The OFFICIAL Feb 2007 NPD Thread

[TheSource]

Breaking: Nintendo Dominates February; Total Industry Sales Up 53% If Nintendo keeps this up, they actually will be No. 1 again. The one-two punch of the DS and Wii is absolutely dominating. Overall, the industry had a spectacular month also. NPD's Anita Frazier tells GameDaily BIZ that she was "surprised by the sheer size of the increase." Data and comments within... The NPD Group has released its video game sales data for the month of February, revealing an absolutely stellar month for the video game industry in what is typically a slower time. Total video game sales were up 53 percent to $978 million. Video game hardware was up 98 percent to $402 million ($289 million for consoles and $113 million for portables). Software sales rose almost 28 percent to $441 million ($334 million for consoles and $107 million for portables). Video game accessories totaled $136 million. Year-to-date (YTD), the industry is up 66 percent at $2.23 billion, but it's important to remember that YTD February '07 includes an additional week as compared to YTD '06. Taking a closer look at the data, it's clear that Nintendo is dominating. On the hardware front the DS sold more than any other platform with 485K units, followed by the Wii with 335K units. The PS2 once again outsold the Xbox 360, 295K vs. 228K. Meanwhile, the PS3 sold a disappointing 127K, far below analysts' estimate of 200K. In fact, the old GBA even outsold the PS3, with 136K. Sony's PSP managed to sell 176K. Finally, trailing the pack (essentially on life support) was the GameCube with 24K. On the software front, four of the top ten selling games were for Nintendo platforms. Here are the top ten, ranked by units, led by Microsoft's Crackdown. 1. Crackdown (Xbox 360) – Microsoft – 427K 2. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) – Nintendo – 371K 3. Diddy Kong Racing (DS) – Nintendo – 262K 4. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) – Nintendo – 130K 5. Guitar Hero 2 w/ guitar (PS2) – Activision – 130K 6. Gears of War (Xbox 360) – Microsoft – 119K 7. Major League Baseball 2K7 (Xbox 360) – Take-Two – 113K 8. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Xbox 360) – Capcom – 111K 9. WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii) – Nintendo – 109K 10. NBA Street Homecourt (Xbox 360) – Electronic Arts – 102K GameDaily BIZ spoke briefly with NPD analyst Anita Frazier, who said that she was really surprised by the February sales numbers. "The sheer size of the increase surprised me, because it's one of the slower months of the year," she remarked. While all the focus is on the battle between 360, PS3 and Wii, Frazier pointed out that it's still the older systems driving the industry. "Yes, the newer platforms are certainly ramping up, and the 360 is now a major contributor each month to industry performance. But the #1 platform in unit contribution and the #2 platform in dollar contribution is still the 'oldest' of what I'll call the 'Now-Gen' platforms: the PS2. Using the term 'legacy' or 'previous gen' certainly seems inappropriate for a platform that is continuing to provide such a solid foundation for the industry - certainly it did last year during the console transition, and it is still holding its own against the newer entrants." Frazier also cautioned that despite the slow sales for PS3 right now, it's way too early to make any judgment on the console race. "I stick with what I've said for a few months now - we won't know how the console race will turn out for months to come. Remember that the first few months of PS2 sales were relatively slow, and we know what happened with that platform. I think we will need to weigh this question at the end of 2007 - only then will we really know how all the new content and features will ultimately affect sales of the hardware," she concluded. Now do you believe Bunkum?