Analysis: Matt Matthews says Xbox 360 Software Leads as Nintendo Falters

Gamasutra analyst Matt Matthews looks at the changing U.S. software landscape as part of their November NPD analysis, finding that Xbox 360 software is surging into the sales gap left by a declining Nintendo market.

According to Michael Pachter, an industry analyst for Wedbush Securities, Wii software revenue in November 2009 declined 18 percent from the same time in 2008. The only systems to see more dramatic decreases were Sony’s PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (PSP), which were down 69 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

But that’s not all,

After 12 months, the picture has shifted dramatically. As the following figure shows, software revenue from the Wii now accounts for under 30% of the market. Combined with the share from DS software, Nintendo now holds only around 40% of the market – a drop of 7 points from the previous year.

Be sure to read the whole article on Gamasutra.com if you’re interested. I sure found it an interesting development.

Gamasutra: Wii Fit Nears 8M US Sales, Wii Play Exceeds 11M

Nintendo’s expanded audience Wii titles are displacing Rockstar North’s PlayStation 2 GTA games as the most ubiquitous video games this decade, according to single-platform U.S. sales data from the NPD Group.

According to data cited by consumer site IGN, Wii Play — which is sold with a second Wii remote controller included — is the single best-selling console SKU since 2000, with more than 11.1 million units sold in the U.S. through August of this year. The game beats out the second-place title, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, by nearly 3 million units.

Also revealed was that the exercise-encouraging Wii Fit is bearing down on San Andreas, with 7.9 million units to the latter’s 8.25 million, having already surpassed Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s 6.9 million.

And although Wii Fit’s sales are declining, the game still shows up in the top 10 chart each month, and Nintendo sales and marketing EVP Cammie Dunaway told IGN the game is likely to pass the 8 million mark when NPD’s next set of monthly figures is published.

All in all, this decade’s top five is entirely dominated by Rockstar North on PlayStation 2 and Nintendo on Wii: the number five slot is held by Mario Kart Wii, another still-consistent seller that’s creeping up on Vice City with 6.7 million units sold.

Source and written by: Gamasutra

Gamasutra Interview: Ankama Talks Dofus, Animation, Subscribers

by Brandon Sheffield

French indie MMO Dofus began when some web developers got together to make a game. With its charming graphical style and free to play area (a small percentage of the full game), Dofus has gained favor with players and critics, propelling the company from a small indie to a larger player.

Ankama was formed in 2001 by Camille Chafer, Emmanuel Darras, and Anthony Roux, and has since grown stealthily to 400 employees, including a new studio in Japan, focusing on animation and manga extensions of the company’s properties. The original game was done entirely in Flash, well before it became a popular platform for games.

As the company rolls out Dofus 2.0 and a new game called Wakfu, we spoke with CTO Camille Chafer and international marketing manager Cedric Gerard about Ankama’s past and future, including the new animation studio, the ups and downs of working in Flash, and player/subscriber numbers.

Read more

Gamasutra Interviews: Frontier’s Braben On LostWinds’ Return To WiiWare

by Ryan Langley from Gamasutra

[Frontier Developments chair and industry vet David Braben talks about his next game, LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, the follow-up to the 2008 platformer, and how WiiWare "is maturing into a serious platform."]

One of the biggest titles at the launch of Nintendo’s digital WiiWare service was Lost Winds — a fantastic example of what WiiWare games can provide. Read more

NPD: Still Plagued By Tough Comparisons, Game Biz Falls 23 Percent In May

Although analysts had warned of a spring slump in NPD U.S. console video game hardware and software sales numbers, due to challenging year-over-year comparisons, May’s results were even worse than forecasted, as the industry overall fell 23 percent.

The retail game business as a whole saw $863.3 million in sales during the month, as it continues to be challenged by last Spring’s blockbuster launches of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Grand Theft Auto IV and Wii Fit, which launched in March, April and May 2008, respectively.

Analysts had predicted declines in software sales of around 17 percent, and they were precisely on the money; video game software sales fell to $448.9 million during the month.

Since major software launches generally correlate to strong hardware sales, the game hardware segment was also hard-hit, falling 30 percent to $302.5 million. Accessories also slipped 25 percent to $112 million.

The NPD’s Anita Frazier puts the numbers in context: “The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1 billion since August 2007,” she says — adding that it’s common for May to be one of the industry’s weakest months in any given year.

Frazier says that price reductions at retail exacerbated the damage. “Unit sales declined less than dollar sales did,” she says. “The dollar sales decline was exacerbated by a decline in average retail prices for almost all of the categories.”

As has been the norm for many months now, Nintendo platforms led hardware sales, with DS selling 633,500 units — doubtless supported by the early April launch of the new download-enabled DSi. Wii came in second with 289,500 units.

“Every category declined versus a year ago with the exception of portable hardware sales which was bolstered by the continued strong sales of the Nintendo DS including both the DSi and the Lite,” Frazier observes.

Hardware sales in units for each platform during May 2009 were as follows:

Nintendo DS: 633,500

Wii: 289,500

Xbox 360: 175,000

PlayStation 3: 131,000

PlayStation 2: 117,000

PSP: 100,400

Nintendo also dominates the software charts, with half of the top ten being its own first-party titles. But the brightest spot is THQ’s UFC 2009 Undisputed. It’s enjoying breakout success for both SKUs, topping the list with 679,600 units on Xbox 360, despite launching more than halfway through the month — on May 19 in the U.S.

Unsurprisingly, Wii Fit continues to hold on to a high position as it has without interruption since it launched, coming in second.

The full top ten list is as follows:

1. UFC 2009 Undisputed (THQ) Xbox 360 – 679,600

2. Wii Fit (Nintendo) Wii – 352,800

3. EA Sports Active (EA) Wii – 345,800

4. UFC 2009 Undisputed (THQ) PS3 – 334,400

5. Infamous (Sony) PS3 – 175,900

6. Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo) DS – 168,900

7. Mario Kart (Nintendo) Wii – 158,300

8. Punch Out!! (Nintendo) Wii – 156,900

9. X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged (Activision) Xbox 360 – 120,700

10. Wii Play (Nintendo) Wii – 109,800

Says Frazier, “While there were some very strong new releases this month along with continued strong sales of evergreen games, this month’s top 10 games sold 2.6 million units combined, whereas last year the top 10 sold 3.7 million units. Again, this illustrates how tough the comparisons are to last year.”

Of course, NPD only deals with revenues created via console retail sales, meaning that any growth in online gaming (from PC World Of Warcraft subscription revenues to Club Penguin and beyond), increasingly an important part of the market, cannot be easily tracked. One analyst recently estimated that 2009′s online game revenues might be as high as $11 billion of a total worldwide yearly market of $44 billion.

Be shure to check out this topic on our forums to: here

Interview: Secret Exit On The Rise Of iPhone, Why Cellphone Games Don’t Work For Indies

Secret Exit is a Finnish indie game developer known for the iPhone game Zen Bound, which won the Best Mobile Game and Audio Achievement awards at this year’s IGF Mobile Game Awards.Fathammer, a Finnish game publisher and tech firm that ended up being an allegory for the high-end mobile game industry at large.

The company was formed out of the ashes of Fathammer games, a 3D-focused mobile game developer and engine provider, formed by Samuli Syvahuoko, who was formerly a Remedy (Max Payne) co-founder and subsequently set up Recoil Games (Earth No More).

Here, we spoke with Secret Exit head of studio Jani Kahrama, as well as co-founder and technical lead Jetro Lauha, both of whom worked together at Fathammer. Read more