The NPD Group has released its U.S. video game retail estimates for January 2013, but they require a little bit of explanation.
The NPD's reporting schedule aligns with the National Retail Federation's, including its "leap week", which happened to fall on this January's monthly calendar.
So when we say that video game retail sales jumped 9 percent in January, that's not a fair comparison: January 2013 was a five-week month, whereas January 2012 was only four.
With some simple math to adjust for the difference and estimate what a four-week January would have been, overall new retail sales across hardware, software and accessories is down an estimated 13 percent, from $765.6 million in January 2012 to roughly $667.8 million in January 2013.The Wii UWhile the NPD no longer provides specific sales numbers for hardware, a representative does tell us that sales of the Wii U hardware for its first three months on the market are down 38 percent from what the Wii's numbers were at that same point.
We're told by someone with access to the NPD's data that sales for January were "well under" 100,000 units. By our estimates, sales were somewhere between 45,000 and 59,000 units for the month, which is lower than any of the three previous-generation home consoles sold in their worst months, with the possible exception of a recent performance by the original Wii.
Similarly, we don't know any software sales numbers, but from NPD's report we can see where Wii U SKUs of multiplatform games compare to other SKUs, and it doesn't look good.
In instances where a game exists on both the Wii and the Wii U (Just Dance 4, NBA 2K13, Madden NFL 13, Skylanders Giants and FIFA Soccer 13), the Wii version came out on top every time. In Madden's case, it was even outsold by the portable version for Sony's ailing Vita handheld.Top 10 software chart (SKUs combined)1. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
2. Far Cry 3 (360, PS3, PC)
3. Just Dance 4 (Wii, 360, PS3, Wii U)
4. NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)
5. Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, Wii U)
6. DMC: Devil May Cry (PS3, 360)
7. Halo 4 (360)
8. Assassin's Creed III (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
9. Skylander Giants (Wii, 360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U)
10. FIFA Soccer 13 (PS3, 360, PSV, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, PSP)By the numbersVideo game hardware: $205M (+4% actual, -17% adjusted)
Video game software (console, handheld): $373.1M (+1% actual, -19% adjusted)
Video game software (console, handheld, and PC): $392.9M (Flat actual, -20% adjusted)
Video game accessories: $256.6M (+30% actual, +3% adjusted)
Total video game sales: $834.7M (+9% actual, -13% adjusted)
Estimated used game, rental and "other physical" sales: $141M
Estimated digital sales: $382M
Total estimated video game spend in US: $1.3B
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Despite how critical I am of Nintendo, I still enjoy their games (usually). But the console is straight up $100 too expensive for me to justify it. I think Nintendo knew this too, but didn't want to suffer WiiU shortages like they did with the Wii, so they priced it higher to insure that they could control supply and demand. Same exact thing happened with the 3DS.
I don't know if its good to start off so slow out of the gate. Because success begets success. That's what happened with the Wii. It was affordable, everyone talked about it, which got more people to buy it, and talk about it more, so it was a pretty good ride for 3 years.
But of course when an economist looks back at it, they think about how much money Nintendo left on the floor for stores to price gouge consumers to try and curve demand. But I honestly think the Wii wouldn't have been able to be as successful at anything higher then $250.
Anyway, I suspect that Nintendo will be announcing a price drop around E3 and an ambassador program, like they did with the 3DS.
I think really eye-popping Mario Galaxy and Zelda sequels is what they need.
They don't need a new IP, they need to actually make their current Wii 'Mii' brand into real games.
Video game software (console, handheld): $373.1M (+1% actual, -19% adjusted)
Video game software (console, handheld, and PC): $392.9M (Flat actual, -20% adjusted)"
Can we stop ignoring the elephant in the room? Software sales dropped again double digit YoY and 2012 was already a horrible year.
So instead of being obsessed with Wii U numbers (that actually aren't public at the moment) the article should maybe focus on the real problems of the industry. Hardware for example is down YoY 17%, it can't be the Wii U who is to blame for it, but the performance of the 360 and PS3 aren't mentioned.
The crash continues without any sign, that the industry has reached a bottom.
If it continues like that, the industry will end the year with the lowest revenues in recent history, but it seems journalists are happy to have Nintendo and the Wii U as a scapegoat for everything.
I am looking forward how they will try to spin the numbers of any MS and Sony next gen console, because I am pretty sure these consoles (if they get published by the end of the year, which I am not sure of) will sell worse.
Industry has stalled due to no new hardware from Sony or MSFT. The Wii U would've remedied that but, as the numbers show... Nope.
To be fair, it's not the Wii U's fault per se as it has substantial gameplay innovations, but slacking off on the graphics and computational power can only be offset by that but frankly, there wasn't enough of it (innovation that is).
And yes you might say "Graphics aren't that important", except that they are. We have five senses and we particularly love the one that has to do with our "eyes", visual! Don't get me started about how beefed up computational power can open the doors for more gameplay....