Nintendo Co. said U.S. retailers
sold more than 666,000 of its Wii consoles last month, making
the machine the overall leader among the new generation of
video-game machines.
Consumers have purchased almost 10.9 million of the players
since Wii was introduced in November 2006, passing the total
rung up by Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, researcher NPD Group Inc.
said today in an e-mailed statement.
Wii, designed for easy-to-play games and equipped with a
motion-sensitive controller that can be swung like a racquet or
sword, has gained popularity among people who don't play
traditional shooting and racing games. Wii has outsold Xbox 360
and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 in all but one month since it
went on sale, according to NPD.
``Wii is bringing people of all ages into the video-game
experience,'' Cammie Dunaway, head of marketing for Nintendo's
U.S. unit, said in an interview.
In June, stores sold 405,500 PlayStation 3s and 219,800
Xbox 360s, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said in an e-
mailed statement.
Total industry sales rose 53 percent to $1.69 billion in
June from $1.1 billion a year earlier, NPD said. Consoles and
portable players jumped 54 percent to $615.1 million from $399.2
million. Game sales increased 61 percent to $872.6 million from
$542.2 million.
Year-to-Date
For the first six months of the year, game sales are up 49
percent to $4.3 billion from $2.89 billion a year earlier, while
consoles and portables have gained 23 percent to $2.88 billion.
Total sales likely will reach a record $22 billion this
year, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.
``Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots,'' made by
Konami Corp. for Sony's PlayStation 3, was the top-selling
single game with 774,600 copies purchased. The number doesn't
include copies sold together with the console, NPD said.
Versions of ``Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure''
sold 1.1 million copies in multiple formats, NPD said.
Six of the 10 best-selling games in June were titles made
for Nintendo, including ``Wii Fit,'' which ranked fourth, the
company said. The exercise game is sold with a balance board for
use in workouts and games that simulate skiing and soccer.
Upgrades
Wii, at $249, is the least-expensive of the newer consoles.
Microsoft and Tokyo-based Sony both announced plans this week to
increase the size of hard drives on their machines, without
raising the price, to attract customers.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, tripled the
storage capacity of a $349 version of the 360 to 60-gigabytes
and Sony doubled the hard drive on its $399 PlayStation 3 to 80
gigabytes.
``Looking at historical data, hardware price reductions
have been a good incentive for a broader consumer base to invest
in a new-gen system, which encourages continued industry growth
across all categories,'' Frazier said.
Nintendo, based in Kyoto, Japan, has no plans to add a hard
drive to the Wii, Dunaway said.
Microsoft gained 26 cents to $27.52 today in Nasdaq Stock
Market trading. It has declined 23 percent this year. Sony's
U.S.-listed shares gained 71 cents to $42.26 and are down 22
percent this year. Nintendo fell 600 yen to 55,800 yen in Osaka
and is down 17 percent in 2008.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Michael White in Los Angeles at
mwhite8@bloomberg.net.
via bloomberg
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