News: Additional October Figures

From GameSpot:

• Borderlands (2K Games, 360) – 418,000
• Borderlands (2K Games, PS3) – 113,000
• Borderlands (2K Games, PC) – 15,000 (this figure ignore digital downloads, which are likely much higher)

From VG247:

In its few days of release, DJ Hero managed 122,000:

• DJ Hero (Activision, 360) – 62,000 units
• DJ Hero (Activision, PS3) – 39,000 units
• DJ Hero (Activision, Wii) – 19,000 units
• DJ Hero (Activision, PS2) – 3,300 units

Brutal Legend managed 216,000, and the 360 version is very likely 11th in the chart:

• Brutal Legend (Electronic Arts, 360) – 150,000 units
• Brutal Legend (Electronic Arts, PS3) – 66,000 units

News: Additional September Figures

Here are some additional NPD figures for September, culled from various places around the web (including the top 20 already on this blog):

• Scribblenauts – (Warner Bros., DS) – 194,000
• Wii Fit – (Nintendo, Wii) – 134,000
• The Beatles: Rock Band – (MTV/Electronic Arts, PS3) – 132,400
• Dead Space: Extraction – (Electronic Arts, Wii) – 9000 OR 9,200
• The Beatles: Rock Band – (MTV/Electronic Arts, All Formats) – 595,000
• Guitar Hero 5 – (Activision Blizzard, All Formats) – 499,000

Response: September 2009 – Microsoft

Gamasutra has Microsoft’s response to the NPD data.  Unsurprisingly, Halo 3: ODST‘s chart-topping performance was a big focus, saying that over five million players have spent over 116 million hours playing ODST’s campaign or Firefight mode, or the Halo 3 mulitplayer included on a second disc.  As usual, Microsoft ignored handheld titles (an area in which they don’t compete) and revealed that they had five titles in the NPD top ten, putting the 360 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum into the chart, with Gamasutra estimating about 200,000 copies sold.

Microsoft also trumpeted their continued success with third-party games, saying that as well as the 360 generating $154 million in revenue this month for third parties, the console has also generated the most money from games sales for third parties in the whole of 2009 so far.

Response: September 2009 – Sony

Kotaku have received a response to the NPD figures from Jack Tretton, head of SCEA.  In it, Tretton talks excitedly about how Sony are redefining the entertainment experiences of consumers, pointing to their strong line-up both for the holiday period and the rest of the fiscal year.  The final quote of the article:

“There simply has never been a better time to be part of the PlayStation family and we look forward to providing you with the best entertainment content and experience for many, many years to come.”

News: NPD Delayed

The NPD Group have announced that the results for September are not going to be released tonight after all, and have instead been pushed back to Monday 19th. The full text of the announcement is below:

“We have just released a communication to our clients, explaining that, due to last minute processing requirements, the NPD Video Games Retail Tracking information for September 2009 will now be released on Monday, October 19. We will issue our media advisory at 6:30pm EST on Monday. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

September Analyst Predictions

The EEDAR Group’s Jesse Divnich and Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter have both made their predictions for September’s US NPD sales figures, and if they’re correct it will be a very good month for the PS3 Slim.  Both also expect that price cuts for all three home consoles will help to increase sales over those of recent months:

Response: July 2009 – Microsoft

Microsoft’s NPD response put the best positive spin on their NPD data.  While the console showed 0% growth year-on-year, they pointed out that the Xbox 360 is the only console showing growth  for the first seven months of the year so far, making them “the Industry’s Sole Bright Spot in 2009″.  They also pointed out that sports games performed well on the 360 this month, with three different titles in the top ten (one of the games, THQ’s UFC 2009: Undisputed, isn’t actually present in the official NPD top ten, but Microsoft tend to remove handheld games from the chart).

In addition, the press releases plugs the 360′s Summer of Arcade and the new dashboard update, as well as the big games and features on the way for the rest of the year.  The press release:

Response: July 2009 – Sony

Sony were unusually quick to respond to the NPD data this month.  Their response doesn’t specifically cover the data but does discuss the strengths of their three consoles, and talks about them “just getting warmed up”.  The impression given (and it’s possible I’m reading too much into it here) is that they know that this month’s figures don’t really matter, because of the big changes coming for the PSP and PS3.

The full press release is below:

Site News: New Format

As the (late) June posts should indicate, I’ve changed the analysis system slightly.  Instead of one big analysis each for hardware and software, there will be a few smaller, separate analyses spread out over several days.  The new system should go something like this:

News – June PR Reaction: Sony

Responding to this month’s NPD figures, SCEA’s Patrick Seybold focused on Sony’s post-E3 momentum and the increase in PS3 sales over the last few months: