All purpose Sales and Sales Rumours and Anecdotes [2023 Edition]

[Dr. Nick]

Hello Brit,
Could you please start a 2023 Edition of this thread.

This Week's Famitsu sales

Hardware Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

PlayStation 5 – 38,602 (2,213,311)
Switch OLED Model – 28,626 (3,787,574)
Switch – 12,820 (19,138,059)
Switch Lite – 10,141 (5,175,409)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 3,550 (335,499)
PlayStation 4 – 2,544 (7,849,815)
Xbox Series S – 740 (229,048)
Xbox Series X – 205 (173,083)
New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 83 (1,190,306)

Famitsu Sales: 1/16/23 - 1/22/23 [Update] - Gematsu

Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software and hardware sales data for Japan for the week of January 16, 2023 to January 22, 2022. Fire Emblem Engage for Switch was the highest selling…

www.gematsu.com

 

[Inuhanyou]

Who the heck is buying 2ds in 2023

 

[BRiT]

Old Discussion @ https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/...les-rumours-and-anecdotes-2022-edition.62709/

 

[eastmen]

Hi-Fi Rush Outperforms Forspoken in Revenue During Steam Launch, Despite Game Pass Availability

Discover the latest Steam Charts report for the week ending January 29, 2023, and see which video games topped the charts in terms of revenue. Find out why Forspoken was omitted from the list, and learn about the surprising success of Hi-Fi Rush, despite its availability on Xbox Game Pass.

gameinfinitus.com

The recent Steam Charts report, covering the week ending January 29, 2023, highlights the top-selling video games in terms of revenue. Despite not featuring many unexpected titles, the omission of Forspoken from the list is noteworthy. Despite its relatively high price point of $70, Forspoken failed to make the top-seller list, being outperformed by the newly released title, Hi-Fi Rush, which is priced at $30.

That is really telling of how successful Hi-fi-rush is. Forspoken is more than twice the price on the base game.

There is Hi-Fi Rush $29.99 and Deluxe for $39.99

Forspoken comes in a $69.99 base game and $94.99 digital deluxe.


The game is a lot of fun , even the worse part of the game (the quick time events) aren't diminishing my love for the game

 

[Nesh]

I didnt play Hi-Fi but based on what I saw, it gets right what makes a good game enjoyable and addictive: easy to get into and flow. The sound and visual queues blend perfectly with the gameplay mechanics.
And it is pleasing to watch too.
Sometimes less is more.

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1620844673924227074

11 million GOW Ragnarok

It continues to be the fastest selling first party title of Sony

https://twitter.com/x/status/1620847427367600128

 

[Johnny Awesome]

I'm humbled that less than 10% of the userbase bought such a big game.

 

[Cardassian Bob]

I'm humbled that less than 10% of the userbase bought such a big game.

I own a PS4, PS4 Pro and a PS5. Should I buy 3 copies?

 

[eastmen]

I own a PS4, PS4 Pro and a PS5. Should I buy 3 copies?

Yes but two copies per system. One legendary and one physical so you can put the disc in the steel box

 

[chris1515]

Hardware - 7.1 million (last year Q3 3.9 million)
Physical software revenue - 93 million (last year Q3 - 29 million)
Digital software revenue - 244 million (last year Q3 - 181 million)
First Party - 20.8 million
MAU - 112 million / PS+ -46.4 million
Software sold - 86.5 million (last year Q3 - 92.5 million)

Sony shipped 32,1 million PS5 adding Q3 fiscal quarter. They improve the forecast for full fiscal year from 18 million to 19 million.

Sony expects PS5 to double PS4’s shipment record this quarter | VGC

The company has raised its quarterly PS5 shipment forecast to 6.2…

www.videogameschronicle.com

For Q1 2023 (fiscal Q4 quarter) they will double the best PS4 quarter for shipment. They will ship 6.2 million PS5 and reach 38.3 million Ps5 shipped. Not bad at all. It means 31 march 2024 because they just give a minimum guidance for next fiscal year they will at minimum reach 61.3 million Ps5 shipped.

 

[chris1515]

Some great number

 

[Inuhanyou]

Why is Sony doing so well with barely any next gen games...well I guess they don't have to be next gen exclusive to be system sellers, but I would think that would be more attractive

 

[chris1515]

Rare comment from the CFO comparing PS5 to Xbox Series

 

[Johnny Awesome]

All kidding aside, God of War was definitely a VERY significant release. All the PS owners I know are very exited about it. It's definitely the kind of game that justifies buying a system. MS is doing better than last gen and likely selling a lot of GP subs, but they aren't going to overtake Sony in any territory it would seem. MS 2022 game release schedule definitely hurt Xbox momentum.

 

[Dr. Nick]

This week's Famitsu numbers

Hardware Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

PlayStation 5 – 53,256 (2,266,567)
Switch OLED Model – 28,787 (3,816,361)
Switch – 12,564 (19,150,623)
Switch Lite – 9,757 (5,185,166)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 9,652 (345,151)
PlayStation 4 – 1,061 (7,850,876)
Xbox Series S – 830 (229,878)
Xbox Series X – 435 (173,518)
New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 74 (1,190,380)

Famitsu Sales: 1/23/23 - 1/29/23 - Gematsu

Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software and hardware sales data for Japan for the week of January 23, 2023 to January 29, 2022. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life for Switch was the…

www.gematsu.com

 

[Dr. Nick]

Why is Sony doing so well with barely any next gen games...well I guess they don't have to be next gen exclusive to be system sellers, but I would think that would be more attractive

IMO Backwards compatibility helps a lot. The PS5 makes the PS4 redundant because of BC. This generation just becomes a continuation of the previous one because of BC. IMO the worst thing to happen last-gen to Xbox was to have no BC at launch, and the worst thing to happen to it this generation was for BC to work so well on the PS5.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Sony shipped 32,1 million PS5 adding Q3 fiscal quarter. They improve the forecast for full fiscal year from 18 million to 19 million.

Sony expects PS5 to double PS4’s shipment record this quarter | VGC

The company has raised its quarterly PS5 shipment forecast to 6.2…

www.videogameschronicle.com

For Q1 2023 (fiscal Q4 quarter) they will double the best PS4 quarter for shipment. They will ship 6.2 million PS5 and reach 38.3 million Ps5 shipped. Not bad at all. It means 31 march 2024 because they just give a minimum guidance for next fiscal year they will at minimum reach 61.3 million Ps5 shipped.

Very good results and a nice increase in supply.

I did notice something interesting, however, that aligns with what I was saying in another post. And I'll just post the numbers here to make it easier to see.

Q3 YoY change for revenue:

• Hardware revenue: 201.534 billion Yen versus 440,715 billion Yen. 119% increase in revenue.
• Game revenue: 461.877 billion Yen versus 601.602 billion Yen. 30% increase in revenue.

If you look at previous quarters there's some fluctuation in YoY changes, but YoY changes for software are generally fairly close to YoY changes for hardware. You can also see a trend developing as the global economic situation increasingly impacts people's purchasing decisions.

Units sales will probably make this more clear as it uncouples it from fluctuating currency exchange rates and possible increases in average pricing.

Q3 YoY change for units sold:

• Hardware: 3.3 million units sold versus 7.1 million units sold. 115% increase in units sold.
• Full game sales: 92.7 million units versus 86.5 million units sold. 6.7% decrease in units sold.

There's a decreasing trend (small increase or flat unit sales + small decreases in full game sales) in full game sales that continues despite a massive Q3 increase in unit sales that coincides with the Holiday shopping seasons. That will usually also see a commensurate increase in full game sales from both doubling of hardware sales as well as the impact of Holiday shopping season.

However, we see that neither of those were capable of arresting decreasing full games sales as people increasingly feel the crunch from a global economic downturn.

As I'd posited in another post, the global economic downturn may not hurt PS5 hardware sales as there was so much pent up demand for it that even with the economic downturn it just reduced the demand to some extent but there would still be enough demand to snap up any increase in supply.

However, we were likely to see it's effects on game sales as people with existing PS5's become increasingly hesitant to buy a lot of games and people buying new PS5's may not have as much money to spend on buying games when they buy their PS5.

Looking at the numbers we're probably seeing exactly that.

Regards,
SB

 

[chris1515]

Very good results and a nice increase in supply.

I did notice something interesting, however, that aligns with what I was saying in another post. And I'll just post the numbers here to make it easier to see.

Q3 YoY change for revenue:

• Hardware revenue: 201.534 billion Yen versus 440,715 billion Yen. 119% increase in revenue.
• Game revenue: 461.877 billion Yen versus 601.602 billion Yen. 30% increase in revenue.

If you look at previous quarters there's some fluctuation in YoY changes, but YoY changes for software are generally fairly close to YoY changes for hardware. You can also see a trend developing as the global economic situation increasingly impacts people's purchasing decisions.

Units sales will probably make this more clear as it uncouples it from fluctuating currency exchange rates and possible increases in average pricing.

Q3 YoY change for units sold:

• Hardware: 3.3 million units sold versus 7.1 million units sold. 115% increase in units sold.
• Full game sales: 92.7 million units versus 86.5 million units sold. 6.7% decrease in units sold.

There's a decreasing trend (small increase or flat unit sales + small decreases in full game sales) in full game sales that continues despite a massive Q3 increase in unit sales that coincides with the Holiday shopping seasons. That will usually also see a commensurate increase in full game sales from both doubling of hardware sales as well as the impact of Holiday shopping season.

However, we see that neither of those were capable of arresting decreasing full games sales as people increasingly feel the crunch from a global economic downturn.

As I'd posited in another post, the global economic downturn may not hurt PS5 hardware sales as there was so much pent up demand for it that even with the economic downturn it just reduced the demand to some extent but there would still be enough demand to snap up any increase in supply.

However, we were likely to see it's effects on game sales as people with existing PS5's become increasingly hesitant to buy a lot of games and people buying new PS5's may not have as much money to spend on buying games when they buy their PS5.

Looking at the numbers we're probably seeing exactly that.

Regards,
SB

In the conference call, the CFO said sales of PS5 aren't enough to recover the lost of engagement of PS4 players. This is the problem for PS plus subscriber, the number of hours play and the sales of games. They need to accelerate the transition from PS4 to PS5. PS4 player stop to subscribe to PS plus, stop to buy and play cross gen games on the hardware. They need to continue to accelerate the PS5 supply.

And he said too PS5 player ARPU and engagement for the same period is better than PS4 player.

In the middle but he said it during the conference call.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

In the conference call, the CFO said sales of PS5 aren't enough to recover the lost of engagement of PS4 players. This is the problem for PS plus subscriber, the number of hours play and the sales of games. They need to accelerate the transition from PS4 to PS5. PS4 player stop to subscribe to PS plus, stop to buy and play cross gen games on the hardware. They need to continue to accelerate the PS5 supply.

And he said too PS5 player ARPU and engagement for the same period is better than PS4 player.

In the middle but he said it during the conference call.

Yes, all valid points. However, that +115% unit sales of hardware was all PS5. It's not like we're seeing a large increase in PS4 unit sales combined with declining game sales. We're seeing an increase in PS5 sales combined with declining game sales. That's evidence of people feeling the squeeze on their wallets and having to be more careful with how they spend their money. They still want a PS5, but they can't afford to buy as many PS5 games.

Yes, if they can afford a PS5, they can afford games. Something that can't be said for a PS4 player. Are they still on PS4 because they can't afford a PS5 + games? Or are they still on PS4 because they can't find a PS5? Global economic conditions are shifting people more towards the former with some number being in the middle (can afford a PS5 and maybe a game or two but not as many as they could a couple years ago).

Regards,
SB

 

[chris1515]

Yes, all valid points. However, that +115% unit sales of hardware was all PS5. It's not like we're seeing a large increase in PS4 unit sales combined with declining game sales. We're seeing an increase in PS5 sales combined with declining game sales. That's evidence of people feeling the squeeze on their wallets and having to be more careful with how they spend their money. They still want a PS5, but they can't afford to buy as many PS5 games.

Yes, if they can afford a PS5, they can afford games. Something that can't be said for a PS4 player. Are they still on PS4 because they can't afford a PS5 + games? Or are they still on PS4 because they can't find a PS5? Global economic conditions are shifting people more towards the former with some number being in the middle (can afford a PS5 and maybe a game or two but not as many as they could a couple years ago).

Regards,
SB

Again there is 30 million PS5 against 114 million PS4. This is the second time they are surprise by the way PS4 player quit the platform. CFO told that PS5 player have more engagement than PS4 player if we compare the two hardware at the same cycle. What the CFO told goes against your analysis and I doubt he will lie to investors and Sony shareholder. They spend more, subscribe more to PS plus than PS4 player and they play more too. But 30 million is not enough to reach what they want. He was precise during the conference call about engagement, money spend from current PS5 player being great.

They want to continue to supply a lot of PS5 to make people do the shift. If Sony ship 6.2 million first quarter of 2023 it is a platform holder record for a home console. It is double the better PS4 first quarter of a year.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621113542131810305

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621116400227188736