August NPD: Madden and Wii on top, but not together

It should. Except for the new multiplayer modes and a few small changes in controls, Wii Madden 07 > Madden 08. A real bummer, hopefully they'll get things figured out. Online was a big promise that fell flat.

Its also the top 3rd party game for wii; behind a pseudo sports game, a mini game, and Metroid... that comes once a year. What is EA suppose to do until Madden '09?

And as much as people are endured to metroid.. Halo3 will sell 6x more units on day 1 with less install base. 360 owners are gamers who buy games!

"360 owners are gamers who buy games!"

As long as you aren't implying that those who own the other systems aren't gamers. But, if that's what you gotta tell yourself to feel good, then go for it man.

Sad to see the huge install base of the Wii and see those numbers. Corruption is really good too.

Well, you know, EA could work on the other games it has for the Wii. Might be a good idea.

Sure, Halo 3 is going to sell like nuts, hell of a lot better than Metroid did on day one. Zelda: TP sold more than Halo 3 will. I don't see your point here... somehow I think Wii and PS3 owners buy games too.

Don't know if Zelda: TP will outsell Halo 3... according to Wikipedia, as of 7/2007, the Wii version sold 3.6 million... Halo 2 sold 2.3 million in a single day.

That said, if Halo 3 sells more, it doesn't mean it's a better game... because if it did, then wouldn't the Wii be a better console than the 360? Or can I only use sales figures when they benefit the 360? Or does that go for the Wii? Or do casual gamers (which I'm beginning to believe are just considered those who don't care about graphics according to some folks on Joystiq) not count? So.. confused..

Oh, I expect Halo 3 to sell 2.5 million on day one and another three or four million before it's done. Z:TP has sold between 4 and 6 million depending on where you look.

OoT sold more than 7 million. By default it must be a better game than Halo 3, right, since we care so much about sales?

Haha - OoT FTW!

uh...Halo 2 sold 7 million in a year.

As a die-hard Nintendo fan, I would like to further express how completely delusional vidGuy is. Twilight Princess hasn't sold anywhere near 6 million units, and it only surpasses 5 million if you count Cube sales. "Depending on where you look" sounds like a roundabout way of saying "if you don't care how credible the source is." Meanwhile, the numbers on Wikipedia are straight outta Nintendo's press releases. And then of course Halo 2 has sales over 9 million. And let me just reinforce the fact that I personally am not responsible for +1 to that number. BTW, no one ever said sales were important, merely that these were sad to see; you're the one who brought up some fantastical TP sales as if they were some beacon of hope to look onto.

Awesome. Awesome to the max.

SoulBlade, casual gamers are those whose attach rate is like 2 or 3, i.e. they dont sweat the joystiq and they dont buy games.

Here is where we see why you Wii fans can expect another GameCube (as far as games go), third party devs won't invest in epic (a la MP3) games for the Wii, because the casual market will probably not care much and that's the overwhelming majority of the install base. A third party dev is better off making it a 360/PS3 game. So the best you should be expecting from 3rd parties are minigames and the rare quirky game (Zack & Wiki, Dewy's Adventure)

I played Peggle Deluxe for 2 hours last night.

hahahaha that graph is fantastic!

I probably wouldn't want the game without live. Even if the controls are great live, achievements, and the graphics stack up against that.

The 360 version has a lot more going for it then just online...

turning? It's already there. The Wii has officially sold more units worldwide in one year than the Xbox360 did in two years. No need to point out the comparison with PS3. I hope Sony gets things worked out soon. I really want to play LittleBigPlanet. Eventually they'll see they need to have at least one entry point that is under $300.00, like Microsoft and Nintendo have.

Was there some other RPG on 360 that people would buy?

I hope you bought your copy...:)

I didn't actually, not big on Football.

But I'll contribute to MLB2k8 numbers when it comes out. :)

Good Stuff man!

Not a hockey fan but when it comes down to it...its SPORTS. Room enough for everyone.

Well I just say this, sure Wii is out selling everyone, console wise, but will they out sell the big boys in the software arena? Madden 08 is the answer to that question. People want to play stupid little fun games like Wii sports on it, not highly technical sports games and precision shooters on it. Who sold the most Madden software? Sony did! PS2 and PS3 (979.8K) out sold Xbox 360 (896.6) and it out sold Wii and DS, who didn't even post numbers. SOFTWARE is where these companies make their living and the company that sold the most copies of the most popular game was who....? Go ahead and say it, everyone already knows.... Also those PS2 buyers… are going to grow up to be PS3 buyers one day, people that are planning on buying an Xbox 360 are not still spending money on PS2 games.... and let's look at the install bases... Sony (PS3, PS2, PSP) 49.15 million, Nintendo (Wii and DS) 16.7 million, Microsoft (Xbox 360, Xbox didn't even make the list and I'll venture a guess that a big chunk of the 360 owners are Microsoft employees and their friends and Family) 6.3 million. Sony has more than double Microsoft and Nintendo combined.

But everyone loves to hate the Giant. Sorry, but the Wii and the Xbox 360 are NOT next Gen consoles. The Wii with its whack ass graphics and gimmick game play (motion sensors should enhance traditional game play, not replace it) is a novelty device at best, and 360, no HDMI ports and plug-n-play HDDVD, are you kidding me? What are they going to do when games don't fit on DVDs anymore 3 and 4 disc games and detachable DVD changer just to play GTA: Watts??? Sure you can jump up to the “Premium” version and have the HDMI and "Detachable" HDD, but you still have to buy the HDDVD separately for $200, on the ELITE, what the F......!

But alas there is no way the people that bought the Xbox 360 are going to admit their blunder, instead they will curse the PS3 with their last breathe in hopes of convincing even themselves that it is the better system with the better games. And they will continue to play the 3 or 4 games that don't actually suck until they break down and buy a PS3, "Only so they can play with their friends” Yeah right.... Xbox 360 owners remind me of the republicans that voted for Bush the second term and refuse to admit it was a mistake... Even though they know it was. Xbox live is the best thing about Xbox and soon Home will take that away, too… Please Microsoft; don’t bring a knife to a gunfight! Do like Nintendo, carve a little niche and get out of Sony’s way.

Singing out before I really get started. I now open the floor to all the Xbox owners who are itching to rebut.

And remember, if you can’t be with the system you love, love the system you are with….

It's a hardcore game; it doesn't need marketing.

I think the hardcore section of Nintendo's user base has proven that...

That said, it was a bit of a gamble, and I'm also glad that it's paid off.

Sorry, but I hope that was sarcasm.

I don't think 218K copies of Metroid Prime 3 is good for Nintendo or third party developers looking to support the Wii. That means roughly 5% of Wii owners purchased Metroid Prime 3 (based on the 4 million sold to date).

I bet you that 50% of 360 owners will buy Halo 3 within its first 30 days of release. Yep, expect to see 3.15 million copies sold within 30 days. It will probably be more b/c of all the people waiting until Halo 3 comes out to pick up a 360. I know four people that will be picking up a 360 this weekedn to get ready for Halo 3 next week.

Hardcore gamers have a lot of stuff to play in the next few months. I wouldn't have know it was coming out but I went to pick up bioshock LE at Gamestop and saw it.

I get your point. I was just worried and happy to see it do well.

Gotta agree with Mal here.

218k for the biggest "hardcore" game release of the year (so far) on a system with 4.5 mil install base really isn't all that.

Don't forget the sales for these kinds of games are extremely front loaded so even though it was only out for a few days those few days will most likely end up being the majority of sales.

I mean it's not bad but not all that good either.

Most people who have a Wii are not "hardcore". They really dropped the ball with plugging this thing. Most Wii owners need TV telling them what games are coming out. My girl friend's 11 year old brother doesn't know what is out on the wii till he drags his mom to the store.
But he knows Halo is coming out.
I know Metroid isn't the hype creator that Halo is but it's one of the best games on the Wii. I think they missed out because of poor marketing but not as bad as I thought they would.

Actually, Metroid did really well.

"Though Metroid Prime 3: Corruption comes out on top overall in this week's cross-platform results, BioShock remains a top seller on the Xbox 360, and has the sales strength to lead for weeks to come."

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/column_index.php?story=8740

Pretty good that it was a #1 seller at least for the week. Don't know how long it will keep selling though.

@SoulBlade

MP3's 1st week numbers beat out Bioshock's 2nd week numbers which just goes to show how much a particular games sales drop off after the first week.

Also the only other big releases that week were Warhawk which had it's sales split between PSN and retail and Blue Dragon which tanked. In other words not much competition that week.

@ Mal

The thing about percentages is that they can be deceptive. 360's insane attach rate is definitely going to insure its attention to 3rd parties, but a larger install base (Wii) is going to balance out those numbers eventually

GTA: San Andreas sold to ~10% of the PS2 userbase (although this is global), while Halo 2 sold to about 33% of Xbox owners, and Melee sold to about 33% of GC owners, but GTA outsold them both

So quick to hate on any kind of good news for the Wii..

Given that the title sold for only 4 days in the month of August and still made the 6th spot, I think it's hard to say it didn't do well. It's a good indication that Wii owners are interested in games like it.

Take it for what it is - I'm not trying to say it's a better game or Nintendo's better or what not. Those just lead to problems with fools, and I'd rather not deal with them. I'm giving Nintendo a pat on the back, and for those that have a real problem with it, I suggest you re-evaluate your priorities and get a life.

"So quick to hate on any kind of good news for the Wii.."

Uhm, I wasn't trying to hate on MP3 "good news" since I don't really see it as all that good to begin with. The numbers are OK for first week sales of such a huge game, that's all.

Anyway the important thing will be how Nintendo reacts to the numbers, not what we think of them.

Who's whining about Metroid Prime 3's sales? This NPD data is for August, and MP3C was out for what, 3 days in August? How many weeks are in NPD's August anyway? The game did great, and being the best FPS on the Wii with no competition I'm sure it will have longer legs than BioShock, which will be replaced very soon by Halo 3.

@ cc

Apologies. I see your point. I think Nintendo will spin it in a positive light (obv). Perhaps more people bought the game over the weekend when it was September.. who knows?

It might be a little disheartening for Nintendo to see Wii Play outsell Metroid, but I doubt they'll have a problem with it. They'll still put effort into titles like Metroid before they don't have a solid answer for the question "what about your hardcore fans?"

Wii Play's sales numbers are pretty damn important, because it's the closest thing we have to tracking extra Wii remote sales. The fact that Wii Play is still selling this insanely well shows how huge Wii multiplayer is, thanks mainly to Wii Sports the party game of the century.

ccc123 = HATER

No whining about sales or hating on the Wii here.

Metroid Prime 3 looks like a system seller to the hardcore gamer, so that is a good thing. I think sales should have been better for such an established Nintendo franchise, that is all.

I think the point CC and I were trying to make was that the sales don't look that good for a 4 million console base. Don't know what that means for the Wii and gaming in and of itself. I don't like it, 'tis all.

I think the figures look alright. Bioshock sold to about 7.7% of its install base, while Prime 3 sold to 5.4% of its install base. That doesn't seem too bad when looked at from that view, and Bioshock did have 10 more days on the market.

Of course, if Bioshock's numbers also look bad, then my point is invalid. Does anybody have Bioshock's first week sales #s?

You people saying Metroid didn't sell that well... are you on crack, not reading the other posts, or both? Prime 3 was released on the 27th, giving it a sell span of about 4 days.

You could just as easily say that Bioshock didn't sell well (it did though) considering the 8 - 10 million 360 install base, and whom the majority of are hardcore.


The Wii's install base, while just about on par with tte 360, is more diverse... it's not all men age 15 - 39 who play FPS'ers. Yet it still managed to sell 218K copies of an in depth adventurer/FPS in a very short window despite that.