All purpose sales and sales rumors/anecdotes thread next gen+
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It's simple, the apparently clearly more powerful hardware. There's little difference between 90% of games on X1/PS4 (meaning despite all the hype most people are playing multiplatforms not exclusives).
The average person likely sees them as effectively the same, except one is perceived as more powerful, so, they buy that one.
I've said it for over a decade (since I first noticed this with Xbox outselling Gamecube despite on paper having no chance vs Nintendo's software lineup), software really has little importance. It's highly overrated as a sales factor in a console race.
Then on top of that you have the DRM debacle factor, the initial high price ($499) factor, only launching in 13 territories, the usual strength of Playstation in mainland Europe. The fact PS4 didn't launch at 599 or a year late, but 399 and at the same time as Xbox, All of these contributed to a slow start for XBO.
That said, XBO has been showing relative strength lately in NPD, and that's a start. The holiday quarter will be much closer, and on much greater volume of sales.
The average person likely sees them as effectively the same, except one is perceived as more powerful, so, they buy that one.
I've said it for over a decade (since I first noticed this with Xbox outselling Gamecube despite on paper having no chance vs Nintendo's software lineup), software really has little importance. It's highly overrated as a sales factor in a console race.
Then on top of that you have the DRM debacle factor, the initial high price ($499) factor, only launching in 13 territories, the usual strength of Playstation in mainland Europe. The fact PS4 didn't launch at 599 or a year late, but 399 and at the same time as Xbox, All of these contributed to a slow start for XBO.
That said, XBO has been showing relative strength lately in NPD, and that's a start. The holiday quarter will be much closer, and on much greater volume of sales.
D
Deleted member 11852
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Who's buying PS4? Gamers who are tired of low res, low framerate last gen games on ancient hardware. Why PS4 over XB1? PS4 is faster. I posted this way back when discussing the platforms' futures - given the similarities, I asked what exactly MS was going to compete on. They have exclusives, services, and price as long as they are willing to take more of a hit on hardware. The reasons to own an XB1 over a PS4 are fairly limited to my mind, so it's no wonder PS4 being effectively the same console only better is selling notably more. You need a crazy number of exclusives, a whole extra library, for that to be the reason to pick the notably inferior machine, like PS2. XB may have played some games better, but you'd play a limited library, so PS2 kept it's appeal. When you have two machines with virtually identical libraries where one is better, it's not the most challenging purchasing decision any consumer will face.
The Xbox One does seem to be flat out cheaper or, all things being equal, represents better value by virtue of bundled games, than PS4. Perhaps it is just last gen holdouts tired of low res games or forced to upgrade because fewer and fewer games are being released on last gen consoles.
Who's buying PS4? Gamers who are tired of low res, low framerate last gen games on ancient hardware. Why PS4 over XB1? PS4 is faster. I posted this way back when discussing the platforms' futures - given the similarities, I asked what exactly MS was going to compete on. They have exclusives, services, and price as long as they are willing to take more of a hit on hardware. The reasons to own an XB1 over a PS4 are fairly limited to my mind, so it's no wonder PS4 being effectively the same console only better is selling notably more. You need a crazy number of exclusives, a whole extra library, for that to be the reason to pick the notably inferior machine, like PS2. XB may have played some games better, but you'd play a limited library, so PS2 kept it's appeal. When you have two machines with virtually identical libraries where one is better, it's not the most challenging purchasing decision any consumer will face.
This is rather true. Although I'd argue that humans are rather lazy creatures. If XB and PS4 were comparable, I think Microsoft would recapture most of their market. If it ain't broke, why change to a competitor? It's a bit like iPhone Users vs Android phones. They are very different products for essentially the same functions: both can be used to call people, both can be used to text. Both can be used to download pretty much the identical apps/games etc. Yet, iPhone Users generally show a surprising lack of interest in regards to other phones and their options, even if Android has provided the market with arguably 'better' phones (at least phones with more features/freedom/customization), the result being high loyalty.
I think the problem with XB isn't that it's inferior in a technical sense. The majority of people could care less, as they will never see both side by side to care to notice which runs better or has a better resolution, cleaner IQ etc. I think it's a problem of "image". They fucked up on the front of giving out a message; first the console was marketed as some multi media device with kinect in mind, then they dropped the whole thing and at the end of it, their sole focus is a piece of hardware that is the same, but weaker. Many technical minded consumers are probably fed up with that, moved on, got a PS4 and with them, a lot of their friends too. That in turn put Microsoft in a negative spiral in regards to news, market perception etc, all the while Sony has been pretty flawless, gaining good reception. Now that the more casual market follows, getting PS4 is the no-brainer, because they tend to get the device that sells better, is perceived as the better one. And that one is clearly the PS4.
I think the PS4 is riding on the same wave that the Xbox360 so successfully rode in NA back when it launched and the PS3 came late to party at a ridiculously high price.
Sort of. Mobiles operate on a different timeframe to other CE devices. There are definitely iPhone users I've met considering a switch to Android and I'm sure if mobiles were 5 year investments, considerations would be somewhat different. Not to mention the basic operation is quite different and getting used to a different interface is an unnecessary barrier to entry when you can buy a device that works how you expect. With consoles, the frontend changes every gen anyway, so there's zero familiarity to tie you to a platform. you won't care to buy a GamePlayer 4 just because the interface is the same as the GamePlayer 3. Only the services matter in that regard.
I agree, but think the performance delta is part of that now. Even if MS get everything else right, they are offering the same game experience at a lower bar, and I think there's enough background noise to say PS4 is better that there's no point fighting it. That is, if everyone is saying PS4 is better, why stick with XB1? So people not being influenced by recommendations will be more likely to stick to the devil they know, but the rest will pick the apparently better economy, which'll then snowball. Had MS launched differently, they may have secured a larger mind-share from 360 upgraders.
The major difference being XB1 doesn't have significant USPs like PS3 (BluRay playback, two generations of utter dominance) so it'll be incredibly hard to mount a PS3 style come-back.
Edit 2: I also don't think there's any point to MS trying to mount a comeback. I think they should be looking to move everything to Windows. Even if Sony secures 50 years of 100 million consoles a year dominance, they'd make but a drop in the ocean of 50 years of PC and mobile and tablet and digibox sales through MS's store. The whole reason for XB was to fight for the living room, and that market didn't end up being console based but mobile.
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I don't think money is a issue here. At this point, I wonder if PS4 sales would be affected by a lot if Xbone would suddenly drop its price to $299. I honestly believe PS4 would continue to sell better WW [with slower pace, especially in the US].
In the eyes of the public, PS4 is simply more desireable console. It's that... and MS fucked up in 2013 and first half of 2014.
I strongly disagree with this conclusion. Gamecube was the console that started the trend of 3rd parties struggling to sell comparable volume on Nintendo consoles and this caused third party support to dry up. Once this happened your alternate choices to the PS2 became the "Nintendo console that you can play Nintendo games on" and the Xbox on which you could play Halo & Ninja Gaiden, but could also play GTA and Madden. Software *absolutely* was important in people's platform choice between those two systems.
No its a variety of factors.
A 2.5 TF console with an upgraded AMD based apu and 12 GBs of HBM made by Walmart called the WalCube isn't suddenly going to significantly cannibalize XB1 and PS4 sales just strictly on performance alone.
And I doubt the PS4 sales would be as high as they are, if UC4, KZ, GT7, Infamous, Journey and Bloodborne along with Halo5, Forza, FL, TR, Gears and others were all XB1 exclusives and the PS4 was just a multiplatform console.
Currently for this gen, those factors weighed together give an advantage to the PS4.
The forecast was 16,5 millions PS4 shipped for fiscal year from 1rst April 2015 to 30th March 2016, 38,8 millions PS4 shipped. It will be probably more than 40 millions now.
Exclusive games are overrated. Add every exclusives best episode sales wise for Xbox 360 and PS3 in very "naive" way(Gears player don't play Halo game same things for Forza Horizon and Forza) and and you will see even with an inflated number it is far from limited sales of a console from Sony or Microsoft. Nintendo is a very different company.
First brand is the most important. The Xbox brand was very strong in North America and UK. But executive tarnished the brand with stupid decision: post 2010 the 360 kinect politics only not enough games for gamer, impopular functionality (DRM), high price and power. In Europe Playstation brand is strong, it was strong enough to help PS3 to beat 360 with a too expensive console and a too complex console for developer. Playstation brand is so strong in Europe it was won for Sony before PS4 launch when it was decided the PS4 hardware choice of x86 and a GPU familiar to developer, the price of 399 euros and simultaneous launch with concurrent. Whatever Microsoft would have done it was lost, the only unknown was the gap. I think if Sony or Microsoft succeed to keep 3rd party support they can come back from stupid error and it needs two generation to kill your brand. If Sony has done a console too expensive or too difficult to program or launch too late, it was endgame. After if you do something stupid like Nintendo with the Nintendo 64 without CD and 3rd party decide to not support your platform you are dead for traditional console market in one generation...
After the price is important 399 dollars/euros is the maximum for a traditional console. 259 dollars/euros is the maximum for a "casual " console.
Power is important but more important for Xbox because the main asset of OG Xbox was the power, Xbox console need to be at least on par with Sony console. It is important for Sony but a little less important.
After another very important element is communication. Pre Internet Sony was a master of communication with sometimes bullshit( Emotion engine) with journalist understanding nothing about technical requirement to make a game, real time rendering comparable with offline rendering8Jurassik Park for Sony and Toy Story for MS...).
But they wanted to continue some bullshit but this time it was the Internet era in videogames press and forum in 2005 with the stupid E3 conference and the now Infamous Killzone CG... It took a long time to give a better image of the PS3 in media. For current generation a new things is useful, do a good usage of social network ( Twitter and Facebook...)... Sony was very good with it since the pre launch of this generation and this time no bullshit with most of the time realtime demo and often gameplay. Microsoft did a big mistake with executives talking directly in Neo GAF. You can do some search on GAF, you will never see a SCE executive talking in the forum... And say that the PS4 was less powerful was stupid in a era post Digitalfoundry...And multimedia functionnality is a must have as a secondary function..
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Another thing exclusives will be there it is not the end of the world if PS4 dosn't have big AAA exclusive in end of 2015. Exclusive is mostly apart from few title something only core gamer cares, "mainstream" gamer buying only sport games or big 3rd party games each years aren't interested by exclusive most of the time...
You buy a console for 5 to 7 years, there will be good exclusives title on every console for core gamer after it is a choice buy Xbox One or PS4 or buy both console.
You buy a console for 5 to 7 years, there will be good exclusives title on every console for core gamer after it is a choice buy Xbox One or PS4 or buy both console.
djskribbles
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What I find crazy is that the PS4 is selling so well and it hasn't even received a price cut/slimmed down version or a Gran Turismo/ND/God of War game; all things that helped the PS3 a lot (some things more so than others obviously). Software support in Japan is also picking up and the PS4 is getting a lot of big titles in the coming years. I don't see the PS4 slowing down at all, only getting stronger.
Next year is gonna be a very good year for PS4. In addition of the current "driving forces" it enjoys [good AAA multiplatform support, large array of various Indie games, etc], PS4 will also get:
- much stronger big exclusives [U4, SF5, Ratchet&Clank, Last Guardian, Horizon, FF15, maybe even GT7]
- completely new gaming platform in the form of Project Morpheus
- pricedrop
Just one of those things is enough to fuel great sales of PS4. But we are getting them all.
- much stronger big exclusives [U4, SF5, Ratchet&Clank, Last Guardian, Horizon, FF15, maybe even GT7]
- completely new gaming platform in the form of Project Morpheus
- pricedrop
Just one of those things is enough to fuel great sales of PS4. But we are getting them all.
I don't see the need for Sony to drop the price yet ($50 let's say). If you are moving 1 million a month worldwide why would you throw away 50 million in revenue each month just to ensure MS has no chance to get back into this. The rest of Sony is bleeding badly, that 50 million a month is going a long way for the rest of Sony.
Console gaming isn't some fixed pie. It can grow like any other market. I don't see a burning reason for Sony to drop price yet until sales are really slowing down.
Console gaming isn't some fixed pie. It can grow like any other market. I don't see a burning reason for Sony to drop price yet until sales are really slowing down.
I would say most of that $50 is profit, not just revenue. Even less incentive to drop the price.
djskribbles
Legend
Not this year, but next year they most likely will. Seems like Sony is just going to sell bundles for the remainder of the year for the same price.
But the benefit of dropping the price is increased PS+ subscriptions/PS card sales, and accessories/software sales.
But the benefit of dropping the price is increased PS+ subscriptions/PS card sales, and accessories/software sales.
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This was talked about before by some market analysts... Sony's gaming division wants to be successful, but they are not interested in "winning at all costs" [which was mantra of Xbox division during X360 days and Xbone unveiling]. They will not make aggressive moves when they are not under strong pressure. Even if they loose USA, they are still making big mint WW.
I'm sorry but it's my No1 descision on Xbox vs PlayStation whatever number we are on...both units do 95% of things the same, exclusives are the few parts that makes one stand out for the other.
Last gen I purchased PS3 over X360 because I loved the games PS2 brought me, if I hadn't been fussed about Ico/SotC but been more into something like Halo then last gen I would have switched to X360. I purchased the unit with less fetures and the highest price because of exclusives.
Maybe I am in the minority, but I'm fairly certain most people with XBO are happy to put up with inferior versions of games because they will get Halo (or whatever it is that does it for them) whereas for me there was no way on earth I would miss the next ND/MM games.
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