Squid of Man

The Australian newspaper today published overall sales figures for all consoles and handhelds of the "last generation" (and a couple of "current" ones as well). The figures include all units sold from the console's launch until July 2006.

Playstation 2 ..................... 1,809,000
Game Boy Advance ............. 857,000
Xbox................................. 835,000
Nintendo DS ...................... 286,000
Playstation Portable ............ 181,000
Gamecube ......................... 161,000
Xbox 360 ........................... 80,000

Some of these things are surprising. Some are not.

The GBA was an absolute killer. It has almost zero awareness outside of primary-school kids and Nintendo fanboys, and it comes in at #2. I guess you should never underestimate a child's ability to get whatever the fuck they want. Especially when it plays 9 different shades of Pokemon.

The Cube's performance was also surprising. Surprisingly dismal. 161,000 consoles shifted is a damning statement on you as gamers, Australia.

The PS2, with nearly 2,000,000 sold, obviously dominates. Singstar is a vile disease that seems to have struck this nation with particular savagery. The performance of the PSP dulls Sony's dominance slightly, however. People who buy things solely to impress train commuters with are a limited customer base, it seems.

And Microsoft; take a bow. Australia has by far the highest uptake of the Xbox in the world. Which should hardly be surprising, considering it's penchant for games about shooting, driving and sports.