The Xbox 360 titles have been outselling their major competitors the PS3 and the Wii U in UK by a distance.
According to Gamasutra the Xbox 360 sold more than 4.3 million titles in the first half of the year – not including digital sales. While the PS3 sold 3.2 million games and the PC sold 1.3 million. Nintendo’s Wii U continued to disappoint, selling a mediocre 179,000 games in six months. That’s 24 times less than the figure for the Xbox 360 games in 2013 so far.
The Wii U is also being outperformed by its own brothers, the other Nintendo consoles comprehensively outsold Wii U titles. So while the 3DS sold 799k games and the original Wii sold 649k games, the original Nintendo DS also managed 600k game sales.
So while the Nintendo fans would find hope in the fact that the second half of the year will bring in some of the console’s most anticipated titles yet, the fact is that the sales for the first half have been anything but promising. The four eagerly awaited titles up for release are – the all new Pikmin, the next Mario title, the next title in the The Legend of Zelda series and Sonic The Hedgehog.
The trouble for Nintendo has been that major third party publishers have not been very keen on making games for them, and many months after launch there is little to no hope of any of them returning to Nintendo. A major argument about Nintendo’s success has been that of the first party games, from the looks of it the first party games have been total duds so far. In June 2013 the Wii U sales dipped further, only 24,000 game titles were sold last month.
The UK and US have been major markets for consoles over the years and Microsoft has had a great run in the last 2 years in these markets. But Sony is not one to be underestimated. June 2013 became the first month in the year when Sony’s PS3 surpassed the Xbox 360 in both units and revenue. The launch of the visually stunning The Last of Us on the PS3 was mostly responsible for this upward graph.
Here are some interesting stats, sure to make you jump of your seats:
- The Xbox 360 got 38 percent of the total software units sold in the UK during the first half of 2013.
- The Xbox 360 accounted for over 41 percent of the software revenue.
- Even the almost defunct PS Vita titles outsold the Wii U titles, it sold 198,000 games compare to 179,000 for the Wii U.
- The 3DS sold 228k games in June alone accounting for more than one fourth of its total sales in the first half of 2013.
- The Last of Us has already sold approximately 200,000 units.
- The Xbox 360 software revenue for the first six months of 2013 is more than double that of all 4 Nintendo consoles put together.
- The Wii U software revenue has been declining for the past 4 months in a row.
If those stats are anything to go by, the Xbox 360 looks set to continue dominating two of the major regions in console gaming and its only relevant competition continues to be the PS3. Nintendo’s troubles on the other hand are likely to increase because irrespective of how well its previous generation consoles might be selling, its latest offering has so far failed to garner gamer interest in these regions.
And with the two most anticipated next generation consoles from its rivals Microsoft and Sony approaching soon, Nintendo would do well to gather some third party support while getting its mojo back with the first party games.
