US April Hardware Sales, NPD

[RiskyChris]

Originally Posted by Wizerud

There, that's better

And the PS3 will get great games, point being?

I'm sick and tired of hearing this all-encompassing generalization of the Wii fanbase and the games they'll buy. Did the SNES have mature games (for the time)? Did the PS1, PS2? Every system, especially the market leaders, will receive titles from all sorts of genres.

[Dumar]

Originally Posted by RiskyChris

And the PS3 will get great games, point being?

I'm sick and tired of hearing this all-encompassing generalization of the Wii fanbase and the games they'll buy. Did the SNES have mature games (for the time)? Did the PS1, PS2? Every system, especially the market leaders, will receive titles from all sorts of genres.

where have you been duh. the cool cats are all playing genesis. only kids play snes.

[RiskyChris]

Originally Posted by Dumar

where have you been duh. the cool cats are all playing genesis. only kids play snes.

The Sega-Nintendo rivalry was perhaps the greatest thing ever.

[chaos]

Originally Posted by RiskyChris

And the PS3 will get great games, point being?

I'm sick and tired of hearing this all-encompassing generalization of the Wii fanbase and the games they'll buy. Did the SNES have mature games (for the time)? Did the PS1, PS2? Every system, especially the market leaders, will receive titles from all sorts of genres.

this seems true, I don't understand why it has to be one or the other. With so many people it seems that they think that if 360 gets a game that means Wii will get no games, or PS3 will get no games, or whatever. There is plenty of room for all 3 consoles to be successful.

[Sean]

You'll see why by the end of the year. For one, it's very unlikely that the X360 will be passed in sales until sometime in mid 08.

The "ZOMG WII DOMINANCE" bullshit is going to get stomped into the ground by Halo 3 and GTA4.

You guys are just horribly dismissive of the X360 and acting like the Wii's "eventual" numbers spell doom and gloom for the X360s hardcore games and sales.

This is what sales are going to look like - Mario is going to sell a bit better than Zelda. Smash Bros will likely sell about the same as Mario. Metroid is going to sell at 75% of Zelda at best - I'm leaning more towards 50% though.

Halo 3 and GTA4 are going to sell at least as well as Wii Sports. And that's being nice to you guys, really. They have a possibility to far outsell it.

And you see, despite the Nostradamus-like claims of the Wii eventually being the top seller, which I agree it will be, it's still a wiser move to develop those kinds of games on the X360. Why? because they'll have a much higher attach rate no matter how much higher the Wii's pushed units is.

And then you're also just insanely dismissive of the fact that a lot of developers don't want to make games on an underpowered system that has an extremely shitty on-line component.

Do you think Bioware or Irrational Games would ever give the system a second glance? Aside from the fact that it's going to be a very long time before the Wii passes the X360 in the US where their primary market is.

I guess you can attribute it to them being from the PC developer crowd too - one that is making a huge switch to consoles. Where are they going? The X360. They in particular are a subset of devs who don't want their games to look anything but "Next-Gen" and high end. It's their territory. Plus the X360 is DX. It's a perfect home for their new-found "consolitis" as Vorph puts it.

Then there's all the studios that Microsoft owns. Then there's all the studios that Sony owns - sucks to be them really, but hey, it's more games that Nintendo is never seeing period to add to the argument. By MS' and Sony's powers combined, it's really a rather significant amount.

Then back to the "developers don't want to develop on a lesser-system" argument. Do you think Namco wants to make an Ace Combat game on the Wii? Fuck no. It's not going to sell more there for one, not now, not ever.

Plus they want massive on-line dogfights with Live and next-gen aerial battles. Party on Wayne. Party on Garth.

Seriously, some of you heavily overlook this aspect of the industry.

There's so many factors that say that the Wii is simply *not* getting the majority of developers to jump on board their system. A large portion of them? Yes, certainly. But some of you (Sharmai) act like it'll be nearly every single fucking one when that's just so far from a possible reality at this point that it's absurd.

The Wii isn't going to pass the X360 this year. When the Wii does pass the X360, it's not going to completely dominate like the PS2 dominated the market. It's going to have to fight tooth and nail to stay ahead.

[Cor]

Originally Posted by Simas

On the 360/PS3 front I never planned on buying a 360, I simply dont care for most of the games on it, but after playing Halo 3 beta I might be changing my mind. Ive been looking at some games on 360 to see if there is anything besides Halo i'd care to play and hadnt really found anything (although I hadnt come across most of those RPG's) so I was debating a 360 for Halo or a PS3.

I'm having a hard time believing that anyone who plays games couldn't find things to interest them over the next 12 months. Check out this thread. The 360 has one of the most amazing upcoming lineups. While Uncharted, Ratchet and stuff like Folklore looks pretty damn good, I don't think it holds a candle to what the 360 has coming up.

In regards to Halo 3; is it really such a huge draw that people will buy a 360 just for that one single game? The Halo series doesn't seem to have a huge following in the UK, and having played Halo 2 through last week, I can't understand why it has such as huge following in the US either.

[Sean]

Yes, it really is that huge. Halo 2 sold 8 million copies on the pitiful Xbox1.

[Cor]

I remember reading a lot of units, but, 8 million? What the fuck? Is that worldwide? US only? Either way -- it's insane.

And again, someone please answer this, why is the Halo series so revered? Having heard so many great things about the series, I was very underwhelmed by both games. HL2 seemed like a much, much better FPS.

[Wildstone]

Another thing...lately more and more games are being "dual released" on both 360 and PC. Games like Bioshock and other graphics intensive games.

You're never gonna see Bioshock and other graphical powerhouses on the Wii. And for better or worse, the masses like "pretty" games. Hell, the Wii couldn't even handle FarCry. And that game is like 3 years old.

[Sean]

I really don't know. It's a crazy phenomenon. Actually I'm seeing 9.2 worldwide sales quoted too.

Halo 2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The first official release of Halo 2 was in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States on November 9, 2004. Anticipation for the game was high; three weeks before this release, a record 1.5 million copies had already been pre-ordered.[53] Massive lines formed at midnight releases of the game; the event garnered significant media attention.[54] This was followed by releases on November 10, 2004 in France and other European countries, and November 11 in the UK. The game sold 2.4 million copies and earned up to US$125 million in its first 24 hours on store shelves, thus out-grossing the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as highest grossing release in entertainment history.[55] As of November 9, 2005, exactly a year after its release, Halo 2 had sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.[56] Official Xbox Magazine reported that the Halo 2 launch was the biggest event in entertainment history, grossing $125 million on the launch date alone.[57] The game sold 260,000 units in the United Kingdom in its first week, making it the third fastest-selling title of all time in the UK. On June 20, 2006, Xbox.com reported that more than a half-billion games of Halo 2 have been played on Xbox Live since its debut; it also reported that 9.2 million units of Halo 2 have been sold worldwide.[58] From the day of its initial release and up until mid-November, 2006, Halo 2 was the most popular video game on Xbox Live, even after the release of the Xbox 360; its position was only recently surpassed by the 360-exclusive Gears of War. Halo and Halo 2 are still some of the most played games for the Xbox console.[1]

7 million just one year after release is pretty nuts.

The only games that have outsold Halo 2 since the PS2 generation are GTA3 (11m), GTA VC (13m), GTA SA(12m), and Gran Turismo 3 (11m).

[Zerai]

Originally Posted by Cor

I remember reading a lot of units, but, 8 million? What the fuck? Is that worldwide? US only? Either way -- it's insane.

And again, someone please answer this, why is the Halo series so revered? Having heard so many great things about the series, I was very underwhelmed by both games. HL2 seemed like a much, much better FPS.

It was the first really good FPS for the console. It's like the WoW of FPS really. It was easy to get into.

It had some great ideas (such as removing health, not sure if any other game did it before it, but Halo is the first I can think of that did it massively).

Overall tho it's a mediocre FPS. Especially on a console which is just terrible...but that's just us who have prior FPS experience. Same deal looking at some freedoms in EQ that are missing in WoW. You overlook it for the polish and the ease of use...while still having a hardcore gathering at the top.

I personally disliked it immensely. I still can't get over aiming with a console vs a mouse, it just feels way too slow for me. I max the sensitivity on my mouse and it just pisses me off when I can't spin on a dime. =P

[Lorrac]

I'm so awaiting for may npd - may is a slow month also, and there was nothing software side for the ps3 worth mentioning. It dipped what, 40k units from last month? it'll be a funky internet day when npd hits and ps3 hasn't moved even 50k units in may.

[Wizerud]

Originally Posted by RiskyChris

And the PS3 will get great games, point being?

I'm sick and tired of hearing this all-encompassing generalization of the Wii fanbase and the games they'll buy. Did the SNES have mature games (for the time)? Did the PS1, PS2? Every system, especially the market leaders, will receive titles from all sorts of genres.

I'm not sure about the PS2 but the PS1 had markedly more mature games than the SNES, partly due to Nintendo's (at the time at least) super-sensitive attitude towards anything remotely politically incorrect (i.e. blood esp. re the Mortal Kombat fiasco) being seen in any games on its console. Remember at that time, they could veto any game being released on their system.

I'm not sure how much more relaxed they are about it nowadays (I'm assuming a LOT more) but in some ways they are still saddled with that reputation, especially amongst older buyers.

The point about great games being on all consoles? All other things being equal, the great games on the PS3 and XBox 360 will be viewed as better than those on the Wii due to their significantly higher hardware capabilities. If Nintendo is relying on "innovation" to make up the difference I think they'll be in for a surprise or two.

[RiskyChris]

Everything is fucking black and white: 360/PS3 will get mature games, Wii won't.

I don't fucking believe for one minute that if the market is there for Wii that companies wouldn't support it.

[Sharmai]

Starcraft 2 was just announced, it seems kind of pointless to argue about consoles anymore..

Time will tell and GTA and Halo will do extremely well. But I do have to be honest I doubt with SCII hits that I will care about any console...


Not that it doesnt matter...