Posts Tagged ‘PSP’

Pokemon and PSP take home the 2010 gold in Japan

Friday, December 31st, 2010

Clearly, Japanese gamers still hold Pokemon close to their hearts, as Nintendo’s Pokemon Black/White has come out on top of the Japanese 2010 top sellers list. Compiled by the ASCII corporation, and translated by 1UP, Pokemon Black/White is on top in terms of games with 4.7 million units sold, whereas Sony’s PlayStationPortable (PSP) barely nudged out a declining Nintendo DS to hold down the number one spot in hardware sales.

And it’s not just Black/White that’s keeping Nintendo on top in Japan. According to ASCII, Nintendo counts four games in the top 10 including; New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which was released in 2009. In 2010, the title moved 1.6 million units, and became the Wii’s first title to sell over 4 million units.

When it comes to Japanese hardware of choice, it appears as though there’s a war brewing on the island. Sony’s PSP took home the top honors, although by only a whisker. The PSP sold approximately 2.73 million units, with Nintendo’s DS 2.72 million units. However, the PSP was the only hardware device in the Japanese market not to see a decline in sales. The PSP saw a rise of 28 percent, with Nintendo seeing the exact same number, but in reverse. The Nintendo DS saw a 28 percent drop in sales from 2009 YoY number.

When it comes to consoles, the Wii remained the favorite amongst Japanese gamers, although sales numbers were down 9 percent when compared to 2009’s numbers, ultimately resulting in 1.59 millions sold in 2010. The PS3 saw numbers slightly lower, dropping 7.6 percent from 2009, resulting in 1.54 million sales. Of note, who seems to not be gaining any traction in Japan is Microsoft; Specifically the Xbox 360. Microsoft saw a 24 percent drop in sales, resulting in just 231,000 units sold.

The 2010 Japanese gaming market:

Japan’s Top-selling Game Software for 2010

  1. Pokemon Black/Pokemon White (DS) – 4,734,064
  2. Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP) – 3,163,750
  3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) – 1,692,401
  4. Wii Party (Wii) – 1,385,541
  5. Dragon Quest VI (DS) – 1,354,841
  6. Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 (DS) – 1,305,750
  7. Tomodachi Collection (DS) – 1,112,298
  8. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii) – 931,534
  9. Inazuma Eleven 3 Snake/Bomber (DS) – 930,580
  10. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep (PSP) – 844,980

Japan’s Top-selling Game Hardware For 2010 (and unit change from 2009):

  1. PSP (all): 2,729,718 (+604,199)
  2. DS (all): 2,719,544 (-1,054,354)
  3. Wii: 1,592,563 (-155,398)
  4. PS3: 1,542,258 (-126,680)
  5. 360: 231,258 (-118,405)
  6. PS2: 83,030 (-114,116)

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HBO now available on PS3 and PSP, Gaikai receives $10M+ in series B

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Clearly something is afoot in the land of connected, online gaming platforms. Perhaps adding fuel to the ‘PSN Premium’ network features that SOE is rumored to officially announce at this year’s E3, Sony has announced that HBO titles are now available to PS3 and PSP customers in the United States.

SFM066LOGOThis Sony/HBO deal marks the first time that HBO content is available for purchase (Menu>TV Shows>Networks>HBO) on any gaming system within the U.S. And while a great step forward, it appears as though Sony is still playing catch-up with Microsoft’s Xbox, which while not offering HBO, has a massive amount of consumable entertainment available to it’s users, and of course, the massive content beast that is iTunes. No, iTunes itself is not a gaming system, but chances are, you can play games on the device that you run iTunes from.

Sony and HBO have kicked things off with some of their biggest titles including the popular “True Blood” series, “Big Love”, and “Entourage”, as well as perennial favorites, “Sex and the City”, “The Sopranos”, etc..

“The HBO library of premium original content is a perfect example of how PS3 has become the most content rich entertainment platform in the living room,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president, marketing and PlayStation Network, SCEA. “When you combine the iconic programming from HBO with the existing TV, film, live sports and original programming available on PlayStation Network, our customers have access to the content they want, when they want it, at home or on the go with the PSP.”

Gaikai sees $10M+ investment in Round B

6912….and in other ‘content in the cloud’ news, cloud based video game streaming service Gaikai has recently announced an influx of $10M+ from a series B investment round. TriplePoint Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners, and series A leaders, Benchmark Capital have all contributed. Gaikai has also received investment funds from an un-named partner.

The new round of funding will most probably be put to use in ramping up what’s destined to be a showdown with OnLive. OnLive and Gaikai offer premium gaming services that are ‘cloud’ based, giving users the ultimate flexibility in their gaming choices.

“Gaikai is poised to take advantage of sweeping changes in how games are bought, sold, and ultimately even played brought about by the industry-wide shift to digital distribution. Benchmark is delighted to join in this round and increase our commitment to Gaikai, David Perry and the team,” says Mitch Lasky, Benchmark Capital.

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Capcom reports record Q1 2009 growth

Friday, July 31st, 2009

Rounding out this week’s financial tallies (apart from yesterday’s Chinese Government PSA), the folks over at Capcom will most certainly be breaking out the veuve clicquot tonight, as they’ve recently reported record performance in Q1.

capcom-logo-colorEven in a market (aka economic downturn) that’s hit just about everyone across the industry, the Japanese developer posted a 23 percent profit growth, indicating a 19.2 percent revenue increase in Q1. Revenues spiked at approximately $204 million, with profits totaling $38 million. Big winners for Capcom include Resident Evil 5 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite for PSP. Japanese market sales figures clock 3.5 million copies of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite having moved out the door. Resident Evil 5 has also overtaken the number 2 all time selling title for Capcom, edging out Resident Evil 2, and is now just 1 million copies shy of dethroning Capcom classic Street Fighter II. Other strong performers include Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth for the Nintendo DS and Sengoku Basara Battle Heroes for the PSP.

According to Capcom, these Q1 numbers are officially the company’s strongest showing since beginning to track quarterly results.

However, even with these record numbers, it looks like the Capcom management team has taken the temperature of the current gaming market, and conservatively not raised their overall yearly fiscal forecast. The reasoning? Capcom cites expected strong industry competition in the second half of the year. Likewise the firm has also put the breaks on the release date of Dark Void, which is scheduled to appear on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. Developed by Airtight Games, the title was originally scheduled for release in 2009, but is now looking at a Q1 2010 launch. Capcom is enthusiastic and optimistic about the sales numbers with Dark Void, projecting at least 2 million sales of the game.

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Sony says yes to console MMO’s: Microtransactions and all

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

SOE exec John Smedley gives a thumbs up to future Sony MMO developments to be available on PlayStation consoles.

The giant elephant in the room, other wise know as Blizzard, which has been dominating the MMORPG scene since World of Warcraft’s launch 4 years ago, could begin to feel some heat from the Sony side of life.  Sony is looking to successfully position full blown MMO’s on the PlayStation console.  Smedley and company are looking to see which profile of gamer would be willing to pay for subscriptions, or better yet, micro-transactions for Sony’s upcoming free-to-play games including Sony’s much anticipated upcoming Free Realms.

“We’re actually one of two companies in the world that’s ever done a console MMO. We had EverQuest Online Adventures for the PS2 – still operating. It and Final Fantasy XI are the only actual MMOs,” says Smedley.

“We introduced a trading card game to our EverQuest and EQ2 players and they got the idea of microtransactions very quickly,” explained Smedley. “We put it in there in a way that wasn’t harmful to gameplay and it actually gave them a benefit, so that’s how we’re going to convert existing players. Getting a console player to pay for a subscription, I think that’s an interesting question.”

Smedley also predicts that the underlying technology that is now in place to allow for simultaneous console and PC launches of new games will introduce an entirely new group of gamers to console play.

“We have advantages that others simply don’t being in the Sony family. For us, the opportunity that we see on the PS3, and potentially the PSP, is something that we can’t pass up on…. I would say that we would be one of the early adopters on [bringing MMOs to consoles], and we plan on becoming one of the dominant players in the MMO space on consoles. We see that marketing coming; we think it’s there now, so we want to get a good market share there.”

Maybe Smedely is correct.  Personally, I’m more of a PC player, but have often been intrigued by the merging of PC play with console convenience.  I’ve played a few of my favorite PC games with an Xbox 360 control mod, and have to say, the living room comfort sure does beat endless hours at the desk.  If Sony is successfully able to port an MMO to a console (targeting and casting controls aside), AND get console players used to the idea of microtransactions, this could have the potential to unlock a number of possibilities not only for Sony, but for the industry as a whole.

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NPD reports that industry growth slows: Madden still drives it into the end zone

Friday, September 12th, 2008

According to NPD’s August numbers, the North American video game market only grew 9% year-over-year (August ’07-August ’08), indicating a slowed growth from previous months.  Software sales were however strong with EA’s Madden NFL 09 leading the pack; Nintendo pulling some equally strong numbers.
While 9% isn’t a massive growth rate when talking about widget sales, a 9% growth rate in the video game industry is still a commanding figure: $1.08 billion ’08, and a paultry $994.76 million in August ’07.  Hardware however, only clocked in at a 3% growth rate; $384.59 million ’07 – $394.53 million ’08.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out that this is the first time in 27 months the industry has seen only single-digit percentage growth.

Like the July numbers, software sales managed to beat the average improvement, rising 13% year-over-year from $489.06 million to $550.67 million.

The Nintendo DS and Wii took the top two spots respectively in the hardware sales slots, while Xbox 360 leapfrogged over the PS3, the PSP managed to beat both.

The cold hard facts:

August Hardware Per-unit Sales figures

  1. Nintendo DS – 518.3K
  2. Wii – 453.0K
  3. PlayStation Portable – 253.0K
  4. Xbox 360 – 195.2K
  5. PlayStation 3 – 185.4K
  6. Playstation 2 – 144.1K

While August wasn’t a great month for strong hardware growth Frazier comments, “The PSP and PS3 systems achieved the greatest percentage gain of all now-gen systems. The sales acceleration of these systems, combined with the recent Xbox 360 price cuts should fuel future growth of this category.”

I’m quite sure the folks in Richmond are quite happy about this.  Microsoft recently lowered the price of the entry-level Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard drive, to $199.

August Software Units Sold Figures

  1. Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360, EA Tiburon/EA) – 1.0M
  2. Madden NFL 09 (PS3, EA Tiburon/EA) – 643K
  3. Madden NFL 09 (PS2, EA Tiburon/EA) – 424.5K
  4. Wii Fit (Wii, Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) – 394.9K
  5. Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) – 328.7K
  6. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) – 200.2K
  7. Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360, Project Soul/Namco Bandai) – 174K
  8. Too Human (Xbox 360, Silicon Knights/Microsoft) – 168.2K
  9. Madden NFL 09 All-Play (Wii, EA Tiburon/EA) – 115.8K
  10. Guitar Hero: On Tour (NDS, Vicarious Visions/Activision) – 111.2K

With the days growing shorter and cooler, combined with the media blitz concerning all things football, it’s shouldn’t really come as a shock that Madden is dominating the charts.  Regarding the slow growth over the month of August, sure, it IS the first time the sector has seen a single digit for the past 27 months, but I’m not quite sure it’s time to panic.  While there were 453k Wii sales, the DS clocked in at 518.3k, clearly indicating that gamers were on the go during the month.  As retailers begin to gear up for the coming holiday season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a report coming out of Port Jefferson extolling the rise in gaming consoles and software sales in the coming months.

And the PS2…are they really still making games for an outdated platform?

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NPD Group releases Games Segmentation 2008 Report

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

The market research firm the NPD Group recently released its 2008 Games Segmentation Report which reveals some staggering numbers.

According to the US Census population clock, there are currently 304 million Americans.  This includes all living breathing persons within the American borders.  While some of these people do not fall into the range of NPD’s survey (ages 2-65+), NPD found that there are approximately 174 million Americans playing games.  Even if we were to take the entire US population, that means that 1 out of every 2 Americans is playing some type of game on some type of platform.

The report divides the total number of gamers into 7 distinct “gamer segments” and analyzes their usage and ownership patterns.  The breakdown looks like so:

  • 3% are Extreme Gamers
  • 9% are Avid PC Gamers
  • 17% are Console Gamers
  • 14% are Online PC Gamers
  • 15% are Offline PC Gamers
  • 22% are Young Heavy Gamers
  • 20% are Secondary Gamers

Young heavy gamers make up the majority of the survey with a whopping 38 million strong.  These gamers tend to favor portable platforms, make up at least one third of the system owner’s group with 6 out of every 10 owning a DS and/or PSP.

On the other side of the coin, Extreme Gamers, those classified as playing a total of 22.3 or more hours per week, and having purchased nearly 24 titles across all their gaming platforms in the past three months, show a strong preference for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

“Although Extreme Gamers are heavily involved with the industry, they represent a small portion of the potential market for any new game that comes to market,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “In order to promote continued growth, we must better understand all of the gaming segments.”

While the PC is used more than any single console for gaming, Extreme Gamers, Console Gamers, and Young Heavy Gamers are more likely to use consoles than a PC to play.

The study also found that Console Gamers; those that play on a console system, on average 8.2 hours/week, and purchased 3.2 games in the past three months, that own a PS3 are most likely to own other current gen consoles.  In contrast, only 10% of PS2 owners also own a PS3.

Regarding micro transactions, the NPD Group found that more than half of the Extreme Gamers and just over a third of Avid PC Gamers said that they would definitely download a feature to enhance a specific game that they own.

Speaking of downloads, 14% of games purchased in the past threee months across all segments were digitally acquired, with Avid PC Gamers making 27% of their purchases digitally.

About the NPD Group Study:

The data was collected from more than 20,000 members of NPD’s online consumer panel, ages two to 65+.  Responses for consumers ages two to 12 were captured by instructing a parent to take his or her child in this age range to the computer to answer the questions, either with or without the parent’s assistance. Qualified respondents reported they personally play video games on a PC, on a console or portable system, or on another device such as a mobile phone.  The following four key variables were used to create the gamer segments: ownership; usage; frequency; and purchased/received video games. Final survey data was weighted to represent the U.S. population of individuals ages two and older.  Fieldwork was conducted from January 11-February 5, 2008.

Note: This study was conducted in January, meaning that questions that refer to consumer behavior in the past three months include the Christmas/Hanukkah holidays.

Games Segmentation 2008 differs from Gamer Segmentation II (May 2007) primarily in the revised sampling methodology and the revised and updated Segment definitions. Gamer Segmentation II used a sample of individuals age 6 to 44. Games Segmentation 2008 uses a sample of individuals 2 to 99. By including all gamers, NPD will be able to continue to use and trend these segments for future waves.

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Wii dropin’ bombs on PS3 and Xbox in April

Monday, May 19th, 2008

Market research firm NPD released April data on Thursday putting Nintendo’sWii on top.

Nintendo also released their own press release using the NPD numbers:

According to NPD, the Wii outsold Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3. The Wii moved 714,000 units in April bringing it’s total US sales since launch to 9.5 Million units.

NPD’s numbers show that Microsoft milked the cash cow for 188,000 units and Sony, 187,100 PS3′s.

Perhaps having a bit of advanced knowledge of the upcoming numbers, Microsoft released a statement of their own on Wednesday that they’d reached the 10 Million units sold mark, making the Xbox 360 the first  next-gen console to reach this landmark. Microsoft gave itself a pat on the back, arguing that this is the landmark that that usually indicates the eventual winner of each console generation.

Speaking of April, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto IV launched on the 29th on Xbox 360 and PS3. Granted, GTA IV had only been out for 2 days last month, and box Microsoft and Sony saw an increase in these sales, and yet Wii still came out on top.

NPD’s data on GTA IV places the game in two of the three top slots of software sales, with the Xbox version cashing in with 1.85M copies, and the PS3 version selling 1M units.

Again, Nintendo backs that ass up with Mario Kart Wii coming in as the second best selling game for the month of April, pushing 1.12M bananas out the door. Overall, 6 out of the top 10 best selling games during April were Wii games.

Let’s not forget about the other white meat: handheld gamers. The Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP outsold both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. The DS cranked out 414,800 receipts, with the PSP paling in comparison at only 192,700.

Overall, NPD’s research indicates what we’ve already mentioned, even though the economy sucks, the gaming industry is still partying like it’s 1999, with total sales in April racking up $1.23 billion. Yep, that’s Billion. That’s a 47% increase over the $839 million only one year earlier. Likewise, hardware sales were up 26% from $339 million in April 2007 to $426 million in April 2008.

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