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

[Rangers]

your evidence for this then was what?
and your evidence that sony wants to stop the leaks now is what?

Where do you get that I'm blaming Sony now? Now I'm blaming NPD. I believe NPD is pressuring any leakers, currently, not any company.

Back when they initially stopped releasing hardware numbers publically though there were basically a lot of rumors it was Sony. That was back when PS3 was doing poorly, so the idea was Sony was tired of the monthly bashing, and pressured NPD to stop releasing hardware numbers. No I dont have any evidence. It's just something I remember from the time.

way to go, party

Even Sony did not even say PS4 was #1 in their PR this time IIRC, LET ALONE actually giving a number. It was mentioned PS4 won the month by Sony only on twitter.

Even the platform holders no longer give numbers that I know of. Microsoft used to, even for a while this gen when they were 2nd place, but they have stopped.

It seems to me just more of the clamping down on any numbers at all. I'd wonder if NPD pressures even the platform holders to not give even their own numbers nowdays. You would think for example, Sony would be the one releasing numbers now, just as MS did when 360 was on top, but they do not.

Also in the past you'd often get random NPD articles from various sites that would give out some numbers. As in hardware/software sales, beyond just general market up down % and things like that. That's stopped too.

 

[Arwin]

Such a mess with the NPD leaks and such, but pretty good numbers for Destiny and Sony. I'm going to go out on a limb here though in predicting that the month that the Halo bundle comes out, Microsoft may just beat Sony that month. There has to be a contingent of Halo fans that have waited for going next-gen until the first anything-Halo. But we'll see.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Back when they initially stopped releasing hardware numbers publically though there were basically a lot of rumors it was Sony. That was back when PS3 was doing poorly, so the idea was Sony was tired of the monthly bashing, and pressured NPD to stop releasing hardware numbers. No I dont have any evidence. It's just something I remember from the time.

I subscribe to a more logical reason; NPD monetise the collection and sale of information. Hardware sales numbers are much sought after and NPD were openly publishing them.

Giving away something that people are willing to pay a lot of money for seems folly. But who knows, perhaps NPD is run by idiots too dense to realise that and some pressure was applied. Whatever the reason, they benefited from the change in policy.

 

[specwarGP2]

I subscribe to a more logical reason; NPD monetise the collection and sale of information. Hardware sales numbers are much sought after and NPD were openly publishing them.

Giving away something that people are willing to pay a lot of money for seems folly. But who knows, perhaps NPD is run by idiots too dense to realise that and some pressure was applied. Whatever the reason, they benefited from the change in policy.

I don't get why they would actually pay for hardware sales numbers. Couldn't they just ask their retail partners how many units were sold?

Also, never ever really understood why video game sales numbers are a big secret when other other segments of the entertainment industry seem to have no problem letting the world see their numbers.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I don't get why they would actually pay for hardware sales numbers. Couldn't they just ask their retail partners how many units were sold?

Metrics on operations, particularly those tied to sales, for any publicly traded company are of value to analysts because they advise investors and investment brokers. This goes for Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony but also extends to software sales because the likes of Activision, Atari, EA, Konami, Namco, Square Enix, Take Two, Ubisoft et all, are all publicly traded.

Whilst these companies all publish information, it's often not in a huge amount of detail and only tends to be on a quarterly basis. Shares trade all day.

 

[DieH@rd]

US NPD numbers:

No supply constraint on launch for Xbone, but after launch it sold worse than X360.

 

[Shortbread]

US NPD numbers:

No supply constraint on launch for Xbone, but after launch it sold worse than X360.

Please correct me if I'm wrong... around September 2006, XB360 sold 5.9 million systems worldwide. So, XB1 is still under 6 million sold. Not that great... not that great at all.

 

[DieH@rd]

Around September 2006, XB360 sold 5.9 million systems worldwide... so XB1 is still under 6 million sold. Not that great... not that great at all.

Plus, X360 was then sold as a competitor of PS2 and Gamecube [PS3 and Wii were unreleased].

When can we expect financial reports from MS/Sony/N for calendar Q3 [July-Sept]?

 

[Shortbread]

Plus, X360 was then sold as a competitor of PS2 and Gamecube [PS3 and Wii were unreleased].

When can we expect financial reports from MS/Sony/N for calendar Q3 [July-Sept]?

So, between November and the end of December, for XB1 to reach 10 million units sold worldwide... MS would need to sale 2 million units - both months. Taking into account, XB1 is sitting at 6 million sold at the end of October. I don't see it happening... unless a serious price cut is coming.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

US NPD numbers:

No supply constraint on launch for Xbone, but after launch it sold worse than X360.

Those post-Christmas 360 figures will be inflated with pent up demand, so in real terms it's probably about the same level of interest. Probably the most important aspect is that since launch, XB1 has had quite a lot of marketing manoeuvres applied to try and shift units, including introduction of a cheaper SKU and varies bundles and deals. It'd take some proper research to compare the two, but my gut impression is MS has had to push XB1 harder, whereas 360 sold itself. That'd place latent demand/general interest as lower for XB1 than 360.

 

[ArcticCircle]

Too bad that both Aqua and Cream got too much outside pressure at the same month. But then again, outside hardware numbers, I don't think losing software numbers is that bad. Digital sales keep increasing, how much publishers get per digital sale is unknown and various DLC / season pass system mess the big picture even more. And then there's game's budgets and I don't think anyone has any idea what is and what isn't profitable anymore just by looking npd numbers.

I wouldn't worry about xbone at all. They have chosen to stay in the game no matter what and with their nearly unlimited money reserves, they can do whatever they want. I wouldn't be suprised if we see a big offical pricecut sometime between now and end of next e3.

 

[London Geezer]

Without Nintendo, the game wouldn't exist. If your a fan of Bayonetta, then you should be thanking Nintendo for even having the option of playing Bayonetta 2. People act like Platinum is screwing them because they would have to buy a Wii U to play Bayonetta 2, but the truth is, no other Publisher stepped up to fund the game, and if they had, Bayonetta 2 would have likely been a multi platform game if Sega, Activision, Ubisoft or EA had stepped up. So again, if your a Bayonetta fan, you owe Nintendo thanks for Bayonetta 2, without Nintendo there would be no Bayonetta 2.

Maybe my post was ambiguous and badly written but never for a second have I thought to blame anyone or put the Nintendo deal under a bad light as something negative. All I wanted to say is that this type of game would have sold more on different platforms because of the type of audience. But as you said it would not have existed without Nintendo so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Bagel seed]

US NPD numbers:

No supply constraint on launch for Xbone, but after launch it sold worse than X360.

Much worse, considering the price cut, bundles and free games for Xbone. XB platform does its best when priced modestly, as in $299, which is what they should've been at out of the gate. No Kinect, no wasting $500 mil on NFL and other 100's of mil on extraneous ad/exclusive crap and just subsidized the price of the console.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Those post-Christmas 360 figures will be inflated with pent up demand, so in real terms it's probably about the same level of interest. Probably the most important aspect is that since launch, XB1 has had quite a lot of marketing manoeuvres applied to try and shift units, including introduction of a cheaper SKU and varies bundles and deals. It'd take some proper research to compare the two, but my gut impression is MS has had to push XB1 harder, whereas 360 sold itself. That'd place latent demand/general interest as lower for XB1 than 360.

Yeah, the chart is mostly meaningless as the post holiday season for X360 was increased to an extent by people that would have bought it during the holiday season if they could.

But you make an excellant point about price and promotions. There were promotions for X360 in the first year. But... How long was it until X360 had it's first price cut/major price promotion? Something like 2 years wasn't it? It hasn't even been a year and XBO has had some major price promotions.

Unfortunately, even that isn't clear cut. As the X360 had a "budget" model in addition to the premium model. Hence there was always a "cheaper" X360 that a consumer could buy. In some ways sort of analogous to XBO with and without Kinect, but still not the same.

So, it's rather difficult to compare sales of 499 XBO launch year to sales of 399 premium and 299 core X360 launch year. Even with the eventual addition of a 399 XBO without Kinect.

Regards,
SB

 

[Silent_Buddha]

What's really amazing is that all "EA Sport" titles, had more sales on the PS4. I'm guessing the bros/bruhs are coming over to PS4.

What's actually amazing is X360 outselling PS4 for one of the EA Sport titles (Madden NFL). As well as X360/PS3/WiiU on Disney Infinity versus the next gen consoles.

Or the Sims 4 actually charting as a PC title when well over 75% (and that was a year ago, it's probably closer to 90% now) of PC sales are digital and untrackable by NPD. Which means that if we actually knew the actual sales number for the Sims 4, it would likely top NPD charts despite being a PC only title versus titles selling of 5 or 6 platforms.

What isn't amazing is that the Next gen console with the highest install base is selling more titles than the Next gen console with the lower install base. Yawn, not news and not news worthy. PS4 sold the most EA sports titles? Well duh, it has the largest next gen install base.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shortbread]

Those post-Christmas 360 figures will be inflated with pent up demand, so in real terms it's probably about the same level of interest.

Yeah, the chart is mostly meaningless as the post holiday season for X360 was increased to an extent by people that would have bought it during the holiday season if they could.

I must be misunderstanding both of your comments... so please forgive me. But what pent up demand did 360 have over XB1? XB360 was released November 2005, and sold 5.9 million by September 2006... while XB1 was released November 2013, and sold roughly ~5.6 million this past September. So they both had post holidays...

Are you just saying XB360 was just more popular and was supply constrained during its launch? If that's the case, then I agree. And I wouldn't t be surprised, if the XB360 launch had more units available during its launch - it would have equaled/surpassed XB1 launch numbers, along with caring momentum into the post holidays.

 

[Globalisateur]

New amazon.co.uk bundle: PS4 + Fifa 15 + Minecraft (£349)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Playstation-Console-FIFA-15-Minecraft/dp/B00OAXBXKE

 

[AlphaWolf]

I must be misunderstanding both of your comments... so please forgive me. But what pent up demand did 360 have over XB1? XB360 was released November 2005, and sold 5.9 million by September 2006... while XB1 was released November 2013, and sold roughly ~5.6 million this past September. So they both had post holidays...

Are you just saying XB360 was just more popular? If that's the case, I agree. And I wouldn't t be surprised, if the XB360 launch had more units available - it would have equaled/surpassed XB1 launch numbers, along with caring momentum into the post holidays.

He's talking about people pre-ordering the 360 and getting them delivered in February despite it launching in November.

 

[Shortbread]

He's talking about people pre-ordering the 360 and getting them delivered in February despite it launching in November.

Ok.

Given that, could we agree XB360 had a higher demand than XB1 during these respective periods? If we cannot agree... how can you esplain the XB1 being behind ~300k comparative to XB360 during this timeframe? If what Shifty and Silent believe is true...

 

[djskribbles]

What's actually amazing is X360 outselling PS4 for one of the EA Sport titles (Madden NFL).

Why is that amazing? I was actually going to say the opposite. The X360 has a ~42M install base in the US, vs ~4M PS4s. And the PS4 actually outsold the X360 in August. Curious which version sold the most overall. I think it's very possible that the PS4 still sold the most copies, because the bulk of sales are usually in the first few weeks.

Obviously install base never translates to software sales 1:1, but that's a significant difference in install base.