Nintendo Wii Still Outsells Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 Combined – NPD

by Anton Shilov
07/23/2007 | 10:45 PM

According to game console sales numbers released on Tuesday, Nintendo Wii game console managed to outsell both Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 combined for the fourth consecutive month in June. But the highest-climber in terms of sales growth is actually Sony PlayStation 2, not new-generation game consoles.

NPD market tracking agency claims that Nintendo Wii was preferred by nearly 382 thousand of game console buyers in the U.S. in June, whereas Sony managed to sell 270 thousand of its PlayStation 2 and 95.5 thousand of its PlayStation 3 game consoles. About 198 thousand of gamers decided to go with Microsoft Xbox 360 in June. No numbers were available at press time regarding sales of Nintendo GameCube, though, they are most likely to be below 10 thousand units, hence, hardly can influence the market.

Overall, the total available market of non-portable game consoles in the U.S. grew 22% from May with Sony managing to boost sales of its PS2 by whopping 43%, Microsoft Xbox 360 sales climbing 28% sequentially, Sony PS3 shipments growing by 16% and Wii’s sales increasing by just about 12%. It should be noted that acceptance of Sony’s PlayStation 3 was not affected by price-cuts in June, whereas sales of the Xbox 360 were not influenced by the scandal with abnormally high failure rate.

Nintendo also sustains its domination in the market of handheld game console with approximately 562 thousand of Nintendo DS and 113 thousand of Nintendo GameBoy Advance sold in June. Nevertheless, Sony also managed to boost sales of its PlayStation Portable to 290 thousand units.

If the situation with Nintendo’s consistent shipments increases persists, its Wii’s install base may become higher than that of Microsoft Xbox 360, not talking about Sony PlayStation 3. If this happens, game creators may not only reconsider their development plans, but also rethink their approach of creating games, e.g., shift from high-end graphics to other aspects, e.g., motion sensitive controllers and other.