[Morpheus]

Stolen from GAF below is the NPD December 2006 sales data and the 2006 full year sales data:

Courtesy of NPD

HW Sales (month and LTD)
Nintendo DS 1.6 mm 9.2 mm
PS2 1.4 mm 37.1 mm
GBA 850.7 K 35.1 mm
Xbox 360 1.1 mm 4.5 mm
Wii 604.2 K 1.1 mm
PSP 953.2 K 6.7 mm
PS3 490.7 K 687.3 K

Top 10 Video Games - December 2006
360 GEARS OF WAR - MICROSOFT 815.7 K
PS2 GUITAR HERO 2 W/GUITAR - ACTIVISION 805.2 K
PS2 MADDEN NFL 07 - ELECTRONIC ARTS 737.1 K
GCN LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS - NINTENDO 532.9 K
WII LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS - NINTENDO 519.2 K
PS2 WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW 2007 - THQ 484.5 K
NDS NEW SUPER MARIO BROS - NINTENDO 427.5 K
360 CALL OF DUTY 3 - ACTIVISION 410.8 K
NDS YOSHI'S ISLAND 2 - NINTENDO 407.2 K
PS2 CALL OF DUTY 3 - ACTIVISION 365.3 K

Top 10 Video Games - Annual 2006
PS2 MADDEN NFL 07 - ELECTRONIC ARTS 2.8 mm
NDS NEW SUPER MARIO BROS - NINTENDO 2.0 mm
360 GEARS OF WAR - MICROSOFT 1.8 mm
PS2 KINGDOM HEARTS II - SQUARE ENIX 1.7 mm
PS2 GUITAR HERO 2 W/GUITAR - ACTIVISION 1.3 mm
PS2 FINAL FANTASY XII - SQUARE ENIX 1.3 mm
NDS BRAIN AGE: TRAIN YOUR BRAIN - NINTENDO 1.1mm
360 MADDEN NFL 07 - ELECTRONIC ARTS 1.1mm
360 TOM CLANCY'S GRAW - UBISOFT 1.0 mm
PS2 NCAA FOOTBALL 07- ELECTRONIC ARTS 1.0 mm


Top 10 Titles - December 2006 INCLUDES ALL PLATFORMS (consoles and portables)
Madden NFL 07 - Electronic Arts 1.9 mm
Call Of Duty 3 - Activision 1.1 mm
Cars - THQ 874.0 k
Need for Speed: Carbon - Electronic Arts 871.6 k
360 GEARS OF WAR - MICROSOFT 815.7 K
PS2 GUITAR HERO 2 W/GUITAR - ACTIVISION 805.2 K
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy - LucasArts 792.3 K
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 - THQ 731.6 K
Tony Hawk's Project 8 - Activision 713.9 K
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - Activision 642.9 K


Top 10 Accessory Items - December 2006 Units
360 WIRELESS CONTROLLER 823.8 k
WII REMOTE CONTROLLER 646.7 k
WII NUNCHUK CONTROLLER 497.1 k
PS2 8 MEG MEMORY CARD 474.8 k
PS3 SIXAXIS WIRELESS CONTROLLER 336.0 k
PS2 MEMORY CARD 8 MEG 286.0 k
PS2/PS DUAL SHOCK2 CONTL 263.4 k
PS2/PS BLUE DL SH2 CNTL 245.2 k
360 PLAY & CHARGE KIT 224.6 k
PS2 CORDLESS ACTION CNTLR 219.9 k

DS dominates Handhelds, PS2 dominates past-gen, and 360 dominates next-gen in 2006 for the USA. Now that we got the pretty obvious year out of the way. What are everyones prediction for 2007 for the US and worldwide?

I'll post my predictions later.

[Chimasterwang]

Nintendo has set in a whole new set of gaming possibilities.
End XD
But didnt we already know this oh well =P

[Lynk Former]

You should see Japan... DS in first, Wii in second and everyone else last.... XD

Oooh, this just in: Nintendo got all top 10 spots in Japan.

http://gonintendo.com/?p=11584

...in fact, if what I hear is true, they got the top FIFTEEN spots.

[Eva]

I would put Zelda first in sales in December since combined, they sold more copies than Gears of War.

360 dominated? They had the entire year to dominate. You'll see they'll sink to last by the end of 2007.

I have no prediction other than the fight will be between Nintendo and Sony. I did feel Microsoft launched their console far too soon and it ended up being a slight improvement over the X-box opposed to the improvement that came from PS2 to PS3 and GC to Wii.

Sony sales are currently holding ok, but ok isn't cutting it for them while the Wii selling very well. This might be the time Nintendo take over once again, but we'll see what will happen.

[Morpheus]

I would put Zelda first in sales in December since combined, they sold more copies than Gears of War.

360 dominated? They had the entire year to dominate. You'll see they'll sink to last by the end of 2007.

I have no prediction other than the fight will be between Nintendo and Sony. I did feel Microsoft launched their console far too soon and it ended up being a slight improvement over the X-box opposed to the improvement that came from PS2 to PS3 and GC to Wii.

Sony sales are currently holding ok, but ok isn't cutting it for them while the Wii selling very well. This might be the time Nintendo take over once again, but we'll see what will happen.

Xbox 360 1.1 mm 4.5 mm
Wii 604.2 K 1.1 mm
PS3 490.7 K 687.3 K

Doing more in one month than both combined in the same month is domination. Doing the same number as Wii's two months in one month at a higher pricepoint is domination. This holiday season for Next-gen in the US was a given that 360 would dominate it even without the extra 10 months of this year that 360 had.

BTW don't forget that the 360 is the only place you can get Halo 3 (plus, the other two Halo games), GTA IV (exclusive downloadable content), Madden, and GOW (new IP, but it already sold better than Zelda Wii and GC versions combined in the USA for 2006 and more than Kingdom Hearts and FFXII in the USA for 2006)on the same console. All those games are big games for the US market. USA is Microsofts strongest base and I doubt they will sink to last in 2007. You'll be lucky if they sink to second in the US and that's due to Wii truly taking off. PS3 is going to run into the $599.99 price barrier.

Lynk, DS is amazing in all areas. Takes top spot overall worldwide. Wii takes top spot in Japan for 2006 next-gen consoles.

Europe in 2006 360 is still top spot, but that's a given since PS3 hasn't launched yet.

My predictions for 2007:

USA:
1st - 360 (will get a pricedrop in 2007 around the time when the 65nm console comes out and has the strongest set of titles for the US)
2nd - Wii (can take top spot if it truly takes off)
3rd - PS3 (price being the huge factor)

Europe:
1st - Wii (depends on if Wii truly takes off)
2nd - 360 (has a headstart and strong titles coming out in 2007)
3rd - PS3 (PS3 price might not take off and it launches in March so less time on the market)

Japan:
1st - Wii (goes hand in hand with DS domination)
2nd - PS3 (though its price will slow it down some time in the middle of 2007)
3rd - 360 (MS doesn't have a chance unless it gets FF series exclusive, not going to happen)

Worldwide:
1st - Wii (Its got a lot of hype coming into 2007 and its still unavailable at retail)
2nd - PS3 (Just because of the Japanese userbase)
3rd - 360 (because of lack of the Japanese userbase)

Overall Worldwide:
1st - DS
50th - Everyone else, since DS is a massive domination machine in all territories.

Now that I think about it, I think 2008 will be the deciding year. PS3 not being in all markets in all of 2007 is one part of the doubt, plus its the first initial year for Wii and PS3. 2008 will be the deciding year and mark my words on it.

[Morpheus]

Here's the top 30 games for Japan the week of 1/1-1/7 stolen from GAF:

http://eg.nttpub.co.jp/ranking.html

1. (NDS, Square-Enix) Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker - 266,827 / 860,820
2. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Sports - 166,011 / 732,719
3. (Wii, Nintendo) Wii Play - 141,702 / 664,512
4. (NDS, Nintendo) New Super Mario Bros. - 128,211 / 3,986,506
5. (NDS, Nintendo) General Knowledge Training - 109,752 / 1,063,093
6. (NDS, Nintendo) Brain Age 2 - 99,320 / 3,805,787
7. (NDS, Nintendo) Animal Crossing - 94,917 / 3,843,832
8. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond - 94,370 / 2,479,819
9. (NDS, Nintendo) Kirby Squeek Squad - 93,522 / 836,588
10. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokemon Pearl - 78,398 / 2,054,443

X. (NDS, Pokemon) Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - 172,768 / 4,534,262

11/ Mario Kart DS (NDS, Nintendo)
12/ Jump Ultimate Stars (NDS, Nintendo)
13/ DBZ Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Wii, Bandai)
14/ Wario Ware Smooth Moves (Wii, Nintendo)
15/ Brain Training (NDS, Nintendo)
16/ Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops (PSP, Konami)
17/ Zelda Twilight Princess (Wii, Nintendo)
18/ Oshare Majô Love & Berry (NDS, Nintendo)
19/ Yakuza 2 (PS2, Sega)
20/ Kanji Test (NDS, Rocket Co.)
21/ Tamagotchi 2 (NDS, Bandai)
22/ DS Menu Collection (NDS, Nintendo)
23/ English Training (NDS, Nintendo)
24/ Pokémon Battle Revolution (Wii, Nintendo)
25/ Tales of the World (PSP, Namco)
26/ Seiken Densetsu 4 (PS2, Square-Enix)
27/ Yakuza - The Best (PS2, Sega)
28/ Momotarô Dentetsu (PS2, Hudson)
29/ Magic Taizen (NDS, Nintendo)
30/ Tetris DS (NDS, Nintendo)

That DS domination is hillarious.

[Eva]

I was under the impression that Microsoft report X-box 360 shipped out as sold while other two companies wait for their console to be sold. X-box 360 could be sitting on a sheft a game store and count as sold.

Can you provide a link to state X-box 360 sales during the holiday.

No shocker that Gears of Wars edge out an Adventure game in Zelda and two RPG. That's not saying much though since the RPG genre not that popular in U.S.

U.S. would be Microsoft strongest userbase, but that doesn't mean they're the strongest of the three. I can see Sony and Nintendo passing them out by years end. Sony and Wii game library will expand. Microsoft library will expand, but it's got plenty to choose from currently. Once the game library for Wii and PS3 expand, we'll see who's on top at the end.

[Lynk Former]

It's hard to call domination when you're comparing a fully stocked console with two launch consoles that have suffered shortages from the very start... well for different reasons. Sony suffered shortages because the PS3 is difficult to manufacter at the moment. Nintendo suffered shortages cause they didn't predict demand to be THIS high.

EDIT: Though what I've been hearing lately, it looks like the damand for PS3s in the US has dropped considerably...

And then there's this: http://gonintendo.com/?p=11608

[Eva]

It's hard to call domination when you're comparing a fully stocked console with two launch consoles that have suffered shortages from the very start... well for different reasons. Sony suffered shortages because the PS3 is difficult to manufacter at the moment. Nintendo suffered shortages cause they didn't predict demand to be THIS high.

EDIT: Though what I've been hearing lately, it looks like the damand for PS3s in the US has dropped considerably...

And then there's this: http://gonintendo.com/?p=11608

Yes, a friend I have been telling me her Gamestop just got a large stock of PS3.

[Morpheus]

Eva, that is the official NPD sales data of consoles sold in the USA. NPD is for the USA like Media Create is for Japan. This is what has sold to the consumer, not shipped. Neogaf.com forums gets the official data directly from NPD. There was a little problem in the past of someone leaking the sales data every month without NPDs permision, but now NPD supplies neogaf with the sales data. Here's the link to the topic: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=137693

RPG genre not that popular in the USA? Kingdom Hearts (Not 100% sure but I think this one is more popular in the US than Japan), FF (more popular in Japan but still strong in the US), and Zelda (more popular in the US than Japan) are all popular franchises in the USA. They usually sell in the millions in the USA. The fact that a new IP can beat old popular IPs in sales is a rarity. GOW was also priced at $59.99 for the cheapest version compared to Zelda/KHII/FFXII $49.99. GOW is a success you rarely see for a new IP.

Lynk, its domination no matter which way you look at it. That's why 2006 was a given for MS in the USA. If they didn't dominate and take advantage of the supply shortages of the other two that would of been a huge disappointment and I would of come up with a different prediction for the USA for 2007.

PS3s are readily available in my area. Wii on the otherhand is still out of stock. $599.99 pricepoint is going to be Sony's brickwall.

[Mr. Weasel]

I think that the WII and the PS3 will catch up in 2007. The gap between the two and the XBOX 360 is quite huge at the moment cause Microsoft used the time in which they were the only host with a next-gen console. The WII is very trendy atm and the PS3 will sell better when titles like the next FF and so on hit the market. I think I too will buy a (used) PS3 sometime in the future just for the various J-RPG´s that will be out there, that was the main reason for me to buy my (also used) PS2 after all.

btw. nice avatar@lynk

[Lynk Former]

Lynk, its domination no matter which way you look at it. That's why 2006 was a given for MS in the USA. If they didn't dominate and take advantage of the supply shortages of the other two that would of been a huge disappointment and I would of come up with a different prediction for the USA for 2007.

No, "domination" suggests that Microsoft took an active part in bringing down Nintendo and Sony and that it is end game for Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft did lead 2006, that's plain obvious since its competitors only sold their "nextgen" machines for 1 and a half months in 2006 while 360 sold for the full year... but it's not domination when around 10 million Xbox360s have been sold around the world and almost 4 million Wii's sold around the world at this point in time.

Now, let's take a look... 10 million 360's... 4 million Wii's. Yes. Microsoft is ahead. But I have a question for you... how much time has Microsoft had before the launch of Wii to sell its system?

Microsoft did nothing to take advantage of supply shortages of the other two because it couldn't do anything. The only thing Microsoft could do was keep a steady hand, the fire stoked and think of the future because they launched first and they have to keep burning brightly.

What occurred is that Sony shot itself in the foot several times, this doesn't mean they're down and out, it just means they've stumbled but I assure everyone here that Sony still has the capability of taking down both Nintendo and Microsoft.

With Nintendo it's different, they gambled, took huge risks with a product they were confident in and won the first round. In a short period of time they managed to take a nice slice out of Microsoft's market share and take enough attention away from Sony's launch.

In the end, yes, I do agree with you that the Xbox360 has the highest chance of dominating the US market... but I don't agree that Microsoft dominated the final moments of 2006... and with the numbers coming in, I'm not so sure Microsoft dominated 2006 as a whole either. They have a very nice head start, 2007 will show us if that head start was worth it.

[darktruth]

Geez, the state of video consoles these days is all about which console can outsell the other. I never knew how much people cared so much about it lol.

[Lynk Former]

That's cause you have absolutely no idea on what I'm looking at here darky. I don't care who wins, I want to know how much pressure will be put on these companies so they end up making better games and do new things.

Just look at what Nintendo is doing.

[darktruth]

New things...new things...well I'm gonna give Nintendo credit for actually sticking to THE GAMES and implementing "new" functions, unlike Sony and Microsoft where they're trying cram in too many features that end up being useless for those who just actually want to play GAMES or don't have the hardware/extras for the other functions.

This is part of the problem with their consoles, they put too much focus on all the other aspects of the machine that they lose focus on the actual video games themselves. And even with what Nintendo's doing with their games trying to innovate new game ideas like the Wii Sports, it's still of no interest to me (I'd rather go out and play the real sport itself than a mock game of it in the lounge room XD).

Here's to hoping a brand new competitor enters and blows all three consoles out of the water hahaha even though it's unlikely anytime soon.

[Ray]

I wouldn't be suprised if Nintendo improves sale on game, units, and accessories, and passes the other consoles. It's inevitable!

[Morpheus]

Lynk, I guess we'll agree to disagree.

Darktruth, I'm with Lynk on this. The less Sony dominates this round the better the competition/games will be on all consoles. If Sony dominates completely for another round things might get stagnant. Especially on Wii's third-party support. Third-parties would just port downgraded versions of their games with the least bit of refining the game to the Wii's input device. Then Wii would truly have to depend on its first-party to hold the system up like Nintendo has done for the past two generations. Which is not good. 360 would also turn out to be more like the XBOX but this time with slightly downgraded ports. Which is also not good. Theres more to this, but that's just an example of how third-party support will turn out on the other consoles if Sony takes complete dominance again.

BTW I don't want Sony to disappear, but I do want them to lose some market share so the other two can stay competitive. We don't need another Atari/Sega disappearing on us.

I disagree that the others don't offer anything new. Microsoft has refined the GUI/Online capability of its console. 360 is the best console (not counting PC) for online gaming at the moment and I don't see that crown disappearing anytime soon. The PS3's 50gb disc space is a huge improvement from the past storage medium. It will give developers more freedom into what content they can shove on the disc. Instead of whats happened in the past, where the developers had to cut out content due to limited disc space.

[Scar da Kookee]

i dont really care about anything here. all i know is that on march 29th, tiberian 3 will be out. and life will be good.

and EA better not nerf this one up too.

Generals can lick my unmentionables...

[Lynk Former]

So here we are near the end of 2007 with the Wii ahead of the 360, but only just by a little bit and the PS3 trailing behind way back there in third place but picking up steam.

And for the DS and PSP, well everything is the way it was before, no real change.