Wii tops PS3 and Xbox360 in sales for January

[Shin Johnpv]

If those other platform numbers are correct, I'm very surprised by the DS Lite numbers. The system has been sold out almost as often as Wii (didn't see them today during my trip to the mall) in my experience. Wonder if Nintendo is cutting into their DS resources to push Wii. Because I honestly doubt that if DS supply was even at only September 2006 levels it would sell just 238,000 in January. The PSP numbers are pretty inline with pre-holiday season. DS Lite is considerably lower.

Theres been alot of word going around that the DS was in major shortages in January, so that is a possibility. It'll be interesting to see what February's numbers are like.

[Rem]

It takes developers a while to switch from "What the hell is this!?" to "Crap, millions of people have it and we've got nothing." Unless you're Ubisoft, of course, in which case you wave your magic wand of sholveware.

James

That's not really what I meant, the DS didn't take off until after some solid stuff came out. The wii doesn't have that stipulation, the only games that have been coming out have ranged from decent to awful. Best I can figure people are buying it because the gimmick seems interesting and it's cheap. Because games aren't making it fly off the shelf.

[torgo]

I just hope the Wii actually gets a game worthy of the system's gimmick before the next next gen systems are out.

[James]

That's not really what I meant, the DS didn't take off until after some solid stuff came out. The wii doesn't have that stipulation, the only games that have been coming out have ranged from decent to awful. Best I can figure people are buying it because the gimmick seems interesting and it's cheap. Because games aren't making it fly off the shelf.

Whoops, guess I misinterpreted your comment. I'll try again-

It's all subjective what decent and awful mean. People love Wii Sports, Excite Truck is fantastic fun, Rayman is funny as hell, and you can't discount the power of Zelda. Most importantly, it's got that "I can play that!" hook that people who don't normally touch games need to get into them.

James

[StriderKyo]

This year's whatever-they're-calling-E3-now will be interesting. I'm curious to see if legit franchises will start downgrading themselves to move to Wii with main numbered installments, or if it'll all be sidegames. If the thing sells like crazy for a few months in a row it'll be tough for publishers to ignore.

[gamevet]

Today I saw Wii in stock at Target. First time I've seen a Wii in a store since I got my system at launch. There were three systems when I walked into the Target with some coworkers. There were zero when we left (we bought them all). Asked the clerk and she said they were put out this morning. There were PS3s as well--we didn't buy those.

I haven't seen a Wii console in months, but I on Sunday, I worked at a Sams in Tyler, Texas. They had 5 Wii bundle packs (Zelda was the pack in game) selling for $300.

[SpoDaddy]

That's not really what I meant, the DS didn't take off until after some solid stuff came out.

That's not really true at all; it sold really well despite only having Mario 64 for the first 9 or so months of it's life, which forced publishers to make games for it, which made sales go even more crazy. Nintendogs took sales to a new level, but sales were already great.

[Rem]

Whoops, guess I misinterpreted your comment. I'll try again-

It's all subjective what decent and awful mean. People love Wii Sports, Excite Truck is fantastic fun, Rayman is funny as hell, and you can't discount the power of Zelda. Most importantly, it's got that "I can play that!" hook that people who don't normally touch games need to get into them.
James

Yeah but is anybody buying a wii for excite trucks or rayman? We need to get some sales charts for that one. But I know at least in japan the only game really selling well was wiisports. It seems like most people are buying into a marketing image of innovation than they are for games. Is anybody going, "man that's a damn solid line up they have,"?

That's not really true at all; it sold really well despite only having Mario 64 for the first 9 or so months of it's life

Good, not great; any system riding the GBAs coat tails should get brisk sales no matter how crappy the line up.

[Kbu Chan]

It's official, people love awesome.

[James]

The sales figures I'm interested in are for SSX Blur and Tiger Woods. That should really tell us more about the system's acceptance as something beyond a Wii Sports Machine than anything else.

James