All purpose Sales and Sales Rumors and Anecdotes [2017 Edition]

[djskribbles]

Depends on the discussion, because there has certainly been people claiming VR was the future of gaming, and it clearly isn't. As a VR platform, sure it has done rather well, but there is no indication that it is taking over the gaming world. As it stands, VR is very niche and the PlayStation VR is no exception, even if it is meeting Sony's expectations.

While I have high doubts that VR will take over the gaming world, it's still too early to judge. VR is niche because it's still in its very early stages. Prices are still too high, and content is too thin for it to go mainstream.

PSVR in itself is a success so far because it's meeting Sony's expectations and is selling moderately well (IMO) for a niche accessory.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

PSVR in itself is a success so far because it's meeting Sony's expectations and is selling moderately well (IMO) for a niche accessory.

Yup, it's nowhere near Kinect v1 numbers, but Sony's expectations were low to begin with. I believe Sony were/are hoping that while initial adoption would be low (hence low production numbers) that they'd be able to grow the market for it.

So far, initial interest has been higher than they predicted, but they haven't been able to grow the market much. The VR market is certainly larger than it was prior to PSVR launch, but the sales curve has basically matched its competitors, just on a larger scale and time shifted to it's launch point.

Microsoft is set to join the segment later this year or early next year in the console space, but I don't think they'll have any different impact. In PC, it might end up different as they are focusing not just on gaming but more on the non-gaming applications in the PC space. Although I remain unconvinced that even that will be able to grow the VR segment significantly such that it can be self-sustaining.

And that's the key. Currently where VR is at, it's not self-sustaining. Everyone is hoping that it will eventually become self-sustaining.

Regards,
SB

 

[Globalisateur]

He used the words "severely supply constrained". I've checked the Pro stock at major outlets ever so often pretty much since release and it's relatively always been available in USA. It just isn't really true.

At some point it would be impossible to say anything's not supply constrained as I'm sure every console goes out of stock from some retailers at some times. I notice this a lot at Amazon.

Don't forget that Sony is a worldwide company and as such their statements reflect this. As a whole Pro and PSVR have being severely supply constrained since their release. Here in continental Europe and most of Asia (still in Japan) they have being almost impossible to find (at normal price) during whole months.

Average of usually easily available in a few countries and almost impossible to find in most others countries during months = "severely supply constrained" since release.

 

[goonergaz]

While I have high doubts that VR will take over the gaming world, it's still too early to judge. VR is niche because it's still in its very early stages. Prices are still too high, and content is too thin for it to go mainstream.

PSVR in itself is a success so far because it's meeting Sony's expectations and is selling moderately well (IMO) for a niche accessory.

This really.

VR is early adopter at the moment, if anything Sony has helped raise the profile and make people understand you don't need a powerful PC.

Wherever 'you' sit the view of VR, it surely is the nest evolution of gaming - this generation of VR is a foot in the door, it has shown many people that VR is an amazing experience and it just needs some fine-tuning (wireless/better tracking/cheaper entry prices) - and instead of kicking it people should embrace it.

Having played a bit of Farpoint it's shown me that we could have fully immersive FPS games and I can't wait for a future of gaming like this;

 

[Rodéric]

Arcades are back as VR outlets ?
Besides that I see no future for VR, only AR.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There's a whole forum for discussing VR. This thread is limited in scope to sales of PSVR, which are good based on Sony's expectations, and bad relative to how well consoles are expected to sell, and good relative to other VR devices, and bad relative to the most popular console peripherals.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Yup, it's nowhere near Kinect v1 numbers, but Sony's expectations were low to begin with. I believe Sony were/are hoping that while initial adoption would be low (hence low production numbers) that they'd be able to grow the market for it.

I think Sony are fully aware of the VR marketing problem in that you can't effectively market VR to people who've never experienced good VR because the customer has no frame of reference. Quite a few people have used my PSVR (Battlefield X-Wing DLC and Job Simulator are super popular) and come aware blown away. VR sounds (and looks) kooky. The experience (or opportunity to experience) of VR will take a time. I've had friends who prefer PSVR over Oculus because of comfort reasons - no doubt there are people who feel the reverse. A less optimum (or plain bad) VR experience will also deter some from trying another option.

VR is a super difficult sell. Like sex, no explanation does it justice. I can't think of any paradigm with any other product that's had such an uphill struggle to sell itself.

This is why VR sales are low. They will be for a long, long time.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I think Sony are fully aware of the VR marketing problem in that you can't effectively market VR to people who've never experienced good VR because the customer has no frame of reference. Quite a few people have used my PSVR (Battlefield X-Wing DLC and Job Simulator are super popular) and come aware blown away. VR sounds (and looks) kooky. The experience (or opportunity to experience) of VR will take a time. I've had friends who prefer PSVR over Oculus because of comfort reasons - no doubt there are people who feel the reverse. A less optimum (or plain bad) VR experience will also deter some from trying another option.

VR is a super difficult sell. Like sex, no explanation does it justice. I can't think of any paradigm with any other product that's had such an uphill struggle to sell itself.

This is why VR sales are low. They will be for a long, long time.

And yet it is increasingly common for friends and aquaintances of mines to just shelve their VR units as there is nothing worth playing. At least up until Star Trek Bridge Commander recently. And I'm not sure how long that'll hold their interest until it just gets shelved for another few months until something worth playing comes out.

That's the big problem right now. The experience is cool. For some it's enough to sustain interest. For other's they lose it relatively quickly after the initial wow factor wears off.

I just recently returned an Oculus Rift loaner from a friend (he completely lost interest in VR last year) due to the Star Trek game coming out. But, honestly, it'd been sitting here gathering dust for the past couple months at my house because there's just nothing there compelling enough to put it on, although I do want to try the Star Trek game. When I first got it from him I found a few games that I could play without motion sickness (love Pinball in VR), but not enough to keep me interested. Watching 3D movies was great for a time, but eventually the novelty couldn't overcome the low resolution combined with the convenience of just watching a movie on TV. Porn was fascinating the first few times, but I'm not a big POV fan (didn't like that one First Person POV action film that came out last year Hardcore Henry either).

Anyway, some of my friends are still up on VR. Most still see the potential. But the vast majority of them just don't bother using their VR device anymore because there's nothing there. Again, Star Trek has gotten some of them using again, but not all of them. And while many of them were quick to show off VR to anyone they could at first, they've mostly stopped doing it as they feel it's not right to get someone excited on VR only to then be disappointed at the state of VR gaming.

So, I guess that's all just to say.

No, VR is easy to sell. You just have to get someone to experience it.

The problem is that there is nothing after the initial experience to keep the vast majority of people interested in it. This last part is why some of my friends who were initially incredibly up on VR are now deliberately not showing VR to friends and family and are recommending people to stay away from VR until some nebulous time in the future when it might be good enough to spend money on.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

And yet it is increasingly common for friends and aquaintances of mines to just shelve their VR units as there is nothing worth playing. At least up until Star Trek Bridge Commander recently. And I'm not sure how long that'll hold their interest until it just gets shelved for another few months until something worth playing comes out.

This is exactly the problem. The hardware needs awesome software. Awesome software costs money which the hardware base will not provide a ROI to develop. Similarly I could never imagine playing a VR game for more than 30-40 minutes at a stretch. It's just a different sort of experience - it is more physically demanding and I say this as a fit person. Then there are games like Resident Evil 7, where I lasted about 3 minutes in VR mode. Nope.

 

[London Geezer]

I think Sony are fully aware of the VR marketing problem in that you can't effectively market VR to people who've never experienced good VR because the customer has no frame of reference. Quite a few people have used my PSVR (Battlefield X-Wing DLC and Job Simulator are super popular) and come aware blown away. VR sounds (and looks) kooky. The experience (or opportunity to experience) of VR will take a time. I've had friends who prefer PSVR over Oculus because of comfort reasons - no doubt there are people who feel the reverse. A less optimum (or plain bad) VR experience will also deter some from trying another option.

VR is a super difficult sell. Like sex, no explanation does it justice. I can't think of any paradigm with any other product that's had such an uphill struggle to sell itself.

This is why VR sales are low. They will be for a long, long time.

I'm pretty sure sex is much, much easier to sell than VR [emoji12]

 

[Silent_Buddha]

This is exactly the problem. The hardware needs awesome software. Awesome software costs money which the hardware base will not provide a ROI to develop. Similarly I could never imagine playing a VR game for more than 30-40 minutes at a stretch. It's just a different sort of experience - it is more physically demanding and I say this as a fit person. Then there are games like Resident Evil 7, where I lasted about 3 minutes in VR mode. Nope.

When thinking about it, I think the worst thing that could happen to VR is for VR devices to suddenly start selling like crazy. If the experience isn't there to sustain it, then people might bet burned by the experience.

On the other hand, for VR to succeed it needs to sell a lot of devices to justify the investment into developing full featured gaming experiences tailored to VR. That's important as a game tailored for VR might not work or be interesting in non-VR which means you can't sell necessarily sell a non-VR version of the game.

Chicken and Egg. Anyway, I think we've derailed this thread enough. I'll stop posting about it here.

Regards,
SB

 

[goonergaz]

I think Sony are fully aware of the VR marketing problem in that you can't effectively market VR to people who've never experienced good VR because the customer has no frame of reference. Quite a few people have used my PSVR (Battlefield X-Wing DLC and Job Simulator are super popular) and come aware blown away. VR sounds (and looks) kooky. The experience (or opportunity to experience) of VR will take a time. I've had friends who prefer PSVR over Oculus because of comfort reasons - no doubt there are people who feel the reverse. A less optimum (or plain bad) VR experience will also deter some from trying another option.

VR is a super difficult sell. Like sex, no explanation does it justice. I can't think of any paradigm with any other product that's had such an uphill struggle to sell itself.

This is why VR sales are low. They will be for a long, long time.

Yeah, I had a guy come round from work to test out VR - next day he bought Rift for Elite on PC.

I think the main issue is VR lacks 'full' experiences and also there's the motion sickness issue. So people won't just try it they need to experience it and have a good experience to buy in (like my mate from work).

I can understand why it's being put to one side, most games are short and due to sickness most people play in short goes (also the messing about and anti-social factors play a part). Again, this is the first generation of VR - when people got pong machines I believe there was a similar affect and thought that it wouldn't become main-steam entertainment.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I'm pretty sure sex is much, much easier to sell than VR [emoji12]

Sex gets crazy amounts of publicity. If VR got the same, it'd possibly do very well. If the charts had songs full of,

"I wanna get my helmet on
and walk around them VR worlds.
U-huh. Oh yeah."

And TV and movies had lots of men and women dragging each other upstairs to the bedroom to climb onto a infinite-walker contraption with plastic guns, and car magazines had gorgeous VR headsets draped over sports cars, and people spoke with lots of VR innuendo, there'd probably be at least 2 VR headsets in every home already.

 

[chris1515]

Sales number 2016 in Spain

The Spanish Association of Video Games (AEVI) has revealed that game overall consumption in Spain was €1,163 million (+7.4%) in 2016.

Physical sales accounted for €781 million (-1.3%) of overall Spanish video game market, while digital consumption increased by 30.8% to €382 million.

Hardware (Units Sales)

PlayStation 4 - 650,000 (+10%)
Nintendo 3DS - 357,000 (+20%)
Xbox One - 75,000 (+21%)
Nintendo Wii U - 43,000 (-46%)
PlayStation Vita - 21,000 (-67%)
PlayStation 3 - 6,000 (-82%)
Xbox 360 - 3,000 (-73%)
Nintendo Wii - 1,000 (-96%)
Others - 53,000 (+231%)

Total - 1,209,000 (+2.3%)

Software (Units Sales)

PlayStation 4 - 4,150,000 (+50%)
Nintendo 3DS - 1,770,000 (+31%)
PlayStation 3 - 905,000 (-49%)
PC Software - 510,000 (-8%)
Nintendo Wii U - 448,000 (-4%)
Xbox One - 438,000 (+28%)
Nintendo Wii - 404,000 (-44%)
Xbox 360 - 276,000 (-47%)
PlayStation Vita - 178,000 (-47%)
Nintendo DS - 19,000 (-62%)
PlayStation Portable - 17,000 (-73%)
Others - 3,000 (-40%)
PlayStation 2 - 2,000 (-85%)

Total - 9,119,000 (+1.7%)

Spain sales 2016


http://www.aevi.org.es/web/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ANUARIO_AEVI_2016.pdf

 

[London Geezer]

Sex gets crazy amounts of publicity. If VR got the same, it'd possibly do very well. If the charts had songs full of,

"I wanna get my helmet on
and walk around them VR worlds.
U-huh. Oh yeah."

And TV and movies had lots of men and women dragging each other upstairs to the bedroom to climb onto a infinite-walker contraption with plastic guns, and car magazines had gorgeous VR headsets draped over sports cars, and people spoke with lots of VR innuendo, there'd probably be at least 2 VR headsets in every home already.

You had me at helmet.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Given the 8x discrepancy between PS4 and XB1, I find it surprising that XB1 isn't further behind in install base.

 

[Metal_Spirit]

Well... no Portuguese numbers, but I would not be surprised if the difference here was even larger.
Sony even considers us as their world best market.
If i'm not mistaken, once Sony claimed Playstation had 92% of the entire Portuguese console Market.

 

[London Geezer]

Well... no Portuguese numbers, but I would not be surprised if the difference here was even larger.
Sony even considers us as their world best market.
If i'm not mistaken, once Sony claimed Playstation had 92% of the entire Portuguese console Market.

How big is the Portuguese market, out of curiosity?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Given the 8x discrepancy between PS4 and XB1, I find it surprising that XB1 isn't further behind in install base.

Not that surprising. Spain is a relatively small market despite being one of the larger European markets. For PS4 all of Europe sells slightly more than NA with Japan selling a bit more than 1/10th of Europe + NA. For XBO, NA sells a bit more than 2.3x Europe.

Basically, due to sales in NA being relatively close between PS4 and XBO with PS4 having the lead, a country like Spain having 8:1 sales in favor of PS4 is influential in increasing PS4's lead, but not to any large amount.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The entire population of Portugal is 10 million, less than London, so any comments about largest market mean percentage wise.