Game Stooge

The Lund Report: December 2011 NPD

• Scribbled on January 14th, 2012 by Jordan Lund
• Filed in Features, Game Genres, NPD, Platforms

December 2011 was a bumpy ride for hardware, with all three consoles selling less this year than they did last year. The 360 did the best, dropping only 8.6% from December, 2010.

• Xbox 360 – 1,700,000
• Wii – 1,060,000
• PlayStation 3 – 936,000

This time last year the PS3 sold 1.2 million units, just the second time they ever sold more than a million in a month, and they failed to repeat this year selling just 936,000, a drop of 22%. The Wii is clearly on the way out though, after moving 2.3 million machines last Christmas, this year they drop to just barely over a million, a loss of 55%.

We don’t have precise DS or 3DS numbers, we are told they both did better than they did in November (350,000 and 795,000 units respectively), but that the DS didn’t do as well as last December where they sold 2.5 million. So saying they sold somewhere between 350,000 and 2.5 million doesn’t exactly mean much.

Over-all for 2011, things look pretty good for the 360 and PS3. The 360 saw an increase in total sales from 6.8 million in 2010 to 7.2 million in 2011. The PS3 saw a similar increase from 4.3 million to 4.5 million. The Wii on the other hand dropped from 7 million sold in 2010 to just 4.5 million. This still, technically, puts them in 2nd place for the year, barely out-selling the PS3 by 40,000 units. (4,535,295 vs. 4,494,619).

Due to incomplete reporting for the DS for 2011 we can’t even say how many they sold this year, but it would appear to be about 1/4 to 1/3rd of the 8.5 million they sold in 2010, dropping somewhere between 66% and 75%.

December Top 10 Software:

• 1.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)
• 2.) Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3)
• 3.) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)
• 4.) Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
• 5.) Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
• 6.) Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)
• 7.) Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)
• 8.) NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC)
• 9.) Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)
• 10.) Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)

The Christmas Top 10 doesn’t really deliver any surprises, other than what’s NOT listed rather than what is listed. Uncharted 3 dropped off the charts pretty quickly, as did The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. The two current shooters take the #1 and #5 spots, Skyrim is still chewing up dollars in #3. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is doing fairly well considering the harsh critic reviews, but then Best Buy did discount the title to $35 before Christmas and $30 after Christmas and that may have something to do with it. Batman: Arkham City is holding on by a batarang at the bottom of the top 10.

Top 10 Software 2011:

• 1.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)
• 2.) Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3)
• 3.) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)
• 4.) Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
• 5.) Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)
• 6.) Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC)
• 7.) Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)
• 8.) Gears of War 3 (360)
• 9.) Just Dance 2 (Wii)
• 10.) Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)

The top 10 for all of 2011 shows a few interesting bits. First, military shooters take up almost 1/3rd of the list. #1, #4 and #6, with Black Ops being a really OLD title now. What would be the polar opposite of a military shooter? How about a dance game? Specifically Just Dance taking the #2 and #9 spots. That’s an interesting contradiction in terms.

The bit that I find fascinating is that out of the top 10 for the entire year, most of this list was released in the final quarter. Take a look at this list again:

• 1.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – 11/8/2011
• 2.) Just Dance 3 – 10/7/2011 (PS3 – 12/6/2011)
• 3.) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 11/11/2011
• 4.) Battlefield 3 – 10/25/2011
• 5.) Madden NFL 12 – 8/30/2011
• 6.) Call of Duty: Black Ops – 11/9/2010
• 7.) Batman: Arkham City – 10/18/2011
• 8.) Gears of War 3 – 9/20/2011
• 9.) Just Dance 2 – 10/12/2010
• 10.) Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – 11/15/2011

All of the top 10 released in the latter half of the year, granted two of them in the latter half of 2010, but still. 7 of the 10 releasing in September, October or November. My grand theory has been that gaming companies release new games in the fall when college kids are supposed to be spending their money on textbooks and that would seem to work well for them. It doesn’t bode well for other high profile titles releasing during other parts of the year. However well they do they seem to be forgotten by the time the Christmas season rolls around. Madden hung on, despite an August release, the same for Gears 3, other than that you see a lot of October/November games on the list.

Cool Kids Are into Social Media, AMIRITE

•