The Official April NPD Thread (Data at 6:30 PM EST)

[thx1139]

Soundwave said:

thx1139 said:
Last year Wii hardware sales had little to do with game releases. The Wii was still riding a huge amount of hype month after month. Games had little to do with hardware sales.

 

Smash Brothers sold 2.7 million in March 2008 and Mario Kart Wii sold 1.2 million in April ... you think neither one of those impacted hardware sales?

Nintendo still needs the "big" core games like Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and Mario Galaxy. Can't just rely on Wii Fit/Music/Sports/etc.  

I do think though this month the Wii probably lost some sales to the DSi. Working at retail I notice lots of people go back and forth between a Wii or DS (they probably ending up buying both over time anyway though). This was the DS' month with all the marketing the DSi got. I saw the Beyonce DSi TV spot and the "two dudes messing with photos" DSi spots like 10x+ this month which is a lot for Nintendo. 

 

 Unrelated.  Last year Nintendo could release as many pieces of hardware they could find and they would sell. Didnt matter what game released.  You may not believe it, but it was the market last year.

As for needing "big" core games like Smash, etc. Nope Nintendo doesnt need them.  The market for the Wii is decidly casual/fitness related now.  The Nintendo fan has got his Wii, most core gamers I know anyway consider Smash, MK, and Galaxy "Nintendo titles" not "core titles".