All purpose sales and sales rumors/anecdotes thread next gen+
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Silent_Buddha
Legend
Also remember, that on Xbox One at least, there's a greater incentive for people to buy EA titles through digital than physical. As with EA access you could potentially save 10% off the price as well as getting to play the games 5 days earlier than everyone else. So if you only bought EA access for one month (4.99 USD) then you'd still save ~1 USD off the retail price. If you already had a 1 year EA access pass (~2.50 USD per month) that's a greater savings. And that's assuming you don't use EA access for anything. If you are playing the games from it, then you're just getting a flat 10% (6 USD) savings off every EA title.
For Madden as well, there was a XBO bundle siphoning off sales. Similar to how XBO beat PS4 in Destiny sales for NPD, as Destiny had a PS4 bundle. Of course, PS4 hardware spiked much higher that month as a result as well. Again similar to Madden, where PS4 hardware is down month to month while XBO hardware increased month to month. IE - the bundle had an impact on hardware sales, but reduced software sales of the associated title.
EA access makes it difficult to interpret relative positioning between the consoles when it comes to EA titles. And bundles always skew things (last Holiday season a lot of software sales were lost for XBO for example, due to the make your own bundle deal that was going on).
That said, the chart generally follows install base, with PS4 usually winning title sales, but XBO occasionally leading in title sales.
Regards,
SB
djskribbles
Legend
Last year Madden sold more on PS4 even if you factored in all Madden bundle sales. Destiny marginally sold more on XB1 without factoring any bundle sales, which made up for a high percentage of PS4 sales for that month (which was 538K total).
I'm sure EA Access would affect software sales somewhat, but I doubt by that much. Digital sales are already relatively low. And it is just EA titles.
I bet the Bestbuy Samsung 40" TV + XB1 for $500 had more of an impact on HW sales than Madden itself and is probably the only reason why XB1 was slightly up MOM. PS4 was slightly down MOM probably because there's a LE Destiny bundle releasing in September.
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djskribbles
Legend
There was that report that they sold 12k on the first day, which is believable if that's nationwide (people here believed it at the time). After they sold out of Samsung TVs, they started bundling other brands of TVs instead (Insignia and Toshiba I believe). Someone who works for Bestbuy at GAF said that the deal pushed A LOT of XB1's but after they started bundling other brands, sales slowed down. Then after the deal ended, sales slowed significantly.
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Japan sales last week
Just a small update, PS4 retail version of MGSV has sold 92% of its initial shipment in its opening week, which means it was sold out in majority of shops. There are also reports from Japan that digital version of the game was very popular.
Throwing money at a problem isn't really genius.
They reacted fast though, the removal (and pretty much funeral) of Kinekt was a big deal. Then they offered the console at a lower price than PS4 with greater value bundles. At that time it seemed quite desperate but it worked as planned, therefore genius.
djskribbles
Legend
I wouldn't say genius... more like the logical thing to do.
Logic alone doesn't win you NPD numbers in successive months against the most successful console of this generation. They made some pretty smart moves, especially the bundles and the price drop (which was at the time "temporary" so people would go and buy with the "omg sales! i gotta buy everything" mentality).
djskribbles
Legend
Eh, agree to disagree. If Sony would have simply sold their bundles for $50 less during the holidays, that would have put them at least on par with MS in sales for November/December. Doesn't take a genius to realize that. Sony, however, felt that they didn't need to and played it safe (and they didn't because they remain on top).
The problem is how do you increase the price after the initial price drop? MS said they were going to do that but X1 stayed at $349 IIRC. Sony would have more to lose if MS kept that price and they increased theirs (MS would seem like the "good guy" to the average consumer after that), even a temporary price drop is a tricky thing. I personally don't see MS pulling something like last year again but we'll see.
djskribbles
Legend
MS had several bundles on Black Friday: CoD:AW, Sunset Overdrive, AC:U, MCC (and Forza Horizon?). IIRC, they all sold for $329 on BF and some retailers even offered $30-$50 gift cards with purchase. During all of this, the bare console officially remained at 399 for a short time until MS finally announced a permanent price drop to 349 after the holidays.
Sure those bundles were a great value, but I wouldn't call it a genius move. It's no secret that dropping the price and offering free games and gift cards will sell you a lot of consoles. If Sony would have done half of that, they probably would have been just as successful. But instead, they played it safe and offered GTA+TLoU:R and/or LBP/Lego Batman for free. No they didn't sell as many consoles as MS, but they still sold a lot and remained on top (and probably profited more despite selling less).
Sure those bundles were a great value, but I wouldn't call it a genius move. It's no secret that dropping the price and offering free games and gift cards will sell you a lot of consoles. If Sony would have done half of that, they probably would have been just as successful. But instead, they played it safe and offered GTA+TLoU:R and/or LBP/Lego Batman for free. No they didn't sell as many consoles as MS, but they still sold a lot and remained on top (and probably profited more despite selling less).
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MS have made some very solid decisions since Phil Spencer took over, but some of the brand damage is lasting and the GPU deficit is going to last out this generation. I like almost everything they've done in his time (still blown away by them achieving BC) but I don't see it as genius either. It's really solid defensive play, but by the end of the Reveal Tent Event that was basically all they could do this generation.
I'm sad to see Kinect be marginalised to the point of insignificance, but it's now abundantly clear MS execs had no gaming aspirations or strategy for the device so for a games console it was a dead weight.
I'm sad to see Kinect be marginalised to the point of insignificance, but it's now abundantly clear MS execs had no gaming aspirations or strategy for the device so for a games console it was a dead weight.
They were obvious moves. MS eventually did what everyone was saying they should do. Unless you count the entire gaming populace as genii, there was nothing genius about it. "Our product isn't selling. Change the value proposition by reducing price and adding extras." That's business 101.
It was the right thing to do and it worked, but don't oversell it.
Maybe i am comparing them to how Nintendo handled the Wii U and they seem smarter in comparison. I still think you need to give them some credit for what they did last year, obvious or not it was a bold move to do everything at the same time (price drop + removal of kinect + great bundles).
Maybe they could release it for PC and let the community create software for it, don't know how profitable that would be but together with VR i could some potential uses for it.
Maybe they could release it for PC and let the community create software for it, don't know how profitable that would be but together with VR i could some potential uses for it.
Rikimaru
Veteran
They did... Nobody cares.
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