Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz knows the public and, according to him, they want Guitar Hero: World Tour. Even though the guitar bundle for the game has been discountedlikecrazy over the last week (and selling just as crazy, we assume), he says that most folks are looking for the full band kit, which is difficult to find on store shelves.
"Supply of the full band kit version at all retail locations was very tight, with the title selling out quickly," Creutz said, even pointing to online resellers who continue to resell the full band kit SKU for ridiculous sums of money. "This picture of high demand and tight supply remains consistent with our previous channel checks."
If these supplies were higher, Activision would be making a lot more money off the title. As it is, however, the company must mostly rely on sales of the game itself and the other guitar bundle SKU.
Even though the Wii reigned supreme on eBay, other retailer sites saw crazy demand for Nintendo's fitness package, Wii Fit. For major retail site Amazon.com, the Wii and Wii Fit were the top-selling video game items throughout the day on Friday. On eBay-owned Shopping.com, the top searches were for Wii Fit and the Nintendo Wii. And during a season that is expected to generate $29 billion, that's a lot of green for Nintendo.
Any of you snag a Wii or Wii Fit to gift someone this holiday season?
Macquarie Securities analyst David Gibson has used Science to calculate that Nintendo makes $6 from every Wii console snapped up by the public. It's long been known that Nintendo profits from its hardware, though how much has never been revealed.
If Gibson's sums are accurate, that means Nintendo made almost $4.2 million of profit from North American Wii hardware during October alone. Six dollars, for the record, is what we almost earn in a whole day of blogging. That kind of money will get you one-fifth of this amazing Wii Music add-on set!
Gibson also states that Microsoft breaks even with the Xbox 360, while Sony loses cash whenever it sells a PS3. Sadly, he doesn't say how much Sony drops, so we can't point and laugh.
Even though the Wii has surpassed the 7 million mark in Japan, it would appear the console has lost some of its appeal there. During its first year on store shelves, the console sold an average of 386,000 units a month. In its second year since release, that figure is down 24% to 292,000 a month. With the holiday season upon us, the Wii would have to sell 2 million total units over the season to bring its average back up to where it used to be.
It's not just Japan, as well. The NPD figures have shown that the Wii has been selling less and less in North America, as well (although not in October, where Nintendo moved more consoles than in the last 4 months or so. Could this be the beginning of the end for the Wii? Well, with all of the games coming in 2009, we're inclined to think not.
In one of its more mystifying announcements this year, Nintendo Europe sent out a press release saying it was dumping the famous red Nintendo logo, and replacing it with a ... serious, business-like gray version. Ugh.
The press release, translated from German to English by Kotaku, didn't give a specific reason for the switch, merely requesting that, "In the event that you have not already done so, we would like to sincerely ask you to now only use the current, grey Nintendo logo." CasualGaming.biz contacted Nintendo UK, who not only confirmed the story was entirely true, but revealed that the change was officially made around two years ago. We missed that one, to be honest.
This may seem like trivial news to some of you, but to a generation who grew up in a world where Nintendo was assuredly red and Sega always blue, this feels somewhat sad.
The research bods at EEDAR have got their abacuses out and calculated that Wii games are more prone to "price protection" than titles on rival machines.
What's price protection? Price protection occurs when a publisher of a game that isn't selling offers its game to retailers for a lower price, allowing stores to get rid of excess stock quickly. If this happens too soon (EEDAR defines "too soon" as "when a title's third month average selling price has decreased by 20% or more from its original average selling price"), it is known as "early price protection."
Anyway, EEDAR found that 15.1% of all Wii software goes through this process, compared to 7.5% on Xbox 360 and 9.09% on PS3. What does this disparity say about Wii software? EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich thinks it backs up the theory that third-parties struggle on the Wii because they and retailers have "overly aggressive expectations" for Wii games, and that it proves "quality is one of the most impactful features for a video game."
Gamasutra has compiled a bunch of charts showing the best-selling games of 2008 (so far) across all formats. At first glance, the results are thoroughly predictable -- it's yet more Wii dominance in the U.S. -- but there are interesting factoids to be drawn from this.
Wii Play, for example, looks like finishing in the top five games of the year for the second year running. Even more impressively, Gamasutra thinks it could sell more copies in 2008 than in 2007, which is all kinds of crazy. Surely that would be some kind of first?
The top two spots are held by Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, a pair of titles that we always expected to sell well, but to beat the likes of Wii Fit or other games aimed at Nintendo's broadened audience? Speaking of Wii Fit, it tops the chart for estimated revenue so far this year, thanks to its higher retail price. We'll reproduce the 2008 YTD sales table below, but Gamasutra has other data worth looking at here.
The gift of gaming may prove to be stronger than the current economic woes that plague the United States. Gaming executives spoke during the recent BMO Capital Markets conference, with even Nintendo's own Reggie Fils-Aime tossing his two cents into the mix, with each stating that they were generally optimistic about this holiday season.
"If I look at this from an industry perspective I think cautiously optimistic is quite appropriate," Fils-Aime told Reuters. "If I look at it from a Nintendo perspective, I would say very optimistic." With Wii Fit, as well as the popularity of the Wii itself, we'd say Nintendo has nothing to worry about. But, with the way things are, third-party publishers could have a tough time selling their Wii titles this holiday.
Update: RMC was kind enough to shoot us an email to notify that MTV has since updated their story as their figures were inaccurate. Turns out, the Xbox 360 version of the game won out. Bummer.
Wii owners love their Guitar Hero, as it's revealed that Guitar Hero: World Tour, the latest and greatest in the franchise, sold more on Wii than any other system. With the recent NPD numbers, MTV Multiplayer also secured exact sales figures for Activision's latest title. Across all platforms, Guitar Hero: World Tour sold 534,000 copies. Of those, 183,000 were for the Wii.
We know a lot of you were excited for World Tour up until release. Did you pick it up? Enjoy it, or found it isn't all it was cracked up to be?
You know what? To be honest, we kind of wish the NPD numbers weren't so predictable each month. We crave some excitement in our lives. We're not saying we want the Wii and DS to give up their top spots or anything, but some kind of change in the usual rigmarole would be nice. Oh well, maybe next month ...
"To each their own." It's a simple rule that, if universally followed, could result in world peace. On the other hand, if people didn't go online to bitch at each other about video games, then many bloggers would be collecting unemployment. I can't speak for every other hobby that exists, but I imagine that fly-fishing and glass-blowing message boards are considerably more pleasant than gaming forums.
So as it is, the gaming world is chock full of debate. Hrmm, scratch that. The word "debate" conjures impressions of two well-groomed individuals standing behind podiums and taking turns eloquently addressing issues presented to them by a moderator. For every one of these moments, you get a couple thousand boring ones. But when the forum is switched to the Internet, the dialogue transforms into a partisan torrent of vitriol. While political campaigning may be viewed as a chess match between experts, an appropriate metaphor for gaming and Internet debate in general can be found in the gigantic brawl at the end of 1977's Slap Shot.
In particular, Nintendo fanboys seem to simultaneously be a large source of and recipients to such slander. Perhaps it's due to Nintendo's extensive gaming history (especially when compared to Sony and Microsoft). Similarly, many of these Fanboys grew up with Nintendo, with the NES and SNES occasionally acting as a babysitter. For some, an attack on Nintendo is equal to or worse than an attack on one's family. To such individuals, I say take it easy. I'm certainly not above the label of "Nintendo Fanboy" (look at the name of this site for crying out loud), but I do try my best to apply sound reason and understanding to such hostility. I now present to you a look at 5 common weapons used in battle against Nintendo, an analysis of each argument, and how best a supporter of Nintendo should respond.
The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
Sure, it may not be the 34.55 million shipped that the company has done in the U.S., but selling 10.4 million Wiis in Europe is no small feat. That's just so far this year, as well, and with a busy holiday season coming up, Nintendo is hoping many more will snag some of their products from store shelves.
Gaming is becoming quite the popular activity in the UK, as well as other parts of Europe, so it's no surprise to see that folks are hopping on the Wii bandwagon. It's affordable and fun, after all.
If you were thinking of hunting down a very expensive gift for that special someone this holiday season, the Guitar Hero: World Tourfull band kit might not be the best option. During a conference call yesterday, Activision CEO Robert Kotick commented that the full kit has been "virtually sold out across the channel." He also admitted that his company might not be able to meet demand this holiday season.
So, if you're a mom that had exceptional children throughout this year, you might want to phone Santa and have him snatch one up as soon as possible. There's a good chance you won't see them on store shelves for a little while.
Even with THQ filing lawsuit against Activision for the cover of Baja 1000, the game is hitting store shelves anyway. A U.S. District Court judge has said "the hardship to plaintiff (THQ) is unclear, as Plaintiff has presented no evidence of hardship."
The judge went on further to say that the "balance of hardships tips sharply in Defendant's, not Plaintiff's, favor. Defendant would be forced to halt at the last minute the release of a videogame that it has invested significant resources in developing--and it would be forced to do so heading into the holiday shopping season."
Whatever happened to yo-yos, jax, and those wooden paddles with a rubber ball attached? It seems kids are entertaining themselves with this Guitar Hero thing these days, as Activision reported yesterday that their franchise had topped software charts for the first nine months of this year.
With Guitar Hero: On Tour doing so well on the DS, as well as Guitar Hero III selling on the Wii like gangbusters, the Nintendo consoles have pushed their fair share of Guitar Hero onto the public. With the release of World Tour late last month, as well as On Tour Decades releasing later this month, it looks like this is going to be a great year for Activision.
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