Leveling Down

US Software in January 2009
Rank | Platform | Title | Units Sold | Last Month | Lifetime to Date
01 Wii Wii Fit 777,000 999,000 5,302,900
02 Wii Wii Play 415,000 1,460,000 9,802,396
03 Wii Mario Kart 292,000 878,000 5,183,000
04 360 Left 4 Dead 243,000 629,000 1,282,000
05 360 Call of Duty: World at War 235,000 1,330,000 2,975,000
06 360 Skate 2 199,000 n/a 199,000
07 Wii Guitar Hero World Tour 155,000 859,000 1,671,845
08 NDS New Super Mario Bros 135,000 unknown 6,270,000
09 NDS Mario Kart DS 132,000 540,000 5,292,000
10 360 Lord of the Rings: Conquest 113,000 n/a 113,000

US Hardware in January 2009
Rank | Platform | Units Sold | Last Month | Lifetime to Date
01 Nintendo Wii 679,200 2,150,000 18,331,900
02 Nintendo DS 510,800 3,040,000 28,050,900
03 Xbox 360 309,000 1,440,000 14,165,400
04 Playstation 3 203,200 726,000 6,994,100
05 Playstation Portable 172,300 1,020,000 14,511,900
06 Playstation 2 101,200 unknown 46,000,000+

It’s expected to see large dropoffs in game sales from December to January as the holidays are over. While Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Mario Kart on the Wii are all top sellers month over month (due to the large number of new Wii owners each month) what’s especially interesting is that Left 4 Dead on the 360 moved up in ranking sales from the previous month. Here’s a game that’s come out in November, and only increased in sales ranking from one month to the next. Amazing word of mouth.

Skate 2 and Lord of the Rings: Conquest are both EA’s January releases, and apparently they were big enough with 360 owners that they made it into the top 10. Mario Kart DS seems to be the primary seller for new DS owners each month, but I guess in January more of them were interested in New Super Mario Bros. Sony is having a tough time with no PS3 titles in the top 10 games sold and all of its consoles last in sales. Price cut shut should be imminent.

NPD Sales Results for January 2009 [NeoGAF]

It may sound silly, but I think I’m buying it. I’m a believer in Steam now – digital downloads for everything. I know, I already went through the 360 version with friends and I realize that the DLC on the 360 is going to be free, but I can’t help it – Valve makes me feel happy inside. This is just such a good deal combined with the fact that I just bought a new PC that I have to double dip. Dang it!

Now, when is Team Fortress 2 going to go on sale for 50% off?

Weekend deal: Left 4 Dead 50% off $24.99 [Steam]

Fallout 3′s Operation Anchorage – really worth $10?

cmfl3x asked me a little while back if I was looking forward to the Fallout 3 downloadable content. He seemed pretty excited about it and I felt bad telling him but no, I didn’t share in his excitement. In fact, while there are games I may fully enjoy, like Ninja Gaiden II or Fallout 3, I’ll never buy their DLC. To this day, I have not paid for downloadable content for any traditional game, and I don’t plan on ever doing so. Why? Because I don’t believe in what it stands for. Obviously if downloadable content is free, such as Burnout Paradise’s motorcycles and whatnot, or BioShock’s extra plasmids, then sure – it is always welcome. It’s when it starts getting charged for that it gets on my nerves.

I actually wrote up an entire article just knocking on it, but then felt it may come off as too much of a rant so I held off. I figure that if I could turn it into a discussion topic with cmfl3x, it’d be a little more civil.

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Halo Wars – While the demo was enjoyable, it didn’t scream out as a Day 1 purchase for me. Still trying to decide, as the controller makes it pretty simplistic but it does have campaign co-op. But cmfl3x and I haven’t even finished Red Alert 3 co-op yet…

Dead Rising 2 - About time! Hope with the new developer it’s as good as the first one was.

Infinite Undiscovery - Wow. The game is actually a lot more enjoyable on these harder playthroughs. Who would have thought?

Starcraft - had a dream about it this past week. Talk about crazy – I haven’t played it in years, and here I was dreaming I was in a RT 2v2 mirror match with a Terran and Protoss on both sides. After an initial skirmish with my Terran and the enemy Terran, all was pretty quiet as I massed ground units. My Protoss partner was massing Carriers, and apparently so was the enemy Protoss player. I soon discover that the enemy Terran player was massing Battlecruisers, but I’m stuck with all these siege tanks and no air. Great. I plop down 4 Starports (where did I have this kind of money?) and begin massing Wraiths. I then send my squads of Wraiths to take out his Battlecruisers, and scan once in a while to take out the enemy Observer. Not sure how it ended up but then the alarm went off and I woke up. What the heck kind of dream is that? I don’t remember the last time I actually dreamed I was playing a game, especially in this much detail. It wasn’t even like made up stuff that would occur in a dream – all of these Starcraft game mechanics were still quite present and adhered to.