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

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(((interference))) said:
Perhaps, but I don't think that's likely - MS for one is definitely trying to get all the 360 owners to upgrade to XB1, rather than keep them on 360.
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In 2013 that was certainly true - AAA exclusives for the X360 were basically dead...
In 2014, Titanfall (the first 'great hope' of the XB1) was also released on the X360. It shouldn't have been hard for the X360 version to mysteriously vanish...

(((interference))) said:
I mean what good would that accomplish in the long term? It would just see MS cede the 8th gen to Sony and they can probably make more money off XB1 owners than 360 owners (margins on the XB1 hardware itself, additional controller sales, higher game prices, and less impact on new game sales by a huge used game market and large library of AAA titles that you have on 360).
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Stalling next-gen to allow MS time to sort itself out? I don't know. And it's quite likely that MS didn't really intend to encourage consumers to stick with the X360.

It's just something to consider, there's no actual evidence that X360 owners are upgrading slower.

A final quirk is that "slow upgraders" could be seen as a group who don't see value in their "intended upgrade route". It's entirely possible that slow upgraders will be more likely to purchase the "other console".
 
steveOrino said:
Switching generations means cutting ties with the past platform. I get what you saying, I am just saying that the % of those people who really care to stick to one platform over generations is relatively small (Lots of things change in 8 years) else Nintendo would have dominated every generation post crash.
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I think you're looking at it from the wrong angle. It's not necessarely platform loyalty that's the big factor - but perhaps loyalty to certain games and franchises. That then, over time, becomes platform loyalty, because some games end up becoming synonymous with the platform it's on. Many have that with the Nintendo platform and have stayed 'loyal' largely because of it. When the PS originally came out, the next big Final Fantasy ended up on the PlayStation (not Nintendo). The PS also successfully built up strong 1st party games like the Gran Turismo series. Over time, and by the time PS2 launched, the PlayStation brand name had a fair share of the at the time big Japanese games (Tekken, MGS, Silent Hill and lots of other gems either by 1st parties or exclusive/strong 3rd party support).

Many of these games have effectively become what the PlayStation brand is known for (among other things diversity) and contributed to its strength.

Even if some games jump ship, as a whole, the PlayStation brand still has a majority of content people bought into years ago, know and like.

Sure, this doesn't apply to every gamer outthere. Some have less ties to their platform - for some, gaming isn't even a major hobby. As we move on, I would also think that brand loyalty becomes stronger, as the new consoles tie their customers in to their platform and eco-system. Digitally purchased software linked to an online-id, backwards-compatibility and friends list who play and share the same games.
 
I think loyalty to an online community (rather than a specific platform) is more important this generation and would help explain some of the reluctance to upgrade. For people with a lot of time invested in Live, I think it would seem daunting for them to switch ecosystems. They would lose their gaming library, their online friends and a lot of time invested in their online reputation (i.e. gamers tags). On the other hand, I think that these are some of the most "dedicated" console fans.

Without a compelling reason to switch like a blockbuster title, much better hardware, etc - I can see these people putting off upgrading. Especially with the initial negative press. They probably intend to eventually, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Or they may even be considering the other system but are waiting to see what their online friends do.

On the other hand, the PS4 has had a pretty good roll out. I know they convinced me to upgrade - even though in retrospect a PS3 is still a better machine for me (larger gaming library, better multi-media functionality, etc).

I think that while Microsoft isn't in the best position right now, they are certainly not in an hopeless one. I think what they really need is a catalyst to upgrade. I think Microsoft hoped that Titanfall would be that catalyst. But what they really need now is a Halo, a CoD, or something similar. I don't think it has to be exclusive even. It just needs to be a solid step forward that is available only on the next generation.
 
DieH@rd said:
So, it seems that Advanced Warfare will not be released on Wii U.
https://twitter.com/MichaelCondrey/statuses/502094586865405952

After EA, Ubi and Acti are starting to move away from that console [Ubi said that they will still release Just Dance and similar family-oriented titles].
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Yep, sales of their games on the console are not good. Initially they though that a growing userbase might change things, but Wii U's userbase continues to grow, but their games sales have not improved. Wii U will be included for titles like Just Dance, Rayman Legends, and Child of Light, but the AAA titles are from those publishers are done.
 
I'm really curious to see what PS4 hardware sales will be in September. They could potentially be massive. The white Destiny PS4 bundle is currently the highest ranking Destiny SKU on amazon. The monthly rankings since it was added are: June - 23, July - 24, Aug - 14. It's already starting to climb and we're still 3 weeks away from release.

EDIT: Amazon ranking update:
4. PS4 Console
5. Diablo III PS4
6. Madden PS4
8. PS4 Controller
9. Destiny XB1
10. Destiny PS4 Bundle
13. Destiny PS4
16. TLoU:R PS4
18. Diablo III XB1
19. Madden Ultimate Edition XB1
21. PS4 Controller (Blue)
22. Madden XB1
24. XB1 Controller
25. PS4 Controller Charging Dock
26. Madden Ultimate Edition PS4
27. Sony Gold Headset
43. XB1 Play and Charge kit
44. XB1 Console (Kinectless)
45. CoD AW Day Zero Edition XB1
48. Madden XB1 Bundle
49. Halo Master Chief
50. CoD Ghosts XB1 ($23.21)
59. Watch Dogs PS4
62. AC IV XB1 ($24.99)
68. BF4 4 XB1 ($26.99)
72. CoD AW XB1 Bundle
78. CoD AW XB1 Controller
82. XB1 Headset Adapter
83. SO XB1 Bundle
86. CoD Ghosts PS4 ($33.49)
87. XB1 + Play and Charge kit
91. Infamous SS PS4
92. PS4 Camera
93. PS4 Controller (White)
100. CoD AW Day Zero Edition PS4

ACIV, CoD Ghosts and BF4 are currently cheaper on XB1.
 
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I largely agree with (((interference))). It is likely the rate of 360 owners upgrading to PS4 far outweighs the rate of PS3 owners upgrading to XB1. That's not to say most 360 owners won't upgrade to XB1 over PS4...at least for now.

The argument used for people sticking with a specific console manufacturer due to time and money invested is surely a big factor. And so is the community of people that is played with. This should help secure some users from the last generation. Though if people see their friends switching to a different platform that should also be a big factor in determining a purchasing decision. If I were in the market for a new gen system and see most of my 360 friends switch to PS4 I'd be really tempted to follow suit.

The Playstation brand might just be stronger than the Xbox brand even in the US. Sure as hell was tarnished with PS3 and took Sony a long time to build the brand back up. Now that it has built it back up it may be easier for more people to associate the Playstation brand as the console to go to for gaming. It's been in the public for a longer period of time and has been associated with a successful console more times. So the brand just has more raw and latent exposure throughout the years and people's associations with it may be stronger than it is with the Xbox brand. And to kids that grew up on PS1 and PS2 they're about the age where their children might be wanting a system and all those PS2 owners that skipped on PS360 gen might opt for PS over Xbox.

The instant love the media has had for Sony since the reveal of the PS4 and the huge critical eyeball that has stared MS down since the XB1 reveal is also interesting. It's definitely been one of the main factors for the success of PS4 over XB1 so far, but is that love coming from a latent love of the PS brand?
 
Sonic said:
I largely agree with (((interference))). It is likely the rate of 360 owners upgrading to PS4 far outweighs the rate of PS3 owners upgrading to XB1. That's not to say most 360 owners won't upgrade to XB1 over PS4...at least for now.

The argument used for people sticking with a specific console manufacturer due to time and money invested is surely a big factor. And so is the community of people that is played with. This should help secure some users from the last generation. Though if people see their friends switching to a different platform that should also be a big factor in determining a purchasing decision. If I were in the market for a new gen system and see most of my 360 friends switch to PS4 I'd be really tempted to follow suit.

The Playstation brand might just be stronger than the Xbox brand even in the US. Sure as hell was tarnished with PS3 and took Sony a long time to build the brand back up. Now that it has built it back up it may be easier for more people to associate the Playstation brand as the console to go to for gaming. It's been in the public for a longer period of time and has been associated with a successful console more times. So the brand just has more raw and latent exposure throughout the years and people's associations with it may be stronger than it is with the Xbox brand. And to kids that grew up on PS1 and PS2 they're about the age where their children might be wanting a system and all those PS2 owners that skipped on PS360 gen might opt for PS over Xbox.

The instant love the media has had for Sony since the reveal of the PS4 and the huge critical eyeball that has stared MS down since the XB1 reveal is also interesting. It's definitely been one of the main factors for the success of PS4 over XB1 so far, but is that love coming from a latent love of the PS brand?
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Sales much like positive perception is built around a triad of price, power and software. If you go back to the PS2 generation Sony was weaker wrt power but software and price made up the difference, last generation MS had price and software and arguably power (third party software). Unfortunately both MS and Sony made the same mistake coming out of a good generation (PS2 and 360 respectively) both believing that gamers were in love with them as a company when in reality the affinity with the public in both cases was due a good relationship between price, power and software.

Gamers might love a specific title like Halo or IP like Mario but overall its third party titles that own the software market at this point and platform holders would do well to understand that their job is to build a platform that has a good balance between power and price and then invest in the first party efforts that can complement what the third parties will bring to the platform.
 
There's no denying that price, power, and software titles are the main factors in determining which console the consumer purchases. The fact that Sony has these three this generation shows smart business decisions by the company. The company's overall attitude has changed into a more positive light and that has to have some effect onto people's perceptions and attitudes toward the platform. People's prior experience with a brand or product will also be a factor in determining a purchase decision. And despite the early years of PS3 severely tarnishing Sony and PS's image it has been able to make a remarkable turnaround. People's prior experience with Playstation platforms is likely largely positive and it really is a bonus in helping a consumer decide. I am probably alone in this line of thinking.
 
Sonic said:
There's no denying that price, power, and software titles are the main factors in determining which console the consumer purchases. The fact that Sony has these three this generation shows smart business decisions by the company. The company's overall attitude has changed into a more positive light and that has to have some effect onto people's perceptions and attitudes toward the platform. People's prior experience with a brand or product will also be a factor in determining a purchase decision. And despite the early years of PS3 severely tarnishing Sony and PS's image it has been able to make a remarkable turnaround. People's prior experience with Playstation platforms is likely largely positive and it really is a bonus in helping a consumer decide. I am probably alone in this line of thinking.
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My point is simply that good relationship between price, power and software are what consumers and the media grade these platforms on. There has been a vocal minority on B3D who has accused the media of bias against MS and they're wrong. The media was every bit as hard on PS3 as they are on XB1 this time around. Ironically these same people didn't complain when that was going on and would likely say it was different bc of XYZ argument which is in fact not rooted in anything other than their own bias.

Truth be told journalist have been documented at times being hypocritical in their analysis and perhaps trying to go easy on MS. We had similar situation during the PS360 era with certain high profile pundits defending Sony without a basis for doing so but overall the media has been in line with public's interpretation of things both then and now.

Both companies misunderstood their relationship with gamers coming out of successful generations. Both thought they were the 'cool company' whereas in reality gamers are a bit like that friend you had in grade school who only came over to play bc your mom gave you both candy and sodas. Once the soda was gone they were gone.

This is why I say to get marketshare MS has to get the price lower than PS4, ideally both for hardware and software. They also need to invest in first party efforts to round out the options available on the platform again to keep the relationship between price, power and software in balance. IMO if they launched a same day digital download program with most titles being available on LIVE for 49.99 and had a fairly aggressive price over time depreciation schedule they'd make it up. Granted they'd lose retail space but in an MP3, Netflix era I'm not convinced it matters and without all the overhead at 49.99 they should be able to give the developers enough margin to make up what they might lose from retail sales and more to the point not selling titles at the higher price. Its an aggressive strategy but it could work, I'd say its their best chance at staying profitable and relevant with respect to hardware sales.
 
I thought it might be interesting to look at XB1 sales as a percent of PS4 by NPD month

Nov 13 80%
Dec 13 105%
Jan 14 52%
Feb 14 96%
Mar 14 84%
Apr 14 58%
May 14 39%
Jun 14 73%
Jul 14 70%

Average percentage (monthly percentages added up and divided by 9): 73%

Total life to date NPD Xbox unit sales as a percent of PS4: 81%

Notes
Nearly every month has a story. Through March/April PS4 was supply constrained. January saw low Xbox One sales, in February all hardware was way up except supply constrained PS4, I attributed this to tax returns (which could not boost PS4 sales because they were supply limited). This explains XBO good relative showing in Feb then. March good XBO sales were caused by Titanfall. April saw poor XBO sales, pre-399 announcement. May hit a nadir as the $399 SKU was announced. June and July can be looked at as stabilized, post $399, non supply constrained PS4, months.
 
djskribbles said:
I'm really curious to see what PS4 hardware sales will be in September. They could potentially be massive. The white Destiny PS4 bundle is currently the highest ranking Destiny SKU on amazon. The monthly rankings since it was added are: June - 23, July - 24, Aug - 14. It's already starting to climb and we're still 3 weeks away from release.
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This.

I think Destiny is a very interesting factor - because it's effectively the big name game by the big name (former) Xbox developer. As a PS owner and supporter since the first PlayStation, I can easily say that I'm not really that interested in Destiny (yet). Partly because I've never played Halo and due to it never being released on my console of choice, never had much interest in it. I was interested in it, before it became the big Xbox exclusive at the time, but since then, it's pretty much gone of the radar. I accept it's probably one of the greatest shooters of its time (or so they say), but that's about as far as my knowlege or interest goes.

So having this said - Destiny for me is a mixed back. It looks okay from the trailers I've seen so far (I haven't played the Beta), but I guess I'm still skeptical because it's a big unknown for me.

So to see it leading in the charts over the Xbox 1 version, despite that it's the Xbox userbase that holds all the ex 360 owners and probably Bungie and Halo fans - I'm a bit surprised to say the least. It's a bit like Sunset Overdrive - a game by a former PlayStation dev that is now coming exclusive to Xbox. As a PlayStation owner who has played and loved Insomniac games in the past - Sunset Overdrive would be an instant day 1 purchase for me. On Xbox - I think it's not an automatic given. Insomniac have a lot to prove to their new userbase who haven't grown up with their games or played them in the past.

Back to Destiny - the sole reason that Destiny is ranked higher in the charts on the PS4 than it is on the Xbox, to me, makes it seem that the people that are upgrading from a 360 to a PS4 is not insignificant and probably more than many might have expected.

From Microsofts point of view - this is bad news; becauase it effectively would mean that they are losing (possibly signifcant) marketshare.
 
Phil said:
Back to Destiny - the sole reason that Destiny is ranked higher in the charts on the PS4 than it is on the Xbox, to me, makes it seem that the people that are upgrading from a 360 to a PS4 is not insignificant and probably more than many might have expected.
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We've had Sony say as much.

From Microsofts point of view - this is bad news; becauase it effectively would mean that they are losing (possibly signifcant) marketshare.
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We don' t need Destiny trends to guess that! 17% swing. Loss from outselling 1.6:1 Sony to being outsold 1.2:1, or whatever the stats were. And that's just US. It's very apparent MS have lost considerable market/mind share.
 
Shifty Geezer said:
We don' t need Destiny trends to guess that! 17% swing. Loss from outselling 1.6:1 Sony to being outsold 1.2:1, or whatever the stats were. And that's just US. It's very apparent MS have lost considerable market/mind share.
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See, that's exactly where I was previously not as convinced. The numbers may point to that - but we can't say for any certainty that this higher selling rate comes from former loyal X360 users switching platform. At this point, it could just as well be that there are more PS3 users upgrading to PS4 (than X360 -> X1), or more new consumers purchasing a PS4. Or more consumers that previously owned both a X360 and a PS3 and may get both next gen consoles, but bought a PS4 first - or a combination of all of the above.

With all the negative press surrounding the X1 - as a X360 owner, perhaps I too would be hesitant to run out and upgrade (especially at the original higher pricepoint). For many of them, I would think a "wait & see approach" would be logical before deciding to which platform to upgrade.

But the reason why Destiny, a game by a highly regarded former Xbox developer is selling so well on the PS4 does put more weight behind the whole argument for sure.
 
liquidboy said:
China has approved the sale of 5 million Xbox One units (come September when the Console is released there and an additional 26 other markets)...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2467000/china-paving-the-way-for-big-xbox-one-sales.html


Last I heard (April):

PS4 were in 72 countries
XB1 in 13 countries

come September XB1 launches in an additional 26 countries?! (I believe)
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Keep in mind these extra countries make up a very small percernt in world side sales (aside from maybe china). I wouldn't expect a large boost in sales from this.
 
IMHO it will also correct the german sales numbers down significantly. A lot machines went to NL/DK/CH/BF and other neighbours.
 
liquidboy said:
China has approved the sale of 5 million Xbox One units (come September when the Console is released there and an additional 26 other markets)...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2467000/china-paving-the-way-for-big-xbox-one-sales.html


Last I heard (April):

PS4 were in 72 countries
XB1 in 13 countries

come September XB1 launches in an additional 26 countries?! (I believe)
Click to expand...

All countries are not equal. Microsoft have launched in the countries that are more likely to buy their machine and not in those that are less likely to.

Country A ≠ Country B
 
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