January’s American video game sales data from NPD is in, and like almost any month last year, it shows an unsurprising result: The Nintendo Wii outsold all other systems, or rather, it should be obvious all three console makers are experiencing shortages with sales down between half a million to one million per system.
To quote, head of global marketing for Microsoft’s games business, Jeff Bell’s explanation of the situation: “We are really running short of product here in the United States. You could say we misjudged demand. We’re literally out of stock in many stores. We think this will have an impact on our sales. It may cause the overall industry number to be down a little bit. — Retailers have been really upset, they are on allocation. It is a lag I think we’re seeing in January and that may continue into February, then as spring ramps up, we’ll be able to meet that demand.”
Video game hardware overview:
1. Nintendo Wii — 274,000
2. PlayStation 3 — 269,000
3. PlayStation 2 — 264,000
4. Nintendo DS — 251,000
5. Xbox 360 — 230,000
6. PlayStation Portable — 230,000
Video game software overview top 10:
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) — 330,900
2. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) — 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) — 239,600
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) — 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) — 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) — 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) — 144,100
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PlayStation 3) — 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (Nintendo DS) — 138,500
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo DS) — 133,000