Posts Tagged ‘Wii’

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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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Microsoft moves 2.5M Kinect thus far; Nintendo, 1.5M gaming systems in a week

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

If there is a recession going on, please do not tell the American consumers. Based on recent reports, even if times are tough, and money is tight, pixel hungry consumers are out in force.

Microsoft Kinect

Microsoft recently announced that the traditional shopping nightmare day of Black Friday has propelled sales of the motion sensing Kinect over the 2.5 million mark. This represents a global total sales figure, and has been accomplished in only 25 days. And with some quick cocktail napkin math, that breaks down to 100,000 units sold/day.

“We are thrilled about the consumer response to Kinect, and are working hard with our retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments of Kinect to restock shelves as fast as possible to keep up with demand,” said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “With sales already exceeding two and a half million units in just 25 days, we are on pace to reach our forecast of 5 million units sold to consumers this holiday.”

5 million units in just 2 months? Impressive numbers for sure Microsoft. To you, I can only say; Hats off. Available in more than 38 countries around the world, and 60,000 retailers, Kinect is Microsoft’s answer to the once-top-of-the-charts Nintendo Wii motion sensing controller. With Kinect, not only can you control games, but also interact with movies, music, and television, and the Kinect system also responds to voice commands.

“Kinect on Xbox 360 was a top performer at Target this weekend,” said Nik Nayar, vice president, merchandising, Target. “We expect Kinect will be a must-have gift this holiday season, so Target will continue to receive consistent shipments of Kinect throughout December. The hands-free, active gaming experience that Kinect offers is something that everyone in the family can enjoy.”

Nintendo

And while Microsoft might be on target to sell 5 Million units before the holiday season comes to an end, Nintendo also received the Black Friday bump, with Redmond reporting that consumers took home a combined $1.5 million worth of Nintendo gear over the course of Black Friday week, November 21st – 27th. Nintendo’s Black Friday sales numbers clocked in at a very healthy 900,000 units of the Nintendo DS line moving off the shelf, and with 600,000 Wii consoles destined for holiday happiness. This numbers do not reflect actual sales numbers, but are derived from Nintendo’s own internal sales estimates.

When viewed in the same Don Draper-esque math, Nintendo moved 9,000 units per hour over the Black Friday Week.

“For the past several years, consumers have decided that Nintendo defined both top value and all-inclusive entertainment, and that sentiment continues again at the start of this shopping season,” comments Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.

Nintendo points to it’s attractive new hardware color offerings, as well as popular game/hardware bundles as primary drivers for the sales numbers. Bundles include a limited edition Mario red Wii and DSiXL, as well as orange and green DSi systems, all of which feature one iteration or another of the now 25 year old Mario franchise.

Of the past few years, we’ve predicted that the video game industry may be recession proof, and while sales numbers and associated costs have remained relatively consistent with all other forms of entertainment around them, it’s very clear that consumers are finding significant value in video game entertainment. To put a number on that value? Well … it’s somewhere around 5 million for Microsoft and Kinect, and certainly, Nintendo has nothing to complain about with 1.5 million units moved in a week.

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Year End Report: Console Games Releases up – but just barely

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich recently disclosed the number of new games for 2009: 1,099 up just slightly from 1,092 in 2008. According to Divnich, this only slight increase doesn’t bode well for the console gaming community.

wii-360-ps3In an interview with GameSpot Divnich comments, “For just the current generation home consoles (PS3/360/Wii), 2009′s release quantities increase the total availability of games to consumers by 55 percent. Unless retail shelf space grows by the same amount, and it won’t, than the retail shelf life for an average game decreases dramatically.”

Divnich also points out that once console titles achieve a certain appeal and/or market presence, they occupy a permanent spot on retailer’s shelves, thereby creating less and less space for new titles. According to Divnich the number of new releases is outpacing the industry’s growth. “It does mean the average new release is producing fewer unit sales than in previous years.” An odd dichotomy in an economic that is seeing game production costs skyrocketing.

However, and this is a big however, Divnich says that digital distribution sales were NOT included in the research data. According to EEDAR’s research, 2009’s largest gainers were Nintendo’s Wii and DS platforms. Both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3 saw flat or slightly decreased releases. But again, this data does not include digital deliver methods, something that both consoles increased over the past year.

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Based on peak release trends from previous generation consoles as well as industry consolidations, Divnich expects the number of new releases to be on the decline in 2010. Adding to the decline of packaged goods on retailer’s shelves will be increased delivery of games via downloads, as well as the continued development of streaming or ‘cloud’ based gaming solutions.

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New Survey reveals console gamers big on Digital Distribution

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

While GameStop claims that it isn’t really worried about the rise of digital distribution cutting into it’s brick and mortal retail stores revenues’, a new survey from the TNS and gamesindustry.com titled The UK National Gamers Survey, could have retailers rethinking.

Traditionally, PC and console games were produced to a disk (or cartridge), packed in a fancy box, and sent off to retailers for sale to the general public. One can still find this method alive today, but perhaps not doing so well. A wide variety of factors all contribute to the decline of boxed sales, perhaps most notably the rise of both mobile and web portal based gaming; a scenario where there’s no wait involved. The UK National Gamers Survey 2009, as well as identical surveys conducted in the US and EU markets clearly indicate that digital distribution has arrived, and is a favorite amongst both PC and console gamers.

The survey found that 25 percent of all UK console gamers have paid for and downloaded not only complete titles, but also additional levels for their favorite games. The former being a purchase, the later being a microtransaction. 7 percent of all gamers surveyed indicated that when they’re after a new game, they usually purchase them directly via a digital distribution channel, circumventing a physical retailer altogether. On the PC side of gaming this figure is doubled, with 14 percent of all PC gamers regularly buying and downloading their pixel pleasure directly. In the US market these figures rise even more, with 16 percent of console players purchasing directly, and 23 percent of PC users accustomed to the digital distribution method.

TG_Digital_Distribution

The survey also indicates that over half (55 percent) of the UK population (as defined by 8 years of age or older and access to an internet connection) play on consoles. 27 percent of this demographic indicated that they regularly download either complete games or additional levels for their existing games. Almost all respondents indicated that they have experience paying for this. When broken down by console, Sony’s PlayStation 3 takes the lead with over half, again 55 percent, of owners regularly obtain content via digital distribution, 51 percent of Xbox 360 users, and 25 percent of Nintendo Wii owners are downloading.

“With the growing part of games being played and paid for online, a key way to monitor the complete games business is by asking consumers directly about their overall game behavior and spending. An additional advantage of this approach is insight across all platforms as the traditional divide between the online casual and core console market has evaporated,” adds Peter Warman from gamesindustry.com.

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Nielsen reports record gaming for June 2009

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

According to a new report published by Nielsen Co., this past June was a banner month in video game play. While sales of consoles might have been flat, it appears that those that already own a console (or two) spent record amounts of time (measured in minutes) gaming. According to a recent NPD Group survey June ’09 hardware sales took a beating, dropping 31 percent when compared to June ’08.

Compared to June 2008, Nielsen’s year-over-year numbers indicate a 21 percent increase in time spent with games. On average, gamers spent 12.8 hours playing during the month of June.

101576-games

Of particular interest, the Nielsen survey clearly indicates that consumers have reached the crucial critical mass numbers with ‘new generation’ consoles, the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii, as half the minutes played during the month of June were dedicated solely to these consoles. Nielsen’s director of video game services, Geraldo Guzman comments, “The transition has happened. Now that there is critical mass on the new generation of consoles, it gives marketers a chance to reach gamers on the platforms which offer in-game advertising.” An interesting point, as currently only the Xbox 360 and PS3 support dynamically served in-game advertising. However, let’s not forget about the recent WipEoutHD iga fiasco.

The Nielsen study also indicates that more than 50 percent of all gamers are over the age of 18 (insert marketing opportunity here), with teens 12 – 17 making up the largest segment of minutes played players, a massive 25 percent.

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EA reports (almost) positive cash earnings – sees dramatic rise in digital distribution and virtual goods sales

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Electronic Arts seems to have outwitted their critics and come very close to a break even, and almost, dare I say it, a positive cash flow. Posted yesterday, EA’s Q1 financial results demonstrate a dramatic improvement in the coffers, reporting a net loss of only $6 million. Granted, 6 million clams is nothing to jump for joy over, especially when it’s $6 million in the red, but when compared to year-over-year results, it’s more than enough to get excited about. Last years Q1 results showed EA with a $135 million loss. Keeping $129 million in the bank account is a tremendous success for the Redwood, California firm.

ea_logoEA’s first fiscal quarter revenues peaked at $816 million, a dramatic 34 percent increase of 2008’s $609 million. Industry analysts had projected a meager take of only $729.5 million. EA’s digital distribution and virtual goods sales are a major contributor to the over projected earnings take, bringing in approximately $124 million, a noteable 38 percent increase year-over-year.

Putting some wind in EA’s sales (literally) are a string of successful titles and their surrounding executions. Compared to the quarter ending in June 2008, in 2009 EA was the number one publisher in both North America and Europe, with four out of the top ten games. Four of EA’s titles won Best of E3 awards: Mass Effect 2 won best RPG, Fight Night Round 4 took the Best Sports Game award, Star Wars: The Old Republic snagged Best PC Game, and Left 4 Dead won Best Online Mulitplayer. Additionally, while a perennial favorite, and old standby, the Sims franchise was a major factor in EA’s revenue streams this year. Holding the top selling retail sales title in Europe and North America for this past quarter, the Sims 3 moved 3.7 million copies out the door. And last but certainly not least, EA Sports Active helped the company garner a 21 percent market share of the wii market in North America and 13 percent in Europe. Having sold over 1.8 million copies, EA Sports Active is now the company’s best selling wii title to date.

“Good execution delivered better-than-expected financial results in the first quarter,” said John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer. “We are very pleased with the success of both The Sims 3 and EA SPORTS Active.”

Looking ahead, briefly discussed the upcoming Tiger Woods PGA Tour title which seeks to drive revenues from the sale of game subscriptions and virtual goods sales, as opposed to the one-time-only-buy-it-in-a-box method. With that said, and keeping EA’s open experimentations with the free-to-play/microtransactions supported model (think Battlefield Heroes) in mind, company president John Riccitiello commented in an earnings call yesterday that EA’s not 100 percent onboard. “A lot of people believe that microtransactions is going to be the lead business model in the US. I’m not so sure about that. We are seeing good microtransaction results on Pogo, but I do think there is a difference between the way that consumers buy and consume content in Asia.”

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Ubisoft takes a Q1 51 percent nosedive

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

While yesterday’s report of company record setting revenues from Changyou might be a plus for the gaming industry, major French publisher Ubisoft reported a massive 51 percent drop in Q1 sales to €83 million, or approximately $114 million. This drop represents a missed financial guidance target of 12 percent. Low numbers are attributed to slow sales of Nintendo DS titles, as well as back catalogue PS3 and Xbox 360 games. Company Chief Yves Guillemot said that sales in both the U.S. and Europe have seen a “very sharp slowdown.”

ubisoft“We are currently experiencing a very sharp slowdown in our sales for Nintendo DS as well as sales of back-catalog titles, in the context of a market that is tougher than anticipated,” Guillemot said. “This will have a significant impact on our first-half showing. Against this backdrop, the solid performance of our Wii titles combined with the successful launches of Anno and Call of Juarez are points of satisfaction and demonstrate that good products are continuing to sell well.”

However, it’s not just the sharp slowdown that’s affecting Ubisoft. Guillemot also points to piracy, specifically in the DS sector, as a factor in the company’s poor showing. “Piracy is strong so we are working to put new figurines and new elements in the boxes that will change that in the future… for example in Europe we have the same market share in DS this year as last year…,” Guillemot said. “We see a different attitude toward piracy in the U.S. than Europe. We did a survey that said our consumers will be more willing to buy products than pirate them. ”

This under-performance has led Ubisoft to take on some “damage control” measures. To that end, Ubisoft has reduced its Q2 projections to €80 million ($110 million). Previous Q2 projections were set at €130 million, or $178 million. This deflation of numbers will then represent a 54 percent decrease in Ubisoft’s year-over-year revenues from 2008.

Notably, Ubisoft’s delays in getting Spinter Cell Conviction and Red Steel 2 out the door don’t bode well. Likewise, Ubisoft has also delayed the releases of Ghost Recon and I Am Alive from a projected date sometime in Q4 09 to sometime in 2010.

“We are disappointed that we have to postpone the release of several major games but we consider that this choice is the best one in the long-term interests of Ubisoft,” Guillemot added. “…The excellent response to our games at E3, as well as the high buzz generated for titles such as Assassin’s Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Avatar, reinforce our belief that the company can achieve strong growth in the second half of the fiscal year.”

With troubling numbers, release date delays, and piracy running rampant, the question begs to be asked; Is now the time that Ubisoft might want to start taking a long hard look at the free-to-play model? Historically, game development has been done at a rather rapid pace (be that a plus or minus), and piracy would literally be eliminated. Granted, Shadowbane went the F2P route, but was closed on July 1 of this year, but we’re also looking at a title that’s almost 6 years old, and lagged behind in a number of areas of today’s free-to-plays. Let’s see just how, and with what Ubisoft can pull itself out of the slump.

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Free to Play begins to show signs of chipping away at retail’s dominance

Monday, July 20th, 2009

According to new data released by NPD, video game sales are on a steady decline. Sales of software, hardware, and gaming peripherals fell 31 percent, down to $1.17 billion in June 2009. The month prior saw sales around the $1.7 billion mark. According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, “this month saw the greatest year-over-year monthly decline since September 2000, when the industry declined 41 percent.” Overall, 2008 has seen sales of video games and their associated counterparts (hardware and joysticks, etc.) are down 12 percent YOY.

moneywashingtondollarAnd it’s not just the plastic wrapped shiny discs that aren’t moving off retailers’ shelves. Console sales revenues took a 38 percent hit, totaling only $382.6 million. Of the big three, Microsoft’s Xbox was the only console that actually increased sales during the month of June. Nintendo’s Wii saw a drop of 45 percent, and Sony’s (arguably overpriced) PS3 got clobbered with a 59 percent drop in sales.

And while a 45 percent drop in Wii sales might look bad on paper, Nintendo’s mobile gaming devices, the DS and DSi pulled down 766,000 sales receipts, larger sales numbers than all three consoles combined. If that wasn’t enough to cover the electric bill, Nintendo’s Wii Motion Plus accessory (an add on that makes the controller more accurate) clocked in with 374,000 units sold.

But hang on a second…haven’t we just heard that gaming is seeing a tremendous rise, partially contributed to the current economic situation? Just last week, comScore put out numbers indicating that the market had grown 22 percent in 2009, so what gives?

“Our latest gamer segmentation study suggests that more than 4m new ‘players’ have entered the games market since last year, so certainly the decline isn’t due to less folks participating in the industry,” NPD’s Anita Frazier explained.

“Some of these are new retail consumers and some are playing online for free, and others are a mix of both. The trick is to continue to figure out how to monetize all the gaming that is going on across PC, mobile devices, and video game systems.

“Certainly there is plenty of opportunity in the industry, but the rate of change in many areas of the industry presents a lot of challenge as well.”

So if the segment has seen a spike in usership, but yet, sales are slumping, where are all these people going? And better yet…where, on what, and if at all, are they spending their money?

“While some of the decline in retail sales could be a migration on the part of consumers to acquiring content via digital distribution, our reports on downloads and subscriptions reveal that it’s not yet having enough impact on the console market to be an overly meaningful factor in the retail down-turn. That said, there are increasing avenues for consumers to game, including via mobile devices, and it’s clear the industry is sorting through how to manage all these opportunities while deploying resources appropriately,” says Frazier.

Now I’m not one to pick at words (yes I am), but note that Frazier mentions only downloads and subscriptions. There are two key pieces of data that NPD is not addressing here. Browser based gaming, and in platform gaming (i.e. casual games apps on social networks). While NPD may be clocking downloads and subscriptions, there’s no indication that they’ve collected significant data on where these 4 million new gamers are going. They’re clearly not heading to the local Best Buy to drop $59.99 on the newest copy of Call of Duty, so again…where are they? My bet firmly lies in browser based, either within social networks, or directly, gaming. If that be the case, the even more important question is – how many of these new gamers, all playing for free, are or plan to make a microtransaction purchase?

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Challenge: Define Casual

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Casual gaming, and it’s associated casual gamers have been getting quite a decent amount of press lately, and industry reports have the genre skyrocketing.  And while I’m certainly all for the rise of anything games, there’s one thing that’s been on my mind for a while now; who exactly are casual gamers?

An excerpt from the Wikipedia definition of a casual gamer reads,

“Casual gamer is a loosely defined term used to describe a type of video game player whose time or interest in playing games is limited compared with a hardcore gamer. Casual gamers can conceivably consist of any people who show more than a passing interest in video games, therefore it is difficult to categorize them as a group. For this reason, games which attempt to appeal to the casual player tend to strive for simple rules and ease of game play, the goal being to present a pick-up-and-play experience that people from any age group or skill level could enjoy.”

The key phrase in this entire passage is “difficult to categorize them as a group.”  This got me to thinking about just who casual gamers really are?  Does this mean, if I’m not a hardcore gamer that I’m a casual gamer?  Do I have to be hardcore to not be casual?  Or rather, is ‘casual gamer’ now a generic industry term for those that do not spend an average of 5+ hours per day wading through their favorite title?  And furthermore, what ever happened to just ‘gamer’?

If the term casual gamer has entered the gamescape vernacular as a blanket term covering all non-hardcore gamers, isn’t that just too broad a market to lump into one basket?

For example, let’s take one certain friend, we’ll call him Tim, who’s in his late 50’s and an avid golfer.  By Tim’s admission, he says that he has in fact played video games in the past, testing to make sure that the Atari 2600 he bought his son back in the 1980’s was working correctly on Christmas morning.  Other than that, nadda. After introducing him to wii sports one Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t get Tim off the golf, and naturally, started fearing for all glass objects in the room.  Tim spent about an hour and a half working his way through wii golf, and said that he had a great time.  That was about a year ago.  Having spoken to him just yesterday, he confirms that he hasn’t touched a console, or any other type of game for that matter, since.  Does Tim qualify as a casual gamer?  And yes…he’s on facebook, and no, he’s not playing ‘Pet Society’.

Stepping things up a bit, another friend, let’s call him Steve, does not own a console, but does some gaming on his PC.  I’ve never seen him play one single ‘casual game’, but rather he downloads demos, shareware, or freebies, with the intent of never actually converting to a paying customer.  When asked about free-to-play, browser based games, Steve simply says, “I just want to play a game, and not be bothered playing with other people, it’s just me versus the machine.”

I truly believe the examples of Tim and Steve to be the much larger majority of folks out there.  They may technically be qualified as ‘casual’ gamers, but they’ve never spent a dime on the industry.  And all the while, both the press and industry figures both agree, ‘casual gaming’ is exploding.  If we’re judging the genre as a whole as successful by the revenue numbers alone, isn’t there something to be said for those that may fall into this unclassifiable category ‘casual gamer’, and better yet, how can the industry as a whole address these folks?  If the adulation is coming from a body count alone, then aren’t these numbers, by default, overinflated?  Do ‘one timers’ and ‘never gonna pay’ people count in this category?

I believe if the ‘casual’ gaming industry is to maintain, justify, and further it’s efforts, it’s time that a few of them sit down and take a good look at just who the ‘typical’ casual gaming demographic is, before we’ve added so much broth to the soup that the chicken gets lost somewhere between the carrots and celery.

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Nintendo to bring microtransactions to Wii

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Nintendo has recently released a bit more information about their plans to join Microsoft and Sony and bring video on demand to connected Wii owners.

Microsoft’s xbox 360 console now has Netflix up and running, and Sony’s PS3 is slated to get Play TV later this year.  Last month, Nintendo started leaking bits and pieces around the interwebs via their selected ad company Dentsu announcing that they plan to create specific programs for the Wii.  While Microsoft’s Netflix deal allows users to ‘rent’ downloadable content, and Sony’s system will provide a similar service, Nintendo, staying true to wii form, is going off in their own microtransaction-based direction.

Unlike the big M and S, don’t be on the look out for any movie style entertainment from Nintendo – which makes sense, as they’ve not bothered with the deal cutting that both Microsoft and Sony have trudged through.

Nintendo’s new path will happen via ad agency Dentsu, who also have deals with Fuji Television and Nippon Television.  Similar to wii’s weather forecaster, wii vote, and wii channels, Dentsu will create video on demand centered around family-oriented cartoons, brain teaser quiz games, culinary delights, educational, and other assorted lifestyle programming.  Given the delivery vehicle that Nintendo has chosen, I’m going to go out on a limb here and suspect that the channel will also be chock full o’ advertising.  Combine that with the extremely wide demographic that the wii console appeals to, we might be looking at a shotgun approach to the ads – one might see a game ad for a 4-12 age range title back to back with an ad for the superbowl.

Currently named Wiinoma, the service is expected to connect to the 18 million of the estimated 40-million wii consoles connected to the internet around the globe.

While some content is slated to be free, other not yet specified content will be available via microtransactions.  Japan is expected to get a first view of a live Wiinoma this spring, with a global rollout following shortly there after.

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