February’s NPDs look to be pretty much business as usual: DS was the top seller overall and Wii was the best selling console that… wait, what? The Wii… wasn’t the best selling home console in February? Did we check to see if Hell has frozen over?
Yes, truly enough, Xbox 360 knocked Nintendo’s Little White Money Machine out of the top slot last month, shocking… well… pretty much everyone. Hardware sales overall were down, year-over-year, but there was a definite upward swing from last month’s showings – Sony hardware in particular bounced back fairly well, with PlayStation 3 selling (ironically) 360k units.
Over on the software side, BioShock 2 floated to the surface, standing on the back of New Super Mario Bros. Wii‘s bubble, with over half a million units for the 360 SKU. The rest of top ten were mostly long-tail sellers hanging high (Modern Warfare 2, Wii Sports Resort), and a couple of new releases filling out the bottom (Dante’s Inferno, Heavy Rain). Interestingly, the added content of the PlayStation 3 “Divine Version” of Dante’s Inferno seems to have reversed the usual trend of 360 selling better in multiplatform titles, though not by much.
What’s your take on incentivizing one platform over another? Which version of Dante’s Inferno did you pick up, if any? Anything you’re surprised not to see in the top 10? Leave us your comments and hit the jump for the full numbers.
February 2010 Software Sales
- BioShock 2 (360) – 562,900
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) – 555,600
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360) – 314,300
- Just Dance (Wii) – 275,400
- Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 272,500
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) – 252,800
- Mass Effect 2 (360) – 246,500
- Dante’s Inferno: Divine Edition (PS3) – 242,500
- Dante’s Inferno (360) – 224,700
- Heavy Rain (PS3) – 219,300
January 2010 Software Sales
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) – 656,700
- Mass Effect 2 (360) – 572,100
- Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 555,700
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (360) – 326,700
- Mario Kart Wii (Wii) – 310,900
- Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 297,600
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) – 259,000
- Army of Two: The 40th Day (360) – 246,500
- Just Dance (Wii) – 191,900
- Darksiders (360) – 171,200
February 2010 Hardware Sales
- Nintendo DS – 613,200
- Xbox 360 – 422,000
- Wii – 397,900
- PlayStation 3 – 360,100
- PlayStation Portable – 133,400
- PlayStation 2 – 101,900
January 2010 Hardware Sales
- Wii – 465,800
- Nintendo DS – 422,200
- Xbox 360 – 332,800
- PlayStation 3 – 276,900
- PlayStation Portable – 100,100
- PlayStation 2 – 41,600
Why is it assumed that it was the added content that bumped the PS3 version of Dante’s Inferno? Were the customers polled, where it was discovered that they owned the PS3 and 360 but chose the PS3 version because of extra content? I keep seeing it repeated everywhere but isn’t it only a guess?
Personally, I tend to buy the 360 version over the PS3. The biggest reason is simply that the 360 got there first, so that’s where my habitual pattern took roost.
My assumption would be because the same thing happened with Batman: Arkham Asylum – PS3 version had exclusive content (Joker challenge maps) that the 360 didn’t and placed ahead of the 360 version in the NPDs. It seems to be the only case where PS3 multiplats place higher is when they offer something the 360 version doesn’t.
Mind you, I tend to purchase multis on 360 as well, but if I had bought Batman, I would have done so for PS3 for that self-same reason.
Agreed. The PS3 version of AA was my choice purely due to the Joker. And it was worth it. ;)
The Joker wasn’t enough to make me break the routine of buying for my habitual go-to console =P