Hey, at least gamepro kinda owned them on the "Brawl sales drop" thing.

Good thing for the NYT Brawl isn't gonna pass Halo 3 soon, or anything.

Looking for accurate video game news from the Times* is like looking for accurate stock tips from a hobo.

*Or really any non-gaming centric media.

Me and my brother are core gamers and we have a Wii(along with a PS3 and a 360)

It only takes one poorly written story for them to take it and run with it...

like I said this topic is done already:

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=24620

theres one more but I cant find it.

Though since no one deleted this thread yet, I think theyre just afraid of Wii fit since it will be released soon thats why with these articles.

I hate how newspapers just pick up stories without bothering to vet them first. This is based on another story which looked to be written by a wii-hater as it made a lot of stupid claims.

This article is fatalily flawed because it fails to point out that this is a NORMAL occurance for 90% of hardcore games. 360/PS3 games debut to large numbers and drop off dramatically all the time. There are very few CoD4s out there. It's just not normal for Wii's demographic.

I emailed the editor at the NYTimes about the article:

Good Morning,

Recently the NY times website featured an article about the sales of super smash bros brawl and used VGchartz as a reference site (since they are pretty much the only free site to check sales data).

reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/technology/21wii.html?_r=4&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

the article is incorrect in their number given for ssbb sales drop and also does not mention the fact that all major hit software also drops at least the same number.

the article sites a 90% drop in sales over the first 4 weeks, but the actual difference between week 1 and week 4 is 85%, the Cumulative total is 91.4% (total number of software sold over the first 4 week vs week 4's number.

Halo 3 - arguably the largest software release for the xbox360 last year. had a 95% drop comparing week 1 to week 4 , Cumulative total first 4 weeks vs week 4 for halo 3 is 96.7% drop in sales
Call of Duty 4 xbox360 fared better than halo 3 with only an 88.3% drop in sales cumulatively, while the week 1 to week 4 comparison is only 66%
guitar hero 3

Every Major Software release that has initial High software sales week 1(500 thousand or higher) - ALL OF THEM- has their software sales drop over 80% after the first month.

There are a few exceptions to the extreme drops - call of duty 4 week 1 vs week 4 sales drop is significantly better than halo 3's but that is due to the fact that halo3 had a MUCH higher first week number (2.8 million vs 800 thousand). Smaller software releases, games that are not "i must have this game now" games receive a much smaller drop in sales % after the first 4 weeks because the sales are drawn out and it maintains a higher level of weekly sales

Brain Age 2, WiiPlay for the Wii, mario party DS , heck call of duty 4 for the 360 -games that have good sales month after month are what defy the normal process of software sales.

Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii week 1 vs week4 is another example of the smaller release but steady sales= less dramatic sales drop 46.7% is the number by the way, WHY? smaller week 1 but strong continued sales

guitar hero 3 for the xbox360 however follows the "big release" formula week 1 vs week 4 85.7% drop in sales

Anyone who follows gaming and gaming sales knows that sales drop immensely for the major software releases after the first month.
however the article just shows that the writer of the article has no clue how to even do basic math or basic research skills to site other major games sales figures to show that the sales drop for super smash bros brawl is NOT the exception but the norm. the article Does show his bias against the Wii platform though.

by the way, the attach rates given for the 3 consoles is also wrong, he is citing the attach rates from over a year ago.

 Hey, I've gotten some great stock tips from Hobos.