March NPD sales figures

[OB1]

All Major Platforms
1 MVP BASEBALL 2004 $23,275,788 473,559
2 NINJA GAIDEN $17,972,270 362,441
3 POKEMON COLOSSEUM $16,562,150 342,603
4 BOND 007: EVERYTHING $11,715,073 242,844
5 T. CLANCYS PANDORA $10,658,837 215,372
6 MX UNLEASHED $6,328,046 159,993
7 NEED SPEED: UNDERGRND $6,245,344 132,546
8 SONIC HEROES $6,278,915 131,241
9 THE SUFFERING $6,417,921 129,795
10 METAL GEAR:TWIN SNAKE $4,858,605 122,435
11 FINAL FANTASY XI W/HD $11,337,960 115,343
12 NAMCO MUSEUM $2,029,129 114,387
13 RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBRK $5,644,087 113,333
14 NFL STREET $5,332,338 112,848
15 JET LI: RISE TO HONOR $4,374,684 109,998
16 MAFIA $4,840,413 99,767
17 MARIO BROS 3: MARIO 4 $2,668,832 90,418
18 METROID ZERO MISSION $2,535,471 86,543
19 SPONGEBOB: BATTLE $2,829,770 84,514
20 HALO $2,490,905 83,338
21 DRAKENGARD $3,230,136 82,160
22 SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY $2,702,511 77,015
23 DISNEY'S FINDING NEMO $2,004,585 76,632
24 NBA LIVE 2004 $3,637,521 74,632
25 TIGER WOODS PGA 2004 $3,358,717 72,762

GBA
1 MARIO BROS 3: MARIO 4 $2,668,832 90,418
2 METROID ZERO MISSION $2,535,471 86,543
3 POKEMON RUBY $2,280,847 72,705
4 POKEMON SAPPHIRE $1,957,867 61,573
5 YU-GI-OH! TRNMNT 2004 $1,959,674 58,467
6 MARIO & LUIGI SAGA $1,540,823 52,323
7 NAMCO MUSEUM $623,703 44,594
8 SPONGEBOB: BATTLE $1,128,336 39,811
9 PAC-MAN COLLECTION $543,133 39,263
10 SONIC BATTLE $1,150,717 39,213
11 CRASH BANDICOOT: HUGE $634,426 38,812
12 SONIC ADVANCE 2 $1,097,625 36,804
13 DONKEY KONG COUNTRY $1,003,260 36,282
14 TEENAGE MUTANT TURTLE $720,848 35,541
15 SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 2 $1,077,573 35,102

GCN
1 POKEMON COLOSSEUM $16,562,150 342,603
2 METAL GEAR:TWIN SNAKE $4,858,605 122,435
3 MARIO KART: DOUBLE $3,285,578 68,427
4 HARVEST MOON:WONDRFUL $2,716,202 68,126
5 FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL $3,004,271 61,443
6 SONIC HEROES $2,796,075 58,582
7 SUPER SMASH BRO MELEE $1,519,935 51,950
8 BOND 007: EVERYTHING $2,246,287 45,905
9 LUIGI'S MANSION $815,738 43,179
10 MVP BASEBALL 2004 $1,554,516 31,986
11 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE $852,497 29,446
12 MARIO PARTY 5 $1,405,631 28,391
13 PAC-MAN PLAYER'S BND $474,649 24,327
14 SCOOBY-DOO: MYSTERY $810,327 21,383
15 SUPER MONKEY BALL $412,531 21,311

PS2
1 MVP BASEBALL 2004 $15,562,560 316,467
2 BOND 007: EVERYTHING $6,133,909 125,042
3 FINAL FANTASY XI W/HD $11,337,960 115,343
4 RESIDENT EVIL: OUTBRK $5,644,087 113,333
5 MX UNLEASHED $4,470,123 113,016
6 JET LI: RISE TO HONOR $4,374,684 109,998
7 DRAKENGARD $3,230,136 82,160
8 NEED SPEED: UNDERGRND $3,872,449 80,339
9 NFL STREET $3,333,080 70,620
10 THE SUFFERING $3,266,024 66,368
11 MAFIA $2,567,295 53,086
12 SONIC HEROES $2,510,996 52,699
13 MLB 2005 $2,028,709 50,942
14 NCAA MARCH MDNSS 2004 $2,160,077 49,775
15 NBA LIVE 2004 $2,369,325 48,536


XBX
1 NINJA GAIDEN $17,972,270 362,441
2 T. CLANCYS PANDORA $10,597,500 213,310
3 MVP BASEBALL 2004 $6,158,712 125,106
4 HALO $2,490,905 83,338
5 THE SUFFERING $3,151,897 63,427
6 BOND 007: EVERYTHING $3,030,226 61,714
7 MX UNLEASHED $1,857,923 46,977
8 MAFIA $2,273,118 46,681
9 GRAND THEFT AUTO PACK $1,844,351 40,025
10 NEED SPEED: UNDERGRND $1,361,073 27,924
11 TENCHU:RETURN DARKNSS $1,360,552 27,532
12 T. CLANCYS RAINBOW 3 $1,328,952 27,047
13 TOP SPIN $756,962 25,602
14 DEAD MAN'S HAND $761,096 25,562
15 NFL STREET $1,143,423 24,140

Hardware:

GBA $46,872,322 496,614
PS2 $53,860,294 294,437
XBX $32,337,661 198,445
GC $16,094,477 163,028

The GC is behind the X-Box again, and this was before the price drop! Expect to see an very large gap between X-Box and GC hardware sales in April.

Twin Snakes sold miserably for such a high-profile title, but it is of course no surprise. Nintendo doesn't seem to give a damn is mature titles sell well on their system or not, so they put zero marketing behind them.

*sigh*

[A Black Falcon]

"Nintendo" and "good, widespread advertising" just do not go together. We should have learned that years ago now... the ads are either in short supply, bad, bad and in short supply, or good and plentiful for a very short period of time (like last holiday season).

Oh, and I wouldn't call 120,000 awful...

[OB1]

MGS2 for the PS2 sold almost 2 million copies within a month of its release. Not a fair comparison, sure, but even on the GC 120,000 copies in one month is very sad. More GC owners bought that crappy Pokemon game this month! "GC is teh kiddey" indeed.

You can't really blame LA and all of those other third-parties from jumping ship, can you?

[A Black Falcon]

No, I can't. I can be annoyed, but if I was them I'd probably be thinking about doing the same thing...

And you're right, that's not a fair comparison. For one thing it was a new game, and for another it actually had a marketing campaign...

[OB1]

MGS2 Substance sold better on the X-Box and PS2 in their first month of release than TS did.

[A Black Falcon]

...Install base larger? More in line with the audience that'd want the game?

[OB1]

Substance wasn't even a remake. It was MGS2 will a bunch of extra modes. Twin Snakes is so much more than that. But yes it's most likely because of the systems' demographics and Nintendo and Konami's lack of marketing.

[A Black Falcon]

As I said. And as we've both said many times before. :)

[OB1]

Yes.

[Great Rumbler]

I'd say this is more Konami's fault. They published it's their job to market it. Although, Nintendo could have done more too.

122,000 in 3 weeks isn't too horrible, but it should have been a lot better than that.

[OB1]

Nintendo co-developed it. :D

[A Black Falcon]

Then they are both at fault... Konami for not really caring about the Gamecube and Nintendo for not adaquately advertising their own games.

[OB1]

I doubt Konami really cared about the game to begin with, and were doing it just as a favor to Nintendo.

[A Black Falcon]

I agree, kinda. That's why I said Konami doesn't care about the Cube... they sure haven't demonstrated any amount of care yet! Oh, and I wouldn't call it so much a 'favor' as a 'let us keep making GBA games'...

[OB1]

Can you blame them though?

[A Black Falcon]

Well, if they tried a bit harder, they could have more success... maybe not as much as they'd have on PS2, but more than this!

[OB1]

They didn't even try with Substance but that still sold well.

[A Black Falcon]

Well then what's your explanation?

[OB1]

Like we said, demographics.

[alien space marine]

Maybe the fact that people are sick of MGS2? There has been subtance and shit now,Anyone who was a metal gear fan probaily owns a ps2 or xbox rather then gamecube. So really I think it boils down to demographics and the fact the game is old.

[OB1]

Nonsense. MGS3 is one of the most highly-anticipated games of the year. The series is most certainly not yesterday's news.

[A Black Falcon]

Summation: Nintendo is clueless, poorer than Sony, has a partner for the game who doesn't care, and has a market that's not quite right for the best sales of the game.

[OB1]

Nintendo is definitely not short on cash. They make enormous profits each year, and they could have very easily given TS a big marketing campaign.

[Great Rumbler]

Twin Snakes DID sell better than Final Fantasy XI, though.

[OB1]

Did it?

[Great Rumbler]

They were both released in March...but FFXI came out on the 23rd.

[OB1]

Yay!

But FFXI is $100 and requires a $13 a month subscribtion...

[Weltall]

You know, I would think as much of the advertising blame for Twin Snakes falls on Konami. Nintendo didn't make the game.

[Great Rumbler]

But FFXI is $100 and requires a $13 a month subscribtion...

True, but bringing up that information only draws attention away from the REAL point, the point that Twin Snakes has in fact sold more copies than FFXI as of April 1st. Point point.

[big guy]

halo sold 2/3 as many copies as twin snakes...doesn't everyone already have halo?

[OB1]

You know, I would think as much of the advertising blame for Twin Snakes falls on Konami. Nintendo didn't make the game.

Uh, yeah they did. SK was a Nintendo developer at the time, so it was developed by Nintendo.

[A Black Falcon]

Nintendo is definitely not short on cash. They make enormous profits each year, and they could have very easily given TS a big marketing campaign.

Didn't Nintendo have its first ever loss as a videogame company in one of the quarters last year?

Uh, yeah they did. SK was a Nintendo developer at the time, so it was developed by Nintendo.

Konami's Nintendo support is so strong! Like Namco's stellar N64 support, they released ONE GAME! And like Namco they even had Nintendo make it for them!

[OB1]

They still had no problem giving Pokecrap Collopoopeum (tee hee!) a big marketing push.

[A Black Falcon]

It sounds like you're trying to argue, when you know we agree pretty much completely about how incompetent Nintendo gets at marketing all too frequently...

[OB1]

Who's arguing?

[Great Rumbler]

One good thing Nintendo is doing is continuing the "Who Are You?" ad campaign.

[A Black Falcon]

They still had no problem giving Pokecrap Collopoopeum (tee hee!) a big marketing push.

Sounds almost like a 'yeah, but ..." tone...

GR: I don't know whether that's good or bad... :)

[Great Rumbler]

I thought it was a good ad campaign.

[big guy]

i liked it too

[Dark Jaguar]

Colloseum actually has next to no stadium mode. It's all the RPG really.

FFXI is normal game price if you just GET THE PC VERSION, which this sort of game is really tailor made for anyway. Though one could use a spare USB mouse+keyboard setup they have lying around and some coffee table to use it on to play it on the PS2 just as well. Oh yes, evil Wal-Mart is selling FFXI for $90 instead of $100. Evil better deals! Actually, I'm interested in trying out an MMORPG... It will either be FFXI or WOW that'll be the first one I try. At this point I have enough money to spend that I can afford to support one, ONE of those sorts of games for a few months. Also, I want to spread rumors about an item that's said to change the very foundations of the world, and then hum Key of the Twilight wherever I go :D.

[OB1]

Colloseum doesn't have a full, good stadium mode or a full, good RPG mode.

[Weltall]

Pokemon is gay.

[A Black Falcon]

What, OB1, you don't think half of both is better than the whole of either?

... really, it is a question... focus on one thing or spread it out... the question is if it's too spread out, really...

[OB1]

I'd much rather have one good, full Pokemon RPG for the GC than two blah modes in one game.

[A Black Falcon]

Nintendo doesn't want a Pokemon full RPG on Gamecube! I mean, it might make sense and sell many more Cubes than this half-effort... who'd want THAT?

[Dark Jaguar]

No, it's a full RPG actually, as full as Mario RPG anyway (no overworld). The stadium mode is just a vs mode on the main menu for fighting it out against another human, and NOTHING else, at all. Half is an understatement. The game isn't at all meant to be the next stadium game, but the first full pokemon RPG on GCN.

[A Black Falcon]

Based on reviews, if it's a full RPG it's a very simplistic one... padded in length by a huge number of battles, but not exactly deep or complex.

[OB1]

You must not have played Colloseum if you think it's a full Pokemon RPG, DJ. It's so pathetically shallow in every aspect that comparing it to Mario RPG is a huge insult to that game. It is NOT a full RPG.