No joke people! Nintendo has sold over a million DS handhelds in the United States in April alone. A remarkable month for the video game guru, with a combined 1.04 million DSi and DS Lite units sold.

The DSi sold more than 827,000 units in April, while the DS Lite pulled 215,000 units. These amazing numbers for April bring the count of Nintendo DS handhelds sold in the U.S. to over 30 million units. No doubt about it, Nintendo is still on top.

Here’s the full list of U.S. NPD April 2009 numbers:

Hardware

1. Nintendo DS – 1.04M
2. Wii – 340K
3. Xbox 360 – 175K
4. PlayStation 2 – 172K
5. PlayStation 3 – 127K
6. PSP – 116K

Software

1. Wii Fit- 471K
2. Pokemon Platinum DS – 433K
3. Mario Kart Wii- 210K
4. Wii Play – 170K
5. The Godfather II (360) – 155K
6. Resident Evil 5 (360) – 122K
7. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) – 119K
8. Mario Kart DS – 112K
9. Guitar Hero Aerosmith (360) – 110K
10. The Godfather II (PS3) – 91K

A recent Gamespot interview discussed the February’s NPD sales figures with representatives of both Microsoft and Sony. The writer, Brendan Sinclair, closed the piece by making the following statement:

“The [Microsoft] representative added that Microsoft expects entries in other formerly Sony-exclusive series such as Resident Evil 5 and Final Fantasy XIII to also sell better on the Xbox 360 than the PS3.”

Wha? The Gamespot interview lounge must serve more than milk and cookies to their guests. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Xbox 360 (I loved it more before it broke), but I’d like to have some of whatever that representative was smoking. Now, it’s worth noting that in the Gamespot interview touting this alleged comment, that the wording is that of the writer and not an exact quote by the MS rep.

While I am in not directly doubting the legitimacy of the statement, I always find it hard to take anything outside of a direct quote at complete face value. It’s my belief that if the individual said it verbatim it would and should be quoted as such.

That aside, if he/she did make that comment I see it as more of a thumb to the eye of Sony more than anything else. The PlayStation 3 still has quite the stranglehold on the Japanese market, not to mention exclusive rights to the next gen Final Fantasy release in that region.

Source: Gamespot

While the U.S. remains on top in the videogame market, a surprising turn of events over the past several years has resulted in the UK videogame market emerging as number two, beating Japan for the first time in history.

Dorian Bloch, Business Group Director, GfK Chart-Track Limited, recently made the following statement:

“UK console videogame software units are more than double what was achieved in 2003, which just shows how fast the UK market has been growing. Because of this amazing growth and coupled with the downtown currently being experienced in Japan, the UK market has for the first time overtaken Japan as the No2 world market. Although still behind on revenue, the gap has narrowed considerably and it will be interesting to see how things develop during 2009.”

Additionally, the UK market saw the largest year-over-year increase with sales up 26 percent, besting U.S. figures of 15 percent and Japan’s disappointing drop in sales by 13 percent. Much of Japan’s decline is attributed to a drop in PS2 software sales by 46 percent.

According to Anita Frazier, industry analyst for the NPD Group, “Only two months in 2008 saw a decline in unit sales in the U.S., with one due in large part to the release of 360 Halo 3 in Sept’07 and the other due to an additional week in the Jan’07 retail calendar.”

Combined sales of these top three markets show an overall increase in the gaming industry of 11 percent, with sales of 409.9 million units versus the 367.7 million units sold across these markets in 2007. Hooray growth!

After researching the million-selling games available for PlayStation 3, I thought it only fair to follow that up with the Xbox 360’s million-sellers. Listed here are all of the Xbox 360 games that have to date sold over one million copies worldwide, based on the latest and greatest information I had available. Likewise with the PS3 list, there are some games (like Madden 09) that I could not find current numbers on, but we all know Madden 09 sold more than a million copies (EA says they sold 4.5 million) and would likely be higher on this list.

Listed in order of sales (in millions):

1. Halo 3, Microsoft — 8.4
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision — 6.6
3. Grand Theft Auto IV, Take-Two Interactive — 6.2
4. Gears Of War, Microsoft — 5.3
5. Forza Motorsport 2, Microsoft — 4.1
6. Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft — 4.0
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, RedOctane — 3.5
8. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, 2K Games — 2.6
9. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Activision — 2.5
10. Madden NFL 08, Electronic Arts — 2.4
11. Guitar Hero II, RedOctane — 2.3
12. Call of Duty 2, Activision — 2.2
13. Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Ubisoft — 2.2
14. Tom Clancy Rainbow Six: Vegas, Ubisoft — 2.2
15. Call of Duty 3, Activision — 2.1
16. Gears of War 2, Microsoft — 2.1
17. Mass Effect, Microsoft — 2.1
18. BioShock, 2K Games — 2.0
19. Saints Row, THQ — 1.9
20. Rock Band, MTV Games — 1.9
21. Madden NFL 07, Electronic Arts — 1.8
22. Fight Night Round 3, Electronic Arts — 1.8
23. Dead Rising, Capcom — 1.8
24. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Ubisoft — 1.7
25. Lost Planet, Capcom — 1.7
26. Viva Pinata, Microsoft — 1.6
27. Need for Speed ProStreet, Electronic Arts — 1.5
28. Crackdown, Microsoft — 1.5
29. Fable II, Microsoft — 1.5
30. Project Gotham Racing 3, Microsoft — 1.5
31. Need for Speed Most Wanted, Electronic Arts — 1.5
32. FIFA 08, Electronic Arts — 1.4
33. Perfect Dark Zero, Microsoft — 1.4
34. Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Ubisoft — 1.4
35. Need for Speed Carbon, Electronic Arts — 1.4
36. Army of Two, Electronic Arts — 1.4
37. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, THQ — 1.3
38. Madden NFL 09, Electronic Arts — 1.3
39. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts — 1.2
40. Tom Clancy Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Ubisoft — 1.2
41. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Eidos Interactive — 1.1
42. Devil May Cry 4, Capcom — 1.1
43. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Konami — 1.1
44. Project Gotham Racing 4, Microsoft — 1.1
45. Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Konami — 1.1
46. Dead or Alive 4, Tecmo — 1.0
47. The Simpsons Game, Electronic Arts — 1.0

After publishing my LittleBigPlanet story about sales numbers, in which I mentioned the million-sellers for PS3 and Xbox 360, I have since seen some ripples in the gaming community wondering what these million-selling games are. So I used the various tools and information from NPD and sites like Chart-Track to compile this list of PS3 games with worldwide sales over one million units, as accurate as I could make it with the latest information I had.

Games listed in order of sales (in millions):

1. Grand Theft Auto IV, Take-Two Interactive — 4.8
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision — 3.7
3. Motorstorm, Sony Computer Entertainment — 3.6
4. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Konami — 3.4
5. Resistance: Fall of Man, Sony Computer Entertainment — 3.2
6. Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft — 2.9
7. Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Sony Computer Entertainment — 2.2
8. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Sony Computer Entertainment– 1.9
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Konami — 1.6
10. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, RedOctane — 1.6
11. FIFA 08, Electronic Arts — 1.6
12. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Sony Computer Entertainment — 1.4
13. Need for Speed: ProStreet, Electronic Arts — 1.4
14. Devil May Cry 4, Capcom — 1.3
15. Heavenly Sword, Sony Computer Entertainment — 1.2
16. FIFA 09, Electronic Arts — 1.1
17. WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, THQ — 1.0

Hope that helps.

Notice: There are other titles, such as Madden 09, that I could not find solid numbers on, but Wikipedia lists total sales across all platforms at 4.5 million, so one could assume it sold at least a million on PS3.

I know some fanboys will read the headline and expect this article to totally slam the PS3 and Little Big Planet, and they will likely start posting hateful comments before even reading what this is about. Great. You are only making your fanboyism more apparent and showing the community what a massive dickface you are, so I welcome that.

What this article is actually about is in defense of Little Big Planet (or is it LittleBigPlanet, one word?). You see, a lot of websites (that I won’t mention because they don’t deserve the promotion) have been commenting on Little Big Planet’s sales and making the fantastically brilliant analysis that the game’s delay may have affected its numbers. More specifically, its October sales numbers in particular are not as high as they could have been because the release date was pushed back. Um, no fucking shit, you morons.

While a lot of fanboys and seemingly intelligent people have tried to reason with these websites as to why the sales were as “low” as they were (the patch caused people to be wary of buying it, lots of big releases in October, Sony didn’t advertise it enough, etc.), they all seemed to be missing one obviously logical explanation: it didn’t sell as well as it could have because it was only out for 4 fucking days!

Let me ask you this: do you think Little Big Planet sold less copies in October in 4 days than it would have if it was instead available for 11 days? Um, of course it did. It’s pretty simple logic, isn’t it? In fact, Little Big Planet’s sales of 215,000 units in 4 days was only right behind SOCOM’s sales of 231,000, and that game was available for a full two weeks longer.

Some people assumed Little Big Planet would be an instant million-seller, and some even predicted 5 million units sold. These October numbers now have people making all kinds of excuses. Let’s be real, people. The PS3 has only 17 games that have to date sold over a million copies (Xbox 360 has 47), and GTA4 tops that list with less than 5 million. Obviously, Little Big Planet is not going straight to the top with over 5 million copies sold. That’s just silly.

On the other hand, Little Big Planet’s sales of 215,000 copies in only 4 days puts it on track to sell a million copies fairly easily, a feat which is pretty impressive for a PS3-exclusive new IP (joining Motorstorm, Resistance, Uncharted, and Heavenly Sword). In fact, I would predict that Little Big Planet breaks the million mark by the end of the month, and if Sony decides to pack it in a holiday bundle, you can expect it to pass 2 million by year’s end.

So all these idiots pretending to be analysts need to just stop writing. If you want to talk about sales data, at least be logical about it… or don’t. At least if you keep doing what you’re doing I’ll have plenty of material for my own writing. So, uh, thanks for that… idiots.

You may remember when we reported that analysts were expecting the gaming industry to have huge sales this holiday, specifically Guitar Hero, despite this economic crisis plaguing the U.S. Turns out they were right (duh). Not only has the gaming industry not fallen into a slump, but it has in fact increased a whopping 18% in fourth-quarter sales compared to last year.

Here is a breakdown of stats according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier:

• Sales of console game systems, software, and accessories rose 26% compared to October 2007
• Portable game sales dropped for October, but total sales for the year are up 7%
• The Wii had its biggest sales month (803,000 units) since December 2007
• Xbox 360 (371,000) and PlayStation 3 (190,000) had higher sales compared to the same time period last year
• The PS3 had its greatest year-over-year monthly sales increase ever at 57%
• Fable II was the best-selling game of October (and rightfully so) with over 790,000 units sold
• The gaming industry is poised to top $22 billion in annual sales, making 2008 a new sales record

Source: USA Today

Microsoft weren’t going to break the old adage that ‘price cuts cause increased sales,’ proving their tactics correct with a near doubling of US console sales over August, according to the NPD group.

Apart from Nintendo’s Wii continuing to sell through the roof, Sony’s PlayStation 3 also saw a rise on its previous month, closing the Xbox 360’s lead to just over 100k. This month-over-month growth is despite an overall industry decline of 7% over last year; the first decline since March 2006.  Still, September 2007 was the month Halo 3 broke records, accounting for an incredible 35% of 2007’s overall software sales.

Moving from hardware to software, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed shows the power of Lucas’ brand by topping the chart, also supporting our report that Unleashed is the fastest selling Star Wars game of all time.  Wii Fit continues to vault off shelves, and Rock Band 2 shows healthy Xbox 360 numbers, promising much for its multiplatform release later this year.

Software Sales

1. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts, Xbox 360) – 610,000
2. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) – 518,000
3. Rock Band 2 (Harmonix, Xbox 360) – 363,000
4. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) – 353,000
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts, PlayStation 3) – 325,000
6. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Pandemic, Xbox 360) – 297,000
7. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) – 243,000
8. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon, Xbox 360) – 224,000
9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Krome, Wii) – 223,000
10. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon, PlayStation 2) – 158,000

Hardware Sales (5 week month)

1. Wii – 687,000 units
2. Nintendo DS – 536,800 units
3. Xbox 360 – 347,200 units
4. PSP – 238,100 units
5. PlayStation 3 – 232,400 units
6. PlayStation 2 – 173,500 units

Microsoft should expect continual growth as we enter the holiday season, and at the magical $199 price point it might even be an attractive option during the current economic crisis.

Source: NPD, via NeoGAF

This is the month we’d see how much of an impact Metal Gear Solid 4 had on actual PS3 hardware sales. The results are promising.

Of course Nintendo continued to flex their muscles by trumping both the console and handheld markets, with 666.7k and 783k units respectively.  Wii’s numbers actually put the console ahead of the Xbox 360’s lifetime US hardware sales at 10.9 million units sold.

On the software side MGS4 displays the series’ strength, selling 774.6k unbundled copies. NPD Industry Analyst Anita Frazier had this to say on the subject;

As expected, Metal Gear Solid 4 realized significant retail sales and drove PS3 hardware acquisition.  While the attached media report does not include units bundled with hardware, if included MGS4 sold-through nearly 1 million units.

The extent to which MGS4 drove PS3 sales is quite staggering, in that the console had its best month in the US, not including the Christmas holiday periods – selling 405.5k units.  This in comparison to the Xbox 360’s 219.8 units for the month puts the PS3 at around 300k units ahead of the 360 in 2008 year-to-date US sales.

Hardware

Nintendo DS: 783k
Wii: 666.7k
PlayStation 3: 405.5k
PSP: 337.4k
Xbox 360: 219.8k
Playstation 2: 188.8k

Software

1. PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4, Konami, 6/08—774.6K (not including MGS4 PS3 bundles)
2. NDS Guitar Hero On Tour, Activision, 6/08—422.3K
3. 360 Ninja Gaiden II, Microsoft, 6/08—372.7K
4. Wii Fit with Balance Board, NOA, 5/08—372.7K
5. Wii Play with Remote, NOA, 2/07—359.1K
6. 360 Battlefield: Bad Company, EA, 6/08—346.8K
7. Wii Mario Kart with Wheel, NOA, 4/08—322.4K
8. Wii LEGO Indiana Jones, LucasArts, 6/08—294.5K
9. NDS LEGO Indiana Jones, LucasArts, 6/08—267.8K
10. PS2 LEGO Indiana Jones, LucasArts, 6/08—260.3K

Source: Edge Online

With the dust cloud of Holiday shopping well in our rear-view mirror and the strains of a recession squeezing our checkbooks, you would think the games industry would slow down a bit. You, my friend, would be wrong. Looking at the results of the March NPDs, it seems we’re actually back to where we started last summer!

Dropping its lead from last month, the PS3 chugged along (okay, well not quite as far behind) with 257K in sales; the Xbox 360 nervously fixed “shortages” with 262K; and the Nintendo powerhouse continues to sail comfortably ahead – the Wii alone beating the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined – with the Waggle machine selling 721K and the DS selling 698K. The PlayStation brand continues to move other hardware as well, selling nearly 300K in PSP’s, respectably. And its big brother the PS2 finally dropped in sales significantly as more people began to realize that this isn’t the year 2001.

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl — Wii — Nintendo — 2.7 million
2. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 — Xbox 360 — Ubisoft — 752.3K*
3. Army of Two — Xbox 360 — EA — 606.1K
4. Wii Play w/ remote — Wii — Nintendo — 409.8K
5. God of War: Chains of Olympus — PSP — Sony — 340.5K
6. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII — PSP — Square Enix — 301.6K
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — Wii — Activision — 264.1K
8. Major League Baseball 2K8 — Xbox 360 — Take-Two — 237.1K
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare — Xbox 360 — Activision — 237K*
10. Army of Two — PS3 — EA — 224.9K

And who said the Wii was just for casual gamers? Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold 2.7 million copies in March. Coming in at second in place, Rainbox Six Vegas 2 for the Xbox 360 sold a far less 752.3K. In third place, using a co-op move to climb the charts, was EA’s Army of Two, reporting in at 606.1K. The PS3 version of this game came in tenth, with less than half the sales. Wii-Play came in at fourth with 409.8K and God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PSP summoned 340.5K in sales.

In terms of hardware, this just goes to prove that the Wii is most definitely, not in a million years, a fad. For Nintendo to outsell both the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined with either the individual sales figures of the Wii or its handheld machine is incredible. It’s also interesting to note that the PS3 beat the Xbox 360 for the past two months by an ever so slight margin. Microsoft said it was due to shortages in hardware – which is probably true, seeing as how after amping up supply they shot ahead (albeit 5K) of the PS3. Let the fanboys quibble, but the PS3 and Xbox 360 are essentially tied. The PS3 has a lot of great game releases coming out this year, as does the 360, so it’s going to be very interesting to see if either can make a significant pull ahead in sales. One thing’s for sure, the Wii and DS are selling like hotcakes and its sales only continue to amaze the cynics. And with Wii Fit and Mario Kart gearing up for the following months, the Nintendo machine isn’t likely to slow down.

Source: Game Daily

Following the report of Toshiba officially pulling the plug on HD-DVD, Sony’s shares rose as much as 5% throughout the day.

The death of HD-DVD will likely lead to a higher adoption rate of the PS3, which in turn may lead to more NPD results in the vein of January, that had the PS3 outselling the 360 in the United States.

This then perpetuates the domino effect that we seem to be having. Both Universal and Paramount have now obviously announced their allegiance to Blu-ray, solidyfying the potential the format has to succeed.

Regardless of where our allegiances may lie, there’s no denying that a Playstation 3 that sells upwards of 250k in a US month is a good thing for the gaming industry.

Source: Next-Gen.biz

Image: Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

There’s been quite a bit of evidence for a new Xbox 360 sku, or at least a sign that Microsoft will be putting out new models, whether they have any major hardware additions or not. Apparent shortages in the United States, a bigger appearance at this weeks GDC, and now Amazon.com are adding to the pile.

After January’s NPD numbers were released, the Xbox 360 fell behind the Playstation 3 for the first time in the US. Microsoft and gamers alike pointed to a console shortage for the lower sales numbers. It is unlikely that Microsoft simply misjudged their market, since there has been no major growth in sales over last year. So with shortages expected to continue until March, Microsoft may well be holding something back.

It’s possible that production has ended on the current consoles and has moved onto a newly improved selection, either with new features, or simply with an improved chipset.

Amazon.com adds to the intrigue by suggesting that almost every Xbox 360 sku has been “Discontinued by the manufacturer.” Many of the consoles appear to be in stock on the website, but with such an odd statement underneath each of them, it’s hard not to infer that Microsoft are getting ready to re-stuff the channels with new and improved consoles.

Will Microsoft be announcing a new Xbox 360 at this weeks GDC? Or will things carry on as normal, while they improve the chipset behind closed doors?

According to the January NPD numbers, the PS3 outperformed expectations and did extremely well in sales, outselling the Xbox 360 in the United States for the first month ever.

Nintendo’s two systems, the Wii and DS, both underperformed, even though the Wii overall sold better than the PS3 in January.

In terms of software, Activision’s Call of Duty 4 blew the doors off of sales for another month, with 330,900 units sold in January. The Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 also sold extremely well, selling 239,600 units bundled with the guitar peripheral.

Here are the full January NPD Hardware and Software results, as reported by the SimExchange:

Source: TheSimExchange

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was just awarded Overall Game of the Year at last night’s 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards Show. See, we were right!

In addition to Game of the Year, Infinity Ward’s hot little number also called in an airstrike on Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play. Activision rejoiced at the kill streak and called in a helicopter.

Robin Kaminsky, Activision’s executive vice president of publishing, had this to say:

“It’s an honor for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to be recognized by the Academy as the best game of 2007. The team at Infinity Ward is committed to delivering groundbreaking entertainment to gamers worldwide and all of the awards are an acknowledgment of their talent, dedication and hard work.”

Jason West, studio head and project lead at Infinity Ward, added:

“We’re thrilled and truly appreciate that our efforts have been recognized by the Academy, especially with the incredible competition this year.”

Apparently, the competition wasn’t as great as we all thought it was. In fact, Call of Duty 4 topped the 2007 sales charts as the number-one, best-selling game worldwide, according to The NPD Group, Chart Track, and GFK Group. The game sold in excess of 7 million copies, even though it was just released in November.

ActiBlizzion has effectively entered Prestige Mode, as I’m sure they are planning on doing this all over again in 2008 with titles like Guitar Hero 4, Tony Hawk 481 (or whatever number they are on now), StarCraft 2, and of course, Call of Duty 5.

See, it’s not all doom and gloom for the 360 after all! According to the NPD Group’s data, Microsoft is leading the videogame industry in several areas. They had a big year overall – December hardware sales were on par with the Wii ,while 360 software sales took the lead with games like Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Assassin’s Creed.

Microsoft sure is proud of their accomplishments and wanted to let you know how awesome they are. Read on to see their take on this information.

Xbox 360 Drives the Video Game Console Industry in 2007:
NPD data released today confirms consumers spent more dollars on Xbox 360 in 2007, with more than $13.7 billion in total consumer spending. Xbox 360 won 2007 with $4.8 billion in total consumer spending compared to Wii with $3.5 billion and PlayStation 3 with $2.2 billion. This wraps up a historic year, with NPD reporting consumers have spent nearly 45 percent of total industry figures on Xbox 360.

Here is a quick snapshot of what is driving revenue for Xbox 360, based on the latest reports from NPD and Microsoft data:

* XBOX 360 WIDENS THE GAP OVER PS3 WITH CONSOLE SALES: According to NPD, Xbox 360 sold 1.3 million consoles in December alone, and has steadily widened the gap between Sony’s PlayStation 3 console sales. In December, NPD stated that Sony sold 798,000 PS3 hardware units. Since PS3’s launch in November 2006, Xbox 360 has outsold PS3 by nearly 2:1 on average, bringing a total U.S. Xbox 360 install base of 9.2 million consoles, compared to and installed base of 7.4 million Wii consoles and 3.3 million PS3 consoles.

* GAMES DRIVE INDUSTRY GROWTH: Xbox 360 robust games portfolio spans across the highest-ranked AAA titles to the largest collection of “Everyone” and “Teen” rated games. According to NPD, of the top 20 best-selling titles in 2007 for this generation, 11 were on Xbox 360; while only seven were sold on the Wii and two sold on the PS3.

** NPD reported that this holiday’s leading multiplatform blockbusters continue to sell better on Xbox 360: + “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” for Xbox 360 was the leading game last month with 1.5 million copies sold, outselling the PS3 version nearly 3:1.

+ “Assassin’s Creed” for Xbox 360 was the fourth best selling title, having sold 894,000 units. It outsold the PS3 version more than 2:1.

+ “Guitar Hero III” outsold the PS3 nearly 2:1, having sold 625,000 copies.

+ “Rockband” continues to rock the charts, selling 463,000 units for the Xbox 360 platform, compared to 174,000 units for the PS3

** To date, 33 third party games on Xbox 360 hit the top 10 list across all consoles compared to five third party games on PS3, and four on Wii. These results confirm that third party partners create better games and reap more sales on Xbox 360 than any other platform.

** In its fourth month on the market, Halo 3 continued its strong performance and was the sixth best selling title in December, selling another 742,000. In 2007, NPD projects that Halo 3 has sold 4.8 million units in the U.S. since its launch in September.

** Xbox 360 continues to lead in number of games sold per console, setting another record with an attach rate of 7.0 games per console.

* XBOX LIVE SETS NEW HEIGHTS: Xbox LIVE’s network is 10 million members strong and growing, achieving membership goals six months ahead of schedule. Only on Xbox LIVE can members experience the largest catalog of on-demand, high-definition content in the U.S., including movies and television shows from our most recent partners: Disney-ABC Television Group and MGM Studios.

We’re not slowing down in 2008. The next versions of powerhouse franchises like “Grand Theft Auto,” “Resident Evil” and sports games like “Madden”, “FIFA”, and “Pro Evolution Soccer” open up a new arena for game play on Xbox 360. This year we will make great strides toward improving our brand appeal to consumers interested in more physical game play. With titles like “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock,” “Rock Band” and “Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action” we’re creating interactive experiences on Xbox 360 for the entire family.

Whether or not you believe this information makes Microsoft the market leader is entirely up to you. Regardless, these numbers certainly are positive for Microsoft and the gamers currently enjoying their Xbox 360s. Now if only they could sort out these hardware issues…

Source: Team Xbox

Indicating that family-friendly Wii games sell better, the gory motion-controlled Manhunt 2 tanked like a thug drowned in a toilet by selling less than 50,000 units in November. Mario and Sonic together took the silver in Wii sales at the Olympic Games with a surprising 242,000 units, despite relatively subdued critical buzz.

Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect also did quite well, with Assassin’s Creed selling over a quarter million just on PS3 and Mass Effect selling a third of a million copies on Xbox 360.

The simExchange predicts that November’s sales alone, for the first time ever, will bring in $1 billion dollars for the videogame market. Partly this is because Nintendo sold over one million hardware units of the Wii and 1.3 million units of the DS. The Xbox 360 came in second with a highly respectable 728,000 units of hardware sold in November, and the PS3 and PSP did very well with sales of around 400,000 units each.

Here’s the list of November’s NPD numbers, as predicted by simExchange:

Hardware:

Nintendo DS – 1,300,000 units
Wii – 1,060,000 units
Xbox 360 – 728,000 units
Playstation Portable – 468,000 units
Playstation 3 – 410,000 units

Software:

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 1,270,000 units
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 833,000 units
Mass Effect (Xbox 360) – 328,000 units
Assassin’s Creed (PS3) – 272,000 units
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii) – 242,000 units
Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 152,000 units
Unreal Tournament 3 (PC) – 78,000 units
Crysis (PC) – 66,000 units
Manhunt 2 (Wii) – 46,000 units

Source: The simExchange

With the landmark release of Guitar Hero 3 last month, Activision claimed the second, third and fourth spots in Octobers NPD numbers. Bear in mind that the game wasn’t released until the last week in sales for October. Because of this success, Activision has been ranked as the leading publisher by the NPD group.

According to QJ.net the release of the GH3 caused Activision’s market share to jump 28.7%. With all these numbers, its hard not to question the longevity of Activision’s figurative thrown of dominance. With the impending release of EA’s RockBand, will the mega-publisher usurp Activision’s short lived rule? Or will Guitar Hero just be a prelude of things to come?