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

[Nesh]

PS4 and XB1 need ganes.

Also....MS has not announced a standalone Kinect 2 yet?

I guess they are having a hard time to decide on the price and the supply.

The XB1 was a Kinect 2 pusher. Not anymore. A $100 price for k2 doesnt sound attractive considering that people prefer a cheaper kinectless version. Going below that price is like screwing the early adopters and communicate that the initial offer was a rip off.

I think Kinect 2 is pretty much dead now

Sony offers the cheapest solution to voice commands. If MS offers an alternative cheaper solution they will just nail the coffin.

 

[Platon]

To me it feels like MS is not taking advantage of their strengths.

Since they do have the kinect there they should try and take more advantage of it. I am mainly thinking of very simple family games. Watching my almost 2 year old in front of my laptop watching youtube videos with kids song and imitating what ever the small little animated figures do and thinking that it would be great if there were games were they are supposed to follow and imitate some figure on the screen or something.

That does not mean that they should loose focus on the "core" though. Bring on the blood, guts and gore for daddy when the small ones have gone to bed. It should be possible to target several audiences with one machine. You should not need a family console (Nin) and a mature one (MSony)...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Dang! Three Lego games in the top ten. No wonder that franchise is so milked!

At some point sales are sales.

But people are more interested in trends than sales. Wii U's sales remained strong for months of downward trend just because it launched well. Six months after release it was obviously struggling despite N. fans claiming it was still a stronger seller than other consoles.

With 2:1 PS4 to XB1 in US, WW it's likely 3:1, and I'd expect that ratio to grow as PS4 snowballs. It'd take MS action to shift the balance.

 

[Brad Grenz]

With 2:1 PS4 to XB1 in US, WW it's likely 3:1, and I'd expect that ratio to grow as PS4 snowballs. It'd take MS action to shift the balance.

So far PS4 has done less than half its sales in the US, and while they've caught up with demand in North America, that's not yet true in places like Germany. Thus the sales disparity worldwide was probably at least 4:1 last month in PS4's favor, and could conceivably been as a high as 6:1 or 7:1.

 

[Deleted member 86764]

If it was 3:1 WW I'd be amazed. If it were anything like 7:1 Sony would be shouting from the rooftops. It seems excessively unlikely.

I'm a PS4 owner (from 360) and I'd still buy a One if Microsoft gave me enough reason, they've been making the right sounds recently too.

I think this may well be the come-down generation, I agree with that it won't be as long as the last. 2017/2018 for the next.

 

[London Geezer]

Dang! Three Lego games in the top ten. No wonder that franchise is so milked!

The Lego games are friggin genius! But yes they should slow down and release fewer games but higher quality ones.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If it was 3:1 WW I'd be amazed.

How can it not be? You'd need 2:1 sales of Xbox in rest of world where PS has always sold better, and is in more countries, or for RoW numbers to be immaterial next to US.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Hell, MS is probably glad the discussion is mostly about NPD numbers each month because if more people were aware of just how large the disparity is in the rest of the world it would be bedlam.

If we assume the historic sales split between NPD and the rest of the world for the Xbox One remains true in April that implies MS sold only about 50K units all month everywhere else. In the whole world. Sony likely sold at least 200K outside the US, and based on their 1M a month average shipment so far that figure could be as high as 800K. Compared to 50K.

If you ignore the US, sales of the Xbox One are nothing short of catastrophically bad and it's difficult to imagine how the business remains viable in the long term if they can't at least dominate North America with the Xbox One the way they did with the 360. And right now I don't see how that will ever happen. The way things are going now they'd be lucky to limp across 30M sold worldwide in five years.

 

[Deleted member 86764]

How can it not be? You'd need 2:1 sales of Xbox in rest of world where PS has always sold better, and is in more countries, or for RoW numbers to be immaterial next to US.

Do we know that PS4 is 2:1 in the US? As far as I understand it's just hearsay on Gaf. If true and PS4 is selling at a rate of 3:1 on the Xbox, the whole situation is a disaster for Microsoft - it's not like they're making any more profit on each machine than Sony either.

To be honest with you, it's a bit of a sad state of affairs; if Sony completely monopolise then there's never going to be much of a need for them to ever excel with hardware again.

Both companies bet on camera tech this time around and it really hasn't worked out... Bring on E3, I want to see Microsoft throw everything at it (minus American Football, TV, etc.)

 

[liolio]

Strong showing for the 360, makes me wonder further if the timing for the One was the right one.
It sounds a bit crazy after 7 years but maybe a last revision, shrinking the Valhalla to 32nm could have done the job till the "overall" MSFT strategy comes together:
by that I mean the One launch along Directx 12 everywhere.
Universal Apps are available in more significant number.
More time have been spent making TV deals.
etc. So less of a "work in progress" approach to the launch and the ONe would have been part of a global push from MSFT unveiling products (software and hardware) on many markets, most likely along with their next big Windows release.

 

[Brad Grenz]

We know with a certain amount of confidence the PS4 sold right at about 200K in the US in April, putting it a little under 2:1 over the Xbox One. This is from the same GAF insiders that have proven reliable month after month.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Do we know that PS4 is 2:1 in the US?

If you follow the NPD thread every month, you'll see that the GAF noise ends up gravitating to the reality. It's not going to be a case of 1:1 or 3:1 in the US if GAF is saying around NPD that it's 2:1 - they're not going to be that wrong.

I wouldn't go so far as some of the others here pointing ot Sony's 1M a month shipments as signs, because we've lost all retail info regards how PS4 is selling everywhere and have no idea how things have changed. However, there are plenty enough reasons to presume whatever XB1 is doing in the US, it's doing substantially worse elsewhere. This is even played out in MS's decision. If XB1 was competing well and they were shifting lots of boxes, they wouldn't have gone through all the faff and fallout of backtracking again and producing a Kinect-free SKU at a lower price. MS did this to spur sales. Ergo, sales are lagging..

 

[zed]

I don't expect kinectless preorders to be high. It's not out for a month and when it does you can just go into a shop and get it day one so wouldn't read anything into them.

Worth noting attach rate for the xbone is a lot lower than the 360 at the same point of time. Then again I don't think there was any medium sized current gen titles this month. Next month there's a lot more on that front happening.

 

[liolio]

Well we can guess how much One are in the wild.

Did MSFT announced that they sold 5 millions units, iirc no.
THere are ~3 millions One in the US. Last figure we had world wide was 4.5 millions.
Looking at the pace of the sales in US I think 1.6 or 1.7 millions in "other territories" (EU) is a good upper limit.

 

[Rangers]

Dang! Three Lego games in the top ten. No wonder that franchise is so milked!

But people are more interested in trends than sales. Wii U's sales remained strong for months of downward trend just because it launched well. Six months after release it was obviously struggling despite N. fans claiming it was still a stronger seller than other consoles.

With 2:1 PS4 to XB1 in US, WW it's likely 3:1, and I'd expect that ratio to grow as PS4 snowballs. It'd take MS action to shift the balance.

Hence, $399, Halo 5 news, Gears of War news, removing entertainment apps from paywall, etc just in last few days :smile:

 

[Rangers]

I dont know, there's so many ways to cut the data. Is this gen offering up horrible numbers OR

This image shows every generation has gotten bigger. And it even ignores that ~50m PS2's were sold after the start of the 7th gen (6th gen in this image, i suppose) (then again, 7th gen did have an advantage lasting 7-8 years vs 5 prior, but still)

Also this angle

Honestly mist of the market contraction is from Nintendo.

April 2006:

360: 295k
PS2: 260k
XB+GCN: 70k

Total: 625k

April 2007:

360: 174k
PS3: 82k
PS2: 194k

Total: 450k

April 2014:

PS4: 200k
XB1: 115k
360: 70k
PS3: 50k (estimate)

Total: 435k

So many possible ways to look at it.

Latest NPD LTD's

PS4 3.11m
X1 2.65m

PS2 first 6 months

Oct 2000 - 391k
Nov 2000 - 188k
Dec 2000 - 522k
Jan 2001 - 248k
Feb 2001 - 233k
Mar 2001 - 547k

LTD: 2.13m

 

[Rangers]

Lots of speculation just how bad X1 May sales could be as people wait for $399. Including that Wii U could top it (Mario Kart 8).

Dunno about Wii U, but I suspect X1 wont be that horrible. I could see 80k, also wouldn't be surprised if it's over 100k.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Did MSFT announced that they sold 5 millions units, iirc no.

I'm not sure we should look for a milestone announcement from MS. It's not in their best interests when they're clearly trailing. Take a look at their NPD PR statement - it's all about relative performance. Announcing 5 million months after your rival has announced 7 million isn't a going to garner lots of positive press. It'll instead highlight the discrepancy. I suppose a milestone could happen if MS felt it was in their best interests. eg. 5 million vs. 7 million would show there to be less difference than some are feeling by looking at trends.

Overall though, I don't expect Sony nor MS to announce many milestones. Sony at 10 million is all I expect.

 

[Rangers]

Hell, MS is probably glad the discussion is mostly about NPD numbers each month because if more people were aware of just how large the disparity is in the rest of the world it would be bedlam.

Why would it be "bedlam"?

At the end of the day as long as a console gets all relevant third party support, all the chatter is just water under the bridge. Joe Six Pack doesn't go on forums or care. He just buys a console, goes home and plays it.

I'm sure you'd argue something along the lines that these terrible sales mean X1 is in danger of losing 3rd party support, but realistically that will likely never happen as MS will take measures to ensure it, and even if it just sells 70-80% of PS4 in USA LTD's only and nothing in rest of world, it's enough to guarantee 3rd party support.

And there's a lot of focus on PS4 must be outselling x1 3/4-1 WW right now (6-1 7-1 are fantasy though imo), and that's true, but there's also another side, that PS4 sales must have slipped mightily, probably to around ~500k/month WW or less from the former 1m, so it's not all roses.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why would it be "bedlam"?

That's clearly hyperbolic.

At the end of the day as long as a console gets all relevant third party support, all the chatter is just water under the bridge. Joe Six Pack doesn't go on forums or care. He just buys a console, goes home and plays it.

Though true, the long-term concern is snowballing marginalising XB1, plus of course the the business situation for MS and where XB1 fits in (will they drop it? Sell the division?). That's for the business thread though, I see, just checking which thread this is!

And there's a lot of focus on PS4 must be outselling x1 3/4-1 WW right now (6-1 7-1 are fantasy though imo), and that's true, but there's also another side, that PS4 sales must have slipped mightily, probably to around ~500k/month WW or less from the former 1m, so it's not all roses.

Sales should be expected to drop. These are the slow months. How's PS4 selling in relation to other consoles (PS2, PS3, XB360) in these months?