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

[chris1515]

The console was 399 euros but some shop did some crazy discount like 399 euros and 5 games to try to clear the stock here in France. I live in France work in Luxembourg and go often in Switzerland and same situation...

In Germany we have some number in November and it was bad and a recent article about the Xbox One situation in the country show it continues to be bad after Christmas...

Some Micromania(Gamestop) shop are out of PS4 stock until March and the last day of PS4 stock for the shop where a friend work they sold 36 PS4 and one Xbox One. It was Saturday before Christmas week. Andrew House said Sony again underestimate European demand..

Edit: In Luxembourg a supermarket near where I work had a big pile of PS4 near the entrance before Christmas . The Xbox One were in videogame shelves like the PS4 when it is not end of year shopping period...

 

[Rangers]

So things have stabilized for the XBO on Amazon while the PS4 continues to move up in the midweek update to the monthly rankings.

08 - PS4 (up 2 spots)
16 - XBO: AC (unchanged)

Digital gift cards continue to hold 4 of the top 6 spots. Yay, go DD.

Regards,
SB

So if this holds we will have to presume PS4 wins January NPD.

More troubling for MS, it doesn't appear $349 AC bundle is enough to move it past $399 PS4 this month.

PS4 now has TLOU remaster bundled though, making it a bit more even on that front.

I think Microsoft fiscal quarterly results may be in this week. Always interesting.

 

[Rangers]

It's likely significantly higher than 9/9.5 million considering they sold over a million in Dec. in the US alone. Somewhere between 10-12 million seems reasonable.

Regards,
SB

USA X1 total would be ~6.2 million at the end of December. And it was reported to pass 1 million in UK around November 20. http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xbox-one-sells-1m-in-the-uk/0141711 So that would be something over 7.2 million right there. Throw in 10 days of November and all December in Uk and 3 weeks of January in both, you're probably at conservatively 7.6 million X1 sold through in USA and UK right this second. Canada is typically considered 5-10% of USA numbers, I'm guessing closer to 10% considering a 35 million population is ~10% of USA population, so another 300-600k there. Australia purchased 65k X1 in 3 days after launch according to this http://www.afr.com/p/technology/xbox_one_smashes_sales_records_yLa9DIIeFWDNqNGF8QPPQI , but the population is only 23 million so I wouldn't expect a ton, maybe 200k-300k by now? We also had reports of a initial shipment of 100k to China (and IIRC documented preorders were in the high 10's of K's). Beyond that, countries like Mexico and Brazil could possibly have an impact. The latest media create weekly sales have X1 at a paltry ~45k lifetime in Japan.

So maybe something like 6.2 USA+ 1.3 UK (guesstimate) plus 500k Canada+250k AU+50k JP+100k China (could be higher, but this number is completely murky)=8.4 million sold (reasonable yet still conservative estimate), plus rest of world besides these countries and a little more for January to date sales.

 

[chris1515]

USA X1 total would be ~6.2 million at the end of December. And it was reported to pass 1 million in UK around November 20. http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xbox-one-sells-1m-in-the-uk/0141711 So that would be something over 7.2 million right there. Throw in 10 days of November and all December in Uk and 3 weeks of January in both, you're probably at conservatively 7.6 million X1 sold through in USA and UK right this second. Canada is typically considered 5-10% of USA numbers, I'm guessing closer to 10% considering a 35 million population is ~10% of USA population, so another 300-600k there. Australia purchased 65k X1 in 3 days after launch according to this http://www.afr.com/p/technology/xbox_one_smashes_sales_records_yLa9DIIeFWDNqNGF8QPPQI , but the population is only 23 million so I wouldn't expect a ton, maybe 200k-300k by now? We also had reports of a initial shipment of 100k to China (and IIRC documented preorders were in the high 10's of K's). Beyond that, countries like Mexico and Brazil could possibly have an impact. The latest media create weekly sales have X1 at a paltry ~45k lifetime in Japan.

So maybe something like 6.2 USA+ 1.3 UK (guesstimate) plus 500k Canada+250k AU+50k JP+100k China (could be higher, but this number is completely murky)=8.4 million sold (reasonable yet still conservative estimate), plus rest of world besides these countries and a little more for January to date sales.

Sony will give the number of PS4 shipped soon we can compare with the AMD number.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

More troubling for MS, it doesn't appear $349 AC bundle is enough to move it past $399 PS4 this month.

They can't seriously have expected it to. As we all said, the discounts from last year said to end this year was going to push sales forwards. They increased end-of-year sales at a loss of beginning-of-next-year sales. This second discount was more of a 'meh, you never know' optimistic stab in the dark.

Australia purchased 65k X1 in 3 days after launch, but the population is only 23 million so I wouldn't expect a ton, maybe 200k-300k by now?

Is there reason to believe Australia will provide a consistent market and it won't be like Europe, selling to some early adopting XB fans and then crashing out?

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/02/the-playstation-4-has-now-overtaken-the-xbox-one-in-australia/ seems to support your view.

 

[Phil]

If 9-10 million is the case, then MS has a long road ahead on winning over consumers outside North America and the UK. Even with great pricing, freebies and bundling... it seems MS is missing something that's not resonating with consumers. China was their wildcard, now that card has pretty muched fizzled. Who's next? India?

Perhaps it's more realistic to assume they were never in for winning the "console race". The only reason why we are surprised at the sales deficit compared to the PlayStation is because last generation, we saw the Xbox brand over-achieve compared to the PS3 that under-achieved relative to expectations set the generation before. There are reasons for this: PS3 was unprecedentedly expensive and it was crucially delayed substantially. To counter this, they offered online gaming for free. While it wasn't enough to grab the majority of the NA marketshare (x360 outsold the pS3 quite substantially), that they even managed to pick up sales on a worldwide basis and despite all the set-backs they endured to reach parity at around ~80 million consoles demonstrates how strong the PlayStation brandname is.

Now, this generation - we are for the first time in history seeing the Xbox and PlayStation brandname launch side by side at comparable price-points. That the PS4 is leading the battle worldwide is not surprising given it has always had the edge outside NA+UK. That it is now also leading in NA and the UK is perhaps also less surprising if you factor in why the X360 led a generation before; because it was at the right price and at the right time without competition. Now, in NA and the UK, people actually get to choose because both are available and they are both at an equal price point. That the Xbox has a rather large marketshare with the X360 may account for a lot of damage control - as many customers will upgrade to the box they know and have invested in previously, but others that are less attached to a given brandname may not. Xbox One sales are holding in there, but over time, I don't think they will be able to hold it. I expect perhaps a 2:3 to 3:4 ratio in favour of the PS4 by the end of this generation in NA - and in all other territories, I think PS4 will pull away substantially as it is already doing.

 

[iroboto]

Perhaps it's more realistic to assume they were never in for winning the "console race". The only reason why we are surprised at the sales deficit compared to the PlayStation is because last generation, we saw the Xbox brand over-achieve compared to the PS3 that under-achieved relative to expectations set the generation before.

Makes sense to me. I don't think anyone expected Xbox 360 to dethrone the successor to PS2. Now that they are on equal footing, the landscape has changed drastically. Xbox still has a chance to do relatively well however, a larger and better games library is about the only thing they need to compete, it does take a while to build however.

 

[chris1515]

PS4 is sucessfull because from hardware perspective it is the 360 successor easy to use for multiplatform dev at the right price and combine with playstation brand it sells extremely well in continental Europe...

For Europe I think MS need to launch before Sony to beat them and Sony need to do many error not like this time. The PS3 beat the 360 here and it was late in the game and overpriced... PlayStation brand is very powerful out of North America, Australia and UK...

 

[Deleted member 11852]

PS4 is sucessfull because from hardware perspective it is the 360 successor easy to use for multiplatform dev at the right price and combine with playstation brand it sells extremely well in continental Europe...

I've said this before and I'll say this again. The fact that PlayStation did so well two gens back, Xbox did so well last gen and PlayStation is doing so well this gen, is a sign of a healthy console market where many gamers will buy the product that suits them best and absolutely not based on what manufacturer's name is on the box.

 

[Goodtwin]

I've said this before and I'll say this again. The fact that PlayStation did so well two gens back, Xbox did so well last gen and PlayStation is doing so well this gen, is a sign of a healthy console market where many gamers will buy the product that suits them best and absolutely not based on what manufacturer's name is on the box.

Its a good scenario for the consumer for sure, it has caused console manufactures to get really aggressive, and is giving consumers a lot for their money. On the flip side, is it sustainable for the console manufactures? They have huge investments with increasingly small profit margins. They are also shelling out lots of cash to secure exclusives, and I am certain they also reduce or eliminate the publishers royalty fee's for certain games. Missing games like Call of Duty or Assassins Creed could be devastating for either the Xbox or Playstation, so that gives the publisher a lot of leverage when it comes to negotiating royalty fees. Time will tell, but even with both the X1 and PS4 off to a great start, we don't not know yet profits outweigh cost of business.

 

[Rangers]

Missing games like Call of Duty or Assassins Creed could be devastating for either the Xbox or Playstation, so that gives the publisher a lot of leverage when it comes to negotiating royalty fees.

Missing 30-50% of sales for any big franchise is going to be a even bigger financial blow to a third party though. Which is why 3rd party exclusives are so rare, and pretty much inconceivable for the type of franchises you mention.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

On the flip side, is it sustainable for the console manufactures? They have huge investments with increasingly small profit margins.

PlayStation and PlayStation 2 were hugely profitable for Sony. PlayStation 3 wasn't due to what I would mostly attribute failings in focus (lack of) and project management (lack of). But sure, I don't see why the market isn't sustainable. The purpose of companies is to make a nice profit. Fanboys may be interested in who sells more devices but selling more doesn't necessarily equal more profit, it depends on many factors including the monetisation options and strategies and certainly company's ability to operate efficiently.

Samsung sell more then ten times as many mobile phone handsets as Apple but make a fraction of the profit of Apple's iPhone business - because Apple have far better margins and ecosystems on top of handsets to monetise further. But a huge number of consumer product markets exist where companies make decent profits and yet nobody "wins". Who is wining the washing machine market? The car market? Sound systems?

Are people going to stop playing games in the near future? Probably not, games have been popular for hundreds of years. The global console market has grown consistently each generation and nothing looks like changing this generation. If mobile is impacting console sales it's only slowing it, not eating it into. Yet.

Are certain types of games more gratifying on a big screen with a good controller? I doubt many would argue that wasn't the case. As long as there are enough people who feel this way, the market will remain sustainable. Maybe it'll grow to accommodate a 4th contender. Maybe it'll shrink to eliminate the company in third place. Many the economies will have to evolve to accommodate more players like in other free markets.

TL;DR - no idea

 

[chris1515]

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=977402

Interesting number from Nintendo France no PS4 number more than 1 million consoles before the 18th December but not so bad Xbox One number much better than in Germany. They are behind Wii U but they willl be second next year if it continue like this.

- Nintendo was #1 publisher with almost 4.5m games sold in 2014, second year in a row. EA and Ubisoft are #2 and #3
- in the Top 20 for 2014, 8 games are from Nintendo
- Pokémon OR/AS was their #1 games with over 476k sold.
- Tomodachi Life is at 439k on Dec. 31st, over 450k right now (quite popular with children and young girls)
- Smash Bros. 3DS is at 279k (good word of mouth)
- Wii U is at over 510k, #2 behind PS4 but still better than XB1 (roughly 430k iirc). That's below their expectation (~550k by the end of 2014).
- Smash Bros + Wii U bundle accounted for 1/3 of Nintendo's total HW sales during the last 2 weeks of the year.
- Wii U is +40% YoY.
- 240k Wii U sold in 2014
- Mario Kart 8 sold 346k
- amiibo at 200k
- 20k amiibo sold last week. Right now, most people buying them do so for collecting. So this year, they're gonna emphasize the use in games.
- MM3D N3DS already out of stock
- betting big on MH, which usually sells 100k/game.

 

[chris1515]

For the Xbox One number it is non official and not from Nintendo France interview...

 

[Shortbread]

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=977402

- Wii U is at over 510k, #2 behind PS4 but still better than XB1 (roughly 430k iirc). That's below their expectation (~550k by the end of 2014)

Nintendo France eluding somehow that the Wii U is selling well (in good standing) when compared to the XB1, is somewhat weird. The Wii U second place victory-standing can be contributed more so to the one year head start it enjoyed. Not any perceived beliefs that XB1 is lagging behind Wii U solely in sales because the Wii U is the hotter item (seems to be the opposite).

Having a ~80k unit lead over a system that launched a year after is God awful, IMHO… and having the PS4 with ~500k lead is even worst. But whatever...

 

[Prophecy2k]

Nintendo France eluding somehow that the Wii U is selling well (in good standing) when compared to the XB1, is somewhat weird. The Wii U second place victory-standing can be contributed more so to the one year head start it enjoyed. Not any perceived beliefs that XB1 is lagging behind Wii U solely in sales because the Wii U is the hotter item (seems to be the opposite).

Having a ~80k unit lead over a system that launched a year after is God awful, IMHO… and having the PS4 with ~500k lead is even worst. But whatever...

When your console is selling like the WiiU is selling, you gotta take whatever victories you can to pat yourself on the back.

 

[BRiT]

When your console is selling like the WiiU is selling, you gotta take whatever victories you can to pat yourself on the back.

That's the wrong way of going about it. Sort of like ostrich sticking it's head in the sand to ignore the real issues.

 

[Prophecy2k]

That's the wrong way of going about it. Sort of like ostrich sticking it's head in the sand to ignore the real issues.

Not saying it isn't...

Anyway, isn't that pretty much much Nintendo has been doing up until now since the Wii died?

 

[Shortbread]

I'm pretty sure Nintendo will be showcasing it's next home console system next year... with a mid-2017 release.

 

[temesgen]

I'm pretty sure Nintendo will be showcasing it's next home console system next year... with a mid-2017 release.

I think it would be a mistake to do that, improvements in memory should make the next leap interesting but if they are designing now might miss out on some breakthroughs.