NPD: Wii, DS Titles Command December 2009 Top 20
Nintendo platforms had a commanding presence on NPD Group’s U.S. retail top 20 video game software sales chart for December, made available to Gamasutra this morning. Seven of the top 20 games were available on Nintendo Wii, while six were for Nintendo DS, for a total of 13 Nintendo platform games on the list. Four Xbox 360 games and three PlayStation 3 games made the list. Nintendo was the publisher with the most titles to …
What Capcom Learned From Making Wii Games In 2009 — Brands Really Matter
Look at the top-selling Wii games in December: New Super Mario Bros., Wii Fit Plus and Wii Play. Nintendo has turned Wii into a brand you can trust and Mario — well, he’s Mario. Capcom failed to get an original Wii franchise off the ground last summer with Spyborgs and Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles hasn’t proven nearly as popular as its predecessor, Umbrella Chronicles.
At CES, I spoke with Capcom’s VP of strategic planning and business development Christian Svensson about the company’s lessons from Wii development in 2009. Capcom has been an avid, aggressive supporter of Wii development, but 2009 wasn’t the stellar year they’d hoped.
"One of the things we’ve learned is that known franchises matter a lot to a Wii consumer," he said.
Spyborgs, for example, was not a known franchise. Capcom was trying to make it one.
"I would say Spyborgs was a challenge for us," said Svensson. "We knew it was high-risk [investment] in terms of doing new IP with a ‘gamer game’ on the Wii and it disappointed us, candidly. At the same time, we do have some bright spots here and there."
Those bright spots were Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, a port of the popular Xbox 360 zombie action game. Critics were especially harsh on Chop Till You Drop, a point that Svensson admitted without question, but the game "did not do badly sales-wise." Additionally, while Resident Evi: Darkside Chronicles is proving a slow burn, "it’s not a disappointment, either."
Svensson made it clear Monster Hunter Tri is one of Capcom’s big Wii hopes for 2009. The series has experienced trouble gaining traction here in the US, despite the rabid popularity in Japan. Monster Hunter Tri, however, introduces a long-missing feature: online multiplayer.
"We’re hoping to use Tri to grow the brand overall in the West," he said. "We’re making a major investment both in marketing and in partnering with Nintendo on it. We’re cautiously optimistic that we’re gonna have some success there."
Unlike Monster Hunter Tri, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom already has notable buzz for Capcom. The latest in Capcom’s long-standing versus fighting titles pits anime characters against some of Capcom’s greatest combatants. Svensson said fighting fans have rallied before the game.
"I fought tooth and nail to bring it over," he said. "But we did so with very conservative forecasts [for sales]. Slowly but surely, the hype train kept rolling along and rolling around and our forecasts kept slowly, slowly, slowly kept climbing up and up and up and it’s now…the forecasts are now — everything is relative — relatively high from where we started."
"What we through we were gonna do [in sales] is now three to four times what we thought we were gonna do," he continued. "It’d be a moderate hit for us if we managed to do those volumes. Again, the fighting game community has been exceptionally supportive of what we’re trying to do there."
So, tell me. How interested are you in either Monster Hunter Tri or Tatsunoko vs. Capcom?
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Japanese Software: New Kingdom Hearts Dethrones New Super Mario Bros.
Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for PSP overtook the dominant New Super Mario Bros. Wii in Japanese sales for the week ended January 10, Media Create said Thursday. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep sold 446,000 units, the tracking firm said–a figure reached in just two days on the Japanese market. The game is a prequel to the 2002 PlayStation 2 game Kingdom Hearts, which launched the RPG series that mixes Disney and Square …
NPD Analysis: December 2009 Software Sales — It’s Nintendo’s World
You don’t sell almost four million units of hardware without pushing an equally impressive amount of software and December 2009’s sales data from the NPD Group doesn’t contradict that a bit. Nintendo was the big winner in software sales last month, with the company that Mario built absolutely dominating five of the ten best-selling positions, including the highest three. Here are the numbers:
- Wii — New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo, 2.82M
- Wii — Wii Fit Plus, Nintendo, 2.41M
- Wii — Wii Sports Resort w/ MotionPlus, Nintendo, 1.79M
- 360 — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Activision, 1.68M
- PS3 — Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Activision, 1.12M
- Wii — Wii Play w/ remote, Nintendo, 1.01M
- Wii — Mario Kart w/ wheel, Nintendo, 936,100
- 360 — Assassin’s Creed II, Ubisoft, 783,100
- 360 — Left 4 Dead 2, Electronic Arts, 728,500
- DS — Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Nintendo, 656,700
I wonder how many people bought Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story unaware that it’s an RPG, not a brand-new platformer starring the jumping duo. Just seems a little suspicious to me. But there’s no doubt about New Super Mario Bros. Wii, however; that’s just a game people wanted.
"The best-selling game of the month was New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which also captures the third spot on the annual top 10 list for 2009," said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier in comments sent alongside the release of the numbers. "6 of the top 10 games totaling 20.8 million units for the year were on the Wii platform as compared to 4 last year at 19 million units."
It’s good news for software as a whole, but there’s a notable absence of anything from a first-party that isn’t Nintendo. Both Sony and Microsoft have no presence on the holiday sales charts from their internal studios, albeit Uncharted 2: Among Thieves appears to continue selling at a steady pace. In Microsoft’s case, however, the company actively admitted their big bet for Xbox 360 in 2009 was the success of Modern Warfare 2. That bet appears to have paid off for them and Sony.
Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.
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December NPD: Nintendo ends 2009 on a high note
It’s time to find out how the US games industry ended the last decade, and the answer is “Nintendo.” Wait, that’s not a proper answer — or is it? Consumers continued The Big N’s fortunes in December, even in spite of some disparaging comments from third party partners. DS also sold remarkably well, and post-Thanksgiving sales of PS3 managed to surpass those of Xbox 360 by about 50,000 units.
Wii software flew off the shelves, proving that Wii games sell … as long as they’re published by Nintendo. Six of the top 10 titles for December were published by the company. New Super Mario Bros. Wii continues to dominate at retail with nearly three million copies sold in December alone. It’s joined in the top three by Wii Fit Plus (2.14M) and Wii Sports Resort (1.79M). Not surprising, given the number of Nintendo consoles sold in the final weeks of the oughts.
-Wii: 3.81M
2.11M (+202%)
-DS: 3.31M2.05M (+95%)
-PS3: 1.36M650K (+92%)
-360: 1.31M490K (+60%)
-PSP: 655K361K (+123%)
-PS2: 333K130K (+64%)
Check out the software sales chart after the break.
Continue reading December NPD: Nintendo ends 2009 on a high note
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Japan: New Kingdom Hearts Dethrones Mario Bros. Wii
Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep sold 446,000 copies to debut atop the Japanese software chart during the week ended January 10.
The PSP game’s sales total – achieved in just two days of availability - was more than double that managed by former bestseller New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which dropped a place to second.
Tomodachi Collection also fell one spot to third, Wii Fit Plus was up one to fourth, while The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks rounded off the top five.
UK’s Bestselling Games Of 2009
Activision’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 topped the UK all formats chart in 2009 as the year’s bestselling game, according to data released today by ELSPA and GfK Chart-Track.
EA’s FIFA 10 placed second, while Nintendo titles Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus rounded off the top five.
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II came sixth, ahead of Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii and Sega’s Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Winter Games.
Nintendo Says To Expect Metroid: Other M In 2010
Yesterday, it was revealed that Nintendo has stopped shipping its Wii collection Metroid Prime: Trilogy. And while Nintendo hasn’t exactly clarified that whole situation, it did offer some comforting news for fans of the acclaimed series today.
"The next highly anticipated offering in the Metroid franchise is Metroid: Other M, which will be available this year," said Nintendo in a statement.
This is by no means a new revelation, but it does mean that Nintendo plans to deliver three major titles this year: Super Mario Galaxy 2, the new Wii Zelda game and Other M. I’m not convinced that we’ll be seeing all three titles this year here in the states, but anything’s possible. And it would be insane if they were able to pull it off.
Do you think Nintendo will end up sticking to its release schedule? If one of these three games were to slip into 2011, which one do you think it will be?
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Pure Nintendo to Host "Nintendo Icons" Marathon 1/16-1/18
This weekend, Pure Nintendo is hosting a marathon in order to raise money for Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play charity. Beginning at 7pm on Saturday, January 16th until 7pm on Monday, January 18th, they will be playing The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the Metroid Prime Trilogy version of Metroid Prime, and New Play Control: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat as they attempt to raise their goal of $5,000.
For further details and to donate, visit their marathon web page here.
Japan: Super Mario Bros. Wii Sales Near 3 Million
Media Create has released the latest figures that show New Super Mario Bros. Wii continues to sell well in Japan, with the first-party Nintendo title selling over quarter of a million units for the week of December 28 to January 3.
Final Fantasy XIII on PS3 sold 112,000 in that week with Wii Fit Plus selling 105,000 bringing its total up to 1.4 million units so far.