“Statistics published by top game developer Tose show that with 42 million the total number of PS3s sold globally have exceeded the Xbox 360 by a million units.

The statistics come by way of a presentation by Tose (a prolific Kyoto-based game developer best known for not being known, as their games as usually credited exclusively to the company outsourcing the work to them, most often Nintendo) at the Kyoto Cross Media Experience 2010, published by Famitsu.”

• Wii: 74,000,000
• PlayStation 3: 42,000,000
• Xbox 360: 41,000,000

Source:  http://www.famitsu.com/news/201011/08035343.html

From looking at the January NPD game sales it seems Mass Effect 2 didn’t perform as well as expected.  For a game that was supposed to sell millions, it didn’t even beat out New Super Mario Bros for the month, with Wii Fit and Modern Warfare 2 right behind it.  This casts a huge shadow on a potential 3rd game in the series and adds pressure to EA to get the PS3 versions out as soon as possible.   Lets hope Bioware can recover from this debacle before EA starts another round of cuts.

Full NPD numbers:

PlayStation Family 418.6K
Wii 465.8K
Nintendo DS 422.2K
Xbox 360 332.8K

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 656.7K
MASS EFFECT 2* 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jan-10 572.1K
WII FIT PLUS W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 555.7K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 326.7K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 310.9K
SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 297.6K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 259.0K
ARMY OF TWO: THE 40TH DAY 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jan-10 246.5K
JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09 191.9K
DARKSIDERS 360 THQ Jan-10 171.2k

Nintendo’s earnings report today showed the first drop in profits the company has seen in four years. For the six month period ending September 30, the Kyoto giant’s operating income fell 58.6% from the same period last year to 104.3 billion yen. The Wii platform took a major hit, its sales falling 43% from last year to 5.75 million units. Nintendo ended up lowering its Wii sales forecasts for the full year from 26 million units to 20 million units.

Mainichi Shimbun reports that Iwata, speaking at a press conference in Osaka today, said “We failed with the Wii. We were unable to continually release strong software, and let the nice mood cool.”

Sankei Shimbun, covering the same press conference, reported Iwata as having said “We were unable to show a new game to become ‘the next thing.’ In the game market, once you’ve lost the momentum, it takes time to recover.”

It does seem that Iwata has a positive outlook for the Wii, though, thanks to the September price drop. According to a Reuters report from the press conference, Iwata said of the decision to lower Wii’s sales targets, “With the price drop, sales returned to a certain level, but they just did not reach the level of last year around this time. We decided that it would be difficult to sell enough to recover from the poor performance of the first half of the year.” On the new 20 million target, he said, “In order to reach it, we’ll have to move quite a large quantity, but it’s a figure we released after having felt the momentum returning [based off the price drop].”

The Slim Effect™ has taken hold worldwide and now even Nintendo is admitting defeat.  Very interesting turn of events…  expect SDF to dive deeper into this in the coming weeks.

Even Netflix couldn’t ignore The Slim Effect™ and has no choice but to add their streaming services to Playstation 3 or face losing out on a huge chunk of revenue.

With this major bomb dropping, one has to wonder what the point is of paying for Xbox Lag anymore.

Source:  http://www.netflix.com/NRDInfo/PS3

Steve Ballmer confirmed to Gizmodo that they will be adding a Blu-ray device to the Xbox 360.

When I asked Ballmer about adding Blu-ray to the Xbox, he said:

Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.

Though he says it with certitude, the timing of any kind of Blu-ray accessory is unclear.

Source

This is yet another victory for Sony.  The year of the PS3 continues…

In order to better serve fair and balanced video game coverage around the globe, SDF has now opened a branch in Germany.    The team there is hungry to provide an unbiased view of the latest gaming industry news and trends and we look forward to working with them.

Visit them at:  SonyDefenseForce.de

Hardware:
PlayStation 3 491.8K
Wii 462.8K
Xbox 360 352.6K

Software:
1. Halo 3:ODST (360)
2. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
3. Madden NFL 10 (360)
4. Random Mario Game (DS)
5. Madden NFL 10 (PS3)
6. The Beatles (360)
7. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (360)
8. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)

The PS3 beat Xbox 360 and Wii last month in U.S. console sales.  This means the U.S. is now inline with the rest of the world where The Slim Effect™ has taken hold and the PS3 is outselling both 360 and Wii on a weekly basis.  Also worth noting is even 3rd party releases like Batman: Arkham Asylum are selling better on PS3 than Xbox 360.

According to Michael Pachter MS is expected to raise the price of XBL to $100 in the near future.  I’m not sure how MS thinks they can get away with this since PSN matches, and in some cases bests, XBL feature for feature and is still free on charge.  It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.  Full quote and source below.

“Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter expects Microsoft to raise the price of Xbox Live Gold membership from the current $50 to $100 per year in the next few years.  “You can’t hook a guy into Xbox Live Gold if he’s playing on a PC,” Pachter said in a GTTV discussion talking about how Microsoft has seemingly given up on the PC gamer market. “that’s the other problem ‘ you really want to hook every gamer who has a 360, you want them to buy all their games on 360, play everything multiplayer, pay you 50 bucks a year so that, in a couple years, it’s a 100 bucks a year.”And that’s going up, we all know that ‘ it’s a profit deal,” he concluded.”

Source

Sony continues to boost PS3 sales to new heights.   Nintendo and Microsoft are going to have to scramble this Christmas to keep up with this momentum.  Are they up for it?

From Sony:

Sony Computer Entertainment America Annouces New 250GB PlayStation 3 System

Following the successful launch of the slimmer and lighter PlayStation®3 (PS3™) system with 120GB hard disk drive (HDD), Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced that a new PS3 system with a 250GB HDD will be available on November 3 for $349.99 (MSRP). Launching in time for the holiday season, the 250GB PS3 system provides consumers with plenty of storage capacity to download more games, movies, and TV shows from PlayStation®Network, as well as to store their personal media files, including music, photos, and videos.

The 250GB PS3 system offers the same form factor and functionality as the current 120GB system, which achieved retail sales of 1 million units worldwide in the three weeks since its launch on September 1. Both models will be available at retail this holiday, providing both gamers and gift-givers with the opportunity to choose the PS3 system that’s right for them.

“The PS3 platform is poised for a tremendous holiday season,” said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president, product marketing, SCEA. “We kicked things off early with the new price point and sleek form factor and have continued the momentum with this week’s launch of the universally acclaimed exclusive, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The new 250GB PS3 provides consumers with another compelling hardware option and speaks to the growing consumer appetite for digital content from the PlayStation Network – particularly high-def content that showcases the power of the PS3 system.”

More than 600 million pieces of content have been downloaded from PlayStation Network as of September 2009, and in conjunction with the launch of the 250GB PS3 system, PlayStation Network will continue to expand with a broad range of original games and blockbuster entertainment content for download this holiday season. Exclusive downloadable games launching soon on PlayStation®Store include PixelJunk Shooter, Gravity Crash, and Hustle Kings.

In addition, PlayStation Network’s video delivery service, which offers downloadable movies and TV episodes for rental or purchase, will soon add Star Trek, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Bruno, and other summer blockbusters to its movie lineup. The PlayStation Network currently offers 2,300 movies, one-third of which are available in HD format, as well as more than 13,300 TV episodes.

Our inside sources are telling us that Sony is set to unleash cross-game voice chat on the PS3 via PSN when the 3.1 firmware update drops.

With a feature set that already surpasses Xbox Lag, PSN is getting better with every update… and it’s all for free.

Remember folks, you read it here first.