Amazon Video Games Poll

[Xalion]

In other news: Top selling console on Amazon US: Xbox one launch edition... lol

Sim city 2.0

The Amazon results are updated hourly. For most of the day, the PS4 launch version was the top. It sold out at around 2 pm EST. Because the XBox One has not yet sold out, it is now "gaining" in rank. Note that the non-launch day edition of the PS4 is 3rd, while the non-launch day edition of the XBox is 36th. While the exact algorithm isn't known, expect the PS4 to drop spots over the next few hours as it sells no consoles because it is sold out.

One could argue that the XBox not being sold out while the PS4 is sold out being a bigger indication of demand. The counter to that is we don't know how many each vendor allotted to Amazon. Of course, a vendor could allot a larger than normal amount to game the ranking system as well - but I don't know that I would expect that here.

 

[djskribbles]

In other news: Top selling console on Amazon US: Xbox one launch edition... lol

Sim city 2.0

I think that's because they are sold out of PS4 launch editions but the X1 still has Day One editions. The PS4 standard edition has moved to 2nd above the launch edition, and the standard X1 has dropped to 37th. Whatever all that means...

 

[ninzel]

Well MS has made their choices and they will reap the positives and negatives. As well I have no doubt both systems will initially do well. Where I see cause for concern for MS is a little bit in when those less educated gamers/parents start to feel the impact of these changes if the worst case scenarios materialize.
Since MS is initiating this shift, it's in their best interest to get out in front of this and make an open proactive effort to educate people.Just be honest. Don't bury these new policies in the last page of the manual. This should help to smooth the transition.

 

[temesgen]

Well the second one might actually happen, it's my understanding MS is trying to move Windows to the Apple model of annual releases.

Fine whatevs, annual update then, there is an extremely high probability Rangers is getting an XB1. I'd take those odds to Vegas and I don't even gamble.

BTW - just teasing you Rangers, I mean no offense. You're passionate about the platform you like and that is ok. I only take issue when people misrepresent things or flat out lie you otoh don't take this too serious.

 

[-tkf-]

Hmm this might be the right thread?

The price difference in denmark is right now +200 dkr ($35) for the XBONE. That is pretty much the same price so here i would expect the price difference (if that price actually holds water) to have zero influence. Considering it includes Kinect it's more than competitive.

Strangely every other shop has a price difference of about 500 dkr ($85), which is more in line with what we know.

 

[Phil]

Besides, does anybody really want that? Take my PC choice above. Who is going to game on a PC and not be online?

...

But yes, he's really saying for offline next gen console gaming, buy the competition. I'm fine with that.

I think the general issue is that people like to have freedom of choice. They want to feel that what they buy, they actually own, in an uncontrolled manner. That might be stone-age thinking in todays world, but I think it still applies to many many people outthere.

Lets take this for example: Every year, we go on holidays to the mountains and at times, we took a console with us, for some party games. With the 24 hour mandatory online check, playing offline will not be an option, because we don't have internet there. Not because there isn't any in the village, but because it's a rented appartment that doesn't offer it. I guess it would be possible, to get around that with enough effort - but it's an effort some simply refuse to take out of pricipal. Why? Because the online-check is nothing more than a way to check DRM. It's not as if we want to play a game that is on some server, but an offline game where we bought and own a physical copy of it. And for some reason, the Xbox doesn't allow us to play it if the console hasn't "called home" after 24 hours.

I guess this is like the topic importance of backwards-compability. Do people really use it a lot (going back to last-generation games)? Perhaps not. But it adds value and is to some an important factor. I for one and very disappointed that both new consoles will not be backwards compatible, with or without knowing how much I would effectively use it.

 

[Gubbi]

Hmm this might be the right thread?

The price difference in denmark is right now +200 dkr ($35) for the XBONE. That is pretty much the same price so here i would expect the price difference (if that price actually holds water) to have zero influence. Considering it includes Kinect it's more than competitive.

Strangely every other shop has a price difference of about 500 dkr ($85), which is more in line with what we know.

3699 DKK vs 3899 DKK for PS4/XB1 respectively, that translates to $658 and $693 in US currency, without VAT prices are $548 and $578, that's a surcharge of $149 for PS4 vs $79 for XB1 compared to the US.

I guess Sony is trying to win North America back from MS and using Europe to subsidize the discounted US price.

Cheers

 

[Phil]

Interesting... in Switzerland at least, at CHF 499 (~€ 405), that includes VAT (8%), it's cheaper than any console launch I can remember. I payed around CHF 700 for PS2 at the time (actually more, because we could only get it in a bundle with 3 games) and around € 550 for the launch PS3.

This is such a bargain. It's almost too good to be true.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

3699 DKK vs 3899 DKK for PS4/XB1 respectively, that translates to $658 and $693 in US currency, without VAT prices are $548 and $578, that's a surcharge of $149 for PS4 vs $79 for XB1 compared to the US.

I guess Sony is trying to win North America back from MS and using Europe to subsidize the discounted US price.

That's Scandinavian retail pricing, not Sony's pricing, I think. Sony have stated €399 and $399. Factoring in 20% VAT, that's ~€320, $427, versus ~$400. Adding in better consumer rights in the EU that have to paid for (you buy an extended warranty in the US) and the prices are about the same. There's certainly no subsidising on the EU side, according to RRP. If retailers choose to charge a premium to make more profit, that's there call. I think Cheezdoodles has talked about Scandinavian import monopolies by one distributor who hikes the price, but I'm not sure.

It's possible that Sony have added an extra fleecing price to the Scandinavians, but you'd need to see an RRP from Sony specified in Krone. Or rather, a cost price that retail are paying so we know what markup they are adding.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

3699 DKK vs 3899 DKK for PS4/XB1 respectively, that translates to $658 and $693 in US currency, without VAT prices are $548 and $578, that's a surcharge of $149 for PS4 vs $79 for XB1 compared to the US.

I guess Sony is trying to win North America back from MS and using Europe to subsidize the discounted US price.

It's a bit too early to try to make large generalizations over the pricing strategies between territories. Scandinavian countries have often have had very expensive Playstations compared to rest of Europe, at least during the early part of the console's life. PS3 was 679€ at launch in Finland. The commercials even said "only 679€" lol. I'm not 100% up to date on the situation, but I think Nordisk Film is acting as a middleman and does some localisations also and is perhaps the reason for the higher price.

Xbox's have had pretty normal European price over here, so at least in Scandinavia the difference could turn out to be less than 100€ at launch, and I'm almost certain MS can't sustain €499 in Europe for very long. Some of the deals we have had on X360 were almost insanely good.

 

[Platon]

In Sweden, at least at one of the shops I frequent, they are at the exact same price 4490SEK/694$/521€.

It looks a lot but compared to previous gens that is an ok price for a launch unit. The SEK is quite strong right now which make it seem much more in other currency's. Of course since the SEK is strong right now one would expect them to be even cheaper than previous gens launches but it does not seem to "work" that way. if I would get the PS4 online from Amazon UK it would be 1000SEK less...

 

[-tkf-]

That's Scandinavian retail pricing, not Sony's pricing, I think. Sony have stated €399 and $399. Factoring in 20% VAT, that's ~€320, $427, versus ~$400. Adding in better consumer rights in the EU that have to paid for (you buy an extended warranty in the US) and the prices are about the same. There's certainly no subsidising on the EU side, according to RRP. If retailers choose to charge a premium to make more profit, that's there call. I think Cheezdoodles has talked about Scandinavian import monopolies by one distributor who hikes the price, but I'm not sure.

It's possible that Sony have added an extra fleecing price to the Scandinavians, but you'd need to see an RRP from Sony specified in Krone. Or rather, a cost price that retail are paying so we know what markup they are adding.

And vat in Denmark is 25%, afaik it used to be "nordisk film" that did all the import in Scandinavia, when i used to sell consoles they were the only distributor of Sony consoles. And a bit arrogant :-/

But the price difference (which was my point) isn't an issue here with the examples i found.

 

[makaveli87]

The poll is now closed. Final tally:

PS4: 38,984
XB1: 2,162

Seems like the hardcore market are gravitating to the PS4 due to the hardware advantage and the casuals due to the price advantage. Public perception of DRM isn't helping the situation either.

 

[Bagel seed]

Another online poll from The Sun has PS4 at 79%. And an ad in their paper:

 

[RudeCurve]

Those polls are as BS as those Media Create surveys which put "most wanted" game as being the winner....until the actual sales numbers came in...

As I said money talks BS walks...lets see how many of those people actually put their money where their mouth is...

 

[Xalion]

Exact numbers won't be had for a while now, but here at least is a more reliable article than an internet poll:

Forbes Article

Note that there are a lot of ridiculous numbers out there citing these polls (the Amazon poll was 18:1 and the IGN poll was 8:1). However, the 2:1 margin that this person cites as having from reliable sources but unable to confirm sounds more reasonable. It also seems to line up with reports that the PS4 is outselling the XBox at Gamestop, Blockbuster, and GAME. IGN claims 3:1 here, but does not give any sources.

However, I would claim that none of this really matters. Both the XBox and the PS4 will probably sell out at least through January of next year. So the box with the most "sales" will be the one that can ship the most, not the most popular. While the preorder numbers might be interesting, I don't know that we will be able to draw conclusions from them even if the 2:1 or 3:1 numbers are true right now.

 

[Cyan]

They sold out on Amazon which is a positive, I'd say there's reason to be concerned but much of this is overblown bc the mainstream doesn't even know new consoles are coming yet and in the US anyway when parents ask many kids will say the new Xbox without even doing any research. The Gamestop multiplier could shift things a bit bc someone working in the store who is a gamer has credibility with parents trying to make decisions but again we just don't know for sure what the sentiment will be of their employees and how much of impact it would be. Much of this is anecdotal atm....

It is true that these polls are usually representative of the core gamers, so I'd take them with a grain of salt.

Most of them are anti-DRM, but if you add to this that they also usually value compute power, then the winner is obvious, especially when the console retails at a smaller price.

Even so, I have a feeling that -power and DRM aside- the price of both consoles isn't that far apart if you take into account that the Xbox One -if you can live with the DRM and it is completely transparent to you, if not then it's a whole different story- has some extras like Kinect and it's a capable console.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Those polls are as BS as those Media Create surveys which put "most wanted" game as being the winner....until the actual sales numbers came in...

As I said money talks BS walks...lets see how many of those people actually put their money where their mouth is...

It's easy to be blasé about these kinds of polls, and just pass them off as an insignificant in the grand scheme of things, unless of course people stick to their guns and do vote with their wallets. The bigger issue that MS has with this boils down to the relentless chipping away at the image of the xbox one and the promotion of the 360 over it as the MS console of choice if you don't want Sony and don't agree with the current MS policies.

It's also the promotion of the PS4 via, free, full scale advertising like this in the main stream press. This is not just the hardcore web minority seeing this and making decisions based on it. It's the general public who tend to be quite nervous about things that are portrayed as being inferior and controlling.

 

[joker454]

It's easy to be blasé about these kinds of polls, and just pass them off as an insignificant in the grand scheme of things, unless of course people stick to their guns and do vote with their wallets. The bigger issue that MS has with this boils down to the relentless chipping away at the image of the xbox one and the promotion of the 360 over it as the MS console of choice if you don't want Sony and don't agree with the current MS policies.

Do you guys think this matters in the grand scheme of things? Somehow I recall core gamers being hardcore against the Wii all over the internet but that didn't seem to affect it's sales. I also remember a backlash against Call Of Duty where gamers were down voting the game to 1 star on many major websites and starting petitions to ban it, but I also don't recall those having any real world effect on sales. In the end it was just the very vocal 1% flexing their internet muscle largely to no effect.

 

[Bagel seed]

Wii was an anomaly that sucked in casual interest right from the start with its motion fad and low price. I really doubt Xbone will generate that kind of buzz, especially at $500 + Live sub. I don't think these polls are even limited to the hardcore anymore. The negative sentiment is spreading to the mainstream.. there is definitely a real effect going on here. You wouldn't have 2:1, 3:1 or more in favor of PS4 for preorder and polls ratios basically across the board if it wasn't.

This is pretty much playing out like how we saw the general excitement for PS3 turn into a whimper shortly after $599 was announced, except on a much greater scale I think. Combined with low yields issue and the rumors of PS4 launching earlier I think it has to be worrying for MS.