August Console Sales Numbers (post 179)

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Exciting news here for Knights of the Old Republic fans. Looks like BioWare and LucasArts will be doing a MMO set in that universe. Announcement expected on October 21st.

Gamasutra - LucasArts, BioWare Prepare To Announce Joint Project

Age of Conan didn't catch on for me, but this game could get me back into the MMO scene after a very long absence.

[Deattribution]

I'd personally rather have a single player game, or one with some multiplayer but not MMO style. I see them wanting to try again at the failure that was a Star Wars MMO since there is so much money in it, but I don't see them being able to capture any of the spirit of the gameplay of KOTOR. It'll only be the game in name and visuals.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Couple of new game announcements early on the first day of the Tokyo Game Show.

-Demon Souls, a new JRPG, created by Sony Entertainment.
-Quantam Theory, a 3rd person shooter, created by Tecmo.

Both of the above games are PS3 exclusives.

FYI.....MS keynote conference is at Noon EDT today and Sony keynote conference is at 10:00 PM EDT today.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Two more leaks on the PS3 front.

-Japan will receive 2 PS3 bundles for the holiday season. One will have Little Big Planet and the other will have GT5 Prologue.
-White Knight Chronicles will have an online co-op mode.

Also, a rumor is circulating (yet again) at the show that an external Blu-ray drive is in the works for the Xbox 360.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Pretty astounding numbers for the Blu-ray release of 'Ironman' as the format numbers continue to quickly improve. 20% of all 'Ironman' retail sales were Blu-ray discs. Online, the Blu-ray version of the movie achieved a 50/50 split with the DVD version. It appears that we're seeing a repeat of the VHS/DVD conversion. DVD starting accumulating a much larger portion of the market in its third holiday season and the Blu-ray format appears to be doing the same thing.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...?desc=topstory

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Halo 3 Recon announced for the Xbox 360. Sounds like a new main character/campaign. Will be released next fall (2009). Wouldn't be shocked to see Gears of War and Halo alternate every other holiday season to ensure a big shooter title each year on the MS console.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

More news from Tokyo Game Show...

Ninety Nine Nights 2 for the 360 announced.
No More Heroes 2 announced for the Wii.
New Castlevania game coming to the PS3/360.

Four new downloadable board games coming to the PSN, including Settlers of Catan.

Game Republic brings board games to PS3 (andriasang.com, 10.08.2008)

[Cringer]

Ninety Nine Nights 2 for the 360 announced.

Interesting. I enjoyed the first game, but there was very little to the game. I hope they make #2 a little more deep, and longer.

[stevew]

What's the status on the DLC for GTA4? I'm so glad I didn't wait to offload my copy.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by stevew

What's the status on the DLC for GTA4? I'm so glad I didn't wait to offload my copy.

They're hoping to get it out before Christmas. As you mention, it seems like it's been far too long.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Tekken 6 announced for both 360 and PS3. It had only been announced for PS3 up until now, but had been rumored for a 360 release for some time.

[Big Fo]

Glad to see No More Heroes 2 announced, I enjoyed the first one. Hopefully it uses WiiMotion+ for the lightsaber attacks. More enemy variety and less driving through the boring overworld would also be nice.

Marvelous Entertainment now has as many Wii games I'm looking forward to (NMH2, Little King's Story, Muramasa: The Demon Blade) as Nintendo does, which is kind of strange.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I did a search and didn't find a NBA 2K9 thread, so I'll just post this announcement in here. 2K Sports announced that a PC version of 2K9 will be available later this month. I'm sure this is a situation where they saw opportunity due to the lack of EA games on the PC for this year. Probably a good move for them to develop a fan base on the PC with no EA competition.

[gstelmack]

Bill Harris points out that over the last 9 weeks, 360 is strongly outselling PS3 in Japan, 103,801 to 79,302:

Dubious Quality: Console Post of the Week

[Big Fo]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Bill Harris points out that over the last 9 weeks, 360 is strongly outselling PS3 in Japan, 103,801 to 79,302:

Dubious Quality: Console Post of the Week

Sony: We want Xbox 360 to succeed in Japan

"I like to see people here in Japan showing interest in high-definition gaming and more sophisticated gaming experiences," offered Yoshida, in an interview with our sister site Eurogamer.net.

"In terms of realistic-looking graphics and smarter AI, they haven't really shown the appetite for what this generation of gaming can offer. I'd really like to see both PS3 and 360 succeed here."

Two years ago I think they'd have been fine being the only ones bringing the Japanese into the "high-definition gaming" era.

[gstelmack]

Heh. That's basically saying "anything that cuts into Wii's share".

[Cringer]

hardy har har!

I may have gone over to the darkside. Or maybe I am a double agent. Wii got a We....err, I mean we got a Wii. The wife has been interested in one over the last week or so (not sure what she saw but I think it had to do with Wii Fit and yoga) and not thinking she was real serious I kept joking with her about getting it. So today she went to the store for some stuff and came home with a Wii, Wii Play, and a 3rd party pack with component cables, little attachments for a steering wheel, tennis racket, golf club, and other stuff. I laughed my ass off.

Knowing her I right away said it was a good thing it was Sunday so I have no desire to open it up right away and it will sit around the house unopened today in case she decides to return it because she changed her mind (she always changes her mind on stuff because she hates spending more then $50 at a time). She then said she almost got a PS3 instead, and at one point was about to get both because she knows we are going to end up with a PS3 since she wants a new dvd player and a blu-ray would be nice to have.

We should end up keeping it though, since she knew when she got it it was in part because she wanted it and she knew my kid would flip about it. I will have to go rent Boom Blox sometime soon now.

My only disappointing thing in all this is this may mean I don't buy Saint's Row 2 which comes out on tuesday now, I may just rent it for a month.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Exciting news here for Knights of the Old Republic fans. Looks like BioWare and LucasArts will be doing a MMO set in that universe. Announcement expected on October 21st.

Gamasutra - LucasArts, BioWare Prepare To Announce Joint Project

Booooooooo. Goddamnit, I want a standalone single-player game! KOTOR was awesome, and even 2 was a step forward in gameplay (although the ending was.. incomplete, to say the least)

[cartman]

It appears that Sony has pretty much conceded this generation to Nintendo and Microsoft. No price cuts this holiday season.

No PS3 Holiday Price Cut, Sony Exec Admits -- PS3 Xbox -- InformationWeek

[Big Fo]

Michael Pachter has come out with his usual monthly predition:

Wii - 600k
360 - 300k
PS3 - 170k

We estimate sell-through of 600,000 Wii, 300,000 Xbox 360 and 175,000 PS3 consoles. Our console sell-through forecasts reflect our belief that supplies for Wii hardware increased this month, as some portion of increased Wii production that started in July likely finally found its way to retail late in the month. Similarly, we believe that Xbox 360 demand increased after the September price cuts, with some market share gain likely over the PS3.

link

Predictions from another company, EEDAR:

* DS - 600,000
* Wii - 600,000
* Xbox 360 - 320,000
* PSP - 235,000
* PS3 - 215,000

link

Originally Posted by cartman

It appears that Sony has pretty much conceded this generation to Nintendo and Microsoft. No price cuts this holiday season.

I wouldn't say they've conceded the whole generation to Microsoft, just 2008. It seems that due to production costs Sony simply can't afford another price cit. As far as catching Nintendo, that ship sailed long ago.

[Cringer]

Originally Posted by cartman

It appears that Sony has pretty much conceded this generation to Nintendo and Microsoft. No price cuts this holiday season.

No PS3 Holiday Price Cut, Sony Exec Admits -- PS3 Xbox -- InformationWeek

This sucks for me. A price cut would have moved us much closer to getting the PS3 to go along with the 360 and now the Wii we got yesterday. I would like to get the PS3 but I just can't bring myself to pay that much for it yet when there is no real big reason it is a must have right now.

[cartman]

Microsoft keeps the pedal to the metal. They are offering a 20GB HDD for $20 for certain models that didn't come with a hard drive.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...hdd-promo.html

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by cartman

Microsoft keeps the pedal to the metal. They are offering a 20GB HDD for $20 for certain models that didn't come with a hard drive.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...hdd-promo.html

I think that's code for 'we made a bunch of 20 GB HDD for the Pro model and now it's discontinued and we have no use for them'.

Regardless, it's a good move by Microsoft. The higher percentage of HDD's that the 360 has, the better it is for MS and the developers in the form of downloadable games or content for sale.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks like Sony will have the big new IP they've desparately needed this fall. Little Big Planet is scoring off the charts in the reviews that have been released thus far. I'm sure they're hoping that Resistance 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift give them similar numbers.

LBP reviews thus far:

Gamereactor - 10
IGN - 9.5
Official Playstation Magazine - 10
TotalVideoGames - 10
Play.tm - 93%
Kikizo - 90%
Eurogamer - 9.0
Videogame.com - 9
Computer and Video Games - 9.6

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Some expensive weeks coming up in the next couple of months. The PS3 starts it off with 4 exclusives coming out in the next two weeks. After that, all three consoles have at least 3 exclusive releases in November. Plenty of multi-platform titles as well. Here's a brief rundown of the bigger releases this holiday season........

Exclusives:

PS3
- SOCOM: Confrontation
- Little Big Planet
- MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
- SingStar: Volume 2
- Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm
- Resistance 2
- Valkyria Chronicles

360
- Fable 2
- Gears of War 2
- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
- Left 4 Dead
- The Last Remnant

Wii

- Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels
- Castlevania: Judgement


Big releases coming out this holiday season..........

10/14 Dead Space (PS3/360)
10/14 FIFA 09 (PS3/360)
10/14 Rock Revolution (PS3/360/Wii)
10/14 Saints Row 2 (PS3/360)
10/14 Socom: Confrontation (PS3)
10/19 Rock Band 2 (PS3)
10/21 Far Cry 2 (PS3/360)
10/21 Little Big Planet (PS3)
10/21 Spiderman: Web of Shadows (PS3/360/Wii)
10/21 Fable II (360)
10/26 Guitar Hero: World Tour (PS3/360/Wii)
10/28 Fallout 3 (PS3/360)
10/28 MotoGP 08 (PS3/360/Wii)
10/28 MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (PS3)
10/28 Singstar: Vol. 2 (PS3)
10/28 FIFA 09 All-Play (Wii)
11/4 Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS3)
11/4 Quantum of Solace (PS3/360/Wii)
11/4 Resistance 2 (PS3)
11/4 Tom Clancy's EndWar (PS3/360)
11/7 Gears of War 2 (360)
11/9 WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 (PS3/360)
11/10 Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (PS3/360)
11/11 Call of Duty: World at War (PS3/360/Wii)
11/11 Mirror's Edge (PS3/360)
11/11 Pro Evo Soccer 2009 (PS3/360/Wii)
11/11 Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
11/11 Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts (360)
11/11 Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars (Wii)
11/11 Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- Lightsaber Duels (Wii)
11/17 Left 4 Dead (360)
11/18 Tomb Raider: Underworld (PS3/360)
11/18 Castlevania Judgement (Wii)
11/18 Rock Band 2 (Wii)
11/20 Last Remnant (360)
12/2 NCAA Basketball 09 (PS3/360)
12/2 Prince of Persia (PS3/360)

[Big Fo]

I try to limit myself to one or maybe two games per month just out of time constraints.

Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet
Chrono Trigger DS
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff
Football Manager 09
Valkyria Chronicles
Mirror's Edge

Some tough decisions are coming. Good thing there's no Wii games I'm looking forward to until 2009.

[sterlingice]

Kindof forgot some of the biggest exclusives for the Wii, MBBF:
Wii Music (Oct 20)
Tales of Symphonia 2 (Nov 11)
Rayman Ravin Rabbids TV Party (Nov 11)
Animal Crossing (Nov 16)

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Kindof forgot some of the biggest exclusives for the Wii, MBBF:
Wii Music (Oct 20)
Tales of Symphonia 2 (Nov 11)
Rayman Ravin Rabbids TV Party (Nov 11)
Animal Crossing (Nov 16)

SI

Animal Crossing is the only one of those titles that will have any level of mass appeal, though it won't set any big sales numbers in the states. Wii Music may have a shot, but it's been pretty heavily criticized overall as being relatively weak on features. The other two are niche games and won't have good sales numbers.

I'm surprised by the weak Wii lineup this fall, but it appears that Nintendo has fallen back into a comfort zone and is going to just rely on what they have for this holiday season.

As Big Fo mentioned, there's just not much to get excited about on the Wii this holiday season. Good chance for Wii owners to catch up on good games that they might have missed that can be found cheap on the used racks.

[MJ4H]

Wii Music is better than people realize.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Wii Music is better than people realize.

With all respect, Wii Music is going to be a flop. There's absolutely no hype around this game at this point. That's a huge neon warning sign for a game from Nintendo due out in less than a week.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Animal Crossing is the only one of those titles that will have any level of mass appeal, though it won't set any big sales numbers in the states. Wii Music may have a shot, but it's been pretty heavily criticized overall as being relatively weak on features. The other two are niche games and won't have good sales numbers.

I'm surprised by the weak Wii lineup this fall, but it appears that Nintendo has fallen back into a comfort zone and is going to just rely on what they have for this holiday season.

As Big Fo mentioned, there's just not much to get excited about on the Wii this holiday season. Good chance for Wii owners to catch up on good games that they might have missed that can be found cheap on the used racks.

Except that the first two Rayman games have both gone Platinum on the Wii, with 1.3M in worldwide sales (600K and 880K in the US). Maybe that makes it a niche market for the Wii now but on the PS3, that's a hit.

The first Tales of Symphonia sold 500K in the US and over 1M worldwide. Valkyria, which you listed as a hit for the PS3, is only at 150K in Japan and it's been out only 6 months. Hmm...

Wii Music. I just don't know what to think. But I'm going to guess it sells more than at least 1 on your list if not more, even if it flops. Hell, you listed a generic Naruto game while trying to pad the PS3's game list, for pete's sake, and the highest sales of any of the 48(!) from that series is 480K in the US (conveniently enough, on the Wii).

SI

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Except that the first two Rayman games have both gone Platinum on the Wii, with 1.3M in worldwide sales (600K and 880K in the US). Maybe that makes it a niche market for the Wii now but on the PS3, that's a hit.

The first Tales of Symphonia sold 500K in the US and over 1M worldwide. Valkyria, which you listed as a hit for the PS3, is only at 150K in Japan and it's been out only 6 months. Hmm...

Wii Music. I just don't know what to think. But I'm going to guess it sells more than at least 1 on your list if not more, even if it flops. Hell, you listed a generic Naruto game while trying to pad the PS3's game list, for pete's sake, and the highest sales of any of the 48(!) from that series is 480K in the US (conveniently enough, on the Wii).

SI

Fair enough. I didn't include them, but you're more than welcome to do so. You are certainly correct that Tales and Rayman are niche games.

Did Naruto seriously have 48 iterations?

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

With all respect, Wii Music is going to be a flop. There's absolutely no hype around this game at this point. That's a huge neon warning sign for a game from Nintendo due out in less than a week.

Your opinion is noted.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

Fair enough. I didn't include them, but you're more than welcome to do so. You are certainly correct that Tales and Rayman are niche games.

Yeah, um... that's what I said... *sigh*

Did Naruto seriously have 48 iterations?

Search Games | VG Chartz.com - Video Game Charts - Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Wii, PS3, Xbox360, DS, PSP, PC

To be fair, only 35 have been released so far. Looks like a few of those are in production or never released and it does count each different platform as a game (so, if a game was released for the PS2, Gamecube, and XBox, that was 3 games)

SI

[MJ4H]

As far as not having any good Wii games coming out, there's actually quite a good number of them on the horizon. Here is a quote from a reader email on NWR:

So the hardcore games debate on Wii has gone on since the system was released, but now with all these game announcements coming out for Wii and a lot of hardcore titles I can't see how people can feel justified saying the games aren't there or aren't coming? Just recently the amount of games being disclosed should make hardcore players happy but all I hear is many people complain
We have Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Madworld, The Conduit, Castlevania Judgement, Sonic and the Black Knight, FFCC: Echoes Of Time, No More Heroes, Desperate Struggle, Disaster: Day Of Crisis, Punch-Out!, Sin & Punishment 2, Monster Hunter 3, Fatal Frame 4, Pikmin 3, Red Steel 2 and those are just some of the exclusives, then we have updated and upgraded ports like Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, and Rygar, and now they are even re-releasing GameCube games like Resident Evil 0&1, Pikmin 1&2, etc.
I can't see how these so-called Hardcore players feel ignored, all I can say is if these people stopped complaining for 5 minutes and did a little research they would see these games coming and if they went out and bought them these companies would keep making more. So I ask is it me, or are a lot of peoples minds clouded by poor judgment. - Anthony
Brooklyn, N.Y.

He forgot to mention the Metroid Prime 1 and 2 re-releases, too, which I am more excited about than all of the other stuff on the re-release list. Playing through especially Metroid Prime 1 with the Wii remote and nunchuck will be a blast and I can't wait.

[Big Fo]

Oh don't get me wrong, the Wii lineup for 2009 looks really good IMO. There's just nothing I want to buy coming in the next three months. I'm interested in at least half the games in MJ4H's post above and the two Wii games I'm most looking forward to (Pro Evo 2009 and Little King's Story) weren't even mentioned.

Now if we're talking about sales and not what we're eager to play, I predict Wii Music and Animal Crossing will both be million sellers in the US alone. They could even be multi-million sellers like Smash Bros. and Mario Kart.

[MJ4H]

I think once people realize what Wii Music really is, it will sell very well. But my whole point above isn't what it would sell, but that is actually a pretty interesting product. I wasn't saying anything about what it will sell.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

As far as not having any good Wii games coming out, there's actually quite a good number of them on the horizon. Here is a quote from a reader email on NWR:

He forgot to mention the Metroid Prime 1 and 2 re-releases, too, which I am more excited about than all of the other stuff on the re-release list. Playing through especially Metroid Prime 1 with the Wii remote and nunchuck will be a blast and I can't wait.

Most of those releases are in 2009. The lists would be monsterous if we included the big games on all consoles through the end of next year. There's a ton of big games just this holiday season. I'm not much more excited about my Wii purchase even with 2009 games included, but at least there are a couple of games I would buy next year.

[MJ4H]

Yes, I realize that. I wasn't trying to list games that were out by Christmas. I was trying to list good games that were coming for the Wii. Thank you, though.