December NPD Data-Santa's a Nintendo fanboy

January 16, 1:19 PMLA Video Game ExaminerKenneth Wesley

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The NPD has released the sales data of December 2008 earlier today and when most analysts talked about a record-setting month again for Nintendo, they were off a little.  Nintendo did sell more 5 million units of hardware with the DS and Wii combined. Overal, hardware sales were up for each console. The Wii sold a whopping 2.15 million units in December, which is up from the numbers in November. Xbox 360 fared better in November than in December, it managed to jump from 836,000 to 1,440,000 units sold. The Playstation 3 had a better month compared to last month, it increased from October with from 1378,000 units to 726,000 units sold. Even the PS2 had great numbers with 410,000 units sold in november. 

On the portable side, the DS numbers went from a record 1,570,000 sold to a new record 3,040,000 sold, breaking a record once held by the PS2. And the PSP went from 421,00 to a really good 1,020,000 sold.

On the software side, the best sellling game of the month was Wii Play with nearly 1.4 million sold followed by Call of Duty: World at War with 1.3 million units sold. Besides Animal Crossing: City Folk making the top 10, the top 10 is relatively unchanged.

Here's the top 20 games without numbers:

1. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE (WII)

2. CALL OF DUTY WORLD AT WAR (360)

3. WII FIT (WII)

4. MARIO KART (WII)

5. GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR (WII)

6. GEARS OF WAR 2* (360)

7. LEFT 4 DEAD (360)

8. MARIO KART (NDS)

9. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (PS3)

10. ANIMAL CROSSING: CITY FOLK* (WII)

11. WII MUSIC (WII)

12. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS (NDS)

13. PERSONAL TRAINER: COOKING (NDS)

14. FALLOUT 3* (360)

15. CLUB PENGUIN: ELITE PENGUIN FORCE (NDS)

16. LINK’S CROSSBOW TRAINING (WII)

17. GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* (PS2)

18. MADDEN NFL 09* (360)

19. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (WII)

20. SHAUN WHITE SNOWBOARDING: ROAD TRIP (WII)

My two cents: To not say Grand Theft Auto IV or any other blockbuster from earlier this year not make the top ten is really surprising. And to see Wii Play at the top kind of make sense, seeing how many Wii owners need remotes. Guitar Hero: World Tour selling nearly a million units on the Wii is proof that Wii owners like third-party games that don't gimp features found on the PS3. Even if you release it after it's already on other consoles. And how great is it to see Left 4 Dead still in the top 10, bucking the trend of most third-party games on the 360 and PS3 disappearing from this list after one month.

In addition, look at the other Wii games that made the top 20: Call of Duty, Shaun White Snowboarding Road Trip (outselling the other console editions), Wii Music, and Link's Crossbow Training. That has to be a good sign for future third party games and a sign that sometimes, sales don't always have to come in the first month of a game's release. And proof if you try to make a game that's tailored to a console's strength as opposed to a dumbed-down port, you might have a better chance of success.

What's shocking is what didn't make the charts: Prince of Persia, Little Big Planet, and Resistance 2. Seeing as how these aren't evergreen titles, titles that don't have a healthy retail life, this is disappointing.

The NPD Group also released the best-selling software of 2008 but to be honest, that list kinda suspect because so many numbers are off. But Wii Play ends the year on top.

01. Wii Play (Wii) - 5,280,000
02. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 5,000,000
03. Wii Fit (Wii) - 4,530,000
04. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 4,170,000
05. Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360) - 3,290,000
06. Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) - 2,750,000
07. Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) - 2,310,000
08. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) - 1,890,000
09. Madden NFL 09 (XBox 360) - 1,870,000
10. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 1,650,000 

In 2008, Nintendo sold nearly 20 million units of hardware with 10.17 million Wiis sold because you know, it's such a fad. And also 9.95 million DS units being sold. Sony sold 3.6 million PS3s and the PSP sold nearly 3.8 million units.  Microsoft sold over 4.6 million 360s.