Game console sales continue to disappoint despite a slight uptick in sold numbers year over year. U.S. consumers have purchased more than 60 million current-generation game console numbers, providing a solid view the state of the console gaming market, prior to the introduction of major new technologies by Sony and Microsoft: The Wii will face challenges, the opportunity in the second half of the lifecycle of the generation has shifted to Microsoft’s and Sony’s favor.

Nintendo, Microsoft and Nintendo were able to shift 1.21 million consoles in March 2010, up from 1.15 million in March 2009. Responsible for the growth is the Playstation 3, which grew its performance from 218,000 units last year to 313,900 this year. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was virtually flat (330,000 units in March 2009 versus 338,400 in March 2010), Nintendo’s Wii continues to drop year over year (601,000 versus 557,500 units).

(4 Images)

In March 2010, the three manufacturers crossed the mark of a combined 60 million consoles sold. Microsoft sold 19.7 million Xbox 360s in 53 months (an average of 372,150 units per month), Nintendo 29.0 million Wiis in 40 months (724,667 units per month) and Sony 12.1 million PS3 in 40 months (301,825 units per month). Since November 2006, when the PS3 and Wii were launched, Nintendo leads the market with an overall share of 47.7%, followed by Microsoft with 32.45% and Sony with 19.86%.

While Sony trails its rivals in absolute numbers sold, it has been able to improve its market share over the past 15 months. In January 2009, the last time the company lost overall market share to its rivals, the PS3 stood at 17.7%, Microsoft at 35.4% and Nintendo at 46.9%. Given the maturity of all three consoles, it is clear that a major shift needs to take place to change overall market shares. That change may come later this year, when Microsoft and Sony will introduce major changes to its gaming controller technologies – Microsoft with Project Natal and Sony with Playstation Move.

While Nintendo still leads game console sales, the current trend shows that Nintendo is most vulnerable to a decline in console sales. In March 2009, Nintendo posted a market share of 52.3% for the month; in March 2010, the share was down to 46.1%. There were similar declines in February and January. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 are now in solid positions to take on the Wii with their new controller technologies.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.