Here we go again folks, yet another month of Nintendo domination.
DS -- 561.9k
Wii -- 381.8k
PSP -- 290.1k
PS2 -- 270k
Xbox 360 -- 198.4k
GBA -- 113k
Playstation 3 -- 98.5k
Top Software June 2007
01. Wii Mario Party 8 -- 426.2k
02. Wii Play w/ remote -- 293.2k
03. NDS Pokemon Diamond Version -- 288.4k
04. NDS Pokemon Pearl Version -- 214.7k
05. 360 Forza Motorsport 2 -- 197.40k
06. PS2 Guitar Hero 2 w/ Guitar -- 197.35k
07. 360 Guitar Hero 2 w/ Guitar -- 177.6k
08. Wii Pokemon Battle -- 157.9k
09. Wii Resident Evil 4
10. 360 The Darkness
11. PS2 Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2
12. PS2 Transformers: the Game
13. 360 Tenchu Z
14. NDS New Super Mario Bros
15. PS2 Tomb Raider: Anniversary
16. Wii Super Paper Mario
17. 360 Transformers: The Game
18. PS2 MLB '07: The Show
19. Wii Big Brain Academy: Wii
20. 360 Dirt
Top Ten Software YTD
01. NDS Pokemon Diamond Version
02. Wii Play w/ Remote
03. NDS Pokemon Pearl Version
04. PS2 God of War II
05. PS2 Guitar Hero 2 w/ Guitar
06. 360 Guitar Hero 2 w/ Guitar
07. Wii Mario Party 8
08. 360 Crackdown
09. NDS Diddy Kong Racing
10. Wii Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
Clearly Nintendo is completely dominating on both the handheld and console fronts. Some have said that we will finally see increased Wii shipments in July. At least, anecdotally, I can say that to be true. If that's the case though, it will be interesting to see if the outer limits of Wii demand are finally reached.
The 360 is selling solid but not where it needs to be. If there was ever a system in desperate need of a price cut, it's the 360. Sales are up a little bit over last month at least, and stop a three month long slide. The much publiciized red ring of death problems certainly can't be helping them either.
Great sales for Sony with their PS2 and PSP, not so much with the PSTriple. There was a post on Newsweek's Level Up blog that cited unnamed third party executives who said they would start canceling ports if sales dropped under 100k for three months in a row, and, well, it has been three months now. Time will tell if we will see some new de facto 360 exclusives created. The GBA struck back this month, after a narrow defeat last month. It inflicted a devastating KO on the Tripler.
Even more dire for the PS3 is the fact that there is not a *single* piece of software in the top twenty. Developers are just not going to be interested in throwing money at the PS3 much longer if it can't turn things around. Even though 360's hardware sales have been mostly modest, their software sales have been fantastic. Even though it was outsold two to one in hardware by the Wii this month, the 360 had just as many titles in the top twenty as the Wii did.
A notable success for the Wii was Resident Evil 4, which was only on sale for 10 days in the reporting period and managed to crack the top ten overall. Big Brain Academy has to be considered a bomb, despite being one of the flagship titles on the DS, it managed a pretty meagre placing with the Wii version. Some have said it's main problem was price, debuting as a full priced title in North America when it was value-priced in other regions. Overlord for the 360 also bombed, missing the top twenty altogether, which is rather unforunate as it came with blog affliate Brett K's highest recommendations.
Next month we will see how the PS3 fares after it's $100 "clearance sale" price cut. Will it finally beat the 360? Stay tuned.
