Flay

This comes from a 3rd party source. Neither Microsoft nor Nintendo influenced the report.

CSFB's VGSales Report!

Reported On: December 3, 2001 @ 2:13 PM-EST

Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has released its weekly report on the interactive entertainment industry, only this time focusing on the week of retail for the period of November 18-24 - the time period kicked off by the GameCube launch.

CSFB analysts estimate that over 469,000 GameCube units were sold during its first week of availability at retail. A total of 810,000 software units were also sold, for a launch tie-in ratio of 1.7; a number which reflected a limited selection of titles on hand for the system's debut. Luigi's Mansion was the top selling videogame on any platform for that specific week, moving an estimated 257,000 units.

On the Microsoft side of things, Xbox sales for that week were clocked in at 186,000 units, bringing the total number of consoles sold to 556,000 units in the nine days the system had been on store shelves. Halo continues to be the top selling game for the Xbox, moving about 97,000 units over the period of time from November 18-24. The tie-in ratio for Xbox now sits at 2.4, as a total of 1.32 million titles for the console have been sold.

The industry in general had another strong week as PlayStation2 sales rose 83% from the previous week, while Game Boy Color sales rose 331%, and Game Boy Advance saw a 157% leap in sales.

THQ's WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It! for PlayStation 2 also launched that week, and CSFB estimates it moved 194,000 units, while EA's new Harry Potter series spanning multiple platforms remained the top seller.

http://www.tendogamers.com/cgi-bin/n...7406836,66784,

darkside

That fact that Nintendo can move 257,000 copies of Luigi on only 469,000 plus or minus Gamecubes compared to the WWF game only moving 194,000 on about 15 million PS2 units is amazing.

It's amazing how strong the Nintendo brand name is for their first party titles. Nintendo may be a niche system, but it's a heck of a niche. Can't wait to see the sales figures for Smash Brothers Melee.

Nice to see the PS2 and Xbox doing well also. Maybe there is room for all three consoles.

Liver&Onions

If I had the funds, there would be room at my place for at least 2 of the three.... Nothing on the box has impressed me, yet. But I would get PS2, I have the cube...as soon as something killer comes out for the Xbox, I would easily add that to my home. But FPS's don't turn my crank...

This was not a bash...

Centurion

Keep in mind that the launch for the GC had a few titles to select from. It would be more interesting to see how Rogue Leader did compared to Luigi.

Brand loyalty can definitely make a difference. Afterall, if you're happy with a company and it's products, why change? I too would like to see sales figures for SSBM. This is going to be a hot seller.

I hope you're right with this one. It will only benefit gamers to have the top three continually battling to take the top seat.

Mattalos

It also means no one read the reviews.

IC_Freeze

so no mention of the dreamcast eh?

belboz

These numbers are estimates, of course. I think there were reports of Nintendo officials putting their sales numbers at over 500K, but that's a minor discrepency.

It sort of reaffirms the idea that XBox and GC are off to similarly solid starts. Neither has become "the" hot toy of the holiday season, but so far sales of both consoles are good enough to be considered successful.

I'm a bit surprised that the lower price on the GC hasn't given it more of a leg up. Granted, XBox had a few more days worth of sales, but overall they are about even thus far. It's possible this could change as we move past the "early adopter" phase of the launch. Once the pent-up demand for both consoles has been satisfied, it'll be interesting to see if Nintendo's lower price helps it move into the mainstream market more quickly.

Another interesting thing to see was how strongly Luigi's Mansion is selling despite the lukewarm buzz it got among gamer sites and forums. I guess the fact is, in that segment of the market, the branding of Nintentdo's franchises is incredibly powerful.

dkva

dreamcast rules. sorry folks but for price, the awesome games and everything, dreamcast is the best. it's fast too. i love my dreamcast. just had to say something i'm sure they did great in terms of sales esp during thanksgiving.

jeffdsmith

1st) Luigi is a great game. At least for me I enjoyed it quite a bit. The reviews were poor do to little replay and short game span. There are plenty of games on the market that no one complains about because it's not Nintendo. Regardless, I felt it was a great game, got about 20 hours after playing through it 1.5 times. Probally play again down the road. Still 5o bucks /20 hours she beats movie tixet prices for entertainment per hour.

2nd) The data is skewed in several ways. 1 is that the gamecube was sold independtly at most places, where the xbox was sold in bundles as MS's request. This will directly increase the games sold per unit for MS. Just something worth mentioning. Next is the matter of where the numbers are coming from. Nintendo released nearly 200k in Canada and Mexico also that were sold that are not reflected in any form above. Xbox also had units sold in Cananda, but only around 20k were released there. So in reality its possable the gamecube already has a significant lead over xbox.

3rd) I can't find SSB anywhere around me, not sure if retailers havn't got it or not. I went to sam Goody at te mall and asked for it (I have a GC there) the guy basicaly barked at me telling me no. When I inquired why he was so "upset" he replyed that over 20 people had stoped by looking for it. (this is a college town, multiplayer stuff goes down big) Anyhow, seems high demand is there. I then asked him for Pikmin... no luck either.


Finally I must say I'm not typing this because I'm a "fanboy" (I hate that word) Yes I am a Nintendo Fan, interesting enough I won a xbox from taco bell and enjoy Halo quite a bit. Honestly though, I don't care for MS. However I would truely like to see all consoles suceed in their own ways, I believe there is plenty of room. I'm just spreading my POV if it means anything to anyone.

spankyj

Flay...thanks for the information. I'd been meaning to ask someone some legit numbers on sales rather then speculations, luckily you were ahead of the game.

Jeraden

What stores were selling GC by itself but Xbox bundled? From what I saw, all stores sold either both in bundles, or both independently. As of last weekend, the EB by me was STILL only selling Xbox in bundles (heard the employee tell it to a customer while I was in there). I don't really think its MS that is the cause of bundles, its the individual stores. Otherwise Target/Walmart/Bestbuy wouldn't have sold it standalone.

But you are right that the standard Xbox bundles was 3 games, while the GC bundle was only 2 games, so that right there puts Xbox ahead in units per system. The limited selection of GC games further dampers GC units/system number and increases the sales of individual titles since there were less to choose from. Xbox game sales were diluted among many titles. I don't really think those numbers are too meaningful given the difference in bundles/titles.

Groucho

Note that the final tallies are comparing 7 days of Gamecube sales with 10 days of Xbox sales. A more meaningful figure would compare the first 10 days of both consoles.

Still, it's good to see both are selling well...hopefully this trend continues. Without healthy competition, the market will get stagnant.

Flay

Well, if it is any indication, Nintendo released a statement on the 3rd stating they sold nearly 600,000 in 15 days.

Following these numbers, that means 469,000 in week 1 and 131,000 in week 2 plus a day.

MS had 556,000 sold in 10 days.

belboz

MS wasn't requiring that retailers sell only in bundles. They were strongly encouraging retailers to sell in bundles by tying large amounts of coop marketing funds to it.

You really can't add and subtract estimates from different sources like that. The margin of error in these estimates is too great for it to be meaningful at this point.

I don't think we'll have any more meaningful numbers to go by until after Xmas.

Josh H

Does it really matter which system has sold more? The fact is both are selling well. Nintendo is assured of success due to name recognition and having a very large, loyal fanbase, and Microsoft is getting off to a good start with titles like Halo, Oddworld, DOA3, etc. Hopefully all three next-gen systems will thrive, because the added competition will mean a higher quality of games.

tanman

i wonder if the 331% increase in game boy color sales has to do with walmart selling them for 35$.

gcribbs

does anyone have actual PS2 sales figures for the same period. I mean they went up 83% to what from what?

belboz

The latest numbers I remember are from last quarter (July, August, September) when they reported selling 4.62 million PS2 units worldwide. That works out to an average of 350K units per week. I haven't seen their sales broken down by region lately, but I recall the US being a bit under 40% of their PS2 sales, so that would mean something like 130K units/week was their average sales rate over the summer in the US.