Target and Walmart have been pulled into the console wars, with new information from InfoScout, a sales and research firm, where it was revealed that the Xbox One has won in the Black Friday sales wars and pulled in more sales at both the aforementioned retailers over the competition. I guess this proves that Walmart and Target shoppers really love to watch sports TV on their TV.
Venturebeat spotted the chart over on the InfoScout blog, where you can see how the percentages roll out in the comparison sheet below.
Well, will you look at that. The big bad Microsoft managed to take the lead with their all American-made muscle consoles, the Xbox One and Xbox 360; flexing the sales pecs like Lex Luger before he succumbed to has-beendom, or Chris Masters before he stopped juicing and deflated.
Both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 captured 31% and 30%, respectively, at the major retail giants. They led the pack of new and old consoles during the holiday shopping spree weekend, beating out both Sony's consoles, which managed only 15% of the market share. Although, that last metric may or may not have been affected by the PS4 being sold out at many retailers due to stock shortages. Sadly, last but most relevant, is Nintendo's little Wii U... putt-putting in last place with its crippled, sickly little brother, the Wii. It's like a hobo trying to help a beggar make a coin. So sad.
As noted on Infoscout by John Brellg...
“The majority of console consumers were in the giving mood on Friday as 80% purchased the item as a gift, though 10% of those admitted it would likely get pulled out from under the tree before Christmas.”
This is somewhat troubling news for The Big 'N', as they've been having some trouble getting the Wii U recognized despite doubling down and pumping out some quality first-party titles for the system.
As noted by Siliconera, Nintendo had a rather low shipment of the latest Mario title for the Wii U, either expecting lower sales in Japan or because retailers put a full stop on how many units they were willing to receive. Combining this with the data from North American Black Friday sales, it does appear to come across as if Nintendo is in dire straits, despite coming out with new bundle packs for the Wii U.
However, the biggest problem facing Nintendo is not that the Wii U is a bad system (because it's not) and it's not that the system doesn't have software (because it does), but the main issue is that the system needs a handful of diverse killer apps; right now those killer apps aren't expected to arrive until 2014.
While an argument can be made that neither the PS4 nor the Xbox One have killer apps on hand, at the moment, it's that distinct promise of games like Uncharted and Halo that helps fuel expectations. The good and bad about Nintendo is that, technically, you have no idea what you're going to get with the system, and this could prevent some gamers from pledging allegiance until they know for sure the system will receive noteworthy killer apps from first and third-party developers.
In the meantime, Microsoft's biggest challenge will be to get out of the way of their own bumbling marketing tactics and Sony – despite losing in Black Friday sales at Target and Walmart – just needs to keep doing what they're doing and they'll be all right.
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