Archive for May 19th, 2009

Midwest Gaming Classic 2010!

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

While the location will be announced very soon, the dates for next years MGC show are out. The show will run the week before Easter, which is March 27th and the 28th! The show will be growing in size by around 20%, and as mentioned in prior posts, will be moving to a different location closer to Milwaukee.

That is all I’m saying for now. Stay tuned for more info, probably early next month.

NPD April 2009 – DSi sells well for this month!

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

As with last month, video game sales are down overall, but have picked up in two areas. The two areas that did better in April than March were the Nintendo DS (and DSi) and the PS2. The DS did much better than last month (with strong interest in the DSi), while the PS2 did slightly better.

The majority of the DS hardware sale increase is due to the DSi, which is selling very well. The PS2 most likely has moved up the charts since it had its price moved down to $99. If the DSi can sustain this sales jump remains to be seen.

Once again, sorry for being a tad late in posting the April NPD information. Hope this doesn’t become a habit.

Video game hardware sales for April as mentioned above are down, except for two systems. Could be partly due to the economy, and just partly due to the time of year. I would expect sales to pickup later in the year again.

Software sales were down too for April, 2009. I think a lot of this has to do with there being no really big game releases for April, at least nothing that I would consider stellar. Again, this will change as we start getting closer to the holiday season.

NPD figures for April 2009 are:
Hardware:

  • NDS = 1,040,000 units sold! (827,00 of which were DSi)
  • Wii = 340,000
  • 360 = 175,000
  • PS2 = 172,000
  • PS3 = 127,000
  • PSP = 116,000

Software (top games for April 2009):

  • Wii Fit – Wii = 471,000 units sold
  • Pokemon Platinum – DS = 433,000
  • Mario Kart Wii – Wii = 210,000
  • Wii Play with Wii Remote – Wii = 170,000
  • The Godfather – 360 = 155,000
  • Resident Evil 5 – 360 = 122,000
  • New Super Mario Bros – DS = 119,000
  • Mario Kart DS – DS = 112,000
  • Guitar Hero Aerosmith – 360 = 110,000
  • The Godfather – PS3 = 91,000

The Wii and DS did very well considering sales being down, both taking over half of the top ten games. The Godfather did okay, for both the 360 and PS3 (the only PS3 game in the top ten). The 360 filled the rest of the chart with Resident evil 5 and GH Aerosmith.

Personally, I am still surprised that Wii Fit is doing so well. I have to admit I have it myself, but I don’t totally see the mass appeal of the fitness game. Pokemon, that always sells well, period. The rest, I don’t have any of them, so I can’t say much (even though I have the Wii version of GH Aerosmith – which was good, but not great).