Imation to use the TDK brand name); ADV Films (anime) might be going Blu-ray exclusive too. Sonic also announced that they will stop supporting the HD DVD version of their Scenarist authoring tool. It’s a bit of a kick in the teeth for people who purchased the HD DVD version of their quite expensive software, even if a exchange program is going to be made available (I’m sure people who bought the HD DVD version had specific needs that won’t be addressed by the Blu-ray version, which they might already own anyway). Oh well, I’m sure other companies will fill the demand, if they haven’t done so already. Microsoft maybe?

    And finally, in gaming, a firm release date has been released for GTA: IV in late April. Rockstar broke the silence on the release delay (it was supposed to be available back in October 2007) and as expected, it was the PS3 version that was holding things back, although only partly responsible. The exclusive downloadable content will still be available on the Xbox 360 only, but there will be more downloadable content that will be available on both consoles. I for one can’t wait, and hopefully my RRoD’d 360 will be fully functioning by then. There is also rumours floating around that a new PS3 will be available in the autumn, one that is slimmer and has 120 or 160 GB storage depending on where you found the rumour. Competition to a new quiter, cooler, 360 SKU to be released around the same time? And to follow up on the Mass Effect Fox News Sex Scandal (it sounds a lot more exciting than it actually is, kind of like everything being “reported” on Fox News), the Fox News contributor admits she was wrong and that she has now had a change of mind after actually seeing the game being played for the first time. Oh dear.

    And so this concludes this week’s roundup. Hopefully I will have more updates on my 360 RRoD experience, perhaps an update to a very popular guide that will allow better video playback on a certain game console, and maybe I’ll write that blog on HD managed copy that I promised to write 2 weeks ago. Patience, my lovelies.

    Posted in Copyright, Electronics, High Definition (Blu-ray/HD DVD/4K), News Roundup, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One | 1 Comment »

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