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

[eastmen]

Who reported the cost of the xbox one ? Cause they'd be wrong and if by last year you mean 2013 then you'd have a whole year of improving yields on the most expensive piece in the system.

As for the pack ins , you don't know how ms paid for them. If it was a strait advertising deal then it may have been money MS was going to spend in the advertising budget and not

 

[djskribbles]

You're speculating like I am. Unless you know the current BOM and the details of the Ubisoft deal, then your guess is as good as mine.

FWIW, it was IHS who broke down the BOM last year, and several sites reported it.

 

[eastmen]

So Xbox One gain 400k last month on PS4 and can gain 400k, lets say, if things go well for them, this month. In that event, Sony's US lead will be down to ~300k.

Then we'll see how it goes after that, as One certainly had a pretty poor first 10 months of 2014, and one wonders are they really going to go back to 399 and no games??

Now they've started this drug, it's going to be hard to quit.

Wii U sales, what, up 10%? I guess it's a survivable system. Vita taught us a system apparently does not need to sell very much at all to stay on the market. Even so has to be disappointing for Nintendo, as at least I expected, their big software titles did little (and haven't since Gamecube).

For software, seems Unity bombed, DA:I bombed. MCC did not do as well as I anticipated.

I thought Xbone's November might be 2nd and near a record...not even close. Best Novembers I have:

Nov 08 Wii 2.04 million
Nov 11 360 1.7 million
Nov 10 X360 1.37 million
Nov 02 PS2 1.32 million
Nov 10 Wii 1.27 million
Nov 09 Wii 1.26 million
Nov 12 360 1.26 million
Nov 14 Xbox One 1.2-1.24 million (estimated)

PS2 surprisingly did not have a lot of huge Novembers.

I guess you could say X1's November was within range (within 200k) of all but a couple of those Novembers.

X1's November was really good if you consider how long the other consoles were out when they put those numbers out. 08 would have been the wii's 3rd holiday , nov 11 was the 6th holiday for the 360, 10 was the 5th and so on.

As for the price of the console its going to go to stay at $350 with no game or we might see the creed bundle stick around.

The next game they have a deal with is evolve so that might get a bundle and I think that's Feb or March and so a month or two around then it will be $350 with a game again. I don't think they will have to do much next year to keep sales parity or grow again Sony in the states .

 

[eastmen]

You're speculating like I am. Unless you know the current BOM and the details of the Ubisoft deal, then your guess is as good as mine.

FWIW, it was IHS who broke down the BOM last year.

I don't know the exact price of the BOM. But I do know its close to $350 right now and that's the price I compared it to with them breaking even if you bother to actually read my post .

For creed I'm not a 100% sure on the deal. I'm just saying that its a type of deal they have done in the past so they may not have paid for the copies in the bundle and if they did how do we figure a price ? Ubisoft would make about $15 to $20 off a game sold at gamestop . The older one they would be making much less at this point $5-$10 off a new copy if that. Unless you think MS is paying retail for these pack ins.

 

[djskribbles]

Well, the BOM of the PS4 was reportedly not much higher than the XB1 excluding Kinect. If $349 is the new price of the XB1, Sony could easily match that if they wanted to. The question is, do they care enough to do so when they're leading worldwide at the current price point. My guess is probably not. They still have a significant lead and will probably only drop the price if XB1 starts cutting into that lead. I don't see that happening with the XB1 at $349.

 

[eastmen]

Well, the BOM of the PS4 was reportedly not much higher than the XB1 excluding Kinect. If $349 is the new price of the XB1, Sony could easily match that if they wanted to. The question is, do they care enough to do so when they're leading worldwide at the current price point. My guess is probably not. They still have a significant lead and will probably only drop the price if XB1 starts cutting into that lead. I don't see that happening with the XB1 at $349.

The ps4 still costs more per unit than the xbox one does. In the beginning the upclocks on the APU and the sram were causing very bad yields for the xbox one. That has been fixed for a while with yields improving almost on a monthly basis since qtr 2 of 2014. From what I've been told MS will also be much more aggressive this time with die shrinks. They will go to 20nm and then to 14nm as quickly as possible and you might actually get a mix of chips as a result. So for holiday 2015 we might see 28nm and 20nm units in the wild and in 2016 we might see 20nm and 14nm (or whatever gf is calling their new node) sold at the same time.

I have a very good source on the cost of the systems.

 

[FarticusMaximus]

Re: PSN cards being top sellers:

All I have is anecdotal evidence, but a large proportion of my gamer friends with X1 or PS4 have set up digital library sharing and are enjoying totally bargaineous digital purchases, enhanced further by buying credit at ~10% less than the card value.

I don't know if that shift from retail to digital is reflected in the wider market, or if there is any way of knowing without platform holders releasing digital sales numbers, which is pretty unlikely to ever happen bar the occasional sales figure boast.

Great sales figures all round though, and it's good that WiiU saw a sales increase too. Even though it's not a platform that suits my tastes I feel a gaming lanscape without Nintendo would be diminished, less vibrant.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Huh, everyone at GAF expected the XB1 to outsell the PS4 in November.

I didn't think anyone would expect the PS4 to outsell the XB1 during November after seeing the massive discounts Microsoft did during Black Friday while Sony's efforts were a bit laughable.

Then again, Sony needs the money pretty badly and Microsoft is probably losing lots of money selling their console for $329 + weeks-old AAA game.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

The ps4 still costs more per unit than the xbox one does. In the beginning the upclocks on the APU and the sram were causing very bad yields for the xbox one.

I'm sorry but this sounds like total BS. I'm almost certain the upclock didn't cause basically any problems, hard to say what the yields where, but they certainly had plenty of units at launch. Also I'm quite sceptical of this "cost of the systems source" Please provide us with more concrete info.

 

[eastmen]

I'm sorry but this sounds like total BS. I'm almost certain the upclock didn't cause basically any problems, hard to say what the yields where, but they certainly had plenty of units at launch. Also I'm quite sceptical of this "cost of the systems source" Please provide us with more concrete info.

Its the same source as the one who told me about the upclocks days before that information was leaked out by other sources. I'm not sure what else you expect me to tell you , i'm not going to give you a name.

If you don't believe me that is fine.

 

[goonergaz]

I think a lot of people held off as long as they could going for the one and then the whole 'Halo, reductions & Christmas' effect kicked in - if you consider (even if this continues for December) PS4 is still ahead by a good margin it still overall quite a bad year even ending on this high.

Next year they have few exclusives so I'm expecting Feb onwards to give us a good idea how things will pan out this gen.

 

[Phil]

Re: PSN cards being top sellers:

All I have is anecdotal evidence, but a large proportion of my gamer friends with X1 or PS4 have set up digital library sharing and are enjoying totally bargaineous digital purchases, enhanced further by buying credit at ~10% less than the card value.

I don't know if that shift from retail to digital is reflected in the wider market, or if there is any way of knowing without platform holders releasing digital sales numbers, which is pretty unlikely to ever happen bar the occasional sales figure boast.

Great sales figures all round though, and it's good that WiiU saw a sales increase too. Even though it's not a platform that suits my tastes I feel a gaming lanscape without Nintendo would be diminished, less vibrant.

I can confirm this. Me and all my friends that I have, have gone from retail bought games last generation to fully digital content this generation. In fact, I am yet to even put in a physical disk into my PS4 after a full year of ownership to see if it even works. I think at this point, I must already own about 10 games (counting only the ones I actually payed money for) which must be some kind of record (I think my PS3 collection spans 30 games over 7 years). I definately am less impressed with the games on the PS4 - meaning that despite all the games I've bought, I haven't actually invested all that much time playing them (relatively speaking). Still, these games that were bought digital of course aren't reflected by Amazon charts. For the record, I used to order all my PS3 games through Amazon, so for my part, Amazon has lost quite a few sales going into this geneartion from me. I think the lack of software sales on the Amazon chart reflect that the people who think alike are not a small minority.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The distributer ...

AFAIK the arrangements aren't so much distribution but collaboration.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...-make-sell-playstation-consoles-in-china.html

Sony agreed to form two ventures with Shanghai Oriental Pearl (Group) Co., owner of the Oriental Pearl Tower, to start making and selling PlayStation consoles after China lifted a 13-year ban on sales of the machines. The Tokyo-based company will have a 70 percent stake in one venture and 49 percent in the other, according to a statement filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Sony rose the most in almost two months.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-09/25/microsoft-chinese-gaming

Microsoft has partnered with BesTV New Media Company to work on an entertainment proposition for a Chinese market.

As reported by Xinhua, BesTV posted a bulletin on the Shanghai Stock Exchange announcing the news and stating that it would hold a 51 percent stake in the venture while the remaining 49 percent would be Microsoft.

Looks like Sony owns a stronger share in the software side though (70% venture), so perhaps will exert more pressure of game price. But at the end of the day, they'll have to manage interest and piracy. No point having games that cost too much, especially when the library is gimped. Then again, maybe Sony would be happy to generate local interest but let the market buy imports!

I think its a bit early to be saying its all done and dusted bar when we've not got all the information.

Sure, it's not over till it's over, but the current evidence looks very pro-PS to me.

if they were doing similar pricing as MS why wouldn't they announce that now?

May still be working on it. But PS4 already has free to play games. I doubt Sony and OPG are going to completely misunderstand the market and price games at significantly higher, but we'll see. Companies do sometimes do weird things.

 

[eastmen]

I think a lot of people held off as long as they could going for the one and then the whole 'Halo, reductions & Christmas' effect kicked in - if you consider (even if this continues for December) PS4 is still ahead by a good margin it still overall quite a bad year even ending on this high.

Next year they have few exclusives so I'm expecting Feb onwards to give us a good idea how things will pan out this gen.

I wouldn't count them out game wise for next year. MS is more about E3 than any other game show. So they could still have a pretty full year.

they have a fable , forza , halo , QB as big games and a bunch of other small ones we might get one or two other games at e3 for this year also. Prob even a gears of war collection .

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Regards our own number tracking, I consider the results a win. Predictions made with sensible amounts of data (MS winning Nov) were spot on. Amazon has proved useful. And we can therefore use the current #1 spot of XB1 (assuming it's not bugged, as it's such a weird shift) to say December is presently MS's to own again unless Sony change something. But I'm not sure Sony will be too eager to change much yet. If they're selling okay worldwide, no need to drop profits on HW. Owning the US 60:40 or 'losing it' 40:60 won't make a huge difference compared to losing lots per unit on significant worldwide sales.

I think the next major step is MS's move in the new year. If they raise the price again, they are effectively ending sales for some months, so shifting sales from early next year to this side of Christmas. But then regards PR, they don't care as no-one's talking NPD much any more, and console sales earlier is better than the same amount sold slower.

 

[Arwin]

If they can win the holidays in the US as it seems they will, then that will be important for raising their credibility as a competing platform, because until November they looked like the battle was basically already over. This will make sure Xbox One will stay in the minds of publishers, retail and consumers as a real contender for at least another year.

 

[eastmen]

I'm not so sure of that.

Sony has some good deals. BestBuy has the tlou/gta v bundle with a second controller for $400 .

THe one seems to be back at $350 at bestbuy and most other places .

So unless the xbox one has another killer deal on its hands it might be neck and neck . Unless the previous deals made people who couldn't get one want one regardless.

 

[DieH@rd]

Sony does not enforces regional blocking of games purchased in foreign territories. Because of that, people from all over the world are purchasing US PSN wallet cards and buying games in dollars, which offers excellent savings.

Additionally, many people share accounts between 2 or even 3 users, making game purchases via US accounts sometimes even more than 300% cheaper than in their home countries.

 

[goonergaz]

I wouldn't count them out game wise for next year. MS is more about E3 than any other game show. So they could still have a pretty full year.

they have a fable , forza , halo , QB as big games and a bunch of other small ones we might get one or two other games at e3 for this year also. Prob even a gears of war collection .

Maybe I should have said "compared to PS4" - The Order, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, SF5, Gundam, Rime, Tomorrow Children, Deep Down, No Mans Sky just to name a few then there's likely more to come too - we already know PS4 is producing more games including new IPs...I can't see PS4 games drying up.

 

[goonergaz]

Sony does not enforces regional blocking of games purchased in foreign territories. Because of that, people from all over the world are purchasing US PSN wallet cards and buying games in dollars, which offers excellent savings.

Additionally, many people share accounts between 2 or even 3 users, making game purchases via US accounts sometimes even more than 300% cheaper than in their home countries.

100% - I bought a few US games now, it's quite a bit cheaper and certainly more seem to be doing it (just looking on hotukdeals)