UK Console sales figures

[new*allusion]

Hey, look - reliable figures!

The Wii has the highest UK installed base of the big three consoles, with Xbox 360 in second place and PlayStation 3 in third.

That's according to new figures from GfK Chart-Track, released by retailer GAME and reported by GamesIndustry.biz.

The installed base for the Wii is now 4.9 million consoles. The figure for Xbox 360 stands at 3.2 million, while for PS3 it's 1.9 million.

That means 2 million Wii units were sold during 2008, compared to 1.4 million Xbox 360s. Sony shifted 1 million PS3s over the course of the year.

The company also sold 600,000 PSP units, bringing the total installed base to 3.2 million. Nintendo's winning again, though - 8.8 million DS units have now been sold in the UK. In total 3.4 million of those were shifted last year, meaning the DS outsold the PSP by more than 5 to 1.

Holy moly at the Wii/DS-domination last year.

[Rik]

HD Systems>Wii

Gaming lives

[Winckle]

Are these figures just for GAME and Gamestation, if so they must be wildly inaccurate. A lot of people buy games online, or at the supermarket these days.

[new*allusion]

Not sure if supermarkets sell that many consoles (my local ones don't seem to advertise it if they do), but HMV and online places do. Anyway, I think the data is from the UK as a whole - GAME just spilt the beans by including it in their reports.

Speaking of GAME

The gaming retailer said profits of £122m for the 50 weeks to January 10 were driven by strong hardware sales, an increasing number of female shoppers and the collapse of rival retailer Woolworths.

Game Group saw like-for-like group sales increase 9.5pc over the year, with an estimated 39pc of its customers and one in two of its "reward card" members now women.

The company, which has a 30pc share of the video games market, said that UK owners of Sony Playstation 3 more than doubled to 1.9m, Microsoft Xbox owners grew 77pc to 3.2m and Nintendo Wii owners rose 145pc to 4.9m last year. Demand for hand-held gaming devices, including Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS, rose from 8.8m to 12m units across the UK market.

Chief executive Lisa Morgan said the administration of Zavvi and Woolworths was likely to leave 10pc of the video game market open, with Game Group poised to attract customers.

"A number of players will benefits from Woolworths and Zavvi, including Argos, HMV and the supermarkets," she said. "But we are focused on making us the preferred place for their customers to buy video games."

Game Group traded well over Christmas as other retailers suffered from falling consumer confidence, with like-for-like sales rising 5.4pc over the six weeks to January 10. Top-selling games were Call of Duty: World at War, FIFA 09, Fallout 3, Need for Speed Undercover and Guitar Hero World Tour.

Chairman Peter Lewis said the main reason for Game Group's growth was its focus on hardware sales.

"The existence of five successful hardware formats throughout the year has, as anticipated, led to an increase in the proportion of higher margin software in the sales mix," he said.

However, he warned that inflationary pressures and the consumer downturn would make revenue growth challenging this year.

In light of the economic climate, Game Group will slow its rate of growth by opening approximately 70 stores this year, down from 200 stores last year. It expects savings of £10m to be achieved as a result of integrating its business with Gamestation.

David O'Brien, an analyst at Altium Securities, said he maintained a "negative stance" towards Game Group as a result of the retailer's cautious outlook for this year.

By-the-by:

Wii - 1.6 million
PS3 - 708,000
Xbox 360 - 566,000

Xbox 360 = 1,155,000
Wii = 2,880,000
PS3 = 1,271,000

Nicked from GAF.

[Christopher]

This is why I hate the French

[jiggles]

360 with a 1.3mil lead over PS3 in UK, but "only" 1mil for the whole of Europe?

Microsoft have clearly put all their effort into selling the thing in English.

[Carlos]

So collectively there are 12Million nintendo consoles out there, which averaging one per person means that 20% of the population of the UK owns a Nintendo console! Crazy times.

[Eighthours]

360 with a 1.3mil lead over PS3 in UK, but "only" 1mil for the whole of Europe?

Microsoft have clearly put all their effort into selling the thing in English.

Or the Playstation brand is stronger in mainland Europe compared to the Xbox brand.

[HSH28]

So collectively there are 12Million nintendo consoles out there, which averaging one per person means that 20% of the population of the UK owns a Nintendo console! Crazy times.

13.7 actually, and at this rate it'll reach 20 in only just over a years time.

[Christopher]

So collectively there are 12Million nintendo consoles out there, which averaging one per person means that 20% of the population of the UK owns a Nintendo console! Crazy times.

13.7 actually, and at this rate it'll reach 20 in only just over a years time.

Something has to be done to stop this.

[jiggles]

360 with a 1.3mil lead over PS3 in UK, but "only" 1mil for the whole of Europe?

Microsoft have clearly put all their effort into selling the thing in English.

Or the Playstation brand is stronger in mainland Europe compared to the Xbox brand.

I'm talking worldwide, but I don't understand why you've made that point as if it were contrary to what I said.

[outoftime101]

360 with a 1.3mil lead over PS3 in UK, but "only" 1mil for the whole of Europe?

Microsoft have clearly put all their effort into selling the thing in English.

Or the Playstation brand is stronger in mainland Europe compared to the Xbox brand.

I'm talking worldwide, but I don't understand why you've made that point as if it were contrary to what I said.

Well, it contradicts (to an extent) the assumption that you have made.

That the gap is relatively small Europe-wide may not be, as you seem to assert, evidence of MS having "put all their effort into selling the thing in English"; but rather, as Mr. Hours has pointed out, an indication of the continued strong performance of the Playstation brand in continental European countries. In that regard what he says is almost certainly contrary to your opinion.

As such, MS could have expended huge resources on this latter market-even a majority of its Europe marketing budget-whilst still not making the kind of inroads that it has in the U.K due to greater Playstation brand loyalty.

[Eighthours]

I don't understand why you've made that point as if it were contrary to what I said.

Microsoft has a really big campaign in mainland Europe too, but either the Playstation brand is holding up better there or Microsoft has further to go to establish its own. (Actually, no either/or: it's a mixture of both, methinks.) So it is contrary to your assertion that "clearly" MS is only marketing the English-speaking nations.

Sorry for not understanding you meant worldwide - it didn't look like it to me, given that you quoted the lead in UK and Europe, and then talked about MS only marketing in English!

[jiggles]

360 with a 1.3mil lead over PS3 in UK, but "only" 1mil for the whole of Europe?

Microsoft have clearly put all their effort into selling the thing in English.

Or the Playstation brand is stronger in mainland Europe compared to the Xbox brand.

I'm talking worldwide, but I don't understand why you've made that point as if it were contrary to what I said.

Well, it contradicts (to an extent) the assumption that you have made.

That the gap is relatively small Europe-wide may not be, as you seem to assert, evidence of MS having "put all their effort into selling the thing in English"; but rather, as Mr. Hours has pointed out, an indication of the continued strong performance of the Playstation brand in continental European countries. In that regard what he says is almost certainly contrary to your opinion.

As such, MS could have expended huge resources on this latter market-even a majority of its Europe marketing budget-whilst still not making the kind of inroads that it has in the U.K due to greater Playstation brand loyalty.

But the PlayStation brand dominated the globe. Eighthours wrote "the Playstation brand is stronger in mainland Europe compared to the Xbox brand", but that was the case everywhere when their product first hit the shelves. They've been able to turn it around pretty much exclusively where people speak English, that's all I was trying to say.

[jiggles]

I don't understand why you've made that point as if it were contrary to what I said.

Microsoft has a really big campaign in mainland Europe too, but either the Playstation brand is holding up better there or Microsoft has further to go to establish its own. (Actually, no either/or: it's a mixture of both, methinks.) So it is contrary to your assertion that "clearly" MS is only marketing the English-speaking nations.

I thought my inclusion of the word "clearly" was an indication of the hyperbole.

[Eighthours]

I don't understand why you've made that point as if it were contrary to what I said.

Microsoft has a really big campaign in mainland Europe too, but either the Playstation brand is holding up better there or Microsoft has further to go to establish its own. (Actually, no either/or: it's a mixture of both, methinks.) So it is contrary to your assertion that "clearly" MS is only marketing the English-speaking nations.

I thought my inclusion of the word "clearly" was an indication of the hyperbole.

See, this is where the written word suffers in comparison to verbal communication.

[jiggles]

Clearly.

[Rog]

So collectively there are 12Million nintendo consoles out there, which averaging one per person means that 20% of the population of the UK owns a Nintendo console! Crazy times.

13.7 actually, and at this rate it'll reach 20 in only just over a years time.

Something has to be done to stop this.

You can. Start making decent PS3 games
[/bitch]

[Raide]

So collectively there are 12Million nintendo consoles out there, which averaging one per person means that 20% of the population of the UK owns a Nintendo console! Crazy times.

13.7 actually, and at this rate it'll reach 20 in only just over a years time.

Something has to be done to stop this.

You can. Start making decent PS3 games
[/*****]

Hopefully Killzone, Uncharted 2 and a few other games will be ableto bump up the numbers.

[new*allusion]

I'd say that forums (us people, here) are a big contributor to the success of the Xbox - communities and good PR have been a big part of Microsoft's approach to the whole 360-ethos. Their focus on these has focused on the language of their home market - English, as a result people from countries where English is not widely spoken get less information and different PR. Word of mouth has made the 360 very successful. Those words are predominantly English.

In addition, when Sony made all their PR pratfalls in 2005 English speaking forums highlighted the extent of their errors, I would assume that French/Spanish/German/Italian communities will have missed at least a few of those.