Tendo City

Courtesy of Gaming-Age forums and CSFB:

February Hardware Sales

PS2: 484,000 (+8% over January sales)
XBOX: 197,000 (+20%)
GCN: 164,000 (+103%)
GBA: 282,000 (+6%)

Cumulative Installed Base

PS2: 16,802,000
XBOX: 4,962,000
GCN: 3,828,000
GBA: 12,441,000

February Software Sales

Rank Title Publisher

1 PS2 THE GETAWAY Sony
2 PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO:VICE Take-Two Interactive
3 PS2 THE SIMS Electronic Arts
4 PS2 YU-GI-OH! DUELISTS Konami
5 PS2 DEVIL MAY CRY 2 Capcom
6 PS2 XENOSAGA EPISODE 1 Namco
7 PS2 .HACK: INFECTION Bandai
8 PS2 DRAGON BALL Z:BUDOKAI Infogrames
9 PS2 MADDEN NFL 2003 Electronic Arts
10 PS2 SOCOM:U.S. NAVY SEALS Sony
11 PS2 T.CLANCY'S GHOST RECON Ubi Soft
12 GBA YU-GI-OH! DUNGEON DICE Konam i
13 PS2 NBA LIVE 2003 Electronic Arts
14 PS2 ATV OFF ROAD FURY 2 Sony
15 XBX T.CLANCY'S GHOST RECON Ubi Soft
16 XBX T.CLANCY'S SPLINTER Ubi Soft
17 PS2 DARK CLOUD 2 Sony
18 PS2 LORD OF RINGS: TOW ERS Electronic Arts
19 PS2 MORTAL KOMBAT: DEADLY Midway
20 XBX HALO Microsoft
21 PS2 TIGER W OODS PGA 2003 Electronic Arts
22 PS2 KINGDOM HEARTS Square EA
23 XBX DOA: BEACH VOLLEYBALL Tecmo
24 GCN METROID PRIME Nintendo
25 GCN MARIO PARTY 4 Nintendo

Source: CSFB estimates based on NPD Funworld data.


The following lists are ranked by retail sales (in dollars). The first number is the rank, the second number is the retail sales, the final number is the number of units. For example, The Getaway (PS2) is ranked #1, had revenue of $12,060,060, and sold 304,069 copies.


Top 10 Selling Games for PS2 for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 THE GETAWAY Sony 12,060,060 $ 304,069
2 GRAND THEFT AUTO:VICE Take-Two Interactive 9,079,400 $ 182,837
3 THE SIMS Electronic Arts 8,520,829 $ 171,142
4 YU-GI-OH! DUELISTS Konami 7,339,460 $ 147,493
5 DEVIL MAY CRY 2 Capcom 5,750,466 $ 116,067
6 XENOSAGA EPISODE 1 Namco 5,723,964 $ 114,896
7 .HACK: INFECTION Bandai 4,687,284 $ 95,066
8 DRAGON BALL Z:BUDOKAI Infogrames 3,955,401 $ 81,724
9 MADDEN NFL 2003 Electronic Arts 3,752,919 $ 75,419
10 SOCOM:U.S. NAVY SEALS Sony 3,568,924 $ 59,647

Top 10 Selling Games for Xbox for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 T.CLANCYS GHOST RECON Ubi Soft 2,898,458 $ 60,606
2 T.CLANCY'S SPLINTER Ubi Soft 2,891,552 $ 59,508
3 HALO Microsoft 2,608,724 $ 54,857
4 DOA: BEACH VOLLEYBALL Tecmo 2,357,513 $ 47,886
5 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 1,642,945 $ 33,521
6 INDIANA JONES:EMPEROR LucasArts 1,280,973 $ 26,131
7 MECH ASSAULT Microsoft 1,278,521 $ 26,689
8 TIGER WOODS PGA 2003 Electronic Arts 1,127,403 $ 22,725
9 MEDAL HONOR FRONTLINE Electronic Arts 1,050,845 $ 21,195
10 NBA LIVE 2003 Electronic Arts 1,049,792 $ 21,143

Top 10 Selling Games for GameCube for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 METROID PRIME Nintendo 2,035,031 $ 68,873
2 MARIO PARTY 4 Nintendo 1,993,635 $ 60,539
3 SUPER SMASH BRO MELEE Nintendo 1,585,663 $ 47,771
4 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 1,518,543 $ 30,600
5 ANIMAL CROSSING Nintendo 1,384,332 $ 27,813
6 SKIES OF ARCADIA LGND Sega 1,274,151 $ 24,881
7 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE Nintendo 1,176,820 $ 23,866
8 STAR FOX ADVENTURES Nintendo 973,251 $ 29,715
9 RESIDENT EVIL ZERO Capcom 915,378 $ 30,297
10 GODZILLAESTRY MELEE Infogrames 864,918 $ 19,885

Top 10 Selling Games for GBA for February 2003 (Retail Sales $)
Source: NPD.
Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
1 YU-GI-OH! DUNGEONDICE Konami 3,418,645 $ 114,288
2 ZELDA: LINK TO PAST Nintendo 1,814,208 $ 59,520
3 YU-GI-OH! ETERNAL Konami 1,813,388 $ 61,157
4 KIRBY: N IGHTMARE Nintendo 1,646,332 $ 55,950
5 YU-GI-OH! DARK DUEL Konami 1,316,932 $ 47,534
6 YOSHI'S ISLAND:MARIO3 Nintendo 1,019,939 $ 33,538
7 SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 2 Nintendo 949,014 $ 30,993
8 METROID FUSION Nintendo 857,700 $ 28,686
9 SONIC ADVANCE THQ 800,565 $ 26,820
10 LORD OF RINGS: TOWERS Electronic Arts 796,759 $ 24,775

Commentary:

The free game deal seems to have given GCN a boost in hardware sales, but the 103% increase over January was still not enough to outpace Xbox for the month. In addition, the spike in sales of hardware seems to be ephemeral (short-lived). A BestBuy employee that tracks sales of his retail chain predicts with confidence that "PS2>Xbox>GCN" in March.

On the software side of things, GCN titles are having a tough time breaking into the top 25. Only Metroid Prime and Mario Party have accomplished this in the month of February. With sales of 68,873 for the month, Metroid steadily moves past the 800,000 mark with 827,248 total sales. The average Metroid Prime sold for about 30$, which, assuming that Metroid sold for either 0 or $50, means that about 40701 of the 68873 titles sold for $50. That's actually an increase from last month's sales of around 36,000. Mario Party 4 is scratching at the door of 600,000 copies with a total of 595,177. Like Metroid, Mario Party isolated sales increased from 32,580 to 39,873.

Skies of Arcadia:Legends has sold a total of 44,574 copies. While nothing to celebrate over, it's nice to see that it didn't bomb like it did in Japan. I was quite scared after it only sold 20,000 units in January during the key first days of its release.

Damn, Metroid should be selling better than that.

I give up. Most gamers are idiots.

GameCube up 103% from January!? What the hell caused that, there haven't been any major-major releases! The nearest other increase was only 20%, by X-Box!

I have Metroid, and I like it and play it frequently, but...to me anyway, the gameplay is very repetitive...maybe others feel the same way.

Darunia-ever heard of the "Buy a Gamecube, get Metroid Prime, Mario Party 4, SFA, or Re:0 free!" deal that started in February in the US and has been heavily advertised?

Quote:Originally posted by Darunia
GameCube up 103% from January!? What the hell caused that, there haven't been any major-major releases! The nearest other increase was only 20%, by X-Box!

I have Metroid, and I like it and play it frequently, but...to me anyway, the gameplay is very repetitive...maybe others feel the same way.

But you like REmake??

I think Zelda will be near the top in march, if not march then april

You mean that "buy a GC get a game" thing is working...? You mean NOA's brass is actually doing something smart for once...?

And yes---REMake is nothing near repetitive. Every room serves a purpose, and is unique. The zombies are strategically placed. Everything serves a purpose. No two areas are anywhere near alike. In Metroid, without use opf the map, you get lost--much as in the faceless labyrinty of identical terrain in Turoks I & II. All one does in Metroid is blast aliens with cannons (which really arent that different from one another), and run around finding artifacts. How original is that?

Now you've gotten me Metroid-bashing; I didn't want to do that---you bastard!!

Nah, Pokémon will be the top seller in March. And April. And May. And June... I think Zelda will sell well, especially if all those preorders are sold right away, but Pokémon is Pokémon and it will sell up the wazoo. Especially considering the release of the GBA SP at the same time.

Quote:In Metroid, without use opf the map, you get lost--

Which is why you use the map. It's all included for you and the 3D scalable-rotatable-translatable map on MP is a lot better than any of the Zelda 2D maps. I think it works fine.

Quote:Originally posted by Darunia
You mean that "buy a GC get a game" thing is working...? You mean NOA's brass is actually doing something smart for once...?

And yes---REMake is nothing near repetitive. Every room serves a purpose, and is unique. The zombies are strategically placed. Everything serves a purpose. No two areas are anywhere near alike. In Metroid, without use opf the map, you get lost--much as in the faceless labyrinty of identical terrain in Turoks I & II. All one does in Metroid is blast aliens with cannons (which really arent that different from one another), and run around finding artifacts. How original is that?

Now you've gotten me Metroid-bashing; I didn't want to do that---you bastard!!

I can't believe you're placing REmake in the same league as Metroid Prime. It would be like someone trying to compare "Dude, Where's My Car?" with "The Godfather". I mean you can like REmake more than anything else, but it's far more flawed than Prime.

First, repetitive isn't necessarially bad... it sometimes can get tedious, but thats generally if the game wasn't fun in the first place... and I can't see any possible complaint about a map. Maps are good. Almost any game is greatly improved by the addition of a map... I don't unerstand how it could be a negative in any way...

It's bad if it's repetition of a bad thing. Look at Tomb Raider for example. The controls were okay with the first game since it was one of the first 3-D games ever made, but then we saw how well 3D games can control so the whole checkerboard controls got very annoying by comparison. RE is similar that way. Silent Hill showed that controls don't have to suck in that type of game.

Tomb Raider? That's squarely in the 'bad from the start' category, imo... and as for RE I've never played the series.

So, Xbox and GCN games are selling about equally, but PS2 bests them by about 6x. To be expected with the user base, I mean you can't expect more people to buy the game than own the system, right?

Sales continue to be pretty pathetic for Nintendo.... just to state the obvious.

Quote:Originally posted by A Black Falcon
Tomb Raider? That's squarely in the 'bad from the start' category, imo... and as for RE I've never played the series.

I'd say so too, but many others disagree.

And you've never played RE? So why did you get into this discussion?

Just imagine Grim Fandango with the character-relative controls, but you have to act fast and shoot and stuff. It's fine for an action-less game like Fandango, but not for something like RE IMO.

I still say the the cinema-like story line and crisp pre-rendered backgrounds make Metroid look common.

You think that pre-rendered backgrounds make Metroid look "common"?

That's not even worth a perplexed smily. I just don't know what to say.

Common in as much as almsot all other games are real time nowadays; that being so, there's a technological limit to how detailed, realistic and clear they can be. Pre-rendered games seem to be a dying form...which is why RE is more unique than Metroid.

...

Um... pre-rendered backgrounds were made for old quasi-3D games that couldn't render complex real-time backgrounds. It's actually a good thing that it's dying away. There is not one single advantage that pre-rendered backgrounds have over real-time ones anymore.

...except that, on a purely graphical standpoint, pre-rendered graphics wipe the floor with real-time. I mean, look at a screenshot of the main hall in REmake and tell me that GCN could do that much detail in lighting, number of polygons, etc. and not take a huge framerate hit. The reason why I'm so psyched about RE4 is that the real-time graphics in that game miraculously compete with REmake.

Graphical advantages aside, I think pre-rendered backgrounds are limiting. Because it's essentially a fake of the environment, you can't do much with it. Interaction with the environment is painfully minimalistic, and physics is often messed up. I prefer real-time over anything else, but it's only fair to give credit where credit is due.

What I don't understand is when companies use real-time and then limit the interaction with the environment with pre-rendered-esque techniques. For example, I will never understand why Silicon Knights chose to pre-render the light coming in from the windows in the mansion.

As seen with the likes of RE4 and Doom 3, making real-time graphics look as good as pre-rendered graphics is achievable. Pre-rendered backgrounds in 3D games is bad. It was alright for RE because of the stupid static camera, but I'm glad to see it die.

I was referring to Metroid... though I don't really see how it's repetitive, still, I do think that repetitive isn't always bad... and as for the graphics, Metroid has extremely good graphics... better in many ways than RE because realtime means you get more camera angles. Static cameras aren't terrible, but they aren't nearly as good as movable (or at least ones that move) are... its just more clumsy and harder to control, at least in a action environment. Like you said... its great in Grim Fandango, but in a action game? No.

Though static camera angles have been a major feature in survival-horror games since the creation of the the genre (that would be Alone in the Dark (and its two sequels that came out soon after it)... for PC), for some reason. It really is time to get rid of it... static cameras are annoying and can be a lot harder to play in than dynamic ones if you have to play a action-oriented game...

The staggeringly realistic scenery in REMake's pre-rendered images are not to be trifled with. Even OoT utilized pre-rendered screens at times, just to emphasize a moment, or an important locale: like outside of the Temple of Time. Pre-rendition has many, many drawbacks, theres no denying it, but for the time, and for realism (for what thats worth), pre-rendered is simply more realistic and enthralling.

The pre-rendered backgrounds looked like crap in OoT because they were so blurry. I'm glad that Nintendo realized that and fixed it with MM. REmake is one of the few games that has made good use of it since before that all of the pre-rendered stuff looked terribly out of place against the models. There's nothing realistic about it at all. And there's no need for it anymore.

what i think was so brillent about REmake that hadn't really been done before (it had been done before, in some game whose name i can't remember, it was for the PSX and it really didn't do it very well) was that rather than playing on a static pre-rendered background, you were playing on what appeared to be more of an FMV. there was tons of convincing movement in the background to make it look more realstic. i think it was very well done. also, the characters blended in perfectly with the backgrounds and looked as though they belonged.and it's the combination of the movement in the backgrounds with theextreme detail of the 3D models that combined to justify REmake being pre-rendered. it really was the next gen of pre-rendered backgrounds...if you will.

That was done in Fear Effect for the PSX.

The reason why the pre-rendered backgrounds blended so well with the models was becuase of their high poly count and excellent textures. But I have no idea why Darunia would want them to keep that rescricting background style for RE4. RE4 is going to look incredible but this time around the cameras don't look like they're going to be fixed.

Quote:Originally posted by OB1
That was done in Fear Effect for the PSX.

Also in Final Fantasy 8/9. And probably other Square games that weren't released out here.

But yes, Fear Effect is the one he's thinking of.

Quote:Just imagine Grim Fandango with the character-relative controls, but you have to act fast and shoot and stuff. It's fine for an action-less game like Fandango

You really shouldn't be in the situation where you NEED to act fast, but the controls were hampering you. The 180degree turn rectified any real problems. Anything after that was your fault.

Quote:It would be like someone trying to compare "Dude, Where's My Car?" with "The Godfather".

More like The Godfather to The Godfather pt. 2 :) Both brilliant, but in their own ways.

On a side note, they had Metroid Prime on display (Full NTSC copy) at my EB today, and I got to play it. I was fully impressed by the graphics, but hadn't figured out how to scan or anything yet. The ball is neat-o :D Controls did throw me off a little, but I knew what I was getting into, and it shouldn't take me long to adjust once I get the game. :)

Wait--you don't have Metroid Prime?? What's wrong with you!!

I give up, OB1, you're just vehemently against all forms of Pre-rendering. What, was you molested as a kid by a pre-rendered videogame designer? Resident Evil is a great game, and the art is fantastic and the most realistic I've ever seen. Pre-rendition was fantastic. End of story.

Um... did you not read my comments about how the pre-rendered backgrounds were fine in REmake and RE0? I'm just laughing at how you think that pre-rendered backgrounds are this dying artform, this great technique in video games that makes it more unique than games with real-time backgrounds.

ah yes, fear effect. the real problem with that was that the video loops were only a few seconds long and they'd pause to load every few seconds.

and FF8 and 9 didn't do it nearly on the scale that was used in REmake. OB64 almost had as much background animation as FF8. oh well, it's also just more effective use of the FMV backgrounds in REmake because they have the powerful hardware to render the crazy detailed characters to blend with the awesome FMV's.

and i agree that what they're doing in RE4 is incredible. and i do prefer those awesome real time graphics to the pre-rendering. but for what they are, the backgrounds in REmake are sweet.

And before that, a few NES games had looped animated background pieces, and then many SNES games had that.