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NPD May 2011 Sales Results [Update 4: 3DS And Wii Hardware Sales]

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
So let us compile a list similar to PS3

What will save 3DS.....

-The Nintendo brand name - scratch this one lol
-price drop
-ZELDA
-MK
-MORE PORTS!
-Mario3D - this will be my first 3DS game probably.

Sorry I suck a shopping so maybe someone can make that same one that we had for PS3 after all the years lol
 

1-D_FTW

Member
Joe Shlabotnik said:
I know the DS was soft for quite a few months, but I didn't know it did that bad post-launch. If it's comparable to 3DS sales now, then the jury really is still out, since the software selection is so similar (couple of launch titles selling based on the novelty of the system, huuge dry spell shortly after, big guns releasing within a year.)

Couple major differences though: Nintendo wasn't really that confident in the DS (hence the "third pillar" bail out option) and this lack of faith was evident early on. It became their best selling system ever and the 3DS was given complete focus from the go. The other major difference is the market. The world's changed. A lot of the cute, casual things that really differentiated the system are now commonplace. And they're dirt cheap. Neither Nintendo nor Sony ditching physical media/middle man bandits and fully embracing an aggressive, DD future is going to severely handicap both systems outside of the ubercore.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
Do some of you really believe that Zelda is going to affect 3DS sales? I don't see an N64 port moving the sales needle in the slightest.
 

Barrett2

Member
The funniest part about the 3DS chalkboard could be a section with a huge list of N64 remakes, starting with the really good games, but going on and on until you get to crappy games nobody cares about.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Seeing the 3DS hardware numbers, i got some flashbacks to the PS3 vs GBA fights back in 2007. I wouldnt be surprised if the 3DS sold around what the PSP sold this month. Hopefully for Nintendo the 3DS will have more success once more games come out for it.
 
demosthenes said:
Haha, this sounds like the PS3 back in 06/07.

That's exactly the point. It's a pretty flawed analogy (Mario Kart alone has vastly more in the way of proven system-selling power than anything that PS3 fanboys ever put on that chalkboard), but Nintendo did leave itself open here.
 
zomgbbqftw said:
eShop would be the first one, too many Nintendo avatar wielding members were going on about it as the fix.
I wear my Nintendo jacket proudly. The only fix is a significant price drop. Get it down to $180 this summer, and the games that are slated for release and in development will carry it for years.
 
Father_Brain said:
That's exactly the point. It's a pretty flawed analogy (Mario Kart alone has vastly more in the way of proven system-selling power than anything that PS3 fanboys ever put on that chalkboard), but Nintendo did leave itself open here.
Given how much the masses seem to love Mario Kart I can see it helping it's fortunes, but a steady string of content is needed.


Grampa Simpson said:
I wear my Nintendo jacket proudly. The only fix is a significant price drop. Get it down to $180 this summer, and the games that are slated for release and in development will carry it for years.
This man is a genius.
 

stalker

Member
Personally I am "happy" to see the 3DS is not seling well. Unlike others, I think the problem is not in the software front (which is really bad, sure) but in the price point. Nintendo became too self-assured after managing to sell the DS for the launch price (actually more with revisions) for many years and even the Wii for 3 years. 250 is not a good price for the 3DS, no matter what games are available. They also made some mistakes in marketing but that is something more complex and something very easy to judge after things start to go wrong.

They will drop the price (to 199 at the very least) before the holiday season, 100% sure. With that and the games coming, the 3DS sales will improve; this is not really very different from the DS start, except the slowdown has been very quick to happen. This time actually they are in a better position to drop the price, as I am quiet sure (just impressions) that the 3DS is way more over-priced than the DS was (and do not forget they did drop the DS price from 149 to 129 within the first year).

The Wii is ok. At 150 with Mario Kart or the Sports games (in Europe, I imagine in the US the price is the same in $), they wil sell moderately well until the console really "dies" after january 2012.
 

Somnid

Member
Grampa Simpson said:
You're doing it wrong.

Have to start with Zelda
Then Starfox
Then Mario Kart.

It doesn't work because Nintendo fans know that Zelda and Starfox aren't going to help. The PS3 thing was funny because it was Sony's inability to sell a game. Nintendo's been around long enough that we have certain sales expectations per franchise.
 
UberTag said:
Factoring year-over-year variation:

Xbox 360: 270K (+39%)
Wii: 236K (-29.5%)
PlayStation 3: 177K (+15%)

The 3DS came in right about where it was expected to... although that won't stop the alarmists.

The Wii will make a strong push for 1st in June.
Why would the month after a price drop have stronger sales than the first two weeks? It never works that way, especially without any software to compete with (lol) Duke Nukem.
 
Thunder Monkey said:
Given how much the masses seem to love Mario Kart I can see it helping it's fortunes, but a steady string of content is needed.

Oh, no question. Going by Nintendo's E3 showing, it looks like that'll happen, but unfortunately for their summer sales, it apparently won't start until September.
 
Father_Brain said:
Oh, no question. Going by Nintendo's E3 showing, it looks like that'll happen, but unfortunately for their summer sales, it apparently won't start until September.
The announcement of Luigi's Mansion did make me tingle.
 

Truth101

Banned
zomgbbqftw said:
eShop would be the first one, too many Nintendo avatar wielding members were going on about it as the fix.

Can't even escape statements like this in NPD anymore.

Sales are as expected. 3DS needs a holiday season, some killer apps, and a $25-50 price cut.
 
Grampa Simpson said:
I wear my Nintendo jacket proudly. The only fix is a significant price drop. Get it down to $180 this summer, and the games that are slated for release and in development will carry it for years.

Nintendo can't cut the price too soon. It will be a death knell for the platform, people will just keep waiting for a price cut if they start cutting too early.

The first price cut will come mid 2012 IMO, they would lose too much customer goodwill and a lot of PR damage would be done to cut the price this close to launch.
 
Somnid said:
It doesn't work because Nintendo fans know that Zelda and Starfox aren't going to help. The PS3 thing was funny because it was Sony's inability to sell a game. Nintendo's been around long enough that we have certain sales expectations per franchise.
It still works on a humor level.
 

LosDaddie

Banned
UberTag said:
Factoring year-over-year variation:

Xbox 360: 270K (+39%)
Wii: 236K (-29.5%)
PlayStation 3: 177K (+15%)

The 3DS came in right about where it was expected to... although that won't stop the alarmists.

The Wii will make a strong push for 1st in June.

Damn @ 3DS numbers! But as a 3DS owner, I'm kinda glad for the slow start. It will push Nintendo to do better.
 
zomgbbqftw said:
Nintendo can't cut the price too soon. It will be a death knell for the platform, people will just keep waiting for a price cut if they start cutting too early.

The first price cut will come mid 2012 IMO, they would lose too much customer goodwill and a lot of PR damage would be done to cut the price this close to launch.
I don't know man.

America tends to be a very strong Nintendo handheld market. I mean hell, the DS has outsold the PS2 here, the 3DS selling under 100,000 units almost seems like a death knell in itself.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Somnid said:
It doesn't work because Nintendo fans know that Zelda and Starfox aren't going to help. The PS3 thing was funny because it was Sony's inability to sell a game. Nintendo's been around long enough that we have certain sales expectations per franchise.
In what way do you mean?
 
Nintendo should keep its consoles below $300 and handhelds below $200. They're the only ones left that are going to launch new systems at these levels and I think this is critical for their continued success.
 

Krev

Unconfirmed Member
chubigans said:
Do some of you really believe that Zelda is going to affect 3DS sales? I don't see an N64 port moving the sales needle in the slightest.
I don't think it will have a big impact, but sales can only go up from here.

Pretty mindblowing that 3DS sold half as many units in May as it did in April.
Quadrangulum said:
Nintendo should keep its consoles below $300 and handhelds below $200. They're the only ones left that are going to launch new systems at these levels and I think this is critical for their continued success.
Exactly.
They got too cocky after the one-two punch of Wii and Nintendo DS. They need to go back and think about what made those systems a success. It wasn't just gimmicks, it was the combination of price and software that really took advantage of their unique features.
 
I need to go back to the 3ds threads and see if people actually expected the 3ds to ever hit under 100k ever in its lifespan. Or I could just not waste my time and say no, of course not. Everyone thought nintendo was a least safe and golden with their portable market share and pull. Maybe not "rule the world" golden but good enough.

Glasses free 3d. Remember that selling point people? Wasn't that suppose to just wow us and make tons of the easily convinced fans and casual just buy their product? The DS pull? Nintendogs? Pilotwings? All those thrown in features (like they're doing again with the WiiU)? Nothing. Nothing yet at least.
 
zomgbbqftw said:
Nintendo can't cut the price too soon. It will be a death knell for the platform, people will just keep waiting for a price cut if they start cutting too early.

The first price cut will come mid 2012 IMO, they would lose too much customer goodwill and a lot of PR damage would be done to cut the price this close to launch.
The only people who give it flak for an early price drop will be message board pundits and analysts like Pachter. For the consumer it will be become attractive where it previously wasn't. If they brought it down that low, they could probably also discontinue the DS Lite and DSi (not XL) to push the 3DS to the forefront.
 

stalker

Member
zomgbbqftw said:
Nintendo can't cut the price too soon. It will be a death knell for the platform, people will just keep waiting for a price cut if they start cutting too early.

The first price cut will come mid 2012 IMO, they would lose too much customer goodwill and a lot of PR damage would be done to cut the price this close to launch.

That is wrong from a simple comparison perspective. Nintendo did drop the DS price from 150 to 130 within the first year (actully 9 months) both in US and Europe.
 

Alrus

Member
Thunder Monkey said:
Given how much the masses seem to love Mario Kart I can see it helping it's fortunes, but a steady string of content is needed.

Which is finally coming next semester, this is the real "test".

Anyone who believes OoT is gonna set the 3ds on fire is seriously deluded. Of course it's gonna help a bit, but Zelda is one of nintendo's most core focused franchise it won't appeal to the masses. It's also the worse selling of their "big franchise". (That won't post people from saying the 3ds is doomed when it still doesn't sell that well next month).

Also a price drop this soon is gonna destroy the 3ds perception and as it's been said, people will just wait for another price drop. I think Nintendo learned that aggressive price drop too early doesn't help sales much with the Gamecube. A price drop next year when Vita launches in the west is to be expected though.
 
Quadrangulum said:
Nintendo should keep its consoles below $300 and handhelds below $200. They're the only ones left that are going to launch new systems at these levels and I think this is critical for their continued success.

$249 3DS and $399 WiiU.
 
Mr. B Natural said:
I need to go back to the 3ds threads and see if people actually expected the 3ds to ever hit under 100k ever in its lifespan. Or I could just not waste my time and say no, of course not. Everyone thought nintendo was a least safe and golden with their portable market share and pull. Maybe not "rule the world" golden but good enough.

Glasses free 3d. Remember that selling point people? Wasn't that suppose to just wow us and make tons of the easily convinced fans and casual just buy their product? The DS pull? Nintendogs? Pilotwings? All those thrown in features (like they're doing again with the WiiU)? Nothing. Nothing yet at least.
Yeah, even I was cockier than I should have been.

But I've always thought the $250 price was a potential harm, I just didn't realize how much of a harm it would be.
 
Grampa Simpson said:
The only people who give it flak for an early price drop will be message board pundits and analysts like Pachter. For the consumer it will be become attractive where it previously wasn't. If they brought it down that low, they could probably also discontinue the DS Lite and DSi (not XL) to push the 3DS to the forefront.

That's not the effect I was talking about. If they cut the price within months of launch people will keep waiting for price cuts instead of buying.

On DS price cuts early in its life, the DS was a much less high profile device than 3DS, so it didn't really matter as much, and the price cut was much smaller than the one 3DS requires.
 

UberTag

Member
test_account said:
Seeing the 3DS hardware numbers, i got some flashbacks to the PS3 vs GBA fights back in 2007. I wouldnt be surprised if the 3DS sold around what the PSP sold this month. Hopefully for Nintendo the 3DS will have more success once more games come out for it.
Just for some perspective, the PSP sold 59.4K units last May when it was still getting a semi-regular release schedule (as opposed to now when it can look forward to nothing but license ports and Madden).

Sho_Nuff82 said:
Why would the month after a price drop have stronger sales than the first two weeks? It never works that way, especially without any software to compete with (lol) Duke Nukem.
Simple math. Neither system has anything appealing to move hardware in June but the price drop has led to the Wii outselling the Xbox 360 since it gained traction with consumers around the middle of fiscal May Week 3. Sustain those gains (even with some demand decline) over a 5-week month versus the 10 or so days it had in May and all of a sudden the Wii gets a chance to crack the streak.

As for the 3DS hysteria, we'll see price cuts and bundles hit in the post-summer holiday ramp. Makes no sense to do anything beforehand.
 

gerg

Member
I always love the idea that Nintendo's "gotten cocky", that they weren't aware of the downturn of Wii sales in US, Europe, and especially in Japan, and that Iwata hasn't spoken openly about their failure to keep the Wii's momentum going, and even in adequately explaining the value of the 3DS to consumers.

Nintendo obviously overestimated the appeal of the 3DS at launch, whether in overestimating the appeal of "glasses-less 3D" as a concept, the appeal of the software included with the 3DS, the appeal of the retail releases at launch, or a combination of all three. That doesn't mean that they're arrogant. It means that they're fallible (and/or stupid) and make mistakes.

zomgbbqftw said:
Nintendo can't cut the price too soon. It will be a death knell for the platform, people will just keep waiting for a price cut if they start cutting too early.

The first price cut will come mid 2012 IMO, they would lose too much customer goodwill and a lot of PR damage would be done to cut the price this close to launch.

I expect a price cut before the end of 2011. Unless they get Luigi's Mansion 2, Super Mario 3DS, Mario Kart 3DS, Star Fox and Kid Icarus out all before the end of the year, and they boost the 3DS' sales to respectable levels, Nintendo can't weather the Vita launch at $250. They need to undercut it.
 
Thunder Monkey said:
I don't know.

I think one of their premiere handhelds selling under 100,000 units months out of launch will scare the shit out of them.

Too much tech in the unit to sell at $299 or $349 and profit. $399 is the next logical choice. That superspeed wireless streaming tech doesn't come cheap, and neither do 6" tablet controllers...

One positive is that Nintendo can market that Wii users can start multiplayer gaming quickly with their old Wiimotes and nunchucks so no need to buy a set of new, expensive controllers for local multiplayer like you would have to for PS3/360.
 

Kiriku

SWEDISH PERFECTION
chubigans said:
Do some of you really believe that Zelda is going to affect 3DS sales? I don't see an N64 port moving the sales needle in the slightest.

Well, isn't it the best-selling Zelda game ever in the US (or at least up there)? Also the first big, recognizable Nintendo IP being released for the 3DS, which will probably be beneficial when marketing the game.
 
gerg said:
I always love the idea that Nintendo's "gotten cocky", that they weren't aware of the downturn of Wii sales in US, Europe, and especially in Japan, and that Iwata hasn't spoken openly about their failure to keep the Wii's momentum going, and even in adequately explaining the value of the 3DS to consumers.

Nintendo obviously overestimated the appeal of the 3DS at launch, whether in overestimating the appeal of "glasses-less 3D" as a concept, the appeal of the software included with the 3DS, the appeal of the retail releases at launch, or a combination of all three. That doesn't mean that they're arrogant.

I think the whole 3D stuff is where they went wrong. They thought 3D was stalling in the market because of the glasses, but as we've seen over the last few years, 3D has been stalling in the home because people just aren't interested.

The price premium was based on the 3D appeal, but as we now know, it isn't appealing anymore.
 

Somnid

Member
test_account said:
In what way do you mean?

There were a bunch of promising franchises included in those lists that sold completely lackluster. They were successful enough to keep around but they were consistently beaten by competing games in the same month.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
UberTag said:
Just for some perspective, the PSP sold 59.4K units last May when it was still getting a semi-regular release schedule (as opposed to now when it can look forward to nothing but license ports and Madden).
True, but the PSP got a pricedrop at the end of February, and in March it sold more than 119k as far as i know. Based on this pricedrop, i dont think that it is too unlikely that the PSP sold somewhere around 70k - 100k in May, but that will of course just be a guess until we get any official numbers.
 
Kiriku said:
Well, isn't it the best-selling Zelda game ever in the US (or at least up there)? Also the first big, recognizable Nintendo IP being released for the 3DS, which will probably be beneficial when marketing the game.

But it's also 13 years old. Has there ever been a re-release or remake that has been a major hit or pushed hardware sales? These things are guaranteed money because of their low overhead, but there's still a pretty low ceiling for their sales.

I'm sure it will do very well and they'll make plenty of money on the game itself, but I don't see it turning 3DS sales around in a noticeable way.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Somnid said:
There were a bunch of promising franchises included in those lists that sold completely lackluster. They were successful enough to keep around but they were consistently beaten by competing games in the same month.
I see, but what could Sony do to have sold the games better? Would a lot of marketing have made the game sold more (more as in that the extra money spent on extra adverticing would be profitable)? And how much did Sony expect these games to sell compared to what they sold?

I forgot to ask earlier, how much does Nintendo expect Zelda OoT 3D and Starfox 3D to sell?
 
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