Is there something that DOESNT look like a failure when compared to Halo 3?
Mario Galaxy is doing fine. I expect it to outsell Halo 3 in the long term, as a result of marketshare. It sold 1.12 Million in the U.S. in November, with expectations as high as another million for December, once those numbers come in (3rd week of January I think). For the week of 12/24-12/31, it sold 68,000 in Japan, bringing the total to 748,000.
Thats almost 3 Million without Europe. The 360 has its target demographic down. The Wii base is much more broad.
Regarding online play, the reason Nintendo isnt fully on board is simply money. I dont buy their stance on family friendliness. Maybe if one of the proponents of online play could actually make a dollar, Nintendo might give it a second thought. It requires a lot of changes in the design of the hardware, if you are going to be able to do some of the things that make a robust online network profitable (media playback/distribution for example).
I think they've made the right decisions regarding the console. If online means that much to you, you have 2 alternatives. People are voting with their dollars.
Also, that 8 million number is shipped, or sold to retailers, not sell through to consumers. It came from the same recent statement where they have 17.7 M hardware units sold to retailers.
360 shipments by quarter
Code:
Period Quarter 2005 2006 2007
Jan-Mar Q1 1.7 0.5
Apr-Jun Q2 1.8 0.7
Jul-Sep Q3 0.9 1.8
Oct-Dec Q4 1.5 4.5 4.3
Total 1.5 8.9 7.3
This is why conservatism pays off:
Profit in the game industry, 1998 to present
Code:
FY* Sony** Nintendo Microsoft
1998 974,000,000 629,000,000
1999 1,130,000,000 645,000,000
2000 730,000,000 421,000,000
2001 -409,000,000 726,000,000
2002 623,000,000 800,000,000 -750,000,000
2003 939,000,000 560,000,000 -1,191,000,000
2004 650,000,000 316,000,000 -1,215,000,000
2005 404,000,000 777,000,000 -485,000,000
2006 75,000,00 894,000,000 -1,262,000,000
2007 -1,969,000,000 1,489,000,000 -1,892,000,000
2008 -1,078,000,000 1,110,000,000 175,000,000
Totals 2,069,000,000 8,367,000,000 -6,620,000,000
Microsoft – Entertainment and Devices Division (Home and Entertainment) through 1st Q FY 2008 ended September 30 2007
Sony – Game division through 2nd Q FY 2007 ended September 30 2007
Nintendo – Overall through 2nd Q FY 2008 ended September 30 2007. Average exchange rate: 1 US $ = 119.34 yen
* -- it's fiscal year for both Microsoft and Nintendo
** -- it's FY+1 for Sony for comparison reasons