Thursday, December 03, 2009

Console Post Of The Week: A Buffet

November NPDs aren't out yet, but here's a very striking indicator. The week of Black Friday is always a huge PR moment for console manufacturers, and they're always ready to beat their chests and act like Tarzan.

Nintendo was first this year, saying that Wii sales for the week including Black Friday exceeded 550,000 units.

Sony announced next, and according to Sr. Corporate Communications director Patrick Seybold, the PS3 sold more than 440,000 units for the week ending November 29.

What did Microsoft have to say? Here's Xbox 360 product management director Aaron Greenberg, from his Twitter account:
Great BlackFriday results just in, biggest sales week of the year for Xbox360, more than 2xs previous week sale.

No way. Did he just do what I thought he did?

Let's say there are three guys, and there names are Ben, Lee, and William Shakespeare (why? Because I can.)

They're all sitting in a room together, and because there's just been an extended discussion about midgets, they're all asked to state their height.

Ben stands up and says "I'm 6'3"."

Lee stands up and says "I'm 6'2"."

William Shakespeare stands up and says "I'm twice as tall as that little guy standing in the corner."

Microsoft, in this case, is William Shakespeare. Uh-oh.

Here's something else worth watching, although we won't see the potential effect until the December NPDs come out. Wal-Mart announced today that they're offering a $50 gift card with the purchase of a Wii from December 5-12. They also announced that they're discounting ten games by $10. Here's the list (thanks Joystiq):
Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics (Wii)
Lego Rock Band (Wii)
Rock Band: Beatles (Wii)
MySims: Agents (Wii)
Tekken 6 (Xbox 360 and PS3)
Madden 2010 (Xbox 360 and PS3)
WWE 2010 (Xbox 360 and Wii)
Batman Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)
Dragon Age: Origins (PS3)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)
Halo 3:ODST (Xbox 360)
Uncharted 2 (PS3)

I don't think the industry is willing to accept this, but that $10 discount is going to drive some serious numbers.

One last note, and this is about little plastic instruments. If you're not living in a bomb shelter, you've seen every retailer practically giving them away. At Best Buy the other day, I was offered a private island and a personal man-servant if I would buy an original Rock Band bundle for $50.

With regret, I declined.

How many damn plastic instruments did these companies order? Plastic Guitar Town in China must have been working 24x7 for the last two years straight. What were Activision and MTV expecting--an unbroken chain of people holding plastic guitars stretching from San Francisco to Miami?

Yes, of course it would be called Plastic Guitars Across America.

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