NPD April 2010: Nintendo pleased with being tops
May 14th, 2010 @ 00:43
By Stephany Nunneley
Nintendo has responded to tonight’s NPD figures for April, and it seems very pleased with DS coming out tops on the hardware charts.
Nintendo hardware consisted of 60 percent of overall unit sales, with DS moving 440.8K systems, and Wii landing at number two on the charts with 277.2K units moved.
According to NPD’s Anita Frazier, the DS is closing in on the PS2 as the “best-selling hardware system of all time”.
Six of the top ten games on the software charts for April were for Nintendo systems, including Pokemon Soul/Silver, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, okémon HeartGold, Wii Sports Resort with Wii MotionPlus, Just Dance by Ubisoft, and Wii Fit Plus with the Wii Balance Board.
“Consumers recognize the unprecedented combination of value and fun offered by Nintendo game systems,” said NOA VP Cammie Dunaway, “but including even more hardware and software with every Wii system should drive consumer interest even higher.”
The company expects sales of Wii in May to be fruitful, what with the basic Wii package in North America that hit on May 9, that includes the console, a Wii Remote and Nunchuk along with a copy of Wii Sports Resport and WMP.
It also expects consumers to be pleased with new offering of a black Wii, which of course, remains priced at $199.99 like the original model.
Microsoft has responded to tonight’s NPD release for the month of April, citing the strong sales of Xbox 360- exclusive Splinter Cell: Conviction, and its hardware sales topping 185K units for the month, which is up six percent year-over-year.
Two other titles, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Super Street Fighter IV each in the top ten for the month, moved 166K and 108K unites, respectively on the console.
Xbox 360 console sales came in at in total spent on the platform in April.
“In one month, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 will make entertainment history at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo,” said Microsoft. “In advance of this year’s E3 news, Xbox 360 continues to drive strong hardware, software and accessory sales.
“In other blockbuster news, more than one million unique players participated in the “Halo: Reach” public beta on its opening day, an amount greater than the total number of participants in the Halo 3 beta.
“The massive amount of feedback collected from fans around the world through May 19 when the beta concludes will help Bungie refine Halo: Reach” and make it the biggest blockbuster game of 2010″.
Full hardware and software figures can be found here and here.
NPD April 2010: Sony – PS3 sales up 37.2% for the year
Sony has responded to tonight’s NPD results from April, stating that PS3 continues to be “the only hardware console to see double digit growth”.
PS3 saw a year-over-year growth of 42.6 percent, and a 37.2 percent growth for the months leading into April.
God of War III came in at number five on the software chats for the company, and Super Street Fighter IV landed the ten spot on PS3, with total games sales on PS3 for the month making up 28 percent of sales.
“Having just surpassed nine consecutive months of year-over-year growth for PS3 hardware and a revenue increase of 32 percent for PS3 software since last April, we look at today’s earnings as a proof point to our business mode,” said CEO and president Jack Tretton in a statement.
“The continued momentum of our brand only further solidifies the value proposition we offer our consumers — we’re providing complete entertainment experiences so our consumers can enjoy what they want, how they want it.
“Later this year, [the brand] will grow to include ground-breaking new innovations such as 3D games and movies, and a whole new kind of motion controlled gaming. Consumers will have a lot of reasons to be entertained this year and we’re confident that PlayStation will be at the heart of bringing these new entertainment experiences to consumers.”
The full software figures are through here, and hardware results are through here.
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