Nintendo Wii dominates holiday sales

27 Dec 08 20:23 by Randomus in category Uncategorized

The Nintendo Wii again dominated holiday game console sales, with more than 1 million units sold in the U.S. prior to Christmas.  During the same time period, Microsoft sold 535,806 Xbox 360 units and Sony sold just 239,576 PlayStation 3 console units.

Retailer Amazon.com, from Nov. 15 through Dec. 19, had Wii sales easily outselling both the Xbox and PS3 — and the Wii was one of the site’s best selling products leading up to Christmas.  During the turbulent shopping period, Amazon’s success was largely in part due to the Wii’s seemingly recession-proof sales status.

Although it was possible to see Wii consoles in stock in US stores prior to Black Friday, they quickly vanished as Christmas rolled around.

Away from the consoles, and outside of Japan, the Nintendo DS handheld sold around 1 million units, with the Wii trailing, selling 700,000 units.  The Xbox 3600 sold 383,000 units and the PS3 was in last place with 246,000 total unit sales during the week.

Nintendo is expected to pass three million Wii units sold in the month of December alone, which is an impressive number, especially considering there is a global economy slump at the moment.

Nintendo has been able to keep the same $249 retail price tag without lowering the console’s price, and the addition of a video on demand service should help the Japanese company further boost sales moving forward in 2009.

17 Comments on Nintendo Wii dominates holiday sales

CPUSlayer
Posts: 111
Posted on: 27 Dec 08 22:44
Trailing in the back is........
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 03:50
MUHAHAHA congrats to Nintendo's NAR ( Nintendo Auto Replen) program . Fantastic for Nintendo to cut off all moronic US retailers from ordering and flooding the market. If you have some money INVEST it in Nintendo.. And last is BetaRay!!!! just kidding
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 03:52
I think that all Console Vendors switch to this Auto Replen like Nintendo programs. It cuts off idiots from ordering too much friken product wich in turn allows for too many refunds and useless exchanges..and makes the product not have any value!!!
steveo119
Posts: 291
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 13:12
@ CPUSlayer, I wonder what the worldwide sales were though? I honestly think that it could be close between the bottom two! and to be honest, how can you compare the wii with the other two? they're both different leagues! the wii is a toy, and the other two are game consoles!
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 15:14
That's the typical reaction of someone pro PS3... Both PS3 and XBOX are beyond being a game console platform for lazy people and PS3 only sells because of the blu-ray hype surrounding it. Now more affordable BD players pop up, PS3 sales will drop. The WII allows people to at least move a bit during gfameplay and brings a lot more fun for families than PS3 and XBOX together...

These numbers are justified unlike most other numbers based on Blu-ray alone making it sound more positive than it is... Never the less, Blu-ray, if prices will drop will do much better in 2009 as the combi players are coming.

Thos who want games will go for XBOX and wii or PS3 (which should cut cost by removing the blu drive), and thos who want movie home theatre will go for the hybrid media players like HDI BD prime and HD Center... or settle for the weak stand alone players that can only do some basic divx and blu-ray...

My guess is 50% of people purchasing Blu today do it for a different reason than HD abilies (games) as that is what the PS3 is still... The numbers are pushed up with every PS3 sale but take that away and you'll see a les spositive outcome overall...

Anyway, don't care about numbers... Blu-ray is not doing well but is the future and could still make it as the new standard if they react in time to lower the cost and stop fiddling with consumer abilities...
Ramza
Posts: 130
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 15:28
I regret buying a Wii and I bet many others do. I'm sure a large amount of Wii owners are not even using it 2-3 months past the initial opening of the box. It's bad hardware and bad party games, but it works because casual players don't need more than that.

Wii is selling because of its initial effect on people trying it, once the fluff has passed, it's just taking dust on the shelf.
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 15:42
I agree with Ramza, there really aren't many good games on wii, obviously the first party nintendo titles are good, but that's about it. We have de blob, boom blox, scarface and godfather ps2 ports(lol), along with bully. Though I feel like the motion controls ruin them, and EA's sports titles are lacking in depth because of that all-play stuff, sure you can turn it off, but it is still missing quite a bit from the 360/ps3 versions. Not to mention they look like ps2.
steveo119
Posts: 291
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 22:45
@hi-jack, and thats an attitude of someone who hides behind a computer screen. when i first bought my PS3, I looked at what was best for me, and the pro's and con's of each console before choosing my console, so if i'm pro ps3, so be it.(much like the many pro 360 owners i have come across) and you have proven what an idiot you are by coming out with stuff you don't know nothing about, with your point of taking out the blu-ray drive of the PS3. (as it has been benchmarked as the best blu-ray player on the market, don't believe me? go on the search on the cdfreaks site)

if we all thought like you, we would all have to keep disk swapping till 2010!! (MS is seriously looking at blu-ray BTW)

your statement is as anti-ps3 as mine was pro!!

and also, I'm not from the US, so of course i'm obviously gonna be more interested in world figures.

and one more thing........

instead of using the guest button, why dont you become a member, like i did when crabbyappleton pointed out when putting my points across?
steveo119
Posts: 291
Posted on: 28 Dec 08 23:18
if you're not gonna put anything intellegent then......
Zod
Posts: 729
Posted on: 29 Dec 08 01:28
I own all 3 consoles. The Wii never gets used, unless people are over and see it and want to use it, then it gets dusted off. When I game 99 percent of the time its on the 360. I bought the ps3 last year as a bluray player (since they were similar in prices), If I had to do it this year, I'd of bought a standalone. I barely use the ps3 for gaming. I wonder who will make more $ in the long run? The Wii by making money off the hardware, or the 360 by making money off the software. I don't know if the ps3 has enough time left to become profitible.
Hypnosis4U2NV
Posts: 1465
Posted on: 29 Dec 08 05:44
Im not a big gamer, but I do have a Wii.. Just recently got Rock Band 2 for it and Im having the greatest time with it.. Granted its not a graphics orientated console like the 360 or PS3, its still fun if you play the right games for it (Star Wars The Force Unleashed was lots of fun).. Still not all games are "fun" when you play them with motion controllers..

When I want to play a game and enjoy the graphics I will use my PC.. Ive always preferred the keyboard as the controller versus a joystick for most games..
steveo119
Posts: 291
Posted on: 29 Dec 08 12:04
hope you don't think i'm slagging off the 360 here folks, coz I nearly bought 1 when making my choice. what threw me, was at the time the 360 never had HDMI, wireless, and no/a very small hard drive(depending on which 1 i chose), and the blu-ray player built in(theres no way I was having an external HD-DVD drive as well as the 360 lying in my living room, too much clutter!), and there was NO way I was paying up a subscription after paying the colour of money they were going for at the time! (I'm a typical scotsman, I tight when it comes to spending money)

the thing that was going for the 360, was that the amount of games for it was huge compared to the ps3, but now its seemed to be sorted with the amount of multiformats that are coming out.

but here in the UK, i know of quite a few folk who got a PS3's hence why I'm more interested in the worldwide figures.

I just feel that if the wii had better graphics, it would have been enough for me to buy one. although I did seriously think about getting one to get me fit!

anyway, on topic, I don't think the wii is going anywhere soon.
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 30 Dec 08 04:52
I figure the best way to see which consoles are being used after purchase is by how many used consoles are for sale on eBay. Right now there are 428 Wii consoles, 718 Play Station 3 consoles, and 1,508 X-Box 360 consoles listed as used. It's interesting that the Wii outsells the X-Box 360 (by double) and the PS3 (by triple), but there are vastly fewer used Wiis for sale on eBay.
steveo119
Posts: 291
Posted on: 30 Dec 08 13:48
@ compUser, thats the most intellegent thing i've heard in this thread so far!
Ramza
Posts: 130
Posted on: 30 Dec 08 14:39
Yeah, but how many are not selling it because Nintendo did a smart move by announcing there were a new Mario and Zelda in the work for 2010 or so.
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 05 Jan 09 15:44
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Another reason of why the wii sells more than the other consoles, especially on Christmas.
Kids between the ages 6 to 10 are a big target for Christmas gifts, they love the wii and most of them will practically ignore other consoles. Kids at that age are jumping and running machines and prefer all the action that comes with the motion controllers instead of sitting on the couch with potato chips on the side. (They will jump and eat the chips too) They don't care much about Blu-ray or stunning graphics and neither do the parents, aunts or grand parents when making a buying decision.
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 05 Jan 09 15:45
Sorry about the previous post. I pasted it from MS Word.

Another reason of why the wii sells more than the other consoles, especially on Christmas.
Kids between the ages 6 to 10 are a big target for Christmas gifts, they love the wii and most of them will practically ignore other consoles. Kids at that age are jumping and running machines and prefer all the action that comes with the motion controllers instead of sitting on the couch with potato chips on the side. (They will jump and eat the chips too) They don't care much about Blu-ray or stunning graphics and neither do the parents, aunts or grand parents when making a buying decision.
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Nintendo Wii dominates holiday sales

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