I’m at a loss to really explain what happened in April; if you’re anything other than a Nintendo fan, you’re not going to be pleased with the hardware sales figures. Not a single system other than Nintendo’s duo managed to crack 200,000 units for the month of April in the US, according to the NPD Group.
April 2008 Hardware Sales (March numbers in parentheses):
Nintendo Wii - 714,200 (721,000)
Nintendo DS - 414,800 (698,000)
PlayStation Portable - 192,700 (297,000)
Xbox 360 - 188,000 (262,000)
PlayStation 3 - 187,100 (257,000)
PlayStation 2 - 124,400 (216,000)
Talk about a 50-50 split for the PS3 and 360 here in the US; just 900 units separated the two systems. Oddly enough, the rankings turned out to be exactly the same as in March, which is, in a way, good if you’re in the market for a Wii as Michael Pachter’s prediction that the Wii shortage would be resolving itself seems to have come true. Nearly 1.5 million consoles sold in two months means the system is out there in fairly large quantities.
Unfortunately, my archrival’s other predictions weren’t quite so accurate. The 360 and PS3 sold roughly 90k and 100k less, respectively, than he thought. But really, who would have thought the numbers would be so low this month?
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There’s only two flavors of new content on the PlayStation Store for PC — an echochrome theme and, even better, a demo of Secret Agent Clank. We got word earlier today that the game has gone gold, so this will give you a sneak peek at what you can expect from Clank’s PSP game. The demo contains the first level from the game, so if you’ve got a problem with repetition, you might want to skip the demo and just pick the game up on June 17.
Sony’s financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008 have revealed that Sony sold 9.24 million PlayStation 3 systems worldwide, up from 5.63 million in the previous fiscal year. The PlayStation Portable also had a solid year, selling 13.9 million units, which is 4.36 million more than last year.
The PlayStation 2 was just barely surpassed by the PSP though; the seven year old system managed to sell an amazing 13.73 million consoles. That’s down 980,000 from the previous year, but it doesn’t detract from how incredible it is that the system is selling better than the PS3 despite its age.
Additionally, the PlayStation 2’s install base has reached 154 million units, according to GI.biz.
The ten year plan seems to be in full effect with the PlayStation 2, but we’ll have to see just how much longer this momentum can continue to carry it.
It’s that time of the year, where we get to review financial results for the previous fiscal year. Sony has reported its results for the year ending on March 31, 2008, and it was generally good news as both revenues and profits were up from last year. Net income rose to $3.51 billion, which is almost 300% last year’s $1.2 billion. Much of the success can be attributed to the electronics division; those stupid Bravia ads must be working, because they posted record sales and operating income along with CyberShot cameras, reports GI.biz.
The videogame division also saw significant improvement, with sales increasing 26.3% over last year to $12.2 billion, closing the losses from $2.21 billion down to $1.18 billion. Sony claims this is thanks to lower production costs of the PS3 and a strong performance by the PSP, particularly in Japan.
The PlayStation 2 continuing to sell extremely well at $129 probably ain’t hurtin’, either.
Important Note: The chart you see above has no relevance to this story. But, it is, irrefutably, a chart. And this sort of story deserves a chart of some sort.
Chances are that you’ve never heard of Carpenter’s Story. It’s a charming action/platformer that’s certainly worth checking out, if for no reason other than to see what it looks like in motion. There’s nothing on the PlayStation Store, but PSP Fanboy has hosted the download and has instructions for how to transfer it to your PSP here.
Welcome to the latest edition of Pachter Predicts, where Wedbush Morgan analyst and my sworn adversary Michael Pachter makes his predictions for the past month’s console sales here in the United States. For the second straight month, Pachter has predicted that the PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360. (Although last month his prediction turned out wrong, as the 360 had a 5,000 unit edge over the PS3.)
Here are his predictions, with last month’s numbers in parentheses:
If Pachter turns out to be right, it looks like the 360 and PS3 won’t have seen a major boost in sales as many have thought they would. He attributes his predicted higher sales of the DS and Wii to their greater availability.
As for Grand Theft Auto IV, he expects it to have sold 3.3 million units in its first six days in the US alone, and also notes that he expects 20 games to have cracked the 100,000 unit mark in April, compared with only nine last year.
Those of you who still find yourself looking for a Wii, Pachter thinks that situation might be soon resolving itself: “We believe that Nintendo has diverted a significant portion of its available supply to Europe since April 2007, as the weakening dollar has made US sales less profitable for the company… We expect the supply situation will begin to improve over the next several months. We expect a surge in supply in the US for Wii Fit’s May 21 launch here, and believe we could see as many as 900,000 Wii units show up at retail this month (May).”
Honestly, there’s nothing you’re going to learn in this story that the title couldn’t tell you. The only piece of content on the PlayStation Store for PC is a demo of SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2, which you can also download through your PlayStation 3 and send to your PSP. You can’t go wrong with a portable demo, but if SOCOM isn’t really you’re thing, I guess you’re just SOL this week, PSP owners.
Those of you who employ the Skype support on PSP will be happy to know that the one piece Skype headset, originally scheduled for release last month, has finally been released. You’ll no longer need the two separate pieces that were used previously, but that convenience will cost you $30 — $10 more than Amazon originally had the headset listed at back in March.
$30 is too rich for my blood, considering I don’t really use Skype very often (at least on my PSP) and I don’t play PSP games online enough to justify wanting to really talk to anyone else. Bring on the cheap third-party alternatives!
As a kid, I remember loving anything that could glow in the dark. It defied all logic, and yet you could hold it in your hand — what was cooler? Soon, you’ll be able to make your PlayStation Portable glow in the dark with a simple replacement cover.
There are a variety of colors available of the XCM-developed mod, which will be available for pre-order from a variety of websites listed at the XCM site.
I can’t imagine what it would actually be like to play with a glowing system in the dark, but the mere novelty of it seems like enough incentive.
The ongoing PlayStation Day conference in Europe has brought about a number of announcements, including word from SCEE’s David Reeves that PlayStation 3 has officially sold more than the Xbox 360 has in Europe, depsite the tremendous head start Microsoft had.
“I am delighted to be able announce today that we have sold more PlayStation 3s throughout Europe than Xbox 360 - even though they launched sixteen months before PS3,” he said. More than 5 million consoles have been sold, according to Reeves. He expressed his excitement that the PS3 had accomplished this feat in a similar time frame that the PS2 did, even with the PS3’s much higher price.
“We are particularly proud of this as it has been achieved in a similar time frame as PlayStation 2 which retailed, if you remember, at a significantly lower price,” he said.
While Reeves pointed to the PS3 outselling the 360 since October 2007 (a period which includes the 360’s latest price cut), he made no mention of the Wii, which we all know has been putting both Sony and Microsoft to shame. So it’s not particularly surprising for that to be the case. He did, however, reveal some other numbers regarding Sony’s other platforms. In Europe, the PSP has sold 12 million units, and the PS2, 48 million. He said, “These numbers are a testament to the strength of the PlayStation brand throughout our region, the ever-increasing number of titles being launched, the rich content on offer and its appeal to different demographics and cultures.”
Things are certainly looking up for Sony in Europe, but with Japan a complete failure for Microsoft, don’t expect to see Microsoft sit idly by.
The long awaited MC Escher-inspired puzzle-platformer, echochrome, is set to release tomorrow on the PlayStation Store tomorrow for both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. Each version features 56 unique levels and will cost $9.99.
We’ve written our fair share about it, and if you checked out 1UP’s recent preview and import video review (above), you should know that this game is a must-buy for owners of either of Sony’s systems.
I’m glad the game ended up being a downloadable game versus retail, as there’s simply no way that the game could have been priced at $10 in stores. And at this price, it’s not going to be too expensive to pick up both versions of the game.
So who else will be getting the game tomorrow, and for what system(s)?
We always hear a lot about attach rates or tie-in ratios, which are basically the average number of games sold per system. So, if you’ve got an attach rate of 1, that means you would have sold, say, 10 million systems and 10 million games. Microsoft constantly boasts its large attach rate, but how do the rest of the current generation of systems hold up by comparison? You might be surprised to find out.
After Nintendo announced its global attach rate, Joystiq inquired with the NPD Group to find out their attach rate for the five major platforms. Xbox 360 of course leads the way with 7.5 games, followed by the Wii at 5.3, DS at 4.7, PS3 at 4.6, and PSP at 4.2. Honestly, I’m not sure if I should be more surprised by the Wii’s being as large as it is, or the PSP being so close to the rest of the pack. It’s rare to see a PSP game crack into the top ten best selling games each month, while games like Call of Duty 4 and particularly Wii Play have taken up permanent residence on the list.
The last time we got these figures, the PS3 was in the threes, so you can see that PS3 owners are slowly expanding their game library. (Well, either that or Blu-ray owners can’t help but pick up a copy of Uncharted.) With Grand Theft Auto IV, Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii all releasing very soon, you can expect to see the consoles’ attach rates jump. The only thing guaranteed aside from that is the next Microsoft press release touting their historic attach rate.
I wondered if there really was much of a market for a peripheral(?) that keeps your PlayStation Portable safe from water when I posted last time about a ziplock-wannabe. I thought $7 for an Aquatalk was asking a little too much, because it’s the sort of thing I might not accept if it were free.
So Cyber Gadgets has its work cut out for it with its new waterproof PSP baggy, which costs just over $12. But wait, there’s more! Not only do you get the stylish bag seen above, handle included, but you also get those suction cup clips to keep it hanging in the shower! Wow! You can click here and see a few more pictures, including one of it floating — unreal!
Honestly, I love videogames and movies and TV. Really, I do — the extreme majority of my time is spent with some mixture of those things. But if you can’t spare 10 to 15 minutes a day for a shower, maybe waterproofing your PSP isn’t your biggest problem right now.
Ubisoft has released some interesting figures on just how well their games sell on the various platforms. They didn’t provide any hard numbers, only percentages, but it’s enough to get some insight into what Ubisoft execs look at when deciding whether or not a game should be released on a particular system.
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners have nothing to worry about, as those two systems are two of the biggest sellers, with the 360 and DS tied with 26% of game sales for the full fiscal year running from April 2007 through March 2008. PS3 accounted for 20% in that period, while the Wii was only at 10% and PCs, 7%.
Of course, you have to keep in mind certain things, like which games were released for each system and when. In the 2006/2007 fiscal year, the Wii was responsible for 14% despite the system being released in November of 2006. (By comparison, the PS3 did only 2% in that period.) Why the big difference? Part of it can be attributed to not having another release like Red Steel for Wii, which was a big seller when it was released, despite being terrible. Compare that with this holiday season, when Assassin’s Creed sold extremely well on both 360 and PS3.
While the Wii’s number isn’t particularly impressive, what I see is Ubisoft making an effort to push more on the Wii front, as the potential for big sellers on the system is obviously there. As for the poor PC, we’ll have to see if Assassin’s Creed can duplicate the success it saw on consoles, however unlikely that might be.
PSP owners are in for a nice update on the PlayStation Store for PC this week, so long as they don’t mind forking over some cash. Two new retail PSP games (one decent, one good) are now available for download — LocoRoco ($22) and Kingdom of Paradise ($11).
Of course, the echochrome demo is now available as promised, as is the PS one Classic R-Types ($6). There’s also new game videos, wallpapers, and a music track for LocoRoco.
It’s so much, in fact, that for once you’ll have to hit the break to view the full list.
One of the many obvious questions that I think anyone would want to ask Square Enix with regards to Crisis Core would be why the game is on PSP and not DS. (And also what the hell is up with the DMW.) If you look at the re-releases of Final Fantasy games, you’ve got the first two on PSP, the next two on DS, Tactics on GBA and PSP… so why did Crisis Core end up on PSP and not the DS and its larger install base?
As it happens, the timing of the PSP’s release in Japan played a big part. Around that time, it had been decided that a new Compilation title was going to be made, and the developers were looking to make something for the PSP.
That isn’t the only reason, though; the eventual product ultimately became a much heftier experience than the more handheld-style game they were originally going for.
PlayStation Portable owners might recall the Japanese echochrome demo I posted about last month, which was a small sampling of what to expect from the MC Escher style game. If you didn’t feel comfortable downloading the file or couldn’t deal with the Japanese, you’ll have a chance to finally try the game out tomorrow when a demo is released on the PlayStation Store for PC.
Don’t expect anything different from the Japanese demo, though. As SCEA’s Scott Goryl put it succinctly, “Yes, this is the same demo that was available on the Japanese Store. Except, well, you know, with English.”
The full game will contain 56 levels (which are different from the 56 levels you’ll find in the PS3 version). For now, you’ll have to enjoy the trailer above and wait a littel longer.
Steam added yet another game to its growing catalog yesterday; this time, it was the excellent puzzle game Lumines. If you’ve never had the opportunity to play the game before, whether on PSP, PS2 or Xbox Live Arcade, think of it as a Tetris-style game where every piece is comprised of four squares, each which is one of two colors. Your goal is to match up four of the same color squares so that the timeline (a line that sweeps across the screen in tune with the music) can erase them. It’s very simple, but very addictive. And awesome.
The Lumines base pack costs $10, and includes 21 unlockable skins in Challenge Mode, skin edit mode and a sampling of the Time Attack, Puzzle and Mission modes. You can also buy the Advance Pack for $8, which includes another 21 skins, 70 puzzles in Puzzle Mode and 35 stages in Mission Mode. Or, if you’re like me and want to save money and have it all, you can buy them together for $15.
If you opt to purchase them before next Friday, April 25, you’ll get a 10% discount. The controls are a little difficult to get used to at first on a keyboard (especially when you’ve played the game for hours on a controller or PSP), but it seems like a faithful transition to PC.
After a truly impressive run atop the charts, Call of Duty 4 has finally been dethroned from the #1 software spot in the latest NPDs. While that was to be expected with the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it wasn’t expected that the game would drop all the way to #9. That’s indicative of the surplus of games released in March; CoD4 only saw a drop of just under 60,000 units. Last month its 237,000 units would have been good enough for #4 on the charts.
Smash Bros. was of course the big name in March. 2.7 million copies were sold, which blows away the #2 game, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, which had a solid month with 752,300 units sold. That’s followed by Army of Two at 606,100, and then of course Wii Play, which was bound to sell quite a few copies after the Wii had such a monster month. It sold 409,800 copies.
One impressive figure is that the PSP – normally absent from this list each and every month – had two games on the list, at numbers five and six, no less. God of War: Chains of Olympus edged out Crisis Core for the top PSP spot, but it’s encouraging to see that good PSP games can sell.
Looks like my archnemesis, Michael Pachter, was wrong – the PlayStation 3 just barely missed outselling the Xbox 360 for the third straight month, selling just 5,000 units less. That’s not exactly a substantial win for Microsoft, but anything to stop the bleeding at this point will most likely be welcomed with open arms.
PlayStation Portable had a solid month, outselling the 360, PS3, and PS2. Must have been a good month then, right? Not quite. The DS managed more than double the PSP’s 297,000 systems sold, moving an impressive 698,000 units in March.
But the big news is the huge month for Wii. With 721,000 units sold, it did sell more than the 360 and PS3 combined as Pachter predicted. In fact, it was only 14,000 units shy of selling as many units as the 360, PS3 and PS2 combined. That’s crazy.
March 2008 Hardware Sales (February sales in parentheses):
Nintendo Wii - 721,000 (432,000)
Nintendo DS - 698,000 (587,600)
PlayStation Portable - 297,000 (243,000)
Xbox 360 - 262,000 (254,600)
PlayStation 3 - 257,000 (280,800)
PlayStation 2 - 216,000 (351,800)
You can easily attribute the PSP and Wii’s increases to the release of certain games – but more on that in the next story.
Welcome to the latest edition of Pachter Predicts, where Wedbush Morgan analyst and my sworn adversary Michael Pachter makes his predictions for the past month’s console sales here in the United States. For the 
PSP owners are in for a nice update on the 
One of the many obvious questions that I think anyone would want to ask Square Enix with regards to Crisis Core would be why the game is on PSP and not DS. (And also what the hell is up with the DMW.) If you look at the re-releases of Final Fantasy games, you’ve got the first two on PSP, the next two on DS, Tactics on GBA and PSP… so why did Crisis Core end up on PSP and not the DS and its larger install base?
