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At least, that’s what the sales figures for American consumer games market share in February shows as compiled by NPD Group. Nintendo blew away competitors by the thousands. The company sold 485,000 DS units and 335,000 Wii consoles in the month. Microsoft, on the other hand, only managed to sell 228,000 of its Xbox 360, while Sony was struggling to move 127,000 units of its PlayStation 3 out of its stores.

The popularity of the Wii console was evident in the impact its sales had on the company’s supply chain, Nintendo said. Gamers were “snapping up virtually every system available in America,” the company added.

Combined, Nintendo game systems “represented 54 percent of all hardware sales in February, more than those of all other manufacturers combined,” noted the company.

Nintendo’s success was attributed to the simplicity of it’s products.

“The DS has games that go down to pre-school level and the Wii has games where you don’t even need to crack the instruction manual at all to play.”

Xboxers and Playstationers.... what say you?

Read [Tech News World]

Are you tired of listening to the loud whirring noises that come from your Xbox 360? Have money to spend? Well, then you’re in luck, for Microsoft will be releasing an updated, quieter version of the most popular gaming console.

What did they fix? The hard drive. The old Hitachi-LG and Toshiba-Samsung hard drives are being replaced by a new, quieter hard drive manufactured by BenQ-LiteON-Phillips.

Read [CrunchGear] Via [X-Box Scene Forums]

We can finally talk about NPD Group’s real report on video game sales for 2006. In the US, the game industry raked in $12.5 billion (that’s frickin’ beeelion), a $2 billion increase over 2005 sales. Add another billion to include PC game sales as well. December sales were a major factor with hardware making up nearly half of the month’s $3.7 billion in sales. Annual hardware sales were up 42.8 percent over 2005, likely due to the two new consoles, and software sales increased 6.4 percent.

For consoles, PS2s sold the most with 1.4 million in December (37.1 million overall), while Xbox 360s sold 1.1 million (4.5 million overall), the Wii sold 1.1 million and the PS3 sold 687,300. For handhelds, the DS won holiday sales with 1.6 million sold in December 2006, PSP with 953,200 and, the li’l system that keeps on kickin’, the Game Boy Advance (GBA) with 850,700.

According to NPD, the top ten games sold in 200 were:

• Madden NFL 07 (PS2, 2.8 million)


• New Super Mario Bros. (DS, 2.0)


• Gears of War (X360, 1.8)


• Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2, 1.7)


• Guitar Hero 2 (PS2, 1.3)


• Final Fantasy XII (PS2, 1.3)


• Brain Age: Train Your Brain (DS, 1.1)


• Madden NFL 07 (X360, 1.1)


• Tom Clancy’s G.R.A.W. (X360, 1.0)


• NCAA Football 07 (PS2, 1.0)

Read, Read [GameDailyBiz] Site [NPD Group]

Have you ever been treated like crap by customer service?  Yeah, I think we all have.  Well this guy is so annoyed by his Xbox 360 breaking for the second time that he’s going to ship his console back in “the biggest damn box you have ever seen.” He goes on to tell the customer service rep how he’s “talking huge, like Mac Truck huge.” Then, he plans on touring the country, picking up everybody’s broken Xbox 360’s and delivering them all in a huge steel shipping crate.  This is hilarious.  Head over to thebigboxproject.com for more details, the story, and to learn how to donate to make this possible.

Read [The Big Box Project]

Ah, the power of the internet where information passes through like a giant game of “Telephone.” Articles have been circulating with reports by reputable research company, NPD Group, declaring that the Xbox 360 was the big seller this season. That would be especially great news for Microsoft if today was January 11, 2007, which is when NPD has planned to release their December/Year-End video game sales report. (Insert your own Homer Simpson style “Doh!” sound effect here.)

The information was derived from a comment made in an interview by an analyst from the marketing firm, IDC, and CNBC’s mis-attribution of a sales chart and figures. NPD had provided CNBC with November 2006 console hardware install base sales figures but no figures for December 2006.

A few sites have already corrected the error, appropriately attributing IDC instead of NPD, but the message has already circulated. Heck, we’re even a bit guilty of the oversight but not everyone is privy to NPD’s reporting schedule. So the information is sorta correct, at least as far as IDC is concerned. As for NPD, we’ll find out next week.

Site [NPD] Read [GameSpot] Read [GameDaily] Site [IDC]

According to the original plan by Microsoft, the Xbox 360s are supposed to be shipped with newer, cooler and quieter central processing units (CPU) starting in April of next year. But the plan is now on hold due to delayed delivery of the more efficient processor by Chartered Semiconductor, one of two contract manufacturers appointed by Microsoft to produce the CPUs.

Existing Xbox 360 CPUs, produced using 90nm process technology, are said to be generating a little bit too much heat and noise. Using 65nm process technology, the newer CPUs are expected to run more efficiently, reducing both noise and heat levels. The smaller chip size is also cheaper to produce, which should translate into cheaper Xbox prices in the future.  But will Microsoft transfer the cost saving to its customers? We will have to wait and see.... unless someone would like to start another online petition before Microsoft even has a chance to raise the price.

Read [Yahoo News] Via [DigitalBattle]

I think Microsoft is full of tricks. It introduced Xbox 360 in the USA and Canada with just a 90-day warranty, when all other game console manufacturers were offering 1-year warranty as standard. Consumers then found out Xbox 360 often fails to function one way or another after 90 days, forcing them to fork out extra money for repairs. Apparently, Gates forgot that this is the internet era and consumers can’t be fooled like they used to be anymore. An online petition was initiated to force Microsoft to extend the warranty period. And Microsoft had no other choice but to comply with the demand. So Xbox 360 now comes with a 1-year warranty, which is retroactive, meaning that someone who bought an Xbox 360 in the United States or Canada and paid for repairs within the last year is eligible for reimbursement.

Microsoft has been the target of an online petition--with 3,382 signatures as of Friday--calling for a retroactive warranty extension to one year. The petition claims that Xbox 360 systems frequently failed after the original 90-day warranty and that customers were unreasonably required to pay between $50 and $129 for repairs.

Read [CNET News] Read [Microsoft] Read [DailyTech] Read [GameSpot]

I was lucky enough to find a few in the electronics section in the middle of the accessory displays for each game system. I took quick video of the two that actually do something you can hear or see (see the links below). The Wii card lights up on five sides (all but the back) rather brilliantly, while the Xbox 360 card includes the system startup sound and glowing green logo. The PS3 card has grid hologram encased in a thick, clear plastic body, and, as far as we can tell, doesn’t make a noise or light up. They are all standard card dimensions but 5-6 times thicker to accommodate the electronics (or in the case of the PS3, just look cool).

Grab them while you can, since most were either offered when you buy a system, or snatched up as soon as they hit the racks. They don’t come loaded with cash but do work just like the good ol’ flat gift cards.  Check out videos and pictures of the cards after the break.

Is it really possible that Amazon would discount the popular gaming device Xbox 360 that much?  The answer is yes.  The company’s “Amazon Customers Vote” section lets shoppers decide which item should be on sale, and what price it should sell for.  And it looks like customers chose the Xbox 360 as one of their favorites - and they want it for 100 bucks.  So don’t forget to head over to Amazon for their sale starting next Thursday, November 23, at 11 a.m. PST.  Is this a new Web 2.0 niche called social shopping?

Read [Amazon] Via [I4U]

If you’re as stoked as we are about the new goodies that Microsoft is packing into the Xbox 360 Marketplace, then you’ll be happy to see that an interview with a Microsoft employee at their showcase event has been caught on video.  The new marketplace, as we discussed in the latest Gadgetell Podcast, will now have HD movie downloads (to complement their recent 1080p announcement) as well as TV show downloads.

Read [TechEBlog]