Commentary

Despite Financial Woes, Console Biz Continues to Grow

NPD numbers for January came out last night, and despite the daily doom and gloom in the economy, the overall console market continues to post sales growth -- 148% year-over-year growth for the Wii, and 33% year-over-year growth in sales for the Xbox 360. Only the PS3 saw a decrease in year-over-year sales, losing 24.5% compared to last January's numbers.

 

Microsoft made special mention of the success of the Xbox Live service in its report this month -- it was the "single biggest month ever for Xbox LIVE as record number of new members joined in January [and] exclusive game add-ons extend blockbuster experiences" -- the latter referring largely to the Fallout 3 DLC content packs, exclusive to the Xbox version of the title. Microsoft's new Netflix service, mentioned by my colleague Josh Lovison in an earlier column, has been a great success as well: More than 1 million Xbox LIVE members are now enjoying Netflix's streaming video service, and each household has watched an average of 16 movies over the service, according to Microsoft.

Nintendo did some crowing about 2008 software sales in its monthly report, as well -- 20 of the top 30 games of January were made for Nintendo systems. Of those, five games made for Nintendo systems finished in the top 10 best-sellers of January. This report occasions a significant clarification to my previous column -- the 3% growth in software sales I cited last month was specific to the Japanese market -- which is probably the most mature market for that console. As can be seen from last month's NPD numbers, software sales in non-Japanese markets are still very healthy. The question remains, however, whether or not those numbers will continue to stay strong as the markets for Wii software in the U.S. and Europe mature.

Both Xbox and Nintendo continue to see strong results thanks to their innovations -- Nintendo by exploring new, casual markets for console games, and Microsoft with a strong title library and innovative console features, like the Netflix streaming video service -- making them the choice platforms for reaching gamers in the new year.

Next story loading loading..