Wii dominates US in April

According to the NPD Group's latest figures, despite the blockbuster hit Grand Theft Auto IV, the Nintendo Wii still dominated US console sales for the month of April.

Overall total industry sales were up 40 percent year-over-year, and Hardware sales totaled 426 million USD, a 26 percent surge from April 2007. Software was the big winner however, seeing a 68 percent growth year over year, to hit $654.7 million USD in sales for the month. Most of that can be attributed to the hit games GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii which sold a combined 3.95 million copies.

The figures said that 714,000 Wii consoles were sold during the month, and that brought total lifetime sales in the US to 9.5 million. On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that its Xbox 360 console had become the first next gen console to hit 10 million US sales. It seems the Wii will get their next month, not to mention that the 360 was out for a full year before the Wii even hit stores.

For the month, only 188,000 Xbox 360 consoles were sold, meaning Nintendo's console eclipsed Microsoft's by almost a 4-to-1 margin.

The PlayStation 3 lagged behind a little bit, selling 187,000 consoles to almost match that of the 360 for the month.

As usual, the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable sold well, moving 415,000 and 193,000 units respectively.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 May 2008 16:16

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11 comments

ZippyDSM

Anyone have any attach rate numbers for the WII since it targets non gamers and lite casuals the most it can;t have matching unit to unit attach rate as the others.

I guess the 2nd or 3rd year will show if families will buy more games or not.

16.5.2008 17:00 #1

nobrainer

I consider myself a serious gamer and have two performance pc's. I purchased my daughter a wii for xmas that i purchased in october and i'll have to agree that its everything a console should be, fun and communial instead of the mmorpg's and fps that i play on my pc's.

zelda, mario cart and mario galaxy are amazing titles and the motion controllers are spot on, because of this its not hard to see why the wii is dominating.

still, anti-consumer nintendo block you from making backups the same as the other two consoles, and i refuse to purchase anything from the shop channal because as with both the 360 and ps3 you are only purchasing a licence to play the games until they tell you that you can't, you cannot sell, lend or even give them away, even if you sell your wii you account has to be deleted.

who wants to purchase old titles anyway that you played 10 years ago and can now pick up in a car booter for 10pence (�0.10)

The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
The IFPI Are: The same anti consumer lot as listed above!
The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.

16.5.2008 18:21 #2

xugiua

I just have to say, .... I love the WII

16.5.2008 21:07 #3

hulud86

The Wii is fun and has a great price tag but it needs better games.

16.5.2008 23:16 #4

bomber991

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I just gotta say I've had a wii for a year now and I think it just plain sucks.

Oh neat, I can point at the screen. It's like a mouse! Except it becomes very annoying when you want to type in some letters and you accidentally click on the wrong one, then you have to try and hit the backspace button.

It works pretty good, but why don't I have the option to just use the d-pad at the main menu screen to the system? This one flaw in the system limits me from being able to bring the system into other rooms because I would also have to mess with that stupid "sensor bar".

The motion controls in the wii seem neat at first too, but then after a while you realize you're just shaking the controller to swing a sword instead of pressing a button.

The other problem with the motion sensing controllers is the accuracy. Most of the time they work just fine, but seems like 1 out of 100 times they fail. It's a pain in the ass playing golf and you end up shooting the ball way to the left of the screen instead of straight, or you slam the ball on the other side of the course when you just move the wiimote to "tap" the ball. Over 18 holes you do swing that wiimote about 100 times so one of those holes you screw up because of a bad motion detecting.

17.5.2008 13:29 #5

ZippyDSM

bomber991
Ya the N64 had alil more control options, the new game industry hates giving the gamer a choice its afraid to confuse the casual anymore.

17.5.2008 20:44 #6

hulud86

Originally posted by bomber991: I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I just gotta say I've had a wii for a year now and I think it just plain sucks.

Oh neat, I can point at the screen. It's like a mouse! Except it becomes very annoying when you want to type in some letters and you accidentally click on the wrong one, then you have to try and hit the backspace button.

It works pretty good, but why don't I have the option to just use the d-pad at the main menu screen to the system? This one flaw in the system limits me from being able to bring the system into other rooms because I would also have to mess with that stupid "sensor bar".

The motion controls in the wii seem neat at first too, but then after a while you realize you're just shaking the controller to swing a sword instead of pressing a button.

The other problem with the motion sensing controllers is the accuracy. Most of the time they work just fine, but seems like 1 out of 100 times they fail. It's a pain in the ass playing golf and you end up shooting the ball way to the left of the screen instead of straight, or you slam the ball on the other side of the course when you just move the wiimote to "tap" the ball. Over 18 holes you do swing that wiimote about 100 times so one of those holes you screw up because of a bad motion detecting.Well don't ever try to play a shooting game on Wii, it's freakin impossible!

17.5.2008 20:53 #7

SProdigy

It's not like EVERY game utilizes the "pointer" or motion sensing. In fact, Mario Kart Wii allows use of the Wiimote only, Wiimote + nunchuk, or the GAMECUBE CONTROLLER. Sounds like Nintendo is giving gamers more choices.

Now, if only they made some sort of adapter or re-released the N64 controller, as I'm not a fan of using the classic controller because it's tethered to the Wiimote...

18.5.2008 15:38 #8

ZippyDSM

18.5.2008 17:54 #9

bomber991

Originally posted by SProdigy: It's not like EVERY game utilizes the "pointer" or motion sensing. In fact, Mario Kart Wii allows use of the Wiimote only, Wiimote + nunchuk, or the GAMECUBE CONTROLLER. Sounds like Nintendo is giving gamers more choices.

Now, if only they made some sort of adapter or re-released the N64 controller, as I'm not a fan of using the classic controller because it's tethered to the Wiimote...Yeah, but if you use just the wiimote on that game, it does that motion sensing crap. I do so much better using the nunchuck, but I don't understand why this game just doesn't let you use the d-pad. It's pretty damn uncomfortable trying to chill out on the couch when you gotta hold the dang controller level so you don't go off the screen, oh yeah, and shaking the wiimote to do tricks, well that completely screws me up when I'm just steering with the wiimote. It's no big deal with the nunchuck, but I feel like a damn idiot shaking the remote when I know I should just be pressing a button.

We got 2 wiimotes but just 1 nunchuck, no classic controller and no gamecube controller. It didn't matter for Super Smash Brothers, but it kind of sucks for Mario Kart Wii.

Another gripe, we got this pinball game the other day, the williams collection. It requires using the nunchuck. So we have to pass the damn controller back and forth. They could have just made it using just the wiimote. Have the B button do the left paddle, the 2 button doing the right paddle. Have the D-pad shake the table instead of shaking the controller, have the 1 button pull the plunger.

20.5.2008 02:32 #10

wetsparks

Originally posted by ZippyDSM: Anyone have any attach rate numbers for the WII since it targets non gamers and lite casuals the most it can;t have matching unit to unit attach rate as the others.

I guess the 2nd or 3rd year will show if families will buy more games or not.I don't know if it is true or not, but in Microsoft's PR spin they say that they are winning this gen because they have a 7 attach ratio and the ps3 and wii have a 3 attach ratio.

And I agree with others here, I have Zelda and Mario Galaxy, supposedly two of the best games of all time, and I don't have my Wii plugged in anymore, been playing FFX again on my PS2 and Crisis Core/Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters on my PSP (got R&C for $10 on Monday, good deal so far).

30.5.2008 16:23 #11

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