All purpose Sales and Sales Rumours and Anecdotes [2020 Edition]

Revenue is not a useful statistic without knowing operating income / profit / net profit - whatever term a particular company uses. For a decade Amazon had MASSIVE revenue and MASSIVE loses.

 

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Me...t-high-as-COVID-ups-home-entertainment-demand

They will try to shipped more than 3 millions consoles this quarter but they aim to shipped 14,8 millions PS5 for next fiscal year better than PS4 but I would not be surprised to see out of stock again end of 2021.

They aim at least 22.3 millions shipped PS5 for 31 March 2022.

 

I was. I think anybody really thinking of buying a PS4 eight years after launch is probably über casual or on a tight budget and more likely to be impacted by COVID-19 than folks who have the disposal income to buy a PS5 mid-armageddon.

 

Yeah, with the backwards compatibility there is no reason to buy PS4.
I would buy PS5 too - despite not having games to play there - but it is too ugly for my tastes. Probably will purchase next revision of Switch (I have the original one though), but just for lulz as I don't play games that much.

 

Sorry, I should have added more context...at the time we had no idea PS5 would be BC nor that there would be a 'cheap' option to upgrade (or indeed that PS4 price would remain so rock-steady). Hence I thought there was a chance...but with the reveal of BC and an entry price of just ~£100 more than PS4 it's a no brainer...if you can find one!

My 'wow' (for todays figures) is more around the fact we've had lockdown and (TBH) I've not been keeping an eye on sales, but I was under the impression that consoles were hard to get hold of...so I thought they had sold a little better

 

Yup, 2 major factors that help.

• The pandemic keeping most people indoors is boosting digital entertainment of all sorts, including consoles.
• Backwards compatibility doesn't mean limited titles to play on a new console.
  • This also means that game sales don't take a massive hit at launch because people are generally far less likely to buy games on the previous gen console. Just play it on the new console.
  • If the game can be played on a new console they can immediately sell their previous gen console instead of waiting until there are enough games to move to the new generation.
  • If you can't get a next gen console yet, any game you buy now will run on the next gen console when you get it.

I know many feel that BC was a sunk cost that compromised this generation of consoles, but it's a massive reason that launch hasn't suffered from the traditional large dip in revenue that accompanies every new console launch.

Regards,
SB

 

Impressive. This puts it at less than 3 million units from PSP lifetime sales, a little more than 3 million away from lifetime GBA sales and less than 10 million from passing PS3/X360.

How impressive? It happened in less than 4 years.

To put this into more perspective. The Wii sold between 75 million and 85 million for the same time period.

In addition to that, Wii sales were on the decline at this point in the Wii's lifetime. NSW sales are still increasing.

Another data point. It took the PS4 ~4.5 years to reach the same number of sales. At this same point, the PS4 sales had peaked (4th year) and sales would decline from here on out.

Very interested to see how PS5 does going forward once supply constraints are eased. But unfortunately, both PS5 and XBS-X are likely to be supply constrained until this summer at the earliest.

Regards,
SB

 

Might even longer. We really need more producers because it seems like there is 2 or 3 now right?

 

This is the first Sony/Microsoft console generation since PS2 where the hardware had pretty flawless B/C so playing any of your old games and I've oft wondered how this impacts launch economics.

Launching new hardware is expensive and this particular generation's console hardware is ambitious relative to previous hardware (as in itself relative to high-end PC hardware). Traditionally new console hardware immediately brought new gaming experiences - more RAM, more GPU, more CPU, bigger storage - that couldn't really be done in previous generation games. This created a demand for those games at launch, along with the profit-gouging accessories like controllers, chargers, media remotes, memory cards, bespoke HDD/wifi adaptors - whatever. All of these purchases contributed to covering the cost.

This gen, whilst there are new impressive games, there has never been as good an excuse to replay pretty much any past generation game better than you could for literally no money because you already own those games. On Xbox Series if you have an older Xbox One controller then you really don't need to buy a second Xbox Series controller. Then you toss in Sony's PS4 Collection (I have not played seven of those games and want too) and GamePass the whole launch economic cost is toppled over.

While I did buy nextgen games with my PS5, I bought far fewer than any previous PlayStation launch and I'm really enjoying playing games I already own whether because I didn't finish them in PS4 (Ghost of Tsushima) or just re-re-re-re-re-playing Skyrim in 60fps 4K modded to hell is ludicrous fun.

I'm a bit weird but I do find the background economics shift interesting.

 

I bought 4 games with the Xbox, 3 with both X360 & Xbox One, but none with my XSX. I've played and completed 3 games on my son's GamePass though.

 

This is a perk that gamers in the PC market have take for granted. Anytime they upgrade their PC of purchase a new PC, getting to play their library of games with better performance and visuals is a nice bonus. With that said, I'm not certain game consoles will sustain sales momentum based on the previous generations catalog of games. Momentum out of the gate has been great for PS5 and looks like it will continue for quite some time. Enthusiasm for the new Xbox models is harder to judge. We are still in that early phase where supply is struggling to fill the demand for the most enthusiastic Xbox fans. I believe momentum will slow down on for Xbox Series X and S very soon, and we will once again be looking at Sony outselling them two to one. I have been surprised that Xbox Gamepass hasn't been a bigger deal in the market. Being a Nintendo and PC guy, I do not really have a horse in the race, but lookin in from the outside Gamepass offers tremendous value. Many consumers will have a 1080P TV and are happy with it, so the Series S combined with Gamepass gets you into next gen gaming for a very reasonable price point.

PS5 is doing pretty poorly in Japan. The demand for big powerful consoles in Japan has been diminishing for years but PS5 is doing far worse than PS4 did. It seems as though the Japanese audience took notice to Sony catering more and more to the western market and is speaking with their wallets. While this isnt going to move the needle a ton in terms of global sales, it is an area where Sony completely dominated Microsoft. Sony could gain 10-15 million units sold in a market where Microsoft might only sell a few hundred thousand units. Poor performance in Japan might result is Microsoft being able to keep market share a bit closer. Sony on the global market is well positioned to sell 100 million units per generation. Sometimes a bit more and sometimes a bit less. As long as they have a completive price matched to competitive performance, their exclusive software and brand recognition will keep them on top.

 

Thread for 2021 sales onward available @ https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/...les-rumours-and-anecdotes-2021-edition.62288/

 

I am sure size plays and important role.
I remember reading interviews decades ago about the form factor of Sony's consoles vs MS's XBOX.
Many japanese live in tight places. The older consoles were designed with that in mind (PS1 and PS2). Yet the PS5 is gargantuan. It is probably the biggest console ever.
I am sure the japanese are preferring the multipurpose and much smaller Switch.
It is also true that it is catering more to the western audience. The launch titles of the previous consoles were either more neutral or closer to the Japanese tastes.

 

Yes the size is definitely a factor- similar complaints against PS3 from memory.

I think also that market is shrinking vs US/EU which is growing...so Sony aiming for the growing market makes sense.

 

Right now it is not really wise to judge PS5 demands in Japan from simply looking at the sales number since there are lots of people in Japan can't actually buy it. I personally will wait until the supply can catch up to demand to get a better idea on how PS5 is doing in Japan. Right now Sony is selling all PS5 they allocated for Japan.

 

Do you know this are are you assuming this? I wouldn't be shocked if true, however, this would mean Sony is allocating very limited number of consoles to the Japanese market. They are basically selling 25k per week in Japan. Consoles being supply limited is nothing new, but im not sure I remember a time when Sony rolled out a new console and could only provide 25k per week.

 

Surely its easily checked by seeing if you can order a ps5 in japan.
Here in spain its practically impossible to get a ps5 it only sells ~5000 a week, Spains population is about 1/3 that of japan.

 

Well, PS5 is trending at the top for Amazons current best sellers in the videogame category for Japan. This is doesnt happen when their isnt enough inventory push sales high enough to get those top spots.

 

It is sold out tho. You can check every seller on Amazon Japan and you'll see that it isn't available. Basically my info is mainly anecdotal from watching a lot of Japanese youtubers (well, Vtubers) that said they want to buy PS5 but can't. Most retailers seems to be still using lottery if you want to purchase PS5, indicating that demand still bigger than supply.
This what happened to a retailer at the end of January when they decided to sell PS5 directly https://kotaku.com/complete-chaos-in-tokyo-retailer-over-ps5-sales-1846164340

 

Then Sony's allocation of inventory has been abysmal in Japan. Its going to be hard to build up a sizeable userbase in that market if they wont allocate more than 25k units per week. Japan has plenty of developers who do a lot of work that doesn't get localized in the West. These developers have typically done the best on platforms like the Vita, 3DS and now the Switch. PS4 and PS3 did well enough in Japan to be a player there. At the current rate Switch will always maintain a massive userbase advantage in Japan, ensuring the platform has very little competition there. Its not a market that can break Sony anymore as they were never positioned to sell more than 10 million PS5's in Japan regardless, but for Nintendo it will be all the easier for them to dominate the market there because Sony holds Japan as a low priority market, a place where the Switch could sell upwards of 20 million units.