14 DAY TRIAL // The overall NPD Group figures for November on the United States market show the industry declining overall by 7.6% when compared to the same month of 2008, with hardware being the hardest hit, going down by 13.4%. And a quick look at the numbers side by side is revealing as to what happened.
This November, the chart looked like this:
Nintendo DS – 1.7 million Nintendo Wii – 1.26 million Xbox 360 – 820,000 PlayStation 3 – 710,000 PlayStation Portable – 293,000 PlayStation 2 – 203.100.
In November 2008, the order was more like:
Nintendo Wii – 2.04 million Nintendo DS – 1.57 million Xbox 360 – 836,000 PlayStation Portable – 421,000 PlayStation 3 – 378,000 PlayStation 2 – 206,000.
The biggest move is the incredible sales shrinkage for the Wii home gaming console which, coupled with the price cut, indicate that the market might be saturated and that the Nintendo device has reached its climax and will be declining for the rest of its lifetime.
The decline will prompt more rumors of the existence of a Wii HD version that might be announced in 2010. The company can find solace in the very good performance of the DS handheld, which shows no signs of slowing down and is facing a smaller threat from the PSP.
The other big news is related to the PS3 versus Xbox 360 battle for second place. Microsoft has quickly moved to point out that it sold better than the Sony console but its numbers have slightly declined. Meanwhile, Sony might be a bit disappointed that its three-month superiority has ended but the PlayStation 3 console has actually managed to grow a lot because of the Slim and the price cut, probably ready to fight even harder in 2010.
It's also interesting to note that the PS2 is selling pretty much the same amount of consoles even if a year has passed, which might mean that the gaming device will still be present next year.