All purpose sales and sales rumors/anecdotes thread next gen+

[London Geezer]

Oh! I never thought of that! Then again Sony have had my Amex for years and they've been hacked how many times now? Bit late...

 

[temesgen]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2014/videogames

I find the market difficult to understand. The PS4 as a piece of hardware has been a monster, a huge commercial success. Market penetration has been nothing short of fantastic. With that said, software to hardware tie ratio must be pretty low. The PS4 doesn't have a single title that is in the top 15 for 2014 from Amazon. The hardware sits at number 4, but the first game to hit the list comes in at 18 and then followed by 19 and 34 spots. Its as if PS4 is an attractive to consumers not because of the content, but because they want the hardware itself. Traditionally hardware is a means to an end, but in this case, I think people are excited to buy the hardware more so than the games they are buying for said hardware. It sells in spite of its mediocre software lineup. I really have to applaud Sony, I don't understand it, but they are having tremendous success with the weakest software lineup of any console this year. Bravo....

Perhaps people disproportionately bought hardware from Amazon and bought games at retail? Also as was already pointed out, PSN cards are high up the list. I'll also add that if gamers aren't buying one specific game but interest in the platform involves a wider range of games collectively sales can be high but on a top 20 chart individual titles aren't going to rank that high.

 

[Shortbread]

PSN November Top Sellers (USA)

1 Grand Theft Auto V
2 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
3 Assassin’s Creed Unity
4 Far Cry 4
5 Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition
6 Dragon Age: Inquisition
7 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Legion Edition
8 EA SPORTS UFC
9 LittleBigPlanet 3
10 inFAMOUS Second Son
11 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
12 The Evil Within
13 FIFA 15
14 Madden NFL 15
15 Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition
16 Transistor
17 NBA 2K15
18 Outlast
19 WWE 2K15
20 Terraria

PSN November Top Sellers (EU)

1 Grand Theft Auto V (New)
2 Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (New)
3 Assassin’s Creed Unity (New)
4 Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (Re-entry)
5 Far Cry 4 (New)
6 Dragon Age: Inquisition (New)
7 Minecraft (3)
8 The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season (RE)
9 The Walking Dead: Season Two (RE)
10 inFAMOUS Second Son (RE)
11 Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry (7)
12 Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare (RE)
13 FIFA 15 (4)
14 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2)
15 Worms Battlegrounds (RE)
16 PES 2015 Pro Evolution Soccer (New)
17 EA Sports UFC (RE)
18 Outlast (14)
19 Trials Fusion (RE)
20 Pure Pool (RE)

As I mentioned many (many, many times) GTA V was leading in preorders for the month of November. The results are pretty clear, from the digital download side anyhow. And physical sales should be reflective as well.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Parents are giving PSN cards for xmas, because they have no idea what their kids like to play?

What is the benefit of buying these cards? Why not just add funds directly to your account? I can see them being bought as gifts, but it is curious that these cards are so popular.

Point being, all that money spent on PSN cards goes towards buying games on PSN, so no need to buy games from Amazon. Ergo lower disc sales than hardware, because digital distribution is actually a Thing now. Fer Realz.

 

[MrFox]

Wow, Super Smash Bros is really holding up well at the top.

Come on Nintendo.... Survive!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sony takes on China.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-11-ps4-and-vita-will-launch-in-china-this-january

PS4 and Vita are heading to China on 11th January.

As reported by Endgadget, the PS4 will cost ¥2899 yuan (about £300) and the Vita ¥1299 (about £135). Comparatively, the Xbox One launched in the region for ¥3699 (about £380), sans Kinect, in September.

Being cheaper and reportedly the stronger brand, PS4 should do substantially more sales in China than XB1. It'll be interesting to see if the numbers are significant or fizzle out. This is perhaps the last great test of whether there's a legitimate console industry to tap in China.

 

[dobwal]

Hard to know because while PS4 cards are #1, #2 and #3 for the year, XB cards are #10, #11, #12 and #15. And three of those cards are Live membership cards the other is a $10 dollar gift card. Plus these PSN and XB Live cards are applicable to more than just the PS4 and XB1. I am pretty sure that some of those 70 million PS3s and X360s sold in the US are still in use.

To put into perspective, a PS card has been a monthly top five sellers since jan 2013 about 11 months before the arrival of PS4. And Gold memberships have done pretty well on amazon, ranking highly over the years.

So while I am sure digital sales have increased sales of PS gift cards, alot of it probably has to do with maintaining membership to PS+.

 

[Shortbread]

Source: GAF

MS PR

We are committed to making Xbox the best place to play, with this year’s best games, the best community of gamers to play with, and terrific value. And we are amazed by the excitement Xbox fans have shown to start off this holiday. November set a new record for sales of Xbox One, and Xbox One was the best-selling console in the US and UK.* Response to the holiday lineup of games on Xbox One was incredible, with Xbox One fans buying more games in November in the U.S. than any other gen eight platform and enjoying over 357 million hours of gameplay globally. In fact, more fans logged into Xbox Live across Xbox One and Xbox 360, and enjoyed more entertainment, than any other month in the history of Xbox. We love to see the excitement from our fans and are grateful for their passion, support and contributions to the Xbox community.

Nintendo PR

Overall sales of Nintendo 3DS software in November increased by more than 40 percent over the same month in 2013, thanks in part to three huge games:

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire: The next great Pokémon adventures for Nintendo 3DS launched on Nov. 21 and have already sold nearly 1.5 million combined physical and digital units in the U.S. alone.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS: The best-selling individual portable game in the U.S. so far in 2014, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS has sold more than 1.5 million physical and digital units in the U.S. since it launched on Oct. 3.

November was also a strong month for Nintendo on the console side, as sales of Wii U hardware and software increased by more than 10 percent and more than 90 percent, respectively, over the same period in 2013. In fact, the week of Nov. 23 was the biggest single week of Wii U hardware sales since the system launched in November 2012. Other Wii U highlights for the month include:

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U has sold nearly 710,000 combined units since launching on Nov. 21. With a current Metacritic score of 92, the latest iteration in Nintendo’s venerable fighting franchise is one of the best-reviewed games in the current generation of systems.

Nov. 21 also saw the arrival of amiibo, Nintendo’s new platform where gaming’s most recognizable characters can be used in different ways in many compatible games. Sales of amiibo are approximately equal to sales of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U so far, while Link, Mario and Pikachu (in that order) have been the best-selling figures to date.

• 1.) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC)

• 2.) Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)

• 3.) Super Smash Bros. (NWU, 3DS)

• 4.) Madden NFL 15 (360, XBO, PS4, PS3)

• 5.) Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (3DS)

• 6.) Far Cry 4 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3, PC)

• 7.) Pokemon Omega Ruby (3DS)

• 8.) NBA 2K15 (PS4, 360, XBO, PS3, PC)

• 9.) Assassin's Creed: Unity (PS4, XBO, PC)

• 10.) Halo: The Master Chief Collection (XBO)

 

[BRiT]

I think that puts the WiiU at around 242K for November.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Sony takes on China.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-11-ps4-and-vita-will-launch-in-china-this-january
Being cheaper and reportedly the stronger brand, PS4 should do substantially more sales in China than XB1. It'll be interesting to see if the numbers are significant or fizzle out. This is perhaps the last great test of whether there's a legitimate console industry to tap in China.

Any news the pricing of the games? XBOX One relatively high price in comparison to other regions pricing appears to have been to offset lower pricing on the game titles themselves.

 

[AlphaWolf]

If you don't want to trust Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo with your credit card number, points/money cards are a great way to go. Also, good for teenagers, children who don't have credit cards, but would rather buy digital. Sometimes there are sales on these cards, which means you can get any get you want at a discount.

Ya I never use my CC, I just buy a few cash cards when they are on sale. There's no reason to pay full price.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Hard to know because while PS4 cards are #1, #2 and #3 for the year, XB cards are #10, #11, #12 and #15. And three of those cards are Live membership cards the other is a $10 dollar gift card. Plus these PSN and XB Live cards are applicable to more than just the PS4 and XB1. I am pretty sure that some of those 70 million PS3s and X360s sold in the US are still in use.

Good point I'd overlooked.

Any news the pricing of the games? XBOX One relatively high price in comparison to other regions pricing appears to have been to offset lower pricing on the game titles themselves.

I haven't seen mention of game prices. My expectation is that both machine will be price very similarly as they are run under the same umbrella group that is going to be facing piracy and imports on both console.

 

[DieH@rd]

CBOAT from GAF wrote that difference between Xbone and PS4 is very small.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=142896430&postcount=33

 

[AlphaWolf]

November was the Xbox ones best month. What were the numbers after launch?

So XB1 was more than 908k (think that was their previous best month)

 

[BRiT]

CBOAT from GAF wrote that difference between Xbone and PS4 is very small.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=142896430&postcount=33

I don't think it could refer to something else. ... But actually, people are interpreting that as being the meaning. There's MFT of posts talking about it and if it could refer to something else.

 

[iroboto]

CBOAT from GAF wrote that difference between Xbone and PS4 is very small.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=142896430&postcount=33

Hard to tell, that's quite a close one for US + UK to be that close in number.
Regardless however, MS knows how low it must go to beat their competitors, that is a pretty valuable piece of information.
If we follow the curve of sales curves, the early adopters for PS4 are done, they are moving into on the fence people and they are jumping on with those deals. Xbox's on the fence people well, seem to require quite a bit lower of a price point.

Having said that however, strictly looking at Xbox, I'd say it's a step in the right direction to repairing good will on a console that is drastically different since launch. A couple more months like this and people might actually stop thinking kinect is spying on you, or that you can't sell or trade Xbox games.

 

[DrJay24]

What is MS going to do with the price? Its supposed to go back up Jan 2nd. They would fall off a cliff after selling at $349 for two months.

 

[DieH@rd]

I don't think it could refer to something else. ... But actually, people are interpreting that as being the meaning. There's MFT of posts talking about it and if it could refer to something else.

99.999% he is talking about MS. He's almost always posting about things regarding MS, so much so that people think he works at MS or some 3rd party that has close ties with MS.

 

[Lager]

If what CBOAT said is true this definitely a Sony win in all but name.

 

[BRiT]

99.999% he is talking about MS. He's almost always posting about things regarding MS, so much so that people think he works at MS or some 3rd party that has close ties with MS.

Right, but is that US only, or US + UK or both US and UK diffs?