14 DAY TRIAL // The data coming from the NPD Group is looked at by analysts and videogame journalists in order to see how consoles and videogames perform. Even if the data only tracks North America, the fact that this is the biggest market in the world means that trends are likely to be replicated all over the world. And for December 2008, analysts say that the domination of the Nintendo Wii will be even greater.
The console, which was until recently the lowest priced of the current gen line up and has a focus on family and casual titles, sold an impressive 2 million devices in November 2008, more than double the numbers of its closest rivals, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Jesse Divinich, who watches the industry for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, believes that “Nintendo Wii and DS software unit and dollar sales will account for over 50 percent of all games sold in December. Without these sales, the industry would have likely felt the full wrath of the recession” before adding, plainly, that “Simply put, Nintendo saved Christmas.”
Michael Patcher, who is an analyst for Wedbush Morgan, also believes that, during Christmas, Nintendo fared very well. He says that “The long-awaited Wii production increase (which started in July) finally arrived late in September and we have seen significant increases each month since. We expect this to continue in December, with supply and demand in balance by early 2009.”
He estimates that the Wii will top 3 million units sold in December, while the Xbox 360 is thought to move 1.35 million units and the PlayStation 3 750,000 consoles. The exact numbers will only be released on Thursday by the NPD Group.
It seems that December could be a very good month for videogames, but we're likely to see a severe slump in numbers as January and February 2009 roll through, mainly because of “holiday fatigue” and the limited number of games released in this period.