Xbox One beats PS4 sales at Walmart, Target.

Posted on December 2, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

InfoScout finds Microsoft systems take 61% share of console sales at retailers on Black Friday.

The Xbox One was the best-selling game hardware at Walmart and Target on Black Friday, according to retail research firm InfoScout. According to a post on the company blog, Microsoft’s new console accounted for 31 percent of console sales at the retailers on Friday, outpacing the PlayStation 4’s 15 percent share, which was only enough to make it the fourth best-selling system of the day.

The Xbox 360, bolstered by a $99 sale price at Walmart, was the second-best-seller of Black Friday, accounting for 30 percent of systems sold. The PS3, which was less heavily discounted at $149, was third with a 15 percent share of consoles sold. Nintendo brought up the rear, with the Wii U accounting for just 6 percent of sales, while the original Wii scraped out a 1 percent share.

InfoScout attributed much of the Xbox family’s success to supply constraints on the PS4 and the deeply discounted Xbox 360 price. According to a survey of Black Friday receipts from 5,000 InfoScout panelists, the Xbox One was the sixth best-selling item at Walmart, behind a trio of TVs, an HP laptop, and a $300 16GB Apple iPad Mini, which ordinarily sells for $320.

PlayStation 4 US sales exceed 1 million units in 24 hours

Posted on November 18, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

Sony’s new console posts record sell through numbers for a console launch.

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that the recently-released PlayStation 4 console has sold through 1 million units since its launch on November 15, 2013.

“PS4 was designed with an unwavering commitment to gamers, and we are thrilled that consumer reaction has been so phenomenal,” said SCE president Andrew House. “Sales remain very strong in North America, and we expect continued enthusiasm as we launch the PlayStation 4 in Europe and Latin America on November 29. We are extremely grateful for the passion of PlayStation fans and thank them for their continued support.”

In contrast, Nintendo’s Wii U has sold 1.75 million consoles in North America as of September 30, 2013, and is up to 3.91 million sold globally. Microsoft’s Xbox One launches in the United States this Friday, November 22.

Sony will be launching the PlayStation 4 in the EU on November 29, 2013, in a host of other regions over the month of December, and in Japan on February 22, 2014.

[source]

Nintendo wants to “change movies” with an interactive Zelda film

Posted on October 17, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

Nintendo wants to “change what a movie is” before it attempts a Legend of Zelda film adaptation.

Nintendo has been pretty conservative when it comes to spreading its properties out to other media. Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma told Kotaku that a possible Zelda adaptation would have to give audiences something completely different from their normal film experience.

“This is something that me and Mr. Miyamoto talked about,” Aonuma said. “If we were to make a Zelda title, if we had interest in doing that, I think really what would be most important to us is to be able to play with the format of a movie, make it more interactive, like you’re able to take your 3DS into the theater and that leads you into participating in it somehow. We wouldn’t want to make it the same as any other movie. We want to somehow change what a movie is.”

Disney’s been toying with second screen film experiences, with the release of the Little Mermaid: Second Screen Live in September. The experience uses an iPad app that syncs up with the film using the built-in microphone. Mashable tried out the app at a screening and found the film almost unwatchable due to the app.

“The games are distracting. Some moviegoers meeting Ariel and friends for the first time will find it hard to focus on the movie, with a new game every minute or two,” wrote Mashable’s Taylor Casti. Many games require an individual’s full attention, for instance, when players quickly pop bubbles or tilt the iPad to catch Ariel’s treasures in a chest. In fact, the games were so distracting, on multiple occasions key information was lost to gameplay.”

“Not to mention the voiceover and inter-theater competition, where up to four characters talk over the dialogue in the film to encourage players to compete with other audience members. As someone who grew up with Ariel, sure, the games were fun. But children seeing the movie for the first time missed seeing Triton destroy Ariel’s treasures; Ariel meet Eric for the first time; Ariel’s visit with Scuttle.”

Perhaps Nintendo could work around this with a film built specifically for interactivity? It is a way for Nintendo to continue to be unique, but Rovio and others seem perfectly fine making simple animated features. Is the company trying to reinvent the wheel for no good reason?

[source]

Wii U still misunderstood by consumers, retailers – Analyst

Posted on October 16, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

IHS analyst says Nintendo’s messaging troubles persist, people don’t understand how it differs from Wii.

As the Wii U closes in on its one-year anniversary, the system is still hampered by some of the same problems it faced at launch. Speaking with Benzinga, IHS senior games analyst Christine Arrington said people still don’t understand that there’s a difference between the Wii U and its seven-year-old predecessor, the Wii.

“I think one of the things that was a real indicator of that was just, anecdotally, if you went into a retailer and you talked to somebody in the games department, they didn’t even understand what it was,” Arrington said. “I did the secret shopper kind of thing, and they would say, ‘Well, there’s no difference between the Wii and Wii U.'”

Arrington said she was told the same thing multiple times in her secret shopping efforts. As for why the console was so poorly understood, Arrington lamented the lack of a Wii Sports-like launch title, a game that would let everyone understand at a glance why the Wii U GamePad would allow for different experiences from the Wii.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata acknowledged both the lack of consumer understanding and the absence of a Wii Sports-like title for the Wii U earlier this year. However, he blamed the misunderstanding on Nintendo’s “relaxed” marketing efforts for the system.

[source]

Japanese Sales Charts: PlayStation Games Dominate the Top 10, Wind Waker HD Disappoints

Posted on October 3, 2013 by afterdarkgaming

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Ignoring the fact that Monster Hunter 4 on the 3DS finished in first yet again, it was a pretty good week for PlayStation games with 7 titles in the top 10, including two for the PlayStation Vita. On the hardware side of things, the PS3 and PS Vita were up a bit at 11,382 and 6,031, respectively, while the PlayStation Portable dropped to 4,805.

Outside of PlayStation, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD disappointed with a debut of just over 30,000 and Armored Core: Verdict Day gave the Xbox 360 a rare game in the charts as it sold 5,088 copies.

Here’s the top 20 selling games in Japan between September 23rd – 29th, according to Media Create: