ELSPA Sales Awards November 2009

Check out the UK LTD Charts by Platform for the latest update (bolded)

Silver (100,000+)

[360] FORZA MOTORSPORT 3 (MICROSOFT)
[PS3] PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2010 (KONAMI)
[WII] WII FIT PLUS (NINTENDO)
[WII] MARIO & SONIC AT THE OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES (SEGA)
[PC] FOOTBALL MANAGER 2010 (SEGA)
[PS3] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)
[PSP] TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)
[360] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)
[360] PURE (DISNEY)
[360] GRAND THEFT AUTO EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY (TAKE 2)
[360] ROCK BAND (EA)
[NDS] DEAL OF NO DEAL: THE BANKER IS BACK (MINDSCAPE/KOCH)
[360] OPERATION FLASHPOINT: DRAGON RISING (CODEMASTERS)
[NDS] FIFA 09 (EA)

Gold (200,000+)

[NDS] PROFESSOR LAYTON AND PANDORA'S BOX (NINTENDO)
[NDS] HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR (DISNEY)
[PS3] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)
[360] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)
[360] FORZA MOTORSPORT 3 (MICROSOFT)
[NDS] LEGO INDIANA JONES: THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURES (LUCASARTS)
[WII] WII FIT PLUS (NINTENDO)
[WII] SHAUN WHITE SNOWBOARDING (UBISOFT)
[PSP] SEGA MEGA DRIVE COLLECTION (SEGA)
[PC] *DRIVING TEST SUCCESS ALL TESTS 2008/09 (FOCUS MULTIMEDIA)

Platinum (300,000+)

[PS2] NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (DISNEY)
[PS3] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)
[PS3] KILLZONE 2 (SONY)
[360] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)

Double Platinum (600,000+)

[WII] WII SPORTS RESORT (NINTENDO)
[PS3] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)
[360] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)

Diamond (1,000,000+)

[360] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD)

http://www.elspa.com/?l=saleaward

European Sales Awards

Finland:

2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004

Germany:

2009 (PDF)
2008 (PDF)
2007: N/A
2006: N/A
2005: N/A Top 10 Units (PDF)
1998 - 2004*: PC / Microsoft / Nintendo / Sony

Netherlands:

2009 (PDF)
2008 (PDF)
2007 (PDF)
2006 (PDF)
2005 (PDF)
2004 (Click "zoek")

Spain:

2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001

UK:

1999 - 2009

* "Between 1994 and 2004 the VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) has awarded games sold in the German language territory (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

These were physical awards given to publishers not for how good a jury may have perceived a game, but for crossing certain thresholds while selling the game (how many units were sold).

The three VUD-Awards (bold indicates the award for this game group):

* Gold-Award - for selling at least 100,000 units (but less than 200,000)
* Platinum-Award - for selling at least 200,000 units (but less than 500,000)
* Special-Award - for selling more than 500,000 units

A game could get multiple awards of one type, or different awards. Different awards aren't cumulative, which means both a Gold- and a Platinum-Award equal at least 300,000 units (not 100,000 for Gold and reaching Platinum for another 100,000).

A Gold-Award could therefore awarded for a game sold anything between 100,000 and 199,999 units, however the exact sale values applying here are not known.

Note: to see to which specific platform release the award corresponds, when and how many were awarded, see the trivia section of the corresponding game entries."

"The Gold Award, which is awarded on the sale of more than 100,000 copies within the first twelve months after the sales launch in Germany, Austria and Switzerland."

Wii sells 100,000 in France following price cut

According to GfK Wii sold 100,700 units in France over the seven weeks following the price cut compared to 91,500 units sold during the same period in 2008.

The increase in sales was not enough to offset the price cut as value dropped from, €22.7m last year to €21.6m this year.

French

Switzerland Q3 2009

Total hardware units (YTD 2009): 95,415 (284,162)

NDS: 39,735 (103,666)
PS3: 16,618 (46,153)
WII: 15,552 (57,412)
PSP: 12,756 (33,674)
360: 6,832 (25,370)
PS2: 3,914 (19,704)

Total hardware value: CHF 27,861,000

NDS: CHF 11,745,000
PS3: CHF 8,076,000
WII: CHF 5,321,000
PSP: CHF 3,216,000
360: CHF 2,205,000
PS2: CHF 514,000

Total software units: 788,090

Home consoles: 396,310
Portable consoles: 225,317
PC: 166,464

Total software value: CHF 41,681,000

Home Consoles: CHF 24,047,000
Portable consoles: CHF 10,007,000
PC: CHF 7,627,000





PDF

SIEA have only been supplying hardware unit sales since 2007, so LTD sales are incomplete except for PS3. Nintendo and Sony did give out LTD sales or their platforms in the middle of Q3 2007, so we do have a rough idea how much they sold prior to 2007. Unfortunately no LTD figures exist for 360, so I've taken the liberty of "guestimating" 2006 sales being comparable to 2007 sales (30k) with end of 2005 launch sales being smaller than Wii (~20k) and PS3 (17k) at around 10k. So 360 LTD figure should be treated with caution, but hopefully should be in the ballpark.

675,000 PS3s Sold in Australia

According to SCE Australia's Michael Ephraim Sony hope to sell 150,000 units of PlayTV in Australia this year following it's launch today, it will also be bundled for free with the 250Gb model.

Total PS3 sales are said to be around 675,000 with 140,000 sold since the price cut, but I expect this figure includes 35,000 PS3s recently bundled with Bravia TVs in a promotion.

Link 1
Link 2

October 2009 UK Charts (27/09 - 24/10)

Check out the UK LTD Charts by platform for the latest update (bolded).

Individual Format Top Ten:

01 [360] FIFA 10 - 464,000 / NEW
02 [PS3] FIFA 10 - 439,000 / NEW
03 [PS3] Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 124,000 / NEW
04 [WII] Wii Sports Resort - 115,000 / 512,000
05 [NDS] Professor Layton and Pandora's Box - 112,000 / 194,000
06 [360] Halo 3: ODST - 104,000 / 316,000
07 [360] Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising - 81,000 / NEW
08 [360] Forza Motorsport 3 - 80,000 / NEW
09 [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 - 65,000 / NEW
10 [WII] Mario & Sonic At the Olympic Winter Games - 61,000 / NEW

Previous months

Total Software Units: 5,016,176

360: 33.3% (1,670,387)
PS3: 28.9% (1,449,675)
NDS: 15.1% (757,443)
WII: 14.8% (742,394)
PC: 3.2% (160,518)
PSP: 3.0% (150,485)
PS2: 1.7% (85,275)

Total Software Value: £129,000,000

360: 37.0% (£47,730,000)
PS3: 32.5% (£41,925,000)
WII: 12.8% (£16,512,000)
NDS: 11.3% (£14,577,000)
PC: 2.6% (£3,354,000)
PSP: 2.4% (£3,096,000)
PS2: 1.4% (£1,806,000)

October 2009 NPD

[WII] 506,900 (22.07M)
[NDS] 457,600 (33,70M)
[PS3] 320,600 (9.05M)
[360] 249,700 (16.50M)
[PSP] 174,600 (14.84M)
[PS2] 117,800 (44.36M)

01. [PS3] Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 537,000 / NEW
02. [WII] Wii Fit Plus - 441,000 / NEW
03. [360] Borderlands - 418,000 / NEW
04. [WII] Wii Sports Resort - 314,000 / 2,019,000
05. [360] NBA 2K10 - 311,000 / NEW
06. [360] Halo 3: ODST - 271,000 / 1,791,000
07. [PS3] NBA 2K10 - 311,000 / NEW
08. [360] Forza Motorsport 3 - 175,000 / NEW
09. [NDS] Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - 169,000 / 371,000
10. [360] FIFA Soccer 10 - 156,000 / NEW
11. [PS3] Demon's Souls
12. [360] Brutal Legend - 150,000 / NEW
13. [PS3] FIFA Soccer 10
14. [NDS] Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story
15. [360] WWE Smackdown Vs Raw
16. [PS3] Tekken 6
17. [PS3] Borderlands - 113,000 / NEW
18. [360] Madden NFL 10
19. [NDS] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: EOS
20. [WII] Mario Kart Wii

**. [PS3] Brutal Legend - 66,000 / NEW
**. [360] DJ Hero - 62,000 / NEW
**. [360] GTA: Episodes from Liberty Cit - 57,000 / NEW
**. [PS3] DJ Hero - 39,000 / NEW
**. [WII] DJ Hero - 19,000 / NEW
**. [PS2] DJ Hero - 3,300 / NEW

**. [ALL] NBA 2K10 - 575,000 / NEW
**. [ALL] NBA Live 10 - 141,000
**. [ALL] Guitar Hero 5 - 81,000

Wii almost at 6,000,000 in UK (GfK)

From a BBC article:

According to research company Chart Track GfK there are almost six million Wii consoles in British homes.

Xbox 360 passes 10 million in Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Microsoft have announced that Xbox 360 has passed 10,000,000 unit sales in EMEA* region. They announced passing 9,000,000 sold to consumers a little over three months ago, so if like previous EMEA announcements this should be a sell through figure.

MCV

*Microsoft's EMEA region includes: UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, South Africa, and UAE

Famitsu October 2009 Software Charts

Famitsu October 2009 (09/27 - 10/25):

Top 20:
01. [NDS] Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (Nintendo/Pokemon Co.) - 703,620 / 2,771,229
02. [WII] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) - 659,904 / NEW
03. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven 2: Threat of the Invaders - Fire/Blizzard (Level 5) - 495,335 / NEW
04. [NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) (Nintendo) - 244,162 / 1,400,265
05. [PSP] Gran Turismo Portable (SCEI) - 214,565 / NEW
06. [PSP] Macross Ultimate Frontier (Namco Bandai Games) - 125,980 / NEW
07. [NDS] Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (Atlus Co.) - 109,415 / NEW
08. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) - 89,419 / 1,283,910
09. [PS3] Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (SCEI) - 72,927 / NEW
10. [NDS] Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky (Square Enix) - 70,081 / 3,995,366
11. [NDS] Love Plus (Konami) - 64,499 / 145,778
12. [PS3] Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (Tecmo) - 57,546 / NEW
13. [PS3] Shin Sangoku Musou: Multi Raid Special (Koei) - 51,809 / NEW
14. [PSP] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable 4 (Konami) - 50,288 / 201,434
15. [NDS] Rune Factory 3 (Marvelous) - 44,894 / NEW
16. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2 G (BEST) (Capcom) - 39,904 / 1,047,002
17. [PS3] Tales of Vesperia (Namco Bandai Games) - 39,663 / 312,128
18. [PSP] Minna no Sukkiri (Everybody's Cleaner) (SCEI) - 38,238 / NEW
19. [WII] Okami (Capcom) - 30,079 / NEW
20. [360] Forza Motorsport 3 (Microsoft Game Studios) - 29,563 / NEW
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/gmgk/m/

DS Top 10:
01. [NDS] Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver (Nintendo/Pokemon Co.) - 703,620 / 2,771,229
02. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven 2: Threat of the Invaders - Fire/Blizzard (Level 5) - 495,335 / NEW
03. [NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) (Nintendo) - 244,162 / 1,400,265
04. [NDS] Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (Atlus Co.) - 109,415 / NEW
05. [NDS] Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Starry Sky (Square Enix) - 70,081 / 3,995,366
06. [NDS] Love Plus (Konami) - 64,499 / 145,778
07. [NDS] Rune Factory 3 (Marvelous) - 44,894 / NEW
08. [NDS] SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu - Goddess of Destiny (Square Enix) - 21,528 / 151,579
09. [NDS] Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyoujuu (Giants of the Spirit World) (Namco Bandai Games) - 17,669 / NEW
10. [NDS] Puyo Puyo 7 (Sega) - 12,652 / 181,833
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/gmds/m/

PS2 Top 10:
01. [PS2] BeatMania IIDX 16: Empress + Premium Best (Konami) - 22,871 / NEW
02. [PS2] Hiiro no Kakera: Shintama Yorihime Denshou (Idea Factory) - 8,294 / NEW
03. [PS2] Toucha Gettan: Tomb of King Koufuu (Kadokawa Shoten) - 4,672 / NEW
04. [PS2] Shin Hisui no Shizuku: Hiiro no Kakera 2 (Scarlet Fragments 2) (Idea Factory) - 4,463 / NEW
05. [PS2] J-League Winning Eleven 2009: Club Championship (Konami) - 4,248 / 79,589
06. [PS2] Pro Yakyuu Spirits 6 (Konami) - 3,441 / 114,315
07. [PS2] Hiiro no Kakera (Scarlet Fragments): Aizouban/Shin Hisui no Shizuku Twin Pack (Idea Factory) - 3,377 / NEW
08. [PS2] Slotter UP Mania 11: 2027 vs. 2027 II (Dorart) - 3,069 / NEW
09. [PS2] Hiiro no Kakera (Scarlet Fragments): Aizouban (Idea Factory) - 2,937 / NEW
10. [PS2] SD Gundam G Generation Wars (Bandai Namco) - 2,831 / 305,885
http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/gmps/m/

PS3 launched in Thailand

PlayStation 3 launched locally

The increasing number of broadband users and the market to add the final pieces of the high-definition experience for consumers in Thailand led Sony Thailand to introduce PlayStation 3 here, said Yoji Higashida, senior director of consumer marketing group.

The company started selling the new slimmer and lighter PlayStation 3 (CECH-2006A) with a 120GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD) that can serve as a platform to enjoy home entertainment content including Blu-ray movies and games, at the suggested price of 15,590 baht, including VAT.

The launch in Thailand is nearly the same as the launch in Malaysia and Indonesia in the region since it first global launch in Japan, the US and Europe this September.

The suggested price may be higher than the grey market but it offers a 15-month service guarantee and after-sales service from Sony. Moreover, the import tax in Thailand is 20 percent higher than other countries in Asean, which range 0-10 percent.

Meanwhile, the game title import tax is high at 30 percent which makes the price high and it needs to audit for the content under Thai regulations which still has only a fifth of PS3 software available from Sony. Or users are able to store plenty of games available through the PlayStation Network which offers digital content including game titles, trailers and demos via the PlayStation Store.

Moreover, Sony Thailand and Sony Computer Entertainment Asia will explore opportunities to collaborate with universities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore to educate and train students using their development tools writing game software on its platform.

The company plans to offers it synergy with its HD product lines. "For example, in this holiday season, we may offer a bundle promotion for customers who buy a Bravia LCD TV 40 inch will get special discount for PS3. This shows that PS3 is the last jigsaw piece to fill the HD world for Sony customer," Yoji said.

Link

Annual Indian Playstation hardware sales

In an interesting interview with SCE's Indian manager, Atindriya Bose he reveals combined annual sales for PS2, PS3, and PSP in India:

It’s been nine years since PS2 was launched in India. There’s some fear that the games collection would dry up. Will you go back to the catalogue of old games or invest in developing new content?

It’s a combination of both for India because in this market PlayStation still has a long way to go. Indian developers and our partnership with them is working fine in bringing newer content and content we can take to international markets.

Desi Adda: Games of India, which features traditional Indian games such as Pachisi, Kite Flight and Kabbadi, among others, for example, will also be launched in South Africa, Middle East markets and the UK.

The second is the catalogue strategy. Even though PS2 was launched in 2001 in India, it has only picked up steam in the last two years where the market actually grew. This catalogue approach has worked well here because you can be selective and bring in stuff that is suited to this market.

How has PlayStation done in India?

On an annual basis, all consoles put together (PSP, PS2 and PS3), we now sell 300,000 consoles every year. Of this, PS2 and the PSP account for 80% of units sold. In terms of market drivers and penetration, PlayStation2 has now gone even beyond the Top 20 cities, followed by PSP, while the PS3 is still a top 10 metro phenomenon.

Keeping this in mind, the content being developed here is largely for PS2 and PSP, as it has been developed for new gamers and has been designed of them. For PS3, international content strategy works very well.

Desi Adda, which showcases six traditional Indian games, has been developed for PSP and PS2 in three languages—Hindi, Tamil and Punjabi —and the price points for these and the content are targeted at new gamers.

While the challenges are elaborate enough, you don’t want depth of game—which is 70-80 hours—which can push up the price. So, while there is certain limit on game play, it definitely matches international standards. While the recession did slow things for everyone, the rate of growth has bounced back, with impressive sales during the back-to-school season and Diwali this year.

Full interview

From an Indian gaming event in February:

Amidst all this jury duty, I also found time to attend some of the sessions on the gaming industry. The most interesting thing, for me, to emerge here was that, for the first time in a conference like this, Microsoft and Sony were willing to share some unofficial sales figures. Microsoft shared an unofficial figure of ‘less than 100,000’ XBOX units (of course, that could even be 5,000). Sony claimed around 400,000 PS2s, 120,000 PSPs and 35,000 PS3 units sold. While these figures don’t sound very high in light of worldwide figures, it’s still a start. And it’s up to us to get them up — so each of you go out and convince all your friends to buy game consoles!

Link

Note that Nintendo do not officially operate in India.

Russian Playstation hardware sales *Update*

Some more details about Russian Playstation sales including past fiscal year numbers, FY09 forecasts, and PS3 attach rates;



Firstly SCEE's PS3 comparison to Xbox 360 and Wii, although no numbers for their estimates for the other two consoles.



They claim 5 games sold for every PS3, which works out at about 1,000,000 units of software.



Here we have annual sales of PS3 for the fiscal year ending March 31 with forecasts for FY09.

FY09 72,000 (260,000)
FY08 104,500 (188,000)
FY07 83,500 (83,500)

It's interesting to note that they expect a sharp decline in PS3 sales despite the release of the PS3 slim. Russia has been especially hard hit by the global economic crisis.



The same for PSP:

FY09 227,700 (850,000)
FY08 237,600 (622,300)
FY07 N/A (384,700)

Unlike PS3, PSP is forecast to sell only slightly less than the previous year.



Total PS2, PS3, and PSP sales are forecast to be 2,060,000 by the end of the fiscal year, 950,000 of which will be PS2. They also forecast 2,150,000 units of software sold this fiscal year across all Playstation platforms.

Russian 1
Russian 2
Russian 3

Top Global Markets Q3 2009 Report

After an absence since 2008 Top Global Markets have issued a press release for the third quarter of 2009;

THIRD QUARTER 2009 SALES RESULTS FROM TOP GLOBAL VIDEO GAMES SOFTWARE MARKETS RELEASED
Japan Experiences Double-Digit Growth While United States and United Kingdom Decline

NEW YORK, TOKYO, LONDON, November 5, 2009 - According to recent findings from Top Global Markets, an integrated monthly report from leading providers of consumer and retail information in the video games industry, The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain, Inc., combined video game software unit sales across the world’s three largest games markets experienced a decline of 6 percent during third-quarter (Q3) 2009 (July-September).

The Japanese software market saw unit sales increase by 15 percent vs. the 20 percent decline it experienced during the same time period in 2008. Console software and portable software saw positive unit growth in Japan, with respective increases of 7 percent and 19 percent. However, year-to-date (YTD) sales for Japan’s software market experienced a 9 percent decline.

With a decline of 19 percent, the United Kingdom experienced the largest aggregate drop in unit sales, followed by United States’ 9 percent decline. UK portable game software experienced a loss in unit sales of 34 percent, followed by console software with a decline of 12 percent. In the United States, console software and portable game software experienced declines of 8 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

Year-to-date unit sales in the United States and the United Kingdom experienced declines in both console software and portable game software, with total unit sales for the United States declining 8 percent, and United Kingdom unit sales declining by 13 percent.

Jul - Sep 2009
Jan - Dec 2008
Jul - Sep 2008
Jan - Jul 2008

It's worth noting that whilst Japan and UK have weekly sales reports, US only has monthly reports. Whilst Chart-Track's September ended September 26, NPD's ended a week later on October 03. Therefore the Top Global Market Report runs through October 03 to accomodate NPD's monthly reports. This does create a slight anomaly though, as Famitsu's Japanese reports runs through Sundays, as opposed to NPD's and Chart-Track's which run through Saturdays. This means the Japanese figures are actually through October 04 whilst UK and US figures are through October 03.

Another point to note is that whilst Chart-Track cover an estimated 90% of UK retail, they do not extrapolate to 100% of the market in their reports, and neither do ELSPA with their Sales Awards, or the monthly top ten charts published in Famitsu. However, in the Top Global Market reports UK sales are extrapolated with a simple 90% - 100% formula to bring them into line with the 100% extrapolated Japan and US figures.

These two points explain why Halo: ODST is listed at 294,000 in the UK through September in the Top Global Markets Report here, but only 212,000 in ELSPA's September top ten published in Famitsu. Halo: ODST's first two week's are covered in TGM's September, but only it's first week is covered in C-T's September.

To reconcile these two figures we need to add the second week of Halo: ODST's sales to it's first week sales. Fortunately Chart-Track tell us that Halo: ODST's second week sales were 25% of it's first, or 53,000. We then need to extrapolate the 265,000 total to 100% of the market from the 90% coverage by dividing by 0.9, this brings us to the 294,000 reported above. Or in other words;

(212 + (212 x .25)) / .9 = 294.444444

Russian Playstation hardware sales

Sony have announced that combined sales of PSP and PS3 have passed 1 million in Russia, the split being;

PSP: 800,000
PS3: 210,000

As no independant sales tracker tracks sales in Russia these figures are most probably sold to retailers.

They also claim 150,000 Russian PSN accounts have downloaded 3,000,000 items of content.

Russian

For comparison Sony last claimed sales of 600,000 PSP, 170,000 PS3 and over 1,000,000 PS2 back in March 2009.

Russian

Middle Eastern installed base estimates

MCV's full Middle Eastern Market Report can be read on page 32 of this PDF.

MARKET OVERVIEW

Chris Stanton-Jones of emerging markets specialists Catapult Business Solutions provides us with a detailed look at the Middle East games market…

The video games business in the Middle East is thriving. Driven by the favourable economic conditions of high oil revenues, foreign investment and a population explosion.

However, in 2009 trading has been tough, particularly in the first half of the year, and consumer spending, particularly in UAE, was severely hit. Hardware revenues will be down in 2009 but software revenues should rise in the region of 14 to 18 per cent.

Consoles performing well with year-on-year sales increases are PS3, 360, PSP and Wii. PS2 and PC formats are in decline. Software-wise PS3 continues to be the main source of revenue for the games business thanks to it being the only format which has not been pirated.

What’s driving the market is a maturing retail sector fuelled by both the mall culture and the growing presence of Western retailers. Furthermore, whilst Western markets have one peak selling period, the Middle East has two. The first is the October to December period, and the second is in the summer when high temperatures force families to take shelter in the cool of their airconditioned homes or shopping malls.

Piracy still continues to be the regions’ biggest issue.

Nintendo hardware sales in Germany

Nintendo have announced hardware unit sales for it's consoles in Germany;

NDS: 6,000,000
WII: 2,500,000

German

Norway Q1-Q3 2009

Total Hardware Units (LTD):

NDS: 57,777 (281,756)
PS3: 43,189 (151,318)
WII: 15,902 (135,054)
PSP: 7,875 (116,191)
PS2: 7,264 (608,665)
360: N/A*

DSL: 44,087 (268,066)
DSi: 13,690 (13,690)

Total Software Value: NOK 310,165,109 (2008: NOK 349,121,377)
PS3: 26.3% (NOK 81,530,815)
360: 17.9% (NOK 55,586,768)
PC-: 17.5% (NOK 54,306,393)
WII: 14.1% (NOK 43,722,973)
NDS: 13.8% (NOK 42,810,223)
PS2: 9.2% (NOK 28,595,136)
PSP: 1.2% (NOK 3,612,801)

Link (Norwegian)
Full Spreadsheet (XLS)

*Microsoft does not allow it's hardware figures to be published, however, from 2009 Microsoft first party software is included for the first time.

It's interesting to note that PS3 has now passed Wii in total hardware sales. Whilst Xbox 360 hardware figures are unavailable, with PS3 software revenue 50% higher than Xbox 360 software revenue it seems quite likely that PS3 is now the leading current generation console in Norway.

Japanese, North American, and Western European software and hardware unit sales 2008

PDF

Whilst the chart only says United States when adding up Famitsu Japanese, GfK European, and NPD US hardware unit sales the totals come up a bit short of the totals posted above, however, once Canadian NPD sales are included the totals match almost perfectly once rounding errors are taken into account. Therefore I'm fairly confident that the above chart also includes Canada along with the US.

Comparison of individual region totals to Famitsu White Paper totals:



Deducting European and Japanese figures from Famitsu White Paper totals leaves us with more accurate North American hardware sales:



Doing the same with software sales gives the NPD software units by platform figures, which I haven't seen published before:

United Arab Emirates hardware market up in 2009 (GfK)

Image Credit: Source: GFK Retail and Technology

Hardware unit sales are forecast to increase from 376,464 in 2008 to 404,344 in 2009 and to 444,778 in 2010 according to GfK.

In terms of value the hardware market is expected to increase from $72,326,000 in 2008 to $74,057,000 in 2009 and to $74,797,000 in 2010.

Link

Sony Q2 2009 Results

System: Q2* shipments / LTD shipments

NDS: 5.73m / 113.48m
Wii: 3.52m / 56.14m
PS3: 3.2m / 27.0m
PSP: 3.0m / 55.9m
360: 2.1m / 33.5m
PS2: 1.9m / 140.7m

*Microsoft Q1