@usuper the link i provided is to a company that has 99% of all sales in the US, they are like the NPD only they can get sales for all discs.

And it does matter, even if blu-ray or HD DVD never over take DVD, almost ALL studios are putting brand new releases on hi def formats, as well as their back catalogs, so its great for people who care about hi def. Right now its a niche market, but its a rather large niche market thats expanding every day.

Thing is with the Wii and DS, is that most of the games for these are coming from japan, to the point that I feel many western developers aren't sure what to do with them, and so opt for 360 or Ps3 to work on. Indeed, Wii's line up is gonna have a DS like period where little will seem out, then plenty of good games will start to hit home easter time onwards.

Wii needs some normal games besides the party stuff like Wii Sports and Smooth Moves. Its still superb but the games have to reach shelves to sell it. Good to see things going well in japan still.

Let's post shorter commentaries,
I feel lazy about having to read all that lines!!! just summarize the most important...

wellness:

What would ever give you the impression that the DS isn't going to last much longer? The DS Lite has been out for almost a year and it's selling like it did in its launch month..... and it's been doing so every single week in between (minus the shortages). Not only that, the software is selling faster than Nintendo can produce the carts. The demand for the DS is higher than ever.... why would it slow down? And especially "by next year?"

360 gaining popularity... maybe. If you want to call 7k with a couple of big releases in the past two months "more popular," sure. It's not going to be climbing the charts any time soon, though.

I've said it many times before, and I'll say it again. The PS3 is selling with NOTHING right now. They have absolutely nothing to draw the Japanese audience to the PS3. I don't care what people think about SONY's dominance over the past two gens, their product isn't going to sell without the software to push it. That said, you're right that the numbers are going to explode when something big comes out.... and that will only push the 360 further into the ground.

Which brings me to android:

I don't think you could have made a more baseless statement. With what is currently known to be coming to each system, the 360 is only going to get worse from here on out. BD was not only bundled with the system (making it convenient for first-time buyers to pick up a 360), but it was also the first game in MONTHS that was worth mentioning for the 360 in Japan, AND it was the kickoff week of the true holiday season sales..... and with all of that, the 360 sold ~33k. Not impressive. And worse than that, the 360 couldn't maintain sales of 20k per week in the month of December. The 360 has been ever so slightly more successful than the Xbox, but that's not saying much. MS has been promoted from dog crap to the gum on the bottom of your shoe. Good job, MS. I congratulate you.

I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just sick of hearing MS fans (not saying you are one. I've just been talking to many misinformed MS fans lately) who think that the 360 is going to turn into some sort of sales god. There just isn't any reason to believe that as of yet. Is it possible? Sure, lots of things are. But it is not close to probable.

The GBA outsold the XBOX, lol.

the sad part is that even if you mupltiply PS3's number by 3, it's still less than Wii's sales.

and there's no PS3 shortage.

He was actually being sarcastic Matters :-)

Ecureuil's comment - Two reasons why Wii is selling:
1. The system is popular for social gaming, which doesn't require big 1-player epics.
2. The people buying Wiis don't have one yet! "Well, duh, what's your point?" The point is there are good reasons to buy a Wii, that fact hasn't changed just because Wii owners already wore those reasons out.

I agree PS3 will get a boost when the big games come, but I'm skeptical as to how much.

mduo13: I think you're right about handheld systems coming into their own, but I think that timing has a lot to do with it as well: Wii and PS3 are high-priced, under-supplied, and have few games worth buying; GameCube has been dead for about a year. Let's see what the sales are like in 10-14 months.

Scarecrow: Are you crying?
The X30 is behind the Ps3..that is your worst nightmare.

I have a feeling that the Wii will win this next gen war, and the X360 and Ps3 will be close each other

DQ IX, as stated before, will be huge, but not only that, it's not just the Brain games and NSMB that have been moving units. The DS is stacking up a very sizable list of million-sellers in Japan, and they're coming from a bunch of different genres. The GB sold more than 30 million largely on the success of Pokemon, and I don't have any doubt that the DS can duplicate that success. Pokemon D/P has been the biggest Pokemon in quite a while, and not only that, they've also got a handful of other games to move units, such as Animal Crossing, the brain/language/cooking/whatever-Nintendo-can-think-up games, New Super Mario Bros, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Tamogatchi, Nintendogs, etc etc etc. The DS has a dozen franchises that have already proved they can move the hardware. The software has been flying off shelves....

As crazy as this seems, I think it's only going to get better for the DS for a while.

"Think about it. People who've already bought NDS have more than likely gotten the Brain genre and New Super Mario Bros. out of their system.

Now the question is, what's the next big game?

Will there be another one?"

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DRAGON QUEST IX

This is nuts. We're staring 15 million DS and DSLites in the face in Japan. And with Japan's population at 127,463,611 as of July 2006 (source: CIA.gov),

Roughly 1 in 10 people in Japan have a DS.

Higher than that? I dunno. 800k is a lot of DSLites, but there'd have to be yet another kind of mover/shaker game to reach 30mil or more.

Think about it. People who've already bought NDS have more than likely gotten the Brain genre and New Super Mario Bros. out of their system.

Now the question is, what's the next big game?

Will there be another one?

I asked this question last week, and I will pose it again:

Can the Xbox 360 overtake the PS3 in Japan in weekly sales?

Now, with that out of the way...

It's pretty much business as usual in Japan. Nintendo is pretty much firmly planted in the #1 spot by now. It'll be interesting to see just how long it'll take before Sony releases a Wii Sports knockoff for the PS3. Also, seeing the PS2 continue to outsell the PS3 definitely is not a good thing for Sony. They're supposed to be pushing new tech, remember?

Also, seeing how well GTA San Andreas sell so well in its first week of sales, combined with the great sales of Gears of War, Microsoft should actually feel some sort of optimism about the Japanese market, as they seem to be willing to partake in Western games.

Generally, these are dangerous times for Sony. Their new hardware is fading AND there are no big name releases for it past Virtua Fighter 5. Public perception is towards Nintendo's hardware, while Microsoft's gear holds its own, and is 35% cheaper.

The ball is in Sony's court. They have the power to fix this mess before Konami goes and makes Guns of the Patriots multiplat or Nintendo announces a date for Animal Crossing Wii World or Super Smash Bros Brawl or more Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games.

Wow @ PS3 sales. I know Sony has to be a bit worried at tis point. It seems that the sales are actually dropping each week...and has actually hit under 20k. For a console tat has JUST released, that's notgood at all.


Ecureuil, how can you say Wii has no games? SSX Blur and Sonic come out this month. Those look to be two really good games well worth purcase. If all you care about is Mario and Metroid then I feel sorry for you cause you're going to be missing out on a LOT of great games. It's people like you that end up hurting Nintendos 3rd party support.

Impressive sales yet again for the DS Lite. One of my friends that trains with me in Shotokan came back from Japan earlier this week and said that DS continues to completely sell out each week at many stores. I thought it was cool hearing it first hand so I wanted to share it here.

Another thing was that the public perception of Wii in general, is much better than it is for PS3. It's one thing if Wii outsells PS3 4 to 1 because of availability, but it's another thing if they're both equally available and one just happens to have much more appeal.

Here's to next week, and good job to Xbox 360 for staying above 7k.
Paul Gale
1up.com

"There aren't really any great games out for it yet, but sales will pick up when the big names arrive."

Ecureuil everyone keeps saying the same thing for those 3 magic games to bring this system from the grave. That will bring system sales but I know for a fact if the audience Sony is aiming for plans on getting a ps3 it still won't come close to the amount of non-gamers out there. OMG my 31 year old cousin wants a wii and DOES NOT play VG, and a bunch other people that I know from work. Nintendo must of hit the mother load, just hope we ( the hard core gamers)don't get left behind for a bunch of simple wii-remote swinging games for the non-gamers. Did you see what Konami just showed for the Wii visit www.ign.com, I was like Ok da'hell is this supose to be? Maybe they made this fast and simple because they just now jumped onto the wii dev kits to late, everyone taking the wait and see thing with nintendo. I think Nintendo did good but hop over to http://gonintendo.com/ and check out the article on the online part about nintendo. When I saw that I was like "!!!!!!" That is so true, they said the wii is made for everyone but yet you add the wii code like a parental block to everyone.... NOT GOOD!


~Arm

"There aren't really any great games out for it yet, but sales will pick up when the big names arrive."

Ecureuil everyone keeps saying the same thing for those 3 magic games to bring this system from the grave. That will bring system sales but I know for a fact if the audience Sony is aiming for plans on getting a ps3 it still won't come close to the amount of non-gamers out there. OMG my 31 year old cousin wants a wii and DOES NOT play VG, and a bunch other people that I know from work. Nintendo must of hit the mother load, just hope we ( the hard core gamers)don't get left behind for a bunch of simple wii-remote swinging games for the non-gamers. Did you see what Konami just showed for the Wii visit www.ign.com, I was like Ok da'hell is this supose to be? Maybe they made this fast and simple because they just now jumped onto the wii dev kits to late, everyone taking the wait and see thing with nintendo. I think Nintendo did good but hop over to http://gonintendo.com/ and check out the article on the online part about nintendo. When I saw that I was like "!!!!!!" That is so true you, you said the wii is made for everyone but yet you add the wii code like a parental block to everyone.... NOT GOOD!


~Arm

I don't think the Blu-ray format and the PS3 depend very much on each other. I think the PS3 would be a tougher sell if the Blu-ray format completely fizzled, but otherwise the two can succeed or fail on their own merits.

I think the reason the PS2 benefitted so much from DVD playback is because the mass market was ready for DVDs and the PS2 was below the price of the average DVD player. The PS3 is cheaper than the BD-players I've seen, but at this point the format really only appeals to the media enthusiast, who would probably seek out a standalone player.

If the price of the PS3 falls faster than the price of other BD-players, however, I bet it could start to pick up sales (as a BD-player) as more and more make the switch to HDTV.

I just wonder how much of a lead Nintendo will attain and how long they can keep it.

PS3 will be fine, it's just a more expensive console with games that have a longer development cycle. There aren't really any great games out for it yet, but sales will pick up when the big names arrive. Why would anyone want a PS3 right now? No idea.

Not sure why the Wii is selling so well, either. Mine has been gathering dust since I finished Zelda 6 weeks ago. I don't expect to pick it up again until Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime, there's really not a lot of great games due out until then. I think Wii is selling off the back of the DS.

I wonder if Blu-ray format will ever beat the HD-DVD, sony is making the same mistake they did when Betamax was out in market... with better definition than VHS...buuuuut, people did not had the appropiate equipment to see the glorious definition of Betamax...similar story to blu-ray and HD-DVD... but I think DVD is already right and I do not need that new BD format.

Wow, just wow.

If this keeps up:

In two weeks the Wii will be ahead of the PS2 at this point of it's life.

In four weeks the PS3 will be behind the Gamecube at this point in it's life.

The PS3 needs the biggest turn around in history to succeed in Japan.

"PSP - Selling well, but nobody cares" jajajajajajajjajajajajajajajaj, VERY GOOD ONE!!

I hope PS3 fallas soon...yeah!! put me negative karma's, if you do not agree. I know the same story: "competition is good" but really... let Nintendo do their revolution...and it is doing veeeeery well.

PS3 Shortage? wow, the DS is still selling a lot! Why? Interesting seeing the PSP selling more than the PS2