Analysis of Americas Sales for the Week Ending May 10, 2008

[Xbox 360 News]

VGChartz writes: "After an enormous first week of sales, Grand Theft Auto IV still managed to sell over a million units across PS3 and Xbox 360 in the Americas. Mario Kart Wii has also held up well, somehow managing to outsell GTAIV on PS3. Hardware sales in contrast fell rather sharply from the big boost last week. While DS, PSP, and PS2 were not really impacted by the GTA launch at all, PS3 and Xbox 360 both saw sales drop over 40%. Wii saw an even larger drop, though much of it is likely attributable to Nintendo holding back some supply for the Wii Fit push later in May. In the coming weeks it will be interesting to see whether Xbox 360 or PS3 drops further as GTAIV sales decline.

While such hardware declines were unexpected, PS3 sold about as well as it during last November – immediately after a price cut – and Xbox 360 sold about as well as it during last September – during Halo 3 launch and after a price cut. Therefore, it was probably unrealistic as well to expect ‘elevated’ sales to continue without a recent price cut.

Year over year trends are significantly different this week from previous weeks. PS3 in 2008 is still near the top of the GTA peak this year, while last year it was hitting rock bottom:

.........5/10/08........5/12/07....YoY Change
Wii....129,919.......132,680..........-2%
DSL..147,952.......152,960..........-3%
PSP...64,594........63,675...........+1%
PS2...41,159........63,942...........-36%
PS3...80,297........25,078...........+220%
360....66,770........55,870...........+20%

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