jrutz

Found this on Yahoo! Finance:

Interesting the Gamecube had a bigger increase in sales during January than the XBox, but that doesn't represent real numbers of units sold.

So we know DOA:XV is selling well, but that doesn't bode well for Panzer Dragoon Orta.

Jeremy

Josh H

I didn't expect PD Orta to be big seller.

The average gamer doesn't know what it is. Hardly anyone had a saturn to play the originals, and I really didn't see much marketing for it.

Basically just another Niche Market sega game, a shame that a lot of people will miss it.

PixyJunket

How in the name of all that is holy, is Sims the best selling game?

I'm also shcoked that DOA:XVB is selling well here.. what a strange world..

Josh H

The sims was something new for console gamers. I even picked it up to give it a try on a trade in deal and I don't like open ended games very much.

Plus it's the slowest time of the year for game releases. I finished my backlog of games over x-mas break and didn't like two of the games I got for x-mas (contra and kingdom hearts) so I needed something to kill some time until Zelda.

AgtFox

1. Mass market game. The passive gamers (i.e. not us) and many regular gamers will eat this up like many did on the PC with all those Deer Hunter games. Face it, The Sims is the best selling PC game of all time and it continues to sell well through the expansion packs.

2. It has 2-player abilities, something new to the series. Couples, roomates, etc. would be interested in this.

3. Don't need a computer to play it on and it has some new things that the PC version does not have (such as nicer graphics).

Those are just 3 reasons it is the best-selling game from last month. It is also coming to XBox and GC soon as well.

jrutz

PDO had a lot of marketing muscle behind it. Microsoft has been advertising the hell out of it since last month. I've seen the commercial a hundred times or more on TechTV and MTV. Probably others, because I've seen it so many times I've lost track of exactly where. I can't get that cool theme music out of my head, and I don't even own the game!

But I thought it was weird my Best Buy doesn't even carry it. Not that it was sold-out, but they didn't even have a card for it.

Jeremy

Groucho

Interesting that The Sims is doing well for PS2, whereas the The Sims Online is reportedly bombing on PC (the single player game is one of the biggest PC games of all time).

Josh H

I haven't seen the commercial once, but then again I don't watch much TV and would rather get a root canal than watch Tech TV or MTV.

jrutz

That's funny, that's what I was watching when I was getting my root canal! just kidding...

It's a good commercial and really pumps up the game. Too bad it didn't work so well...

Jeremy

darkside

I've seen the Panzer Dragoon Orta commercial a bunch of times on other networks than MTV or Tech TV. The game was promoted and looked beautiful, but it didn't really seem to help it too much. Sega and Xbox (except for sports games) seems to be a very bad mix sales wise.

It looks more and more like American gamers in general have lost interest in Japanese games (DOA was a T&A game and thats pretty much universal). Things look pretty bad for Sega and Nintendo in the US.

PixyJunket

Which SUCKS because every Sega Xbox game has been amazing.

TheMadMonk

Put me on the list that has seen the Panzer commercial tons of times over the past month. No idea what channel, though (but I usually watch comedy central).

gcribbs

no they just need to release them to a wider audience. if some of those Sega games went to the PS2 the sales would be far higher.

hahn

The news clipping I read was slightly different, but since my thread got closed, I'll post the different part here...

(Credit: Reuters)
******
Video Game Hardware and Software Sales On the Rise

Video game software sales in the U.S. increased by 1% in January 2003, according to industry financial analysts. Compared to the same period one year ago, sales of Microsoft's Xbox video games increased 26%; Sony's Playstation2 video games sales increased 20%; Nintendo's GameCube video games sales rose a whopping 86%; and Nintendo's GameBoy Advance video games sales were up by 28%. Video unit hardware sales also improved, with handheld Game Boy Advance sales up 56%, GameCube console sales increasing by 31%, Xbox sales increasing by 29% and Playstation2 console sales rising by 24%.

Trigger

Everyone seems all wet over the GCNs 31% increase... well, when you're 3rd place and your competition is increasing sales as well to 29 and 24%, the gap isn't getting smaller - it's getting larger.

gcribbs

not really. They are saying the increase was over last years numbers at this time. The GC and XBox were about the same sales numbers from what I remember last year in January. so GC is gaining in market share. also the game giveaway was this month so this increase should grow larger. Plus added to the Zelda release in March that we might see the GC back in second here in the US. it will for sure be a whole lot closer.

Outlaw

huh, I don't see anyone getting all wet about the GC's 31%, where?

and yeah, i've seen th PDO commercial tons of times too, but it doesn't matter because its cool I believe Microsoft owns TechTV so that might be why, may be wrong though, i hardly get a chance to watch TV anyway.

darkside

What are you talking about? Are you reading a different thread than I am?

Sloth911

I saw no Sims commercials. But when sims was popular on the PC i did see several "news" reports on the TV about how unique/fun/etc the game was.

Personally, I just busted a nut over GCNs 31% increase.

madcougar

What the hell are you talking about? No one mentioned this but you.

zero

I view sales analysis like I view movie ticket sales,...it makes no difference to me woh comes out on top, just so long as what I bought I'm enjoying.

Trigger

Meh - I've just read it in other threads... there was also a duplicate thread here that mentioned what a big deal it was... plus, the first post in this thread kinda mentioned it. I didn't think that post would be such a big deal - I thought everyone would more or less ignore it like most of my posts.

gr8vette

These numbers mean nothing to me... I have all three systems, and only buy the best games for each of the systems.

Honestly, I have been playing my Gamecube more than the other systems...

There has been NOTHING on the xbox that I have wanted to play since Halo, which is very sad. I am not into sports at all, so that leaves alot of games out.

The last game I really played on my PS2 was Jack and Daxter, although there are 3 or so that I am looking at picking up. (Never saw the big deal with GTA... )

On the Cube, I had been playing Mario for a long time, and am now playing Metroid... I will probably play the new Zelda when it comes out and then go back and play the old zelda on the bonus disc...

I guess I just like the Nintendo "recipe" for games...

I was really hoping the Xbox would have more exclusive content... Most of the games out on the xbox, I would rather play on my PC... Which is sad... I was really rooting for the Xbox. (Meaning that I would like it more...)

jeffdsmith

<-- Thinks Nintendo sales are really going to pick up.

Captain Harlock

The sales figures don't matter much to the average player, but the people they do matter to are the game developers. Call me Captiain Obvious, but the developers I'm sure watch the sales figures with a keen interest.