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In the USA video game sales charts for the month of April, the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii posted strong sales numbers by selling 471,000 and 360,000 units, respectively. The XBox 360 had a disappointing April with 117,000 units sold, but not as disappointing as the Sony Playstation 3's 82,000. In a hilarious turn of events, the Nintendo Game Boy Advance sold 84,000 units in April; that's right, the GBA is selling better than the PS3.

And unsurprisingly, Pokemon dominated the game sales charts by having its two versions combine for a little over 1.7 million sold. Diamond made up for just over one million of those.

But that's not the point. The point is that Sony's sales situation is getting worse, and it will probably need those hyped Fall 2007 releases to stay in the game.

Source: http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16199

This post has been edited by laszlow on 18th May 2007 00:33

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Quote

...the GBA is selling better than the PS3.

I giggled at reading that. Sony, Sony.... /facepalm

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

How embarassingly absurd that a new console that was just released is getting beat by a 6-7 year old handheld that's about to die soon.. yet. I blame it on the pricing because only a fraction would be foolish enough to spend $500 for a console with not-so-very-great games in it (atleast what I've heard of).

I like how Sony's PS3 is biting the dust this time.

Quote (NeoEx-Death @ 17th May 2007 20:11)

I blame it on the pricing because only a fraction would be foolish enough to spend $500 for a console with not-so-very-great games in it (atleast what I've heard of).

I wish I had been foolish enough to buy one at that price.

To sell back on eBay for $5k+

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

you know, the PS 3 isnt that bad. i dont regret for a second buying it, and its hardware is better than any game console on the market. it just got a slow start

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Aujourdhui a commence avec toi.

A cheap product of quality outsells an expensive and unproven product. Hardly a surprise.

Shrug. I own both.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

People have come back from worse. I mean, Germany was winning until half time in World War 2...

But does that either mean Sony will lose 20 million people to invade Microsoft's HQ or they'll drop two nuclear bombs on Nintendo?

Only time will tell. But buy a bomb shelter just in case.

This post has been edited by Del S on 18th May 2007 04:20

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

This is kind of inconsequential considering Europe is Sony's largest market. Still funny, but I want some Europe figures.

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

Quote (dont chocobos rule? @ 17th May 2007 21:29)

you know, the PS 3 isnt that bad. i dont regret for a second buying it, and its hardware is better than any game console on the market. it just got a slow start

That's probably true, and the PS3 will most likely make a huge comeback once the developers start cranking out more hits. Still, if you're Sony right now, you've got to be feeling the heat so to speak.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Not much of a surprise to me, really. For ll I've seen and played on the PS3, all it has going for it are graphics.

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"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

GBA IS OUTSELLING THE PS3! Wow.

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Kupo.

Quote (SilverMaduin @ 18th May 2007 07:22)

Not much of a surprise to me, really. For ll I've seen and played on the PS3, all it has going for it are graphics.

Well, like, out of what else? It has good graphics and the same basic set-up as its incredibly successful predecessor. What more are you looking for?

Personally, I like my PS3. It has little features that are very convenient, like turning it off remotely, accessing PS1/PS2 memory cards without exiting a game, and the whole XMB approach to organization.

I think the PS3 will pick up once developers really gear up and start cranking out titles.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

plus, because of the web browser, and having an 'almost' OS, you can get ZOMZ EMULATERS!!!!!! so yeah. my friend has Sonic on his



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Aujourdhui a commence avec toi.

Sony will bounce back.

They will make up for the bad sales and bad press.

I don't think they will be declared the "winners" of this round of the console wars though, either by popular opinion or by the bottom line ($$$).

My early pick was the Wii for champ, but it's looking more and more like the Wii and 360 will have a sort of co-rule, while Sony plays last fiddle this time around.

I'm already excited about what will go down in 4-5 years when the next batch of consoles come out, despite the fact that I have none of the three new consoles now and don't plan on buying one.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Quote (laszlow @ 17th May 2007 20:30)

the GBA is selling better than the PS3.

That's the best thing I've heard all day!

I might need to go out and help the GBA sales if mine takes any longer charging. It takes all night now. Oh well, the PS3 is but a newborn, while the GBA is an old, wrinkly man on his last legs.

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Why, hello guys! Haven't been around here in a loooong time!
http://dragcave.net/user/LadyTwi
http://www.backloggery.com/ladytwi

The price, is all about the price.

But hey, paying $600 for a brand new blu ray with a couple of GREAT extras, the prices id actualy good.

The PS3 will bounce back, but right now the XBOX has turned out to be the better system, even thought the numbers of unit solds is less than the Wii. The Wii has been a commercial success, but in the long run the XBOX 360 will come out a winner of the C.WARS.

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PS3 tag: TipoDLuffy

"...quite possibly the greatest game ever made"

I wish it wasn't quite like this.

Only because then I could start finding Wiis instead of stacks and stacks of PS3s in retail.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

You can kind of see the handhelds do better than the consoles because I imagine most people get one console and one handheld. And Nintendo hasn't had any real competition for handheld since the GameGear.

So, you expect the DS to do better than the others, but GBA? The DS has been out for a while, too, so that's gotta sting.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Quote (Kappa the Imp @ 21st May 2007 19:29)

I wish it wasn't quite like this.

Only because then I could start finding Wiis instead of stacks and stacks of PS3s in retail.

Yes, ironic, isn't it?

Back when they came out, you could find a Wii here and there but not a PS3 to be seen. Now there's PS3s everywhere but no Wiis.


This actually doesn't *really* surprise me, although I don't really understand why those people aren't getting DSs instead, for all that's worth.

PS3 is expensive, doesn't have many cool games, and isn't particularly innovative.

XBox 360 at least has some good games, and the Wii is innovative and has Zelda as well as Wii Sports and Miis, which, honestly, are really fun.

The GBA has a solid collection of games and is really cheap, as well as being virtually bug free. A lot of school age children can save for a few months and get a GBA, but how many can save and get a PS3?

A friend of mine bought a Wii solely because he felt the next step in gaming was about innovations - we've pretty much hit the top in terms of graphics. Almost.

I think he's right. Putting out shinier consoles with flashier graphics just isn't going to cut it anymore. People want something new. Until we make the leap from 3D to VR, VirtualBoy be damned, I think consoles that just pump out bigger and stronger cores will start falling behind severely. If that's all the next generation will be about, we'll just have the same old thing as before with slightly rounder models, slightly better music/sound quality, and price tags that rival top of the line PCs.

So, to me, it's not much of a surprise that the current generation has a fairly small impact on things. The GBA is pretty much the only affordable 2D system left on the market, and everything else (Wii excluded) is the same old thing in a shinier package. With a bloated price tag.

I look forward to the day I'll be able to strap on some helmet, get into some body suit, kick back in a comfy chair, and wander around beating slimes with a cue stick in a virtual world. I'm totally going to set up some virtual bar and re-enact the classic game Tapper in some RPG.

Powerlevelling by rapidly and accurately throwing full beer mugs at rows of underage baseball cap wearing NPCs in a carnival across counters to some catchy chiptune is a dream of mine. I will be the best - I'm so gonna invest all of my skill points in trick-pouring so I can beat down the hoards of underage sports fans with my beer of justice in style. Aw yeah.

This post has been edited by Silverlance on 23rd May 2007 03:28

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Quote

I'm totally going to set up some virtual bar and re-enact the classic game Tapper in some RPG. biggrin.gif

Powerlevelling by rapidly and accurately throwing full beer mugs at rows of underage baseball cap wearing NPCs in a carnival across counters to some catchy chiptune is a dream of mine. I will be the best - I'm so gonna invest all of my skill points in trick-pouring so I can beat down the hoards of underage sports fans with my beer of justice in style. Aw yeah.

Do you need investors? Because I could seriously get behind this.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

I'm not a huge fan of the PS3 (mostly because it hasn't been out long enough to get that killer game and it has a lofty price tag), but I really don't understand why everyone thinks the Wii is so innovative.

As of right now, there is nothing innovative about motion sensoring. There are only a few games out for the Wii that fully utilize the remote and utilize it well, and some games (like Zelda) are better on the Gamecube. Also, those games that DO utilize the remote, IMO, become very dull after a few plays.

It could shape up to be a very innovative system. It has potential at least. But then again, so do all of the systems. After all, if you think more power only equals better graphics, you're severely misled.

I hope that the Wii really shakes up the video game world. However, I think it's going to be very similar to the DS. It'll have its fun games that utilize its gimmicks well (mostly those made by Nintendo), but overall I think it will go relatively under utilized. I suppose time will tell though.

This post has been edited by Wesdelmarva on 23rd May 2007 15:01

Quote (Silverlance @ 22nd May 2007 22:23)

A friend of mine bought a Wii solely because he felt the next step in gaming was about innovations - we've pretty much hit the top in terms of graphics. Almost.

I think he's right. Putting out shinier consoles with flashier graphics just isn't going to cut it anymore. People want something new. Until we make the leap from 3D to VR, VirtualBoy be damned, I think consoles that just pump out bigger and stronger cores will start falling behind severely. If that's all the next generation will be about, we'll just have the same old thing as before with slightly rounder models, slightly better music/sound quality, and price tags that rival top of the line PCs.

So, to me, it's not much of a surprise that the current generation has a fairly small impact on things. The GBA is pretty much the only affordable 2D system left on the market, and everything else (Wii excluded) is the same old thing in a shinier package. With a bloated price tag.

I look forward to the day I'll be able to strap on some helmet, get into some body suit, kick back in a comfy chair, and wander around beating slimes with a cue stick in a virtual world. I'm totally going to set up some virtual bar and re-enact the classic game Tapper in some RPG.

Powerlevelling by rapidly and accurately throwing full beer mugs at rows of underage baseball cap wearing NPCs in a carnival across counters to some catchy chiptune is a dream of mine. I will be the best - I'm so gonna invest all of my skill points in trick-pouring so I can beat down the hoards of underage sports fans with my beer of justice in style. Aw yeah.

People won't take kindly to anything they have to wear, which is why I don't think even glove-based controllers would take off. In fact, I think that the Wii was about the most Nintendo could get away with just with the wrist strap.

Anyways, Wesdelmarva: sharing similarities with the DS is hardly a bad position to be in. Besides, the system is still coming out with games that are controlled exclusively by stylus (Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is a good example).

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Quote (Wesdelmarva @ 23rd May 2007 10:15)

After all, if you think more power only equals better graphics, you're severely misled.

That is true. A fact that I have to keep in mind sometimes, but also a fact that quite a lot of graphics whores out there need to remember too--a good many people also make the same mistake of equating computing power and graphics.

Especially high-definition graphics. If people say that the X-Box 360 has better graphics than the Wii and that's actually true, then I'd rather have Wii-style graphics (still damn good graphics; I can hardly tell the difference) but, say, the capability of having more of them. It's somewhat awesome (horrendously, I admit) for something like Castlevania's Legion to slow down the machine by dropping so many bodies at once, but if the machine can animate that many bodies at once, that's even better.

(Or that just means it needs to drop more bodies.)

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

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Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 26th May 2007 08:10)

Quote (Wesdelmarva @ 23rd May 2007 10:15)

After all, if you think more power only equals better graphics, you're severely misled.

That is true. A fact that I have to keep in mind sometimes, but also a fact that quite a lot of graphics whores out there need to remember too--a good many people also make the same mistake of equating computing power and graphics.

Especially high-definition graphics. If people say that the X-Box 360 has better graphics than the Wii and that's actually true, then I'd rather have Wii-style graphics (still damn good graphics; I can hardly tell the difference) but, say, the capability of having more of them. It's somewhat awesome (horrendously, I admit) for something like Castlevania's Legion to slow down the machine by dropping so many bodies at once, but if the machine can animate that many bodies at once, that's even better.

(Or that just means it needs to drop more bodies.)

As someone who regularly edits and slams technical writers, the problem is that the terminology is so overused. 'Power' is meaningless when you talk about game system. Even if you know it referred to graphical or computing capability, you don't know how they're defining it. Frames, cycles, instructions, it's one giant mess of statistics that will only ballpark real world performance.

I believe it was Spore's developer that went on a rant a couple months back. Apparently, the Wii's processor was too crappy to keep up with their AI subroutines. Whether or not there's any truth to it, I don't know. But it is concerning... I might prefer multiplayer games, but single player enemies should not be as dumb as 90's era Doom monsters.

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Visions of Peace - Four Generals, One Empire, and the Returners caught in the middle.

Quote (The_Pink_Nu1 @ 25th May 2007 15:41)

Quote (The_Pink_Nu1)

Anyways, Wesdelmarva: sharing similarities with the DS is hardly a bad position to be in. Besides, the system is still coming out with games that are controlled exclusively by stylus (Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is a good example).

At the risk of even further derailing this thread, I'm going to have to say I disagree with your assessment.

Sales do not equal innovation. At least, I can only assume you're referring to sales when you say "sharing similarities with the DS is hardly a bad position to be in". The innovation of the DS has been sparse IMO, so if you're referring to that...I don't know, we're going to have to agree to disagree.

More stylus based games are fine, but the point isn't that I necessarily WANT more, I just want some games to be innovative if innovation is clearly what Nintendo is going for. Some games so far have been, but not many. And I don't think use of the stylus equals innovation.

I love my DS. I like it a lot more than the Wii because it's great for portable gaming. However I'm not wowed by its innovation. Much of what the PSP is doing could be considered MUCH more innovative simply because they're providing SO many different options and mediums in a handheld gaming system...something never really done before (although I still haven't purchased a PSP because their game library, outside of PS2 ports, is lacking).

I suppose I just get tired of the Wii being synonomous with innovation when it really hasn't innovated anything yet. There is possibility there, but just the existence of motion sensor technology does not equal innovation. The games are going to be what determines if the system is truly innovative or not.

(My lord I've used up the word "innovative" after that post )

I'll one-up you by derailing the thread even FURTHER.

I don't care about innovation. Yeah, I said it. I care about playing fun games, in a variety of genres. Right now my favorite "new-gen" console is by far the DS, because I personally think it has the highest concentration of awesome games. I mean, I don't see anything particularly innovative about any of this new crap on the market - bigger worlds, higher framerates and resolutions, all that's par for the course. Grocery stores have been using touchscreen functionality for far longer than Nintendo has. And the Wii's controller is basically a light gun with a bunch of other moving parts tacked on together. You see? It's easy to bash any of the "innovative" new hardware if you take the right angle to it. The trick is not to focus on what hardware is the best - the way these console wars are so fiercely dividing gamers honestly sickens me. I care about playing fun games, and I'll buy the console or consoles with the games I want to play. That is all.

I posted this thread because I thought that the fact the GBA is outselling the PS3 is hilarious, and also because I wanted to make sure my news quota stayed in the black. But whatever, the point I want to make now is that innovative is such a subjective term that you could argue about this for a month and get nowhere. How about we all stop getting so riled up about it and just try to enjoy the ****ing games? That sounds good to me.

Edit

If("quote" != "quota") return true

This post has been edited by laszlow on 28th May 2007 04:34

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quote (Wesdelmarva @ 27th May 2007 18:33)

I suppose I just get tired of the Wii being synonomous with innovation when it really hasn't innovated anything yet.  There is possibility there, but just the existence of motion sensor technology does not equal innovation.  The games are going to be what determines if the system is truly innovative or not.

Why would the games determine if the Wii is innovative? The hardware's merits stand on its own, just like the software. A game is innovative makes... the game innovative. Pretending otherwise is unfair, since you're clearly not rating the Wii, you're talking about whether developers have innovated given the system.

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Visions of Peace - Four Generals, One Empire, and the Returners caught in the middle.

Quote (Elessar @ 27th May 2007 22:04)

Quote (Wesdelmarva @ 27th May 2007 18:33)

I suppose I just get tired of the Wii being synonomous with innovation when it really hasn't innovated anything yet.  There is possibility there, but just the existence of motion sensor technology does not equal innovation.  The games are going to be what determines if the system is truly innovative or not.

Why would the games determine if the Wii is innovative? The hardware's merits stand on its own, just like the software. A game is innovative makes... the game innovative. Pretending otherwise is unfair, since you're clearly not rating the Wii, you're talking about whether developers have innovated given the system.

I have to agree - innovation does not equal use of it. Suppose some super-fuel efficient motor makes it way on the market but requires some different gas to run otherwise it acts just like a regular motor. If you fuel your car with regular gas and see no difference from a regular one, it doesn't make the engine any less innovative. It just makes you dumb.

Personally, I'm not a big Wii fan. I like games that have unique concepts like Guitar Hero, and I suppose the Wii could have a few interesting games that fit my preferences, but most of the stuff out there currently doesn't. However, I'm forced to admit, it's very different having to actually swing your "sword" to play an adventure game instead of just hitting a button. The main concept remains the same, but the means by which you operate it is a very refreshing change.

Wii is not "innovative" in the sense that nobody has done this stuff before - the Atari had some really messed up unique stuff, including a helmet-controller that "read your mind" (but never got released because it, well, sucked. Badly.) Even Nintendo out-innovated itself with the U-Force and the Power Glove last millenia. What's innovative about it is that the system is built around it, and not the other way around (ie, the power glove was made to work with the NES, which wasn't built with motion sensing in mind at all.)

There's a lot of innovative stuff in the past though, most of it simply never caught on. The Wii is just one of the (if not the) first cases of gameplay innovation extending to the console itself.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Quote (Elessar @ 28th May 2007 03:04)

Quote (Wesdelmarva @ 27th May 2007 18:33)

I suppose I just get tired of the Wii being synonomous with innovation when it really hasn't innovated anything yet.  There is possibility there, but just the existence of motion sensor technology does not equal innovation.  The games are going to be what determines if the system is truly innovative or not.

Why would the games determine if the Wii is innovative? The hardware's merits stand on its own, just like the software. A game is innovative makes... the game innovative. Pretending otherwise is unfair, since you're clearly not rating the Wii, you're talking about whether developers have innovated given the system.

But that's the point with games. Who cares if the hardware is something unlike everything else if there are no games that utilize it?

I do understand your point to a degree. And in another field I could see why it would be totally applicable. But here, games are what make systems. The GameCube and 64 lost out to their competition because they couldn't compete in the games market. If there are no games on the market for the system that truly utlize the system's capabilities, could we really say the system is innovating the video game market? Wouldn't that kind of be like saying New Coke innovated the soda market despite the fact that not a single person liked it?

Laszlow, good post, and I agree pretty much. I honestly don't care about innovation either. I suppose to me it just seems silly that everyone is calling the Wii a huge innovation and the "future of gaming" when all it's really doing is implementing technology that's been around for a while and it's popular. To me, how this hardware and how this gimmick can be used by game designers will determine the Wii's place as an innovator in the game market.

This post has been edited by Wesdelmarva on 28th May 2007 04:10