NPD Results: July 2009

Things get from bad to worse in this month’s NPD results report.

When everyone (including Nintendo had said that the Wii’s sales will be low in the first-half of this year but will bounce back up again by the last-half… they might want to rethink that. As the Wii sales become dangerously close to Xbox 360 sales, the Nintendo DS series is not too far behind.

Nintendo DS series: 538,900

Wii: 252,500

Xbox 360: 202,900

PSP: 122,800

Playstation 3: 121,800

Playstation 2: 108,000

 

The software side, however, were… better. Wii Sports Resort still sells strong and both Mario Kart Wii & DS and New Super Mario Bros. are still stuck in the NPD Top 10 (but, in a good way… oh and Wii Fit is officially the fastest-selling game of the year… I bet you my Wii.)

1. Wii Sport Resort – Wii: 508,200
2. NCAA Football – Xbox 360: 376,500
3. NCAA Football – Playstation 3: 237,400
4. Wii Fit – Wii: 164,300
5. Mario Kart Wii – Wii: 156,600
6. Mario Kart DS – Nintendo DS: 132,200
7. Pokémon Platinum Version – Nintendo DS: 116,400
8. Fight Night Round 4 – Xbox 360: 116,400
9. New Super Mario Bros. – Nintendo DS: 101,800
10. EA Sports Active – Wii: 96,800

My thoughts: Now there is a reason why I waited a few days to posted the results. Because I wanted to wait until I hear enough people saying that Nintendo will fail this holiday.

With the Xbox 360 Elite and PS3 at $50 ($30 in Canada) less than the Wii, the PS3 Slim, PSP Go!, iPhone’s quick popularity increase in terms of games, the few AAA tiles on ALL consoles that will be released between Metroid Prime Trilogy’s release date (August 24… already passed) and Final Fantasy XIII’s released date (sorry but Final Fantasy XIV Online won’t stand a chance… on PS3), many people are giving negative views about the Wii and Nintendo DS/DSi and the Sony and Microsoft fanboys are PRAYING that they Wii loses this years holiday season.

I have one thing to say to ALL of you… it’s too early to tell.

The way this works is this: There are at least two more conferences: Tokyo Game Show (not a conference) and Nintendo’s official conference. IF Nintendo would announce a price drop on all consoles (Nintendo DS lite, Nintendo DSi and Wii) and announce something big, then the Tokyo Game Show (not a conference)… may not be the ideal conference (not a confe… ok, now this is getting annoying) to announce it there. Thus, Nintendo’s official conference is Nintendo only hope into announcing that price cut (and other things).

If I had it my way it would be this:

 

1. The Wii, Nintendo DS lite, and Nintendo DSi will have the following price drops:

a. Wii: $199.99 in the Americas, €129.99 in Europe/PAL, ¥17049 in Japan.

b. Nintendo DS lite: $99.99 in Americas, €69.99 in Europe/PAL, ¥8482 in Japan.

c. Nintendo DSi: $149.99 in Americas, €99.99 in Europe/PAL, ¥12850 in Japan.

 

2. A faster Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection OR that and they merge Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, WiiWare, Virtual Console, DSiWare, all Wii Shop Channel accounts, all Nintendo DSi Shop accounts, WiiConnect24, and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay-and Play into one service and merge that service into Club Nintendo of America, Europe, Japan, Australia, and South Africa (yes South Africa has a Club Nintendo AND a Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service… it’s owned by NOE (Nintendo of Europe) making Club Nintendo a) more reliable (logging in onto Nintendo’s website via Club Nintendo, being able to go on Club Nintendo and queue downloads from your Nintendo DSi and Wii, being able to always be logged on your Club Nintendo account on your Wii [WiiConnect24] and Nintendo DSi [DSiConnect24… just kidding], the ability to have FOURMS not tech-support… REGULAR FOURMS like before… before they overhauled their website, the ability to have achievements, the ability to patch games, the ability to… oh I ran out of ideas so I’ll just put in etc.) and b) being a more competitive online service than Playstation Network and Xbox Live (because let me tell you… the only reason why Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is getting negative views about itself is because it feels like it is broken… I mean come on!… 7 services!? mini-services on a large service would be fine but 7?)

3. At least a 60 GB hard drive on the Wii.

4. … that’s it. (Hopefully, ALL of that will be true).

 

So I’ll I can say is… when August 2009 comes out… it will be one interesting result.