Third Quarter 2008 and Year To Date (2008) Review - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 21 October 2008 / 5,228 Views

Third Quarter and Year to Date Review

Jacob Mazel

The three month quarter ending September 30, 2008 saw ongoing videogame sales growth worldwide despite dropping sales in Japan compared to last year. From July 1 to September 30 2008, 17.2m videogame machines were sold compared to 16.2m in the same quarter in 2007. Wii and PS3 sold 700,000 and 600,000 more machines, respectively, in Q3 2008 vs. Q3 2007, while Xbox 360 and DS each sold about 200,000 more. PSP was flat on a worldwide basis. PS2 dropped about 700,000 units. Its important to note that the Xbox 360 increases came with worldwide price cuts in 2008, while the other platforms to see increases did not get price cuts. Sales for the July-September 2008 period can be seen below:

Q3 2008	DS	Wii	PSP	PS3	X360	PS2
Total	5,987,284	4,011,667	2,486,098	1,792,107	1,709,856	1,246,387
Americas	2,003,112	1,769,758	835,589	715,926	880,767	468,293
Japan	767,546	478,994	659,739	137,879	115,862	122,710
Total Others	3,216,626	1,762,915	990,770	938,302	713,227	655,384

The top three sellers have remained the same from quarter three 2007 to quarter three 2008. However, the bottom three platforms have shifted quite a bit as can be seen by looking at the quarter three 2007 totals.

Q3 2007	DS	Wii	PSP	PS2	X360	PS3
Total	5,719,718	3,307,381	2,476,760	1,948,229	1,518,883	1,183,147
Americas	1,639,059	1,541,225	740,000	745,162	985,593	490,962
Japan	1,571,533	741,063	787,732	189,168	36,210	227,405
Total Others	2,509,126	1,025,093	949,028	1,013,899	497,080	464,780

The most obvious changes are in Japan. Microsoft went from selling 36,000 Xbox 360s in thirteen weeks to selling 116,000 Xbox 360s in thirteen weeks. That increase is still small in absolute numbers – less than 100,000 units – but huge in relative terms since it is a 3:1 improvement over the previous year. No other platform comes close that in looking at the two quarters. PS3 in Japan interestingly dropped from 227,000 in thirteen weeks in 2007 to 138,000 units in 2008. At least part of that has to be tied to the emergence of Xbox 360, since PS3 sales have more than doubled in “Others” and increased nearly 50% in the Americas. Wii sales are down in Q3 2008 vs. Q3 2007 in Japan, but the drop is relatively minor compared to the 50% declines suffered by DS, PS2 and PSP in Japan.

The breakdown of Q3 2008 sales compared to Q3 2007 sales shows an industry still moving towards the generational peak outside of Japan.

Americas	Q3 08	Q3 08 Wk Avg	Q3 07 Wk Avg
DS	2,003,112	154,086	126,081
Wii	1,769,758	136,135	118,556
Xbox 360	880,767	67,751	75,815
PSP	835,589	64,276	56,923
PS3	715,926	55,071	37,766
PS2	468,293	36,023	57,320

Japan	Q3 08	Q3 08 Wk Avg	Q3 07 Wk Avg
DS	767,546	59,042	120,887
PSP	659,739	50,749	60,595
Wii	478,994	36,846	57,005
PS3	137,879	10,606	17,493
PS2	122,710	9,439	14,551
Xbox 360	115,862	8,912	2,785

Others	Q3 08	Q3 08 Wk Avg	Q3 07 Wk Avg
DS	3,216,626	247,433	193,010
Wii	1,762,915	135,609	78,853
PSP	990,770	76,213	73,002
PS3	938,302	72,177	35,752
Xbox 360	713,227	54,864	38,237
PS2	655,384	50,414	77,992

In contrast, the rest of the world is doing quite well in 2008 compared to 2007. DS is up 20% in the Americas and 30% in “Others” for the quarter. Wii is up 20% overall, 70% in “Others”, and 20% in the Americas. PSP is up slightly in the Americas and “Others”. PS3 is up everywhere except Japan as mentioned above. Xbox 360 is performing better everywhere, though the combined improvement is still less than the PS3 and Wii increases worldwide, despite the falling sales of those machines in Japan.

Expanding for the other quarters of 2007 and 2008, 2008 looks like an even stronger year.

Ja-Sep 08'	Total	Americas	Japan	Total Others
DS	17,925,537	5,858,839	2,410,552	9,656,146
Wii	13,579,284	5,877,856	2,195,956	5,505,472
PSP	8,484,331	2,544,323	2,757,683	3,182,325
PS3	6,784,593	2,442,998	697,971	3,643,624
Xbox 360	5,291,216	2,527,079	195,261	2,568,876
PS2	4,819,956	1,848,755	388,879	2,582,322
Total HW	56,884,917	21,099,850	8,646,302	27,138,765

Ja-Sep 07'	Total	Americas	Japan	Total Others
DS	16,733,599	4,997,691	5,556,681	6,179,227
Wii	9,250,182	4,017,175	2,653,144	2,579,863
PSP	6,723,393	2,136,414	1,884,452	2,702,527
PS2	5,666,076	2,449,139	621,461	2,595,476
Xbox 360	3,915,434	2,386,157	162,624	1,366,653
PS3	3,695,469	1,330,999	742,064	1,622,406
Total HW	45,984,153	17,317,575	11,620,426	17,046,152

Through nine months, the total hardware sold in 2008 exceeds the total hardware sold in 2007 by almost 24%. While Japan accounted for 25% of hardware sales in the nine months ending September 2007, the country only accounts for 15% of hardware sold in 2008. The Americas has accounted for 37-38% each year, but the “Others” market has exploded in 2008 taking up the slack in Japan.

Given that 81.4m units of videogame hardware ended up selling in calendar 2007, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see 100m units of videogame hardware sold in 2008.

The changes by platform and region from January to September can be summed up quickly with the following chart which divides sales from the first nine months of 2008 by the first nine months of 2007.

Platform	Total	Americas	Japan	Total Others
DS	1.07	1.17	0.43	1.56
Wii	1.47	1.46	0.83	2.13
PSP	1.26	1.19	1.46	1.18
PS3	1.84	1.84	0.94	2.25
PS2	0.85	0.75	0.63	0.99
Xbox 360	1.35	1.06	1.20	1.88

The growth/decline trends in the box above should continue roughly unchanged through the fourth quarter except in Japan, where DS, PSP, and Xbox 360 have a shot at being significantly stronger (or less weak) year over year. PS3 and Wii have an outside shot at matching their 2007 Q4 sales in Japan too depending on how well the new IPs hold up over the holidays.

In terms of software, Pokemon Platinum, Rhythm Heaven Gold, Fire Emblem DS, Dragon Quest V, and Derby Stallion were the DS titles in Japan to push DS past PSP for the quarter. Tales of Vesperia, Infinite Undiscovery were the exclusives to push Xbox 360 to parity with PS3. Winning Eleven 2008, Super Robot Wars, Persona 4 and Powerful Pro Baseball kept PS2 above Xbox 360 and PS3 for most of the quarter, while Phantasy Star Portable maintained PSP momentum ahead of DS for awhile. Soul Calibur IV was the top multiplatform title released. Wii and PS3 didn’t really have any big titles released in Japan for the period. The second tier of big hits, including previously released games included Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Afrika, Metal Gear Solid 4, Monster Hunter Portable 2G and Mario Kart Wii in Japan.

In the Americas, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, NCAA Football 09, Soul Calibur IV, Madden NFL 09, Tiger Woods 09, Mercenaries 2, Too Human, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Rockband 2, and Super Mario Sluggers were the major releases for the period which saw almost no significant exclusives to change hardware sales patterns. Among previously released games, Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Play, Metal Gear Solid 4, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Rockband continued to sell strongly in the Americas for the third quarter.

In Others, Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon 2, Soul Calibur IV, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Mercenaries 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Brothers in Arms were the major releases. Other top sellers for the period include Nintendogs, Wii Play, Wii Fit, Grand Theft Auto IV, Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Metal Gear Solid 4, Brain Training, Brain Training 2, Mario Kart DS, New Super Mario Brothers, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.

Later in the week, VGC will have an item posted in the news section with holiday prognostications. Stay tuned.

Contact Vgchartz at jmazel@vgchartz.com

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Seece (on 27 October 2008)

Am I right in saying Sony is worse off this year regarding the PS3 and PS2 switching places? the console that makes a profit (PS2) went down, and the console that makes a loss (PS3) went up ...

Everstar (on 22 October 2008)

@Daxter there 360 sold more this year then 2007 what are you talking about?

GTAIV08 (on 22 October 2008)

@ darthdevidem01

yea but then again, no other console apart from playstation has sold over 100 million TWICE! playstation is a monster and has a large fanbase. did anyone really expect the ps3 to just die and never come back? i knew the first few months and even 1st year were going to be rough but once they get the ball rolling it wont stop. once the price drops lower thats when the ps2 users decide to upgrade, and sony will probably kill off the ps2 before the cut the ps3 price.

Daxter210 (on 22 October 2008)

In this year, MS has cut the price of xbox360 several times, but xbox360 sells less than 2007. xbox360 is dying.

TopCat8 (on 22 October 2008)

The DS is a beast. When will it slow down?

Neutrino (on 22 October 2008)

outlawauron (on 21 October 2008)

PS3 launched March 23 in Europe, Magera

Showertea (on 21 October 2008)

Wii sales in both America and Other are better than 360 sales worldwide, and almost as big as PS3 sales worldwide (by 30K). If these numbers continue, Wii'll get 50% easy.

TheSource (on 21 October 2008)

Yeah PS3 had less time in 2007 in Europe (it launched in some parts of Asia earlier) because it launched in late March. But odds are if it had been launched in Europe in Late 2006 it would have seen YOY growth between the USA rate and the Others rate shown above, something like ~1.6x 2007 sales through September.

Magera (on 21 October 2008)

Hang on, When did PS3 release in Others? Didn't it come out towards the end of March 07???

That would mean the PS3 in 07 Only had 6 months and 1 week of sales and is being compared to 9 months of sales in 08.

Not that I'm dissing or putting down the PS3's increase, Just want to make sure everyone has the info.

woopah (on 21 October 2008)

@ kopstudent

animal crossing, wii music and the Marvellous's line up of games should create increases in wiis japan sales

Killergran (on 21 October 2008)

Great article, as always. :)

TheTruthHurts! (on 21 October 2008)

Great thread!

kopstudent89 (on 21 October 2008)

hmm i wonder how the Wii will perform in Japan this holiday season... i think it might be bigger than we might think

okr (on 21 October 2008)

Very interesting analysis.

The biggest (positive) surprise to me is the YoY rise of PSP in all 3 regions.

concity06 (on 21 October 2008)

Cool.

Griffin (on 21 October 2008)

Great write up and explaining how the markets are going. But do we know when the companies are going to release their reports for the last quarter, i think Sony has theirs on the 29th, but i'm not sure about the others.

c0rd (on 21 October 2008)

Looking at just the hardware, it looks like everything is dying in Japan. Of course, since the handhelds have already sold a lot, it's fine, but the PS3/Wii...

I wonder how the software in Japan looks YoY. Does it tell a different story?

darthdevidem01 (on 21 October 2008)

WOW @ PS3 increase in others

I thought NA was showing the largest increase....but its actuall others

no system has gone from the brink of an early death to sales like these

{props to you SONY & Ps3 for sorting out the messy 07}

{We salute you Snake & Kojima}

hunter_alien (on 21 October 2008)

PSP is remaining healthy :D

famousringo (on 21 October 2008)

Wow, PS3 is dying in Japan. Is the lack of BC a factor? Or is it just 360's aggressive campaign to secure JRPGs?

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