Nintendo Kicks Butt in Console Sales

Both Nintendo and Sony released sales figures for November, however the latter should be embarrassed in comparison to the number of Wii and DS consoles zooming off stores shelves.

NPD Group reports that Nintendo dished out the goods during November despite scares of short supply, selling more than a whopping 2 million Wii consoles in the United States last month, setting a new all-time record for a non-December month. The Nintendo DS came in at a close second in sales and non-December records, selling more than 1.56 million units. So far, the portable DS system has sold nearly 24.6 million units in the United States alone since it hit store shelves back in November 2004; Nintendo's hit interactive Wii console has sold 15.4 million units since its launch two years ago.

“Nintendo’s record-breaking sales demonstrate that consumers are looking for the best value not only among video games, but also among all entertainment options,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales&Marketing. “Shoppers are looking for gifts that can be enjoyed by the whole family, and Nintendo provides an incomparable range of experiences that gets the whole family involved.”

Sony, on the other hand, didn't fare so well in November despite PlayStation 3 sales dramatically increasing since January 2008. According to NPD, 378,071 units were sold last month, showing a 100 percent rise in comparison to October sales figures. Hardware sales have actually risen 60 percent since January, with 2.8 million units sold in North America alone since the beginning of the year. The highly underrated PSP portable console didn't sell quite as well as the others, however Sony mentioned that the Ratchet&Clank: Size Matters bundle actually did well, selling 420,539 units in November.

NPD also reports that 3,552,456 "software units" were sold during the month of November. Hot PlayStation 3 exclusives for this holiday season include the awesome first-person shooter Resistance 2 and the overly addictive platformer, LittleBigPlanet. Other hot 3rd-party games selling big in November were Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, Madden NFL 09 and Call of Duty: World at War.

As for Nintendo, four of its games are currently ranking high in the Top 10 U.S. best-seller list, including Mario Kart Wii (#5 with 637,000 units sold), Wii Play (#3 with 796,000+ units sold), Wii Music (#9 with 297,000+ units sold) and the hard-to-find Wii Fit (#4 with 697,000+ units sold).

NPD also reports that Microsoft sold a decent 830,000 Xbox 360 consoles in November, making it the third hottest gaming console this holiday season; 770,000 units were sold in November 2007, showing a slight increase in sales. But while Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft saw increases in sales during November, NPD claims that sales actually saw a decline on Black Friday, a 8.4 percent drop in overall numbers, racking in $2.03 billion this year compared to $2.21 billion last November.

As gamers continue to feed the industry beast, today's financial hard times continue to hit home to many developers and publishers; Sony even reports that it will be cutting 8,000 jobs as well as cutting back on planned investments (story). Still, consumers spent a whopping $2.91 billion USD on gaming hardware and software in November alone, indicating that times may be tough, but they're better spent playing Gears of War 2, exercising with Wii Fit, or hanging out with friends in the PlayStation 3's virtual community, PlayStation Home (which incidentally went open beta yesterday).