NPD: Fable II hits 1.2M in US, MGS4 goes platinum

For all those that say Sony needs to give up because of how badly there sales are, need to re-read the article. Sony owns 1/3 of the market for software sales. It is too had to compete with Nintendo as some have pointed come equipped with accessories. That would be like if MS or Sony turned around and said we'll sell Halo 3 (or Gears) with an extra controller for $70 or Sony doing the same with Resistance or LBP. People aren't really buying the Wii software because of the game, they are doing it because the get with the accessory by only spending a few dollars more.

600 thousand is good..

Sony's downfall is there fault. When your too cocky, and you shove it in other peoples face. This is the outcome. They tried to make the ultimate system, but doing so also killing them. Being the most powerful doesn't mean you will always come out ontop.

Hmm - except for SSBB all of the Wii titles topping the list were bundled with accessories - of course they would sell well!

PS3 rocks

SONY needs to lay down.

Its only the us figures never europe

nintendo has to go lay down.

YAY PS3 (just want to see how many thumbs down i get)

bah more PS3 media bias...LBP and MGS4 have sold 50 million copies worldwide by my count...

AND, how is a game that is sold with the system considered in the figures?

Gears of War 2 just PWNS,it's just such an amazing game,you can't argue against that:)As for LBP,meh,so much for it lifting the PS3(some said Haze would do that before it came out....LOL),I like MGS4 so I'm not saying anything about it,as for Wii software sales dominating the charts...BOOOOO,what a failure of a game system,and what failures of games that it's taking over the charts with...all Wii games are made by developers that get lazy about it and the whole game is like "ooo!look!you can move this with that white stick in your hand!Isn't it magical and completely worth your 60 bucks?" ahahaha -.-

I forgot to say, GREAT job Nintendo. I hope the rumors about the HD Wii are true. If they are, I will gladly buy one when it comes out. :D

These articles about sales figures are SO stupid. They really show just how stupid the so-called 'industry professionals' are. I just read this after reading about the state of PC game sales. The reasons for these drops in numbers are VERY obvious. TOO obvious for these idiots to get the stories right. The numbers are down because one, the economy. I don't think these people are dumb enough to understand that. Or, are they? Two, and most important, people are tired of F'ing sequels! Almost every big game out this year was a sequel! If the games name has a 2, 3, or 4 in it, are you really surprised by the sales numbers? You know, how about trying to be innovative again? Look at the sales figures. For all the acclaim, LBP sold horribly. The reviews for Mirror's Edge were mixed, no surprise there either! SOCOM SUCKED ASS! Dead space was alright. But, other than those, how many NEW games were there really?They were all sequels! STOP FEEDING US THE SAME CRAP! And stop charging us $60 EVERY FRICKING YEAR for what are essentially roster updates in sports games. Why is Madden's online STILL crappy? It's laggy as hell! And don't tell me it's my connection! I have a 5mb FIOS connection up, and 20mb down. Even MGS4 had its quirks. 90 MINUTE CUTSCENES??? And they want to blame the economy for the sales figures dropping. When are these people gonna get a clue? AND, PC sales are down because of the lack of IP's, and they have gone away from the crowd that made them successful in the first place, the hardcore. You don't need to be a genious to figure out what's going on. You want to grow the industry, stop being snobs, and bring in fresh ideas and talent. You don't need to be a programmer to be a designer or storyteller. And you don't need a 4 year degree from USC to work in the industry either! You need talented, passionate PEOPLE, THEN when you have an incredible product, THEN you market the hell out of it. Anyone listening??? Hit me up if you would like to hear more about my ideas ;) And would somone PLEASE hand off the MotoGP series back to CLIMAX, or even Codemasters. MotoGP 08 is HORRID!!! Talk about messing up a franchise! Have any of those guys ever even ridden a motorcycle...?

@TheArcade Well The UT3 expansion will more than likely hit the PS3 this fall. It'll probily be a whole slew of maps, vehicles, new wapons, and mods. They've been running a big user creation contest. As for the 360, Gears 3 wwon't hit intill 2010, this Halo Recon is just an expansion with a new campaign. Also, not at you, but I just got my issue of Gamepro. Perfect score 5 out of 5.

Long live Nintendo! They truly keep showing that graphics and glitz does not equal big sales! It also shows that more people prefer games other than 1st person shooters and that the PS2 although long in the tooth continues to do what the PS3 can't...which is make their fanbase happy year round. PS2 will never die! God Bless it!

i cant beleve that so few people bought R2 the game rocks. the competive may lacke but campain and co-op make up for it ten times over. stop compating it to gears i know they are both alien shooters with the whole defending humantity feeel to it but R2 is more along the lines of COD while gears is cover based. visulay gears =fallout3 R2= Bioshock (dont ask me why i think they look similar)

You know, I don't really understand why Wii Play should count as a software sale cause, as it says above, it comes bundled with the wii remotes. So shouldn't Solitare and Minesweep (or whatever its called) be the top selling game considering its sold with every single pc, and/or laptop sold with a windows OS???

lbp is class a classic definitely listen 2 retospectre and go buy it

@Ket87: As much as I respect Resistance it reminds me too much of Gears. It has that whole waste land shoot all aliens feel to it. Everything else about the game is great it's just that one thing that really turns me off. I hope for Insomniac's sake the game will sell more copies because I really enjoyed Rachet and Clank.

anyone who hasnt already...go buy little big planet. i dont care that you dont have a ps3. go get it and admire the case or read the manual. great game.

Sacred 2 will be a top seller for 2009!

Rare and Lionhead really deserve to win the biggest studio dissapointmens of the year. Back in the N64 days Rare was one of the best companies out there. As for Lionhead, Fable 2 did alot of little things right but completely fail at all the major things. The 10 hour story (max) had to be one of the most dissapointing campaigns since GoW 1.

Its a shame PS3 is doing so bad and its neither the system nor the software's fault its Sony. Nintendo swallowed up the casual market without even stopping to taste it and Microsoft took everyone else and in the late stages of this console gen Sony is doing everything wrong still. Sony shifted from no marketing to abysmal marketing and shuffled skus around every other week and only dropped the price of the basic console by $100 while Microsoft has got the Arcade selling cheaper then the economically viable Wii. Noone bought Resistance 2 because they just can't afford the system. I felt it blew Gears 2 out of the water but 1/8 of the people bought it. If Sony could just get the console down to $300 and get a lot of good marketing strategies in play they can recover, theres a lot of good games coming up and noone will ever know about them or be able to play them because Sony is just not playing the market right. They still focus on the blu-ray aspect when Blu-Ray players are now way cheaper then PS3's, time to market the games and lower the cost. Even if Sony takes another big hit on production costs if the console is cheap and people buy it they can easily recoup with software sales.

@Terran499: "I hear u man. I have a PS3, Wii, and Xbox. So i mean i'm not some know-nothing fanboy. Xbox 360 is in trouble because good games they have they're milking dry." Perhaps for you my friend, not for me. There are plenty of things 360 has to offer for me in the coming months. Most of it I wish would come out this week so I don't have to wait months for these releases, lol. EDIT: Question about Unreal Tournament 3 Expansion. What will it have to offer? Will it be the extra features the 360 version has or will it be separate, newer features?

Things aren't looking good for sony. Not only did they get there asses kicked in hardware sales, but there own exclusives all sold horrilbe in the U.S. and japan. LBP, and resistance 2, both only sold half a million copies which is pretty pathetic considering all the hype the games had. Sony NEEDS a price cut now since there way behing the 360 in hardware sales and no one is buying there exclusives. If barely no one bought resistance 2, motorstorm 2, or even LBP then it's very doubtful that games like infamous( a unknown game) heavy rain( no hype or nothing special) or even a stupid game called MAG will move consoles for sony nor will they sell well at all. killzone 2 will NOT move consoles for sony since it's coming out way to early into the year. Just like GTA4, the game came out to early into the year and people had already spent so much money during the holiday season. if people wanted a ps3 for killzone 2 then they would of bought one during the holiday season. Sony is gonna need alot of luck this year in order for them to even try to catch up to MS much less the Wii.

mgs4 worldwide sales have passed 4 million, resistance 2 ww passed 1.3 mill and littlebigplanet ww passed 1.9 mill. U.S. is dominant by microsoft but the rest of the world still adore their ps3's, sheddin a bit of white light on ps3 :)

Well lets hope 2009 is a strong year still for developers and that gamers on all platforms can experience great gaming. Its a shame to see great titles not reach the amount of people they truely deserve. This contrast in sales may see more games going multi-platform instead of being exclusive...

guile charlie said: Really? 360 is kicking PS3's ass? That's funny considering 360 and original XBOX games cover about only 19% of games sold in '08 whereas, even though the 360 is kicking its ass, the Playstation brand is raking up about 32%. How about we stop with the whole "360 is better, no it isn't PS3 is better" nonsense and come to the realization that.......WE all need a Wii. well yes xbox is still beating the 360 (for now at least). It said in the article the 360 and original xbox had 19% of ALL SOFTWARE IN THE US, not just gaming. the 32% percent for playstation you mentioned may not be realistic and wasn't even mentioned in the article. on a different note i am really dissapointed that nuts and bolts sold so few :(

The Xbox 360 isn't in trouble really. 19% is a lot for the console and it's compatible games. I mean...Sony has PSP, PS3 and PS2. And the PS2 was obviously last gen's winning console, and it still has a load of games, the PSP is a great portable device, and the PS3 has blu-ray. Microsoft only has the 360 and both Xbox and 360 games. So really....the winner here is Nintendo since it only has 2 consoles and beat Sony that has 3 consoles. It is obvious that the xbox had less percentage since it is only one console. Stop being such fanboys, they are all great consoles. IMO I'm very sad that such great games as Banjo and LBP hardly sold enough.

And the "N-pire" rolls on...

@tidyspidey True woems did it but worms has almost fallen off te map. Plus its true other FPS games have done wnd, like COD4 in the chenobyle shot, but this will be in multiplayer, not some one time deal. Somethings that KZ2 is doing have been done before, but this will be a game wide/ multiplayer implication. Preorder it and try the demo because u apparently wern't in the beta.

It's nice to see balanced, thoughtful and analytical coverage of sales figures. Thanks Gamespot. The same article on IGN would have been a Microsoft tug job.

@thekey Great PS3 exclusives Killzone 2 God of War 3 FF XIII Verses (which will probily hit next year at this rate) Jak and Daxter: The New Frontier Uncharted 2 (I guess it'll be good) Gran Turismo 5 Unreal Tournament 3 Expansion Pack Zone of the Enders 3

@LinktheCloud I hear u man. I have a PS3, Wii, and Xbox. So i mean i'm not some know-nothing fanboy. Xbox 360 is in trouble because good games they have they're milking dry.

@ theKey. Really? 360 is kicking PS3's ass? That's funny considering 360 and original XBOX games cover about only 19% of games sold in '08 whereas, even though the 360 is kicking its ass, the Playstation brand is raking up about 32%. Bottom line, though, Key, is that those facts don't really matter, because I know that you're still going to play only your 360, and I'm still going to play my PS3/PSP/Wii/Dreamcast/Original XBOX/PC with absolutely no regard to what the sales numbers are for any of them, because no matter how well or horribly a game sells I'll play it if I like it. Link is right, man. Games are games, consoles are consoles, alright? Just play the games you like and stop with the whole "360 is better, no it isn't PS3 is better" nonsense and come to the realization that.......WE all need a Wii.

@ LinktheCloud I want to know about all these great PS3 exclusives lined up for this year. Tell me about these great games you speak of. Because since Uncharted Drake's fourtune and MGS4 I'm still searching for those great exclusive games that I can play on my PS3. Tell me them please. becaue the 360 is kicking PS3's @$$!

This article gives the information as clear as mud, better to look at the Gamasutra source. Gist of it is Xbox 360 is outselling PS3 but Microsoft still holds a distance 3rd place in the market. Sony holds a big market sector through diversity (PS2, PS3, PSP) while unsurprisingly, Nintendo is top dog again this year.

ya, lets stop the 360 vs ps3 crap... my ps3 is better than your ps3...

Terran499 - the "original" game mechanics you describe in KZ 2 are all non original.... first off, if you want to see a true "next gen" shooter, get Crysis on a decent PC. Trust me - after you've played it, you'll know what I mean. Furthermore - things like wind affecting bullet and grenade trajectory? We've had that for as long as I can remember on countless games. Worms for starters - and that was out around '94 '95 with very simple graphics compared to todays standards. What about the Sniper FPS series too? Wind affects bullet trajectory on that too... KZ 2 is going to be awesome, don't get me wrong, but it's not the groundbreaking game you've shaped it up to be.

I don't even know why they tell us this info. It just makes tensions skyrocket again...

linkthecloud, you know, I'm pretty sure we were all doin pretty well here as far as not having fan-boy-isms spouting up goes. Your comment kinda came out of the blue. and quit trying to use a big vocabulary to sound intelligent. it doesn't work on the internet.

hey dan123collins, the 32% software sale comes from the PS2 PSP and PS3 alltogether not just the PS2 alone

I bet even when Killzone gets released and gets nothing but 9-10s for reviews, all the X-bots come out to say that the entire gaming community has suddenly become bias towards the PS3. Again I own all three systems, I don't miss out on great games. Why should I hate one console? All I do is deprive myself to play some great exclusive titles. If you don't wanna pay 500$ for a PS3, thats fine. It doesn't mean that, that console is bad. I am sorry for all the non fan-boys (the majority of us) like myself who have to see...or listen to, this pre-pubescent, immature dribble, that bleeds from the mouths of fan-boys. The fact is, all three consoles are different, and have different things to offer. And yes the PS3 has struggled, but the future looks up for it and all you try to pass off your bias opinion of what YOU WANT to happen to the PS3s future as a fact of what will? Sony fan-boys gtfo X-Bots gtfo Wii players........well I'm pretty sure we all have Wiis.... Wii haters....can't get over the fact you exist O.o

yes mr. collins, the ps2 is still selling, but Sony has GOT to kill it sometime. its honestly hurting their PS3 sales. why buy PS3 when you can get most of the multiplatforms for ten bucks cheaper on ps2? Sony's gotta start weaning people off the ps2 or they'll continue shooting themselves in the foot

what the ps2 has made up 32% of software sale, and i thought the ps2 was dead lol!

I know Im gonna get flamed for this but I think Nintendo is getting waaay too greedy. Dont get me wrong, Ninty always makes good games and its portables have always been top-noch but its consoles have been wooning in quality ever since the SNES died. For starters: the Wii has officially become the most over-priced mainstream console in history. Its been 2 years and still no price cut. Yes, I know that as a company their goal is to make as much money as possible, but c'mon! the Wii's technology is way out-dated. A Wii takes less then $100 to make, and look at its price tag! You thought that PS fanboys were getting ripped off when the PS3 launched? yeah well not nearly as much as everyone who is buying a Wii as you read this. sorry if 'offended' anyone Im truly happy with my DS Lite, PSP Slim and PS3. not planning on buying a Wii unless it has a $100 price tag and stronger 3rd party support. thanks for reading

wtf? how is that an unclear picture? you're comparing MGS4 and LBP to Banjo Kazooie? seriously?

yeah, but most of those 360 RPGs aren't anything to really tout.

@thegame1980 I was refering to the KZ2 beta. But anyway. Enviromentak effects. The wind actiually affects bullet and grenade trijectories like in real life. Top of the line graphics. Top of the line story. You take the popularity of Halo 3, great squad based action, MGS 4 graphics, and a dark story. KZ2 is that and more. Hell its already getting 10 out of 10, 5/5. True it might face some challenges with the dipression going on but it work.