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

[BRiT]

...

I just mean that the people who post their more details analysis of the Amazon numbers all seemed to indicate Sony would win April.

Amazon sales data can still be useful, but it's no longer as cut and dry to come to consensus.

Also, some hardware numbers, using 63% more than April 2014 numbers (which I believe were 115K), puts XBox One at 187K.

That's pretty damn pathetic monthly numbers if you ask me for the entire console industry.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Also Gamestop was having the XB1 trade in deal, so of course Amazon will not represent that skew in the data.

And prior to that Gamestop had the PS4 trade in deal for 2-3 months. If we're going to say Gamestop's trade in deals are skewing the numbers, then one could potentially say that XBO might have won Feb. and/or Mar. if they weren't doing that.

Personally, I'm not sure Gamestop's trade-in deals affect the overall market "that" much, but perhaps they do.

Regards,
SB

 

[BRiT]

WiiU numbers seem to be 43K.

... going from the GAF thread but not exactly sure where they calculated that from. Still reading through it to see if it's realistic or not.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Also, some hardware numbers, using 63% more than April 2014 numbers (which I believe were 115K), puts XBox One at 187K.

That's pretty damn pathetic monthly numbers if you ask me for the entire console industry.

Well, it is April and we're going to be going into the really slow summer months, so expect the same low numbers until September. I'm not sure Witcher 3 will be enough to bump up hardware sales significantly for May.

Regards,
SB

 

[ZhugeEX]

I just mean that the people who post their more details analysis of the Amazon numbers all seemed to indicate Sony would win April.

Amazon sales data can still be useful, but it's no longer as cut and dry to come to consensus.

Also, some hardware numbers, using 63% more than April 2014 numbers (which I believe were 115K), puts XBox One at 187K.

That's pretty damn pathetic monthly numbers if you ask me for the entire console industry.

Always worth remembering that Amazon doesn't account for that big of a share, it's good for identifying trends but should not be used as an indicator for national sales. Especially when other retailers were running X1 trade in this month.

Here is Amazon share from 2013.
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr180/jabbamk1/AMZN_zpswm0ewak2.jpg

X1 is around 187k and Wii U is around 43k last month in the USA.

 

[BRiT]

Calculating the numbers sold on a weekly basis for XBox One, it almost sold at the same rate which seems impressive considering no real software releases I can remember.

March 47.2K (236K / 5 weeks)
April 46.7K (187K / 4 weeks)

 

[Rangers]

There were hints from Amazon X1 might take the month. Final April rankings:

PS4 #41
Ac Unity X1 #42
MCC Xbox One #52
Batman PS4 #96

Ignoring Batman PS4 because it's preorders, it's reasonable to expect the 52 and 42 combined spots to outsell the #41 spot. #42 should be almost equal to #41 by itself obviously.

But if you just use the apparent "highest SKU wins" method you wont get that.

Amazon has been pretty loopy lately, with so many Amazon specific sales and deals, different SKU's going in and out of stock, and seemingly slow or inconsistent chart updating, it's been hard to get a read. I think the final April rankings didn't show up until a week or more into may, so if you just looked May 1 you'd get a different reading.

I think up to date GAF numbers have:
X1=187
Wii U 43
3DS 114

A good start on data anyway already.

One thing that bothers me though is since for the last year or two we've just got incorrect approximations, when you apply a percent to that (aka X1 up 63% YoY) you get an even more error-ed number.

It also seems sure now NPD is not allowing even platform holders to release numbers, as they all only talk about percentages now. Microsoft used to give the numbers regularly especially if they won.

 

[BRiT]

Also, latest rumbling from GAF using that the WiiU+XBoxOne+PS4 year-over-year was fairly stable puts Sony PS4 at roughly 132K for April NPD.

 

[DrJay24]

Even if you ignore Gamestop, it is a $399 one game bundle versus a $349 two game bundle. March had some pretty competitive deals for the PS4, April had nothing of note and actually had a Batman bundle pushing sales into June. The same should be true for May, Batman bundle pushing sales off a month.

 

[ZhugeEX]

Also, latest rumbling from GAF using that the WiiU+XBoxOne+PS4 year-over-year was fairly stable puts Sony PS4 at roughly 132K for April NPD.

This is wrong. The quote used was for revenue. Not hardware units.

 

[DrJay24]

So MS wins in its strongest market by 13k units with a $50 lower price tag during a slow month and Internet goes crazy.

 

[BRiT]

Yeah, so seems like PS4 was 174K for April NPD.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

So MS wins in its strongest market by 13k units with a $50 lower price tag during a slow month and Internet goes crazy.

It's more that it was unexpected that XBO would be able to outsell PS4 in NA outside of the key holiday months. And anything unexpected tends to get a disproportionate amount of news.

Regards,
SB

 

[djskribbles]

It was unexpected, but there are already a bunch of doom and gloom comments at GAF, lol.

I'm guessing a combination of things lead to MS taking April.
-April is typically a very slow month
-Gamestop (the leader in video game market share) had trade-in promos for XB1
-Batman bundles will hinder April/May sales
-Amazon seemed to have some stock issues briefly (not sure about other retailers)

I'm expecting Sony to have a very big June, even though June is also typically a slow month. The Batman bundle seems to be very popular.

 

[ZhugeEX]

Just ignore the doom and gloom stuff.

It's people who don't follow sales regularly and just read the title.

 

[Rangers]

It means I think X1 should be in pretty good shape this holiday with Halo 5, Forza 6, and Rise of the Tom Raider, with no big exclusives I know of for PS4 (unless they show something at E3).

I am surprised after even just having Drive Club last year which alone was a rather weak lineup, Sony will do it again but worse (again pending E3). Then again I suppose it's out of their control (Uncharted 4 delay). Anyway the hardware alone should give them the worldwide win, but with Halo 5 MS should be in good position in North America.

Also depends on pricing of course, I'm assuming here Sony doesn't drop price. I also think MS could do a $329 blitz or something. $329 with Halo 5 pack in would be crazy (of course probably wont happen). But just to know MS stakes a lot on the holiday months these days so they will go all out.

Looks like PS4 was not far behind in April, also kind of expected.

It was unexpected, but there are already a bunch of doom and gloom comments at GAF, lol.

It goes well with their "Sony unconcerned about Fall lineup" or whatever thread LOL. How did I know that would be bumped after X1 wins a meaningless April NPD by a small amount (and X1 has had no games this spring really, so apparently no games isn't a death knell but that doesn't fit the narrative). Just fits some worrywart narrative.

 

[MrFox]

They sure use the term "number one" like they use the term "exclusive".

Do you think this is starting to put pressure on sony for a price drop, at least in the US?

 

[djskribbles]

It means I think X1 should be in pretty good shape this holiday with Halo 5, Forza 6, and Rise of the Tom Raider, with no big exclusives I know of for PS4 (unless they show something at E3).

I am surprised after even just having Drive Club last year which alone was a rather weak lineup, Sony will do it again but worse (again pending E3). Then again I suppose it's out of their control (Uncharted 4 delay). Anyway the hardware alone should give them the worldwide win, but with Halo 5 MS should be in good position in North America.

Also depends on pricing of course, I'm assuming here Sony doesn't drop price. I also think MS could do a $329 blitz or something. $329 with Halo 5 pack in would be crazy (of course probably wont happen). But just to know MS stakes a lot on the holiday months these days so they will go all out.

Looks like PS4 was not far behind in April, also kind of expected.



It goes well with their "Sony unconcerned about Fall lineup" or whatever thread LOL. How did I know that would be bumped after X1 wins a meaningless April NPD by a small amount (and X1 has had no games this spring really, so apparently no games isn't a death knell but that doesn't fit the narrative). Just fits some worrywart narrative.

Sony doesn't have much for fall/holidays (in terms of exclusives), but they do have 3 very big marketing deals in Batman, Star Wars and presumably Assassin's Creed. Plus they may have stuff planned for E3.

That said, I think MS will take October-December in the US, unless Sony drops the price (which still isn't necessary IMO).

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Do you think this is starting to put pressure on sony for a price drop, at least in the US?

Not really, especially in a low volume month with the disparity in sales being less than 10%. Right now it's basically just noise. If it becomes the norm rather than an outlier, then perhaps. But even then doubtful with the WW lead that they have. Unless they consistently start losing NPD and the disparity is greater than, say, 20-30%. That might prompt a response.

Other than that, a response now would be panic response. And I don't see Sony panicking right now when things are finally starting to look better for the company as a whole.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shortbread]

So MS wins in its strongest market by 13k units with a $50 lower price tag during a slow month and Internet goes crazy.

True. But a PR win is still a win, regardless of how small the score tally difference was. Hopefully, this will push Sony on being more aggressive with (better) bundling. I love TLoU like anyone else, but its time for some smarter bundling deals.