September 12th, 2008

Xbox 360 Ownage!

Consoles are gaining market share everywhere, and seeing a lot of Xbox, Nintendo and PlayStation exclusive games is a reason for celebration, especially since US sales got up. We are not talking about speculations, because NPD just released the sales data for August, making all major competitors of the console gaming market to prepare for a party!

Anyway, it is very interesting to see how did the big boys react to the numbers made public by NPD, since the DS and Wii are leading the hardware sales, with Nintendo claiming to have sold almost 22 million portables in North America since launch, as well as 12 million Wii consoles(wow!). While things are getting better for hardware and software producers, I feel overwhelmed as the end user I am - should I play WoW, go to my console and spin some GTA 4 cars, then maybe go have beer and pizza with my friends, while playing some game on our portable consoles? No, thank you, drop the rest, I'll keep the beer and the pizza!

Don't worry, I am not going to enter mined terrain and tell you things like "excessive gaming is bad for your health," since most people get to realise this, sooner or later.

So, where's the Xbox 360 ownage in all this market share story? Well, after seeing its own numbers, Microsoft said "Xbox 360 owns sports," as Madden NFL 09 climbed right in the front spot of the software charts, with over one million units sold. Even more, the Redmon giant claimed that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 sold 56,000 units in the first five days of sale on Xbox 360, while NCAA Football 09 has sold no less than 460,000 units since release. Pretty impressive, if you ask me!

Regarding thirt-party games, the Xbox 360 got first place in August, grabbing 58 percent market share, or $4.1 million in cash, according to Microsoft. Leaving them aside, it should also be noted that Madden NFL 09 on the PS3 sold 643,000 units in August, with hardware sales going up on all fronts, as I said in the beginning.

If it all goes on like this, it seems that pretty soon, "I don't have a console" will be a phrase extinct from the US English dictionary...