This Week in Games - December 1, 2012

It's the week after the big Thanksgiving crazy shopping season in the US, which of course means that it's time for some furious and vigorous willy-waving from the Big Three about their respective performances. All told, it was a fairly spectacular week for game hardware sales. The Wii U came out of the gate with a strong performance--though not as strong as its predecessor in 2006--the PlayStation 3 enjoyed a solid week, and the seven year-old Xbox 360 (it celebrated its anniversary on Thanksgiving day last week) shocked everyone with its Halo-fueled accomplishment.

Wii U Sold 400,000, Wii Sold Almost as Many, and DS Sold More than 3DS

The Wii U launched in the US on November 18 to very respectable sales of 400,000 units during its first week. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed the milestone to GameSpot sister site CNET on Monday this week, adding that total hardware sales (Wii U, Wii, 3DS, and DS) for the week exceeded 1.2 million units. If you want some context; the original Wii did quite a bit better, it sold more than 600,000 units during its first eight days on the market. Interestingly, the aging Wii still managed an impressive 300,000 boxes during this past week, raising the question of whether some customers were perhaps confused as to what they were really buying. Nintendo's portables also did pretty well, although its notable that the various flavors of the original DS actually outsold the 3DS 275,000 units to 250,000.

Emboldened by it's fairly strong launch, Fils-Aime says that he is not fearful that the Wii U will become irrelevant if Microsoft and Sony launch new consoles next year as expected. In fact, he said that he believes Nintendo has set the innovation bar with its Wii U, and that Microsoft and Sony cannot rely solely on more advanced technology if they wish to succeed. "In the end, our competitors need to react to what we're doing in the marketplace and need to figure out what their innovation will be," Fils-Aime said. "It's likely that faster processors and pretty pictures won't be enough to motivate consumers. They need to react to what we've done and we need to continue innovating with the Wii U and we will."

Unafraid of playing the "pretty pictures" card when it suits him, Fils-Aime told CNN that third-party games like Call of Duty: Black Ops II actually look "better" on Wii U than they do on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Responding to a question regarding the Wii U being on par with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in terms of specifications, Fils-Aime defiantly stated that this was not the case. "First off, I have to correct you. The specs are quite different than the competitive systems; much more graphically intensive. If you do a side-by-side comparison you would actually see that third-party games like Call of Duty look dramatically better on our system," he said. Whether or not they're "dramatically" better is certainly a topic for debate, especially given the numerous frame-rate complaints that players have expressed over the past week. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Despite the early success, not everyone is convinced by Wii U. One of the founding fathers of games is none too keen on the new console. Speaking to the New York Times, Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's founder Nolan Bushnell said he doesn't think Nintendo will find much success with its new console. "I actually am baffled by it," Bushnell said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a big success." Answering a subsequent question regarding the viability of new consoles from all of the major platform players, Bushnell was similarly unenthusiastic. In fact, he said new consoles from the Big Three actually mark the end of an era instead of a beginning. “These things will continue to sputter along, but I really don’t think they’ll be of major import ever again,” Bushnell said, grumpily. “It feels like the end of an era to me."

If you were lucky enough to get an early Wii U, or follow anyone on Twitter that did, you will no doubt be aware of the somewhat epic day one download that activates the bulk of the system's network features. Nintendo president Saturo Iwata addressed the complaints on Wednesday this week, telling IGN that he is "very sorry" for the requirement. "Personally, I think that users should be able to use all the functions of a console video game machine as soon as they open the box," he said. "So I feel very sorry for the fact that purchasers of Wii U have to experience a network update which takes such a long time, and that there are the services which were not available at the hardware’s launch."

Iwata also addressed pre-launch skepticism, saying that he is used to the cynicism associated with bold Nintendo experience changes. "The brand new user interfaces that Nintendo invented often faced skeptical views before a hardware launch, but wound up becoming de facto industry standards," Iwata said. “It is challenging to communicate attractions which are hard to understand unless you actually touch and experience them yourself. This is especially so with Wii U because it has unprecedented entertainment potential."

Outside of all the Wii U-related stuff this week, Nintendo also blew minds when it revealed a dinky new, stripped down version of the original Wii which will go on-sale next Friday, dubbed the Wii Mini. Initially (and inexplicably) intended only for the Canadian market, the teeny-weeny top-loading device will be $99, smaller, red, and stripped of Wi-Fi, internet connectivity, and GameCube backwards compatibility. Want one?

Xbox 360 Sold 750,000. There Was News of New Xbox in 2013

Much like Nintendo, Microsoft had a very strong Black Friday. The company announced on Tuesday that it sold more than 750,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the United States during the holiday period. Additionally, the company said that Halo 4 sales during the week also exceeded expectations, notching "impressive sales." What does that actually mean? Who knows? All we know is that they ended up selling more than they thought they were going to. Further, Xbox Live Gold subscription card sales jumped more than 50 percent year-over-year, though (of course!) no specific sales figure was actually divulged. Microsoft also revealed that on Sunday alone, more than 14 million people logged on to Xbox Live across the world. These users tallied more than 72 million combined hours of use.

Next year, all the fuss around this period will no doubt be about the early sales performance of the next Xbox. Sources told Bloomberg his week that Microsoft will release its Xbox 720 (or whatever it will be called…smart money is on just "Xbox" as a reflection of the overall platform) in time for the holiday 2013 shopping season. This is far from the first time this timing has been predicted, but Bloomberg has a pretty decent track record for reliable information around stuff like this. Additionally, the sources said Microsoft has not yet decided when to announce its Xbox 360 successor. The company is understandably mulling an announcement at an event like the Electronic Entertainment Expo or (more likely) a separate event where the new machine would have all of the spotlight. As you can imagine, no one at Microsoft is prepared to comment. Yet.

PlayStation 3 Sold 525,000, Vita Sold 160,000

Sony sold 525,000 PlayStation 3 consoles and more than 160,000 PlayStation Vita units in the US last week, the company announced on Thursday. That means that PS3 sales (hardware, software, and peripherals) jumped 9 percent year-over-year. This is the first holiday period for the Vita (remember, it only launched this March,) meaning year-over-year sales information is not available. Sony said its $200 Assassin's Creed III: Liberation bundle was especially popular, with Amazon selling out its entire stock in under five hours. Other popular PS Vita bundles included the Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes offerings, which also sold out, Sony said.

If you're in the market for a Vita this holiday season, Sony announced another new bundle on Thursday, though this one is perhaps not as glamorous as those before it. The snappily-titled "PS Plus Instant Game Collection PS Vita Bundle" includes a 3G/Wi-Fi system, 1-year PlayStation Plus membership, Unit 13 game voucher, and a 4GB memory card for $300. Honestly, you might want to consider dropping an extra $50-60 on a larger capacity card if you want to take advantage of the downloadable goodies from PlayStation Plus.