November 2010 NPD numbers: Codblops reigns

With Christmas approaching, and the immense marketing effort of Microsoft and Sony to push Kinect and Move in their most desperate phase, NPD numbers matter more than ever.

November saw Nintendo take back their majority slice of the pie. Nintendo sold 1.5 million DSes and 1.27 million Wiis. Microsoft pushed 1.37 million 360s, and Sony, in typically poor fashion, sold 530,000 PS3s. The PSP number has yet to be reported, although “too small to matter” is probable.

On the software side, things were a little less sunny. Call of Duty: Black Ops, “Codblops,” or “piece of shit” as it is variously known, sold 8.4 million copies with all its versions combined. That number accounted for 25% of all software sales for the month, and the game is already the 7th best selling in the US ever. That’s also the best launch month for any game in the entire history of the universe of the United States. Donkey Kong Country Returns took sixth on the software chart.

Source: NeoGAF

What the flippity flap is cyber Monday?

Editor’s note: According to Urban Dictionary, “flippity flap” is the act of a penis having spasms and going “out of control.”

As you probably already know, Black Friday occurred this past Friday in the United States. Black Friday is, of course, an annual religious holiday in the United States in which consumers enter a trance-like state of pure frothing consumer whoredom, then head out to local shopping areas to trample one another for sport.

In recent years, so Wikipedia tells me, this has come to be followed by “Cyber Monday.” (Presumably, the Saturday and Sunday between these two events is filled with the humble appreciation of good fortune.) This is the day when shoppers decide to relive the glory of their shopping from three days earlier by buying a bunch more useless shit through the internet. Online spending reportedly jumps by somewhere between 5 and 25% on this day.

Image: Adapted from apple store fifth avenue black friday by jardenberg under a CC-BY license.

October 2010 NPD numbers exist, are terrible

Despite the NPD’s recently announced iron-fisted grip of their American video game sales results, numbers have managed to slip out thanks to company’s releasing their own numbers. Thus, we have the pie-chart above.

And oh, what a pie. For the month of October 2010, Nintendo managed to take top spot, selling 342,000 DSes. The company also moved 232,000 Wiis. Sony sold 250,000 PS3s and an embarrassing 75,000 PSPs. Microsoft sold 325,000 360s.

It’s that last number that’s causing the most excitement, with MS claiming to have now taken the title of best selling home console of the year. That leaves the Wii to waggle in tears. The DS is still the best selling system overall for the year in the US.

Software held more bad news for Nintendo, but turned out to be less than completely obnoxious. NBA 2k11 sold 1.15 million units, enough to take first place. That was followed by Fallout: New Vegas, Medal of Honor, Fable III, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

Since I announced last month that “I give up” due to the industry’s collapse into suckitude, I have little commentary to add. I dare not allow myself to dream of Wii reconquering the year, led by GoldenEye and Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Source: NeoGAF

September 2010 NPD non-numbers prove useless

Well folks, here we are. Following through on their promise, the NPD Group has given us almost no information regarding US video game sales results for the month of September. Let’s have a look at what was provided software wise:

Halo: Reach (Microsoft, Xbox 360) – 3.3 Million
Madden NFL 11 (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP)
Dead Rising 2 (Capcom, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
NHL 11 (EA, Xbox 360, PS3)
FIFA Soccer 11 (EA, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (Square Enix, PSP)
Mafia II (Take 2 Interactive, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Activision Blizzard, PS3, 360, NDS, Wii)
Metroid: Other M (Nintendo, Wii)
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard, Xbox 360, PS3, PC)

That’s right, game titles aren’t even broken up by SKU anymore. That means fanboys can’t draw conclusions based on what version of popular multi-platform series sold better. Anyway, if any conclusions can be drawn at all from the above, it’s that September was a month for bros, with Halo and Madden topping the charts.

Hardware “numbers” are significantly less useful even compared with the software info. All that’s been said is that the 360 sold 483,989 units (a year-over-year gain of 37%) and that everything else was down year-over-year. Maybe that means the 360 won this month, but nothing is certain in this world any longer.

My prediction for September was “the video game industry folds under the weight of its own suck.” It is with deep regret that I must announce that statement was utterly prescient, this has come entirely true. I give up.

Source: NeoGAF

NPD to limit fanboy penis measuring device

NPD Group, that’s the research company that tracks US video game sales, has announced that they will no longer be sharing with the press monthly hardware and software unit sales. A monthly ranking of hardware and a top ten of software will still be given.

This comes as shockingly bad news for irate fanboys like myself who use NPD Group’s numbers to judge the corporate success of our favourite video game companies.

Regular Shufflingdeadites are probably all too familiar with our monthly stories regarding NPD Group’s numbers. Today is a bleaker day than yesterday, and I’m not sure what we’ll do now.

Source: ars technica
Image: Adapted from I forgot my brain’s medicine!!!! by Gianmaria™ under a CC-BY license.