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The Wii third party game story is not a pretty one

Marcel Klum   on 11 August 2008 - 18:23 · 18 comments & 13027 views

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Microsoft has hit back at claims made by Nintendo that the Wii sells the most third party games, saying instead that it's Xbox 360 sells the most.

Last week, Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs, Denise Kaigler, defended the Wii's third party sales saying, "We are selling third party games and they are doing very well, and better than our competitors."

But according to NPD information obtained from Microsoft by GamesIndustry.biz, that Nintendo claim appears to be wrong:
  • Total third party sales for the Xbox 360 since launch is currently 67,929,999 units, followed by the Wii at 33,394,311 units and the PlayStation 3 at 19,976,325 units.
  • Third party sales for the Xbox 360 since the launch of the Wii and PS3 is 54,065,728 units, still almost double the Wii's 33,394,311 units.
  • If you take the total number of units sold and divide that by the number of titles released since November 2006, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are selling more units per title on average than the Wii. This puts the Xbox 360 at 217,252 units per title, the PS3 at 156,065 units and the Wii at 132,517 units.

News source: Gamesindustry.biz

Post a comment · Send to friend Comments · There are 18 additional comments
(2 replies) #1 Islander on 11 Aug 2008 - 21:32
Kindergarden? Mine is larger! Mine is bigger! Yours is smaller!

Reason for me not to buy anything from them.
#1.1 joeydoo on 11 Aug 2008 - 21:53
Thanks for sharing... when companies track their sales and prospects in relation to potential third party performance/profits... it is childish isn't it.
#1.2 Shadrack on 18 Aug 2008 - 18:06
When Nintendo makes these kinds of claims falsely Microsoft has to respond. These kinds of public statements affect things such as stock prices. It isn't childish, it is business.
#2 DrunknMunky on 11 Aug 2008 - 22:22
I knew there was something dodgy about Nintendo's claim. At least we always have NPD to back it up in the end
#3 thealexweb on 11 Aug 2008 - 22:37
So Microsoft is in the lead again, I think I actually believe them this time because another establishment has looked at them.
#4 vetJoel on 11 Aug 2008 - 23:40
I'll bet they (Nintendo) include the VC games they've sold.
(3 replies) #5 Hooya on 12 Aug 2008 - 00:32
The number one reason why third party sales on the Wii aren't as high:

Third party games on the Wii are terrible.

The sheer amount of shovelware on the Wii is just astounding, and it's all third parties.
#5.1 macrosslover on 12 Aug 2008 - 02:59
blame Nintendo for that then. Nintendo could deny all those crap games approval but they don't. Son and Microsoft are guilty of it too yes, but not to the extent Nintendo is. Sad truth is other than Nintendo, Capcom, and EA, pretty much every other game on the system is utter bs crap.
#5.2 vetJoel on 14 Aug 2008 - 03:37
(macrosslover said @ #5.1)
Son and Microsoft are guilty of it too yes, but not to the extent Nintendo is

Have you never heard of the PS2?
#5.3 macrosslover on 15 Aug 2008 - 19:17
(Joel said @ #5.2)
(macrosslover said @ #5.1)
Son and Microsoft are guilty of it too yes, but not to the extent Nintendo is

Have you never heard of the PS2?

I was talking about this current generation, if you will the Wii has become the new PS2.
#6 AfroTrance on 12 Aug 2008 - 04:36
A better comparison would be ratio between total units sold of 3rd party games and... 1st party games.
(3 replies) #7 eilegz on 12 Aug 2008 - 17:30
the situation of xbox360 with the whole RROD its not a pretty one neither.
#7.1 +Kirkburn on 12 Aug 2008 - 17:54
(eilegz said @ #7)
the situation of xbox360 with the whole RROD its not a pretty one neither.
Point being? Offtopic and irrelevant.
#7.2 DrunknMunky on 12 Aug 2008 - 18:43
There is no RROD situation anymore. They fixed it last year.
#7.3 Shadrack on 18 Aug 2008 - 18:54
(DrunknMunky said @ #7.2)
There is no RROD situation anymore. They fixed it last year.


Hmmm... I don't recall MS showing up and servicing my 360, or requesting a recall.... how did they fix that again?
#8 Laser_iCE on 12 Aug 2008 - 21:35
Haha, people will do anything to take a quick jab at Microsoft It's pretty simple -- the third party software on the Wii sucks! Before I sold mine, I owned about 12 games and at least 8 or 9 of those were first party games, mainly because they were the only games were playing. The Xbox360 on the other hand, damn -- the library is massive Glad I bought one
#9 MightyJordan on 13 Aug 2008 - 08:45
The Wii third party game story is not a pretty one

Umm, no s**t, Sherlock! We've known this for over a year! The Wii has the weakest third-party line-up. The closest thing to a good third-party Wii game is No More Heroes.
#10 Dave Hybrid on 21 Oct 2008 - 12:20
Interesting article, a good read. It's actually given me a great idea for a project so thanks! Dave @ Computer Help.

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