The Nintendo Wii dominated sales charts in November. Again.
Research group NPD pointed out that even though Microsoft had a strong Black Friday showing last month with 836,000 units sold, the Xbox 360 simply couldn't keep pace with the Wii.
The Wii outsold the Xbox 360 three-to-one in November, according to NPD, with similar sales numbers expected to continue into 2009. Nintendo sold more than two million units, which is the highest number in two years of the console's release.
Since its launch in November two years ago, Nintendo's only problem has been its inability to keep enough Wii units in stock on store shelves. It looks like Nintendo is able to sell as many consoles as it can release into the market, and supply issues could continue in the future.
Even though the Xbox 360 has the ability to stream content through Netflix, and the Sony PlayStation 3 has a built-in Blu-ray player, the Wii -- which does not have either ability -- continues to draw in new owners. Most analysts expected sales to range from 1.2 million up to 1.5 million.
Sony sold just 378,000 units of the PS3, which remains the priceist game console available. The Japanese company hopes the recent beta release of Home will help convince new users to purchase the console.
The Nintendo DS also sold 1.5 million units, which isn't a bad number considering the device has been in existence for four years. The Wii and DS are the top two selling consoles available today, and the number three competitor, the Xbox 360, is no where near either Nintendo product.
On the software side, Gears of War 2 sold 1.56 million copies, which made it the most popular video game of the month. Highly anticipated first-person shooting game Call of Duty: World at War sold 1.41 million units during November.
Although Microsoft is unable to catch up to Nintendo in overall console sales, its video game catalog continues to rack up solid sales numbers when compared to Nintendo and Sony.
Analysts were unsure what to expect leading into the 2008 holiday shopping season, as the global economy has been severely crippled over the past six months. It seems Nintendo is officially recession-proof, because the company had a great November, and analysts believe the next few months will continue to rack up solid sales.
