Absolute Domination

Bluelight has posted another impressive set of Japanese sales statistics. These latest numbers show stunning performances by both the DS and Gamecube. Here are last week's figures:

Nintendo DS 597,628
PSP 161,332
PS2 97,475
GameCube 36,646
GBA SP 35,764
Game Boy Micro19,261
XBox360 5,674
Game Boy Advance 906
Xbox 141

Numbers are represented in a pie chart below:



Here are the top 10 titles in the software department:
1. PS2 - Kingdom Hearts II - 727,591
2. NDS - Animal Crossing: Wild World- 416,132
3. NDS - Mario Kart DS- 302,742
4. PS2 - Naruto: Narutimate Hero 3 - 216,966
5. NDS - Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon Blue - 157,786
6. GBA - Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon Red - 156,181
7. NDS - Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop - 156,181
8. PS2 - Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence - 103,894 (NEW)
9. GCN - Mario Party 7 - 100,130
10. NDS - Brain Training for Adults - 93,240

In the handheld Nintendo verses Sony department, Ninty currently holds 80% of the total market, with the DS in clear lead over competition and Nintendo's other handhelds. Pie chart below:



The following can be concluded:
- DS sales have gone insane thanks to newly released Wi-Fi titles Animal Crossing and Mario Kart.
- Gamecube makes a comeback with numbers that haven't been reached for a whole year.
- GBA SP takes a large lead over GB Micro.
- DS sold about 3.7 times the PSP, 6 times the PS2, 120 times the Xbox 360, and over 4238 times the Xbox.
- DS pwned all.

Pure Pwnage

The latest Japanese hardware numbers are in, thanks to Bluelight's post on Digital Share forums. As you'll no doubt be aware, this week's statistics are particularly interesting, as both the Xbox 360 console and Mario Kart DS received their first full week of sales. Surprisingly the 360 hardly even scratched competition, despite being a next generation console. More surprisingly, the Gamecube even managed to double the 360's sales. And even MORE surprisingly, the Nintendo DS sold FORTY SEVEN TIMES (47x) more than the 360. Here are the hardware (console) sales:

Nintendo DS - 408,770
PSP - 95,689
PS2 - 55,342
Game Boy Advance SP - 19,098
GameCube - 17,849
Game Boy Micro - 14,432
Xbox360 - 8,623
Game Boy Advance - 416
Xbox - 182

These numbers are represented in a pie chart below:



The release of Mario Kart DS last week has boosted (pun?) Ninty's handheld sales by more than 100,000 units. Taking a look at the handheld, Nintendo verses Sony department, the total numbers are 442716 to 95689 units respectively. Here's how they look when placed into another pie chart:

Game Doctor For SNES



This nifty gadget is the main reason the SNES was my all time favourite Nintendo console. Basically, it "piggybacks" the SNES by plugging into its game cartridge, and allows the user to run SNES games off floppy disks. Drawbacks include loading times, but once a game is loaded it is saved into the GD's RAM, and can be stored along with other loaded games, the number depending on the RAM available. Using floppys to play SNES games can save you a tonne of money, as they cost significantly lower than buying cartridge games (as in free, if you download ROMs off the net, but being illegal it shouldn't be even considered :D).

This makes virtually every SNES game ever produced available, and floppys can easily be updated with newer titles once an old game has been finished. The test below is from http://www.robwebb.clara.co.uk/backup/bung/bungsf7.html:

Its unique feature is that it is able to have multiplegames loaded simultaneously into its memory, which stay there even with SNESpower off! No need to load floppies over and over again! It also has an onscreenmenu system which is controlled through the SNES controllers. The menu systemfeatures self testing (Memory, BRAM, ROM, and disk drive), file management, etc.It has many features including slow motion, real time save, Gold Finger cheatcode system and superior error handling. It cantransfer games from disks, computer, CDROM (optional), or memory. Other featuresinclude: 32 Mbit or 64 Mbit RAM, self test, menus in English, Chinese, orJapanese...

I was too young back then to really make use of this device, but it's given me countless hours of enjoyment none-the-less :P.

Hardware And Software Totals

Nintendo has recently released some total (since launch) sales of their hardware consoles, and top 5 gaming franchises. In first place is the Gameboy Advance, which includes the original, SP and Micro versions. The GBA has sold a whopping 70.04 million units worldwide since its launch in 2001 (that's around 70,040,000 units). Second place is taken by the Gamecube, at 19.31 million units, and closely followed by the Nintendo DS, at 8.83 million. Keep in mind that the GBA received a headstart of 3 years worth of sales before the DS was launched, and Gamecube was out since late 2001 to early 2002.

In terms of software, the GBA has sold 296.12 million units of software (games and accessaries) worldwide since its launch. The Gamecube has sold 165.91, and DS 28.3 million. That's pretty impressive, a large portion of these figures must have been from the Pokemon games :D.

Below are Nintendo's all time top 5 franchises, you can probably guess what they are anyway:

1. Mario 184 million units
2. Pokemon 143 million units
3. Zelda 47 million units
4. Donkey Kong 43 million units
5. Metroid 11 million units

I guess first place would've gone to Pokemon, if it weren't for the Mario range receiving a 10 year head start, though they've all sold a decent amount.

On an unrelated topic, I've been messing around with the tools in Photoshop for about an hour yesterday, trying to whip up a decent Nintendo wallpaper for my desktop. What came out isn't great but I'm satisfied, and tohught I might share the wallpaper too. Here it is, click on the image for the 1024 by 768 version :).

Why Sales Statistics?

I've been asked this a few times, and thought I might point it out. Hardware statistics, are one aspect of the PSP that annoys a Sony fanboy the most. I regularly post these statistics to provide gamers the truth, what is really happening in the console market.

Statistics are solid information, different to marketing and console hype. They represent each console's popularity and the interests of the gaming community. Sony loyalists can boast all they want about the PSP's superior hardware, or multimedia capabilities, but one look at some hardware statistics shows Sony's portable in last place, whether it's Japan, Australia or the States.

Sony reserves a large amount of their profits into marketing their consoles and games. With the help of the media and retailers, they convince people into thinking their consoles are more popular than they really are, especially with the PSP. Take a trip to EB Games, or Games Wizards, and you'll see what I mean. Huge flashy ads hang outside the stores, boxes are stacked high, and wall-fulls of shelves are taken up by PSP games and accessaries. If you're in there looking for a particular DS game, you would probably find about a dozen or so DS game boxes, piled in a corner you wouldn't normally notice.

Alright, maybe that was a little exaggerated, but there certainly is an obvious difference. Same deal with the GBA, despite being the topselling console of the world, has little more room than the UMD movies on PSP. The uneducated gaming community are tricked into thinking the PSP as the dominant handheld.

Nintendo Domination System?

This week's hardware numbers for Japanese console sales are in, and due to the release of the second Wi-Fi DS game (Mario Kart DS), the sudden changes in sales numbers are worth noting. Here are the latest handheld console sales:

Nintendo DS 299,328
PlayStation Portable 86,403
PlayStation 2 45,893
Xbox 360 43,970
GameCube 12,212
Game Boy Advance SP 10,456
Game Boy Micro 8,326
Game Boy Advance 396
Xbox 164

It is the first times for several months the Gamecube sales have managed to hit the 12,000 unit mark, nice to see. The Xbox 360 launched in Japan at the beginning of this week, and it has grabbed a healthy share of console sales, though no enough to dominate the home console industry (still a little behind PS2). It's also the first time the Micro's dropped behind the GBA SP in sales, with a small difference of ~2000 units.

Here are the numbers for handheld sales, representated in a pie chart:




You'll see that Nintendo DS sales have really gone bezerk in the last 7 days, this was thanks to the release of Mario Kart. Sales have increased by over 100,000 units compared to the previous week (check my last stat post). Currently, Nintendo are dominating about 79% of the handheld market, and Sony have the other 21%. The gap has widened by a fairly impressive margin since last week. Hopefully this rise will continue into the start of 2006, and be further boosted by the launch of the (long awaited) Metroid Prime.

Here is a quick look at console performances in the States:

1.) GBA / Game Boy micro - 819,733 (+194%)
2.) PlayStation 2 - 535,000 (+112%)
3.) Nintendo DS - 369,012 (+172%)
4.) PSP - 353,434 (unknown)
5.) Xbox 360 - 325,902 (NEW)
6.) GameCube - 272,000 (+166%)
7.) Xbox - 197,000 (+ 79%)

Ha! The Xbox 360 was beaten by 4 consoles, despite it's new release! Just goes to prove that you can't relay on marketing for console performance, only the actualy sales numbers. The Gamecube's overtaken Xbox, guess that's not a suprise thanks to 360. Xbox is officially coming last in console wars in the States, and MS doesn't seem to be performing very well at all. The 360 and Xbox's total sales still can't top the GBA's, or even PS2 for that matter.

Btw, I have removed comment verification, hopefully that will encourage more viewers to comment :).

Calling For MKDS Pros

Heh, there hasn't been any Nintendo news today, I've checked IGN, Gamespot, Nintendoinsider, Revo-Europe, Aussie-nintendo, GoNintendo and several Ninty blogs, and none have posted anything interesting for the past 24 hours.

Anyway, who here has playing Wi-Fi Mario Kart DS? For those who have, who has a fairly decent record to show off? well, my current stats are 153 wins and 13 losses, with a triple star ranking :P. I've since been finding it hard to get into a 4 player race, as half the MKDSers who run into me leave before the race starts. The rivals room isn't all that reliable as several noobs (excuse me) still manage to get searched up.

I am hereby proposing a challenge for any viewers of this blog, to add my friend code and verse a few games :). My code is 133203 986406, please comment here with your own so I can add you.

By the way, this blog receives about 105 viewers daily, but hardly any visitors post comments. Kudos to those of you who do, but may I encourage the others to have their say? Any reply would be really appreciated, I would just like to see this place be a little more active, thanks.

Japan Last Week

Source: http://www.m-create.com/eng/e_ranking.html, text directly from source.



Sales of the top 100 titles totaled 1,203,066 units, 83.27% of last week's total and 155.35% of the weekly average. Though lacking last week's vigor, this week also saw a large number of new titles boost the market, and as with last week, total sales surpassed 1 million units.

Twenty-seven new releases took spots in the top 100, accounting for 47.87% of total sales. Top-ranked "Resident Evil 4" sold approximately 243,000 units. The title was released about 10 months after the GC version, which was launched in January of this year, and it appears to have gotten off to a strong start in its first week, surpassing results for the GC version. (At this point in time, the GC version has sold a total of approximately 220,000 units.) "Monster Hunter Portable" in third place sold approximately 114,000 units. The title had an absorption rate of more than 80% and sold out at a series of stores. There were a notably large number of purchases of the game together with the PSP hardware, and the title became a bigger hit than expected.

Meanwhile, sales of existing titles jumped from approximately 458,000 units to 627,000 units partially due to the effects of titles launched last week such as "Animal Crossing: Wild World." This week's strong performance was supported by rich lineups in both the new title and the existing title markets.

Nintendo Players Dot Com



A member of Digital Share forums, thegetupkid86, presents a brad new one stop online Nintendo resource. On completion, this site will include everything Nintendo, from the latest rumours, to game reviews and sales statistics. With a team of staff who are all Nintendo gamers, the site will receive fast and consistent updates with all sorts of Ninty news.

I would like to recommend each and every one of you to look to nintendoplayers.com in the future, for comprehensive Nintendo information. For now please feel free to join the NP forums, there is a link to them from the main page (or add /forum to the url).

I have been accepted as a staff for posting news, so (hopefully, if all goes well) I'll be able to assist in the latest presentations of Nintendo talk. I'll continue contributions to this blog, though, and again I'd just like to thank all of you who have visited this blog :).

Another Code: Another Review

For the American blog viewers, Another Code: Two Memories is the European equivilant of Trace memory, a recently released title in the States. This game has been available at retailers for many months in Australia, but it was not until a friend lended me the game that I first tried it out. I'll attempt another review, though remembering back to the Advance Wars DS review, you'll have to bear with any grammatic errors I make :P.

Unique, that is the best way to describe the gameplay of this game. Though it fits into the adventure slash puzzle genre, this title gives the gamer an experience that they won't find with any other game. The whole game can be played by nothing but the touch screen, and I find pointing with the stylus a very useful tool for game control, for both navigation, and solving puzzles.

You play as (almost) 14 year old Ashley Mitzuki Robbins, who's lost her parents as a baby and has been raised by her aunt Jessica. The game is set into motion straight from the beginning, when Ashley discovers his father is alive and wishes to meet him on a mysterious island. She later meets up with D, a ghost who his trying to recover memories of his death, and together the game's objective is to recover both Ashley and D's past.

Another Code utilises the functions avilable on the DS to the fullest extent. To complete the game, players are required to do everything from clicking random objects in search for clues, snap the console shut to stamp and drawing, to blowing dust off objects through the inbuilt mic. Dozens of interesting and possibly annoying puzzles (like discovering the true meaning of "Another" or "Trace") are able to maintain the gamer's interest throughout the whole game. Like a book, once you pick this game up, it's hard to put it down until you've completed the next chaptor. I said chaptor, because that is what divides the game up into multiple levels, with puzzles of increasing difficulty in each.

The game presents very beautiful graphics, smooth shadings and high details (like birds zooming above trees across the screen) which are hard to find in a DS game. The top screen is mainly used for game dialogues, as well as various screes which display as you navigate the characters. The bottom screen presents a bird's eye view, so to it easy to hunt forobject which contain clues.

As the story progresses, the gamer really becomes involved in the events which unfold as Ashley is finally led to her father, and as most of D's past is recovered. The emotional conclusion at the end when Ashley leaves with her reunited family makes the gamer want to see the game progress futher, and sad to see the game finally came to an end. The same feeling you would get from finishing a tv or anime series, where even if it's a "happy" ending, you regret to see the characters leave.



Overall IMO this game deserves an 8 out of 10. It's a great title if you're after a slow paced game with quality graphics, but not so much if you're after something fast and action packed (get Mario Kart!). I am looking forward to this game's sequel, if there is one. According to Cing, they will produce a sequel if this one sells, and looking at recent software statistics Another Code has sold pretty well, expecially in Japan.

So has anyone else played Another Code? If so, what are your thoughts?

Australian MKDS Competition!



The Nintendo DS connection tour 06 is coming to Australia. They will be held at multiple Westfield shopping centres across Australia during the summer holidays. Players will get a chance to try out new Nintendo DS games, including Nintendogs, Mario Kart DS, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sonic Rush, SpongeBob Squarepants: The Yellow Avenger, Burnout Legends and Tony Hawk American SK8land. Gamers can also sample what’s to come in early 2006, games like Nintendo Touch Golf: Birdie Challenge, Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble, Pokemon Torozei, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and the Japanese hit “Brain Training” will be available for demo play.

Here is the main attraction of the event: An Ultimate Mario Kart DS Tournament! The winner will be crowned the Mario Kart Champion and will receive a year’s worth of Nintendo DS products from Nintendo! Simply register, compete on the day and see if you have what it takes to be the Mario Kart Champion.

Here are the dates and location of the tour:

QLD
Westfield Carindale - Sat 7 Jan, 9:30am – 4pm
Westfield Garden City - Sun 8 Jan, 10:30am – 4pm
NSW
Westfield Miranda - Sat 14 Jan, 9:30am – 4pm
Westfield Eastgardens - Sun 15 Jan, 10:30am – 4pm
VIC
Westfield Southland - Sat 21 Jan, 9:30am – 4pm
Westfield Fountain Gate - Sun 22 Jan, 10:30am – 4pm
SA
Westfield Marion - Sat 28 Jan, 9:30am – 4pm
Westfield Marion – Sun 29 Jan, 9:30am – 4pm

I don't know about you guys, but for some reason I'm really excited about this tournament. I live in NSW, and although it's about an hours trip to Eastgardens, will try and participate in the event. Btw if anyone wants my MKDS Wi-Fi friend code, it's at the top right hand corner of this page (remember to comment with your own code so I can add you :D).

Nintendo's Official Stance

Source: http://revolution.ign.com/articles/674/674611p1.html

Online reports are shedding new light on the horsepower for Nintendo's next-generation console, codenamed Revolution, and gamers are reacting. Fans who write Nintendo of America about Revolution's power will receive the following official response:

Our competitors would have you believe that the next generation of gaming will be solely defined by high definition graphics. High definition graphics look fantastic, but come at a price. To shine, high definition games must be played on high definition televisions, which aren't cheap. Games with high definition graphics are expensive to develop because they must be developed in both standard and high definition formats. Those development costs are passed on to you in the form of more expensive software. Finally, playing games with high definition graphics requires a system with loads of RAM and costly high-end graphics chips, both of which make it prohibitively expensive for most consumers.

Sharper graphics are certainly part of the next generation. We know that games for the Revolution will look brilliant whether played on a standard television or on a high definition television. However, is that all there is to next-generation gaming? We feel that sharper graphics should be combined with a new way to interface with the game itself. Our controller is a sharp departure from the current standard, to be sure, but it will provide a level of interactivity you can't get currently.

We believe in providing a single system that can play not only the previous generation's titles, but also games from a massive library built over 20 years of creating innovative and exciting games. We also believe in providing a complete wireless online experience right out of the box.

Nintendo has created a gaming system that is sleek and compact in size, powers up quickly with minimal load times, makes game development easy and fast, is easy to use, and is affordable for everyone. We are confident that gamers and non-gamers alike will support the truly next-generation experience only Nintendo can provide. Once you have a chance to play games on the Revolution, we think you'll agree!

Nintendo of America

Nintendo has chosen not to release official technical specifications for its next-generation console and it may never, according to company executives. The Big N believes that comparing horsepower between consoles is a lost cause and that the software standouts in the next-generation will be determined by the quality and originality of the games, not merely how flashy their graphics become.

Revolution Channel Launched

IGN have recently launched their Nintendo Revolution channel section of their site, check it out at:

http://revolution.ign.com/

It seems the upgrade from cube.ign.com isn't quite complete, the link isn't shown in the topbar, and most of the articles are taken straight from the cube channel. There is one new Revolution article, found here:

http://revolution.ign.com/articles/673/673578p1.html

I'm a little suspicious of that article, as the information was sourced from "anonymous software developers", who should know little of Revolution's true hardware (working on games with Gamecube dev kits). Still, some comments are made on Revolution's horsepower, focusing around it's RAM. They also claim Revolution to be nothing more than a "souped up Xbox".

The Metroid Prime 3 image on the page does not match its caption, either. Matt should be well aware that the video footage shown at e3 ran on Gamecube hardware... these are Gamecube graphics.

Caveat Emptor

Recently there have been many scams for Xbox 360 consoles on eBay, but I've come across one that's quite hillarious. Here's a link to the auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/X-Box-360-Premium-Box_W0QQitemZ8239677647QQcategoryZ112848QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

In case it has ended by the time you read this post, here is the description for the item below. Words that should be noted are in bold:
-------------------------------------------

X-Box 360 Premium Box



Now lets's go over what you know about the Xbox 360:
1. It's the first next-gen system to hit the market and probably will remain so for quite some time
2. Every major retailer has long since sold out of its initial alottment and can't guarantee you'll have one by Christmas
3. You have to have the hard drive included in this bundle to be able to play your old favorite xbox games (cough, cough, HALO 2, cough, cough)

Included in this package are none of the following:
* Xbox 360 System
* Wireless Controller
* 20 GB Hard Drive
* Wireless Headset for use with Xbox Live!
* High Definition A/V cables (core system only comes with standard composite A/V cables)
* Ethernet Cable (machine is Wi-Fi capable right out of the box so you can use your home wireless network for online play)

Some people are mentioning the inclusion of different Xbox Live! (XBL) memberships. Here's the story on that. All Xbox 360s will be able to connect to XBL Silver membership, free of charge, so long as you have an internet connection. But since this isn't an actual Xbox 360, just an egg box with "X-Box 360 Premium" written on it in permanent marker, you won't be able to connect to Xbox live or any other network with it. Just so we're clear, this is not a console, its an egg box with some writing on it. You would be able to download content, chat, and interact with the XBL online community, id this were an actual Xbox 360. You will not be able to play other people online through this level of XBL. Also included with the bundle is a free one month trial of XBL Gold. XBL Gold is a subscription service that you will have to pay for subsequent to your trial offer if you want to continue to play online. I believe all Xbox 360 games are supposed to have some type of online component, some of which will be more robust than others (Halo 3).

£10.00 flat shipping rate by royal mail.

-------------------------------------------
By the time I viewed the item had 9 bids, and was currently selling for US $493.16 (with a $1 starting bid). Crazy how some people can be so blind, huh?

More To The Revolution
Source: IGN

http://cube.ign.com/articles/673/673299p1.html

Nintendo bigwigs including Shigeru Miyamoto spoke at Japan's Digital Interactive Entertainment Conference today and while no specifics on games or hardware were revealed, some intriguing Revolution gossip was spun all the same, according to the website kotaku.com.

The site reports that Miyamoto again talked about the possibilities of the Revolution controller, and referred to the peripheral's nunchuck-style analog add-on. Most interesting, though, was what Miyamoto didn't talk about. The Nintendo legend flat-out stated that there's more to be revealed about the Revolution controller.

"There's another secret [about the Revolution controller]," he stated. "But I'm not going to go into that here. That'll be for a later date."

The news is in line with Nintendo of Europe demi-god Jim Merrick's recent statements that not everything about the Revolution controller has been shown.

Readers can expect full disclosure on the peripheral, the console, and its games at the Electronics Entertainment Expo 2006, which kicks off in Los Angeles next May.

PSP Going Down...Sooner Than Expected?

Thanks to a post by Bluelight of Digital Share forums, the latest Japanese hardware and software game sales. In this post I shall focus on the handheld industry only, the seperate handheld console war between Sony and Nintendo.

Here are the latest Japanese handheld statistics:

Nintendo DS 132,012
PlayStation Portable 51,196
GB micro 7,594
GBA SP 5,709
Game Boy Advance 241

These numbers are presented in a pie chart below:



As you can see, the Nintendo and Sony handheld war are currently giving 37 to 13 ratio respectively. Nintendo are dominating with a huge 74% of the total handheld market (PSP 26%). This was thanks to the recent release of Animal Crossing, an inteactive simulator game which supports Nintendo's Wi-Fi play.

On top of this great news, Mario Kart DS, also Wi-Fi supported, will be launching next week to Japanese gamers. This release will surely boost DS sales even futher, just like it did in Australia and the U.S. Aussies were greeted by the highly anticipated DS title, along with a $199.95 bundle, saving a gamer $50 if bought seperatly (EB games are even selling the bundle for $188 now). In the U.S, 112,000 Mario Kart DS games were sold in the first week, and 45% of MKDS owners have played online.

The next major DS release will occur a month or two afterwards, the launching of Metroid Prime Hunters. also supporting wireless online play, the game will also sport the release of Nintendo's Wi-Fi adaptor to retailers.

So, the future looks bright for the Developer's System, though not so well for the sleek Micro. The GB Micro has been dropped slowely in sales since its release. In its first week, the Micro sold a whopping ~149,000 units, doubling DS sales for a week. now it has almost dropped as low as the GBA SP, tohugh still enough to stay in the market, and effective in its job as Nintendo's "side" or "topoff" console.

Btw, regarding the title of this post...
I deliberately chose the words in the title to provoke Sony fanboys :P, it is not entirely true. If it makes any PSP fans feel better, the DS has been beating it in sales for MONTHS, it taking about 26% of the handheld market is no news :).