Game Stooge

The Lund Report: June 2009 NPD

• Scribbled on July 16th, 2009 by Jordan Lund
• Filed in Features, Game Genres, NPD, Platforms

The NPD numbers for June 2009 are out, with some surprises and some not-so-suprises.

Consoles:

• PlayStation 2 152.7K
• PlayStation 3 164.7K
• Xbox 360 240.6K
• Wii 361.7K

Handheld consoles:

• Nintendo DS 766.5K
• PSP 163.5K

For surprises, it looks like interest in the Wii has finally peaked. Sales are up 72,200 over the previous month, but they’re down 305,000 from June of 2008. This is the fourth month in a row that Nintendo has failed to beat the previous year’s sales. From January to June 2009, the Wii moved a total of 3,024,400 machines, which sounds impressive until you realize in the same period of time last year they sold 3,483,000. This means their numbers are down a whopping 13.17% from last year. June to June represents a 45.75% drop. Negative numbers so far unheard of on the Nintendo side.

Meanwhile the Xbox 360 continues to plug away. Gaining 65,600 units over last month and 21,600 over June of ‘08. Of the three major console machines, it was the only one to show positive growth in June, up 37.49% from the previous month and up 9.86% from June of ‘08. Year to date it’s moved 1,620,600 machines compared to 1,340,200 January to June 2008. That represents a jump of 20.92% from last year, not too shabby considering the economy.

For the not surprising, the PS3 goes in the tank again, for the 8th month in a row. But it’s not entirely their fault: the numbers for June, 2008 included the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 and pumped console sales to around 1/2 of what they did at Christmas time. Without a major, major software release it would be impossible to move the 405,500 consoles they did in June of last year. They did see again of 33,700 units over last month though (up 25.73%), so that’s a bright spot even though they’re technically down 240,800 units from June of last year (down 59.38%).

January to June sales total up 1,119,900 for the PS3, compared to 1,608,100 over the same period of time last year. That’s a drop of 30.36%. Making matters worse PS2 and PSP sales also saw drops over 2008. The PS2 has sold 785,900 so far this year, down from 1,277,700 last year (-38.49%). The PSP hit 919,200 this year, down from 1,482,500 (-38%) from last year. So, technically, of the Sony brand, the PS3 is doing the best but the best just isn’t very good right now.

• PROTOTYPE 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD June-09 419.9K
• UFC 2009:UNDISPUTED 360 THQ May-09 338.3K
• EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE WII ELECTRONIC ARTS May-09 289.1K
• TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10* WII ELECTRONIC ARTS June-09 272.4K
• WII FIT WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-08 271.6K
• FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS June-09 260.8K
• FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS June-09 210.3K
• MARIO KART W/WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA April-08 202.1K
• RED FACTION:GUERRILLA 360 THQ June-09 199.4K
• INFAMOUS PS3 SONY May-09 192.7K

On the software side, I have to admit being surprised at how well Prototype has done, selling over 400,000 copies in its first month of release and that’s just on the Xbox 360. In my area, stores had bountiful copies of them, even the special edition with the t-shirt, which led me to believe it would be a peg-warmer. Not so. The PS3 version, however, failed to make the top 10. Perhaps PS3 owners were still busy with inFamous.

Similarly, anyone notice something missing from the software charts? Wii Play is no longer in the rankings. Looks like people finally have enough extra controllers. The first Wii Motion Plus title, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 makes the rankings though so perhaps that’s where the extra Wii time went this month.

The 2nd half of inFamous’s (inFamouses? inFamousi?) sales bring its total up to just under 400,000, the sales look worse than they are because that’s what happens when you have one week of sales on the previous month and the rest on the current month.