April NPD: PS3 82k, Xbox360 174k Options

[PS3Scene]

April NPD: PS3 82k, Xbox360 174k Posted by XanTium | 17-5-2007 21:38 EST

From next-gen.biz: [QUOTE] Market research firm NPD Group has reported a 1 percent drop in April US videogame software sales despite analysts' forecasts of a rise of up to 24 percent, as Nintendo hardware trumps rivals. DS sold the most hardware with 471,000 and Wii sold the second-most with 360,000 units. PlayStation 2 sold 194,000 units, PSP sold 183,000 following its April price drop, Xbox 360 sold 174,000, Game Boy Advance 84,000, PlayStation 3 82,000 and GameCube 13,000. Life-to-date sales for the major platforms in the US are Xbox 360 with 5.4 million units, Wii with 2.5 million, PS3 with 1.3 million, DS with 10.9 million and PSP with 7.4 million. [/QUOTE] Full Story: next-gen.biz

[epsilon72]

It's good to see that nintendo is doing well

If you would've asked me if they would do this well right after the announcement of "Wii, not Revolution", I would've said no. I couldn't have been more wrong.

[Thraxen]

The Wii's success is a bit surprising to me too. I think it has a lot to do with the price. Because, IMO, the game line-up is pretty piss poor. It's really not much better than the PS3's. You have Twilight Princess... which is just a GC port with Wiimote controls tacked on and Super Paper Mario. IMO, those are the only two games that I would consider to be top quality. The rest are utterly average or poor.

I really do like SPM though. I'm still slowly working my way through it. TP bored me half way through and I haven't ever gone back to finish it.

Anyway, I keep expecting sales to drop off, but they don't. I just don't understand how such poor games can carry a system even if it is cheap. I guess maybe the masses just aren't will to pay what MS and Sony want for their systems when a $250 system available, even if the games are less-than-stellar. Or maybe they are simply hoping for the best out of future games. Whatever it is, the Wii is turning into the DS of the console market.

[throwingks]

^ Don't forget Wii Sports.
Non-gamers love it.

[Thraxen]

Wii Sports is OK. My favorite is the bowling. But every time I play it the game simply feels like exactly what it is... a tech demo. The bowling is the only game that feels "complete". You can actually play a full game of bowling and the controls work very well. The other games are all missing something... like you can't play a full tournament in golf because it only has a few holes and a few clubs. Or the controls simply don't work well like in the boxing game. I was amused with it for a while, but I haven't touched it since a few weeks after the Wii launched.

You're right though about casual/non-gamers. It's a good disc to pop in to show people what the Wii is about if they haven't seen one before. Again, bowling is particularly good to demo. I have to wonder how many people are being sucked in by Wii Sports, only to find themselves with a system that has nothing else to offer them yet?

[Martinchris23]

I second that remark! Wii Sports will carry the console sales alone. I picked up a Wii for my in-laws over the weekend, who haven't played on a games console since the NES. They could totally define the non-gamer genre by themselves, yet there are hours of fun playing 4-player tennis or bowling without ever needing another game to keep you going. There's a level of intimidation picking up the 360 or PS3 controller, with so many buttons etc that most non-gamers wouldn't even bother.

Added the fact that for the longest time, the Wii is the only games console to launch with a free game - aside from SE box-sets, when was the last time we saw this happen? From memory, I'd say the Atari 2600 which shipped with Combat and Pac-man.

I applaud the fact that with other games consoles concentrating on hi-def graphics, Nintendo have made 'gameplay' their number one priority, which is how it should be. There's nothing uglier than watching dropped frames on a games console. Not only is it unnecessary, but it screams laziness.

Whatever happens, you still cannot prevent the funny stares from other people when you explain you've been playing with your Wii all weekend... :s

Martin

[Mr Invader]

What I don't seem to get with people comparing the Wii to the 360/PS3 is that they say the Wii focuses on gameplay while 360/PS3 focus on graphics and aren't fun to play. I couldn't disagree more. The 360 has the best library of games i have seen yet; sure it has some bad ones, but the majority of Wii games aren't that great either. Gears of War, PGR, Condemmed and many others- while all nice looking games, are fun because of their gameplay-not graphics.

It aggitates me when people say the Wii is the only true "next-gen" console because its the only one that focuses on gameplay. eff that

[Thraxen]

I have to agree with Mr Invader. I don't see why you can't have both graphical prowess and gameplay. IMO, the 360's game line-up is far and away better than the PS3 AND the Wii.

Yes, Wii Sports is very easy to pick and play for almost anyone. With that I agree. I also agree that games like that have their place. But what about the other games? What's wrong with complicated games? Most games really aren't that difficult to learn once you played them a few times. Think about it, your average FPS on a console may indeed make use of both sticks and 10 buttons, but once you got the hang of one, you can play the rest within minutes of starting a new one. Maybe that's not for everyone, but those games have their place every bit as much as games like Wii Sports and I disagree with the notion that they have less gameplay value.

Simple games are needed though. They can be the stepping stores to the other games. For example, I tried to play Halo once with my wife. She was soooo confused by the analog sticks in conjunction with the pressure of being attacked. I'd look at her screen and her character would be staring straight into the air or running into a wall. She couldn't get the hang of the dual sticks. You know what changed all that? Marble Madness. Marble Madness has the EXACT same dual analog set-up that console FPS games use, but you aren't being attacked and you only really have to use one other button. Without the confusion of the other buttons and the the pressure of being under fire, my wife is now quite good at using dual analog sticks. So, yes, simple games have their place... and it should be noted that this "simple" game was on the 360. Not the Wii. The Wii is useless for training a person to play games on other consoles.

Another thing... I also don't care for the idea that the Wii really does make things easier. Does it really? Sure, Wii Sports bowling is very intuitive since you can make a bowling motion to bowl. But what about other games? What's intuitive or easy about drawing a pattern in the air to do a trick in SSX? Nothing. In fact, many reviews said it was quite difficult and inconsistent. Sure, maybe swinging the Wiimote to swing your sword makes a bit of sense in Zelda, but why do you have to shake the nunchuk to do Link's circular attack with the same sword? That's not intuitive. Have any of you tried to use the Wiimote for the Metal Slug Collection? It's crap and makes the game artificially difficult due to the awkward controls.

Also, is it really easier to remember gestures than to remember button presses? I fail to see how in most cases. Again, everyone holds up Wii Sports as the shining example... and, yes, those are indeed very intuitive examples, but there are dozens of other games that aren't easier at all. All you really end up with are games that not only control worse than their 360/PS3 counterparts, they look far worse too.

Beyond Wii Sports, the two best games (as I mentioned above) are Twilight Princess and Super Paper Mario. Twilight Princess plays perfectly fine minus the motion controls on the GC. SPM only makes sparse use of the motion controls... mostly just to look around for hidden items with your Pixl... a task that could have just as easily been done with an analog stick.

I have a Wii, but as you can probably tell, I have as much doubt about it as the PS3. In fact, I'm currently looking forward more to the PS3's big guns than I am the Wii's.

[edit] Some spelling errors.... probably some more too

This post has been edited by Thraxen: May 23 2007, 12:50 AM

[throwingks]

Very good post Thraxen!

I agree with you. I don't want to go too far off topic, but have you seen RE4 for the Wii?
Here is a game play video from the jp site.
http://www.capcom.co.jp/wii_bio4/premium/sight.html

It is long so it takes a long time to load. The player controls are on the left.