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

[pharma]

Steam users downloaded 44.7 exabytes of data in 2022 - KitGuru

The PC gaming platform has continued to go from strength to strength. Matching the trends seen withi

www.kitguru.net

For our purposes the most interesting statistic released reveals that over the course of 2022 more than 44.7 exabytes of data was downloaded and transferred – an increase of 36% compared to 2021.

To put this figure into more manageable terms, 44.7 exabytes would equate to every single one of the 8 billion people on Earth downloading a 5.5 gigabyte game – a large sum indeed.

Despite this huge achievement, perhaps the more impressive revelation by Valve was the fact that the Steam storefront saw an average of 83,000 new first-time purchasers every single day of the year – and yes, this only includes people who spent actual money on the service. The full list of stats released by Valve can be found HERE.

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1627729851175079954

 

[chris1515]

It begins in Europe

Xbox Series X and S have become more expensive - GAMINGDEPUTY

www.gamingdeputy.com

Xbox Series price hike in Sweden. They will probably roll it country by country.

 

[BRiT]

It begins in Europe

Xbox Series X and S have become more expensive - GAMINGDEPUTY

www.gamingdeputy.com

Xbox Series price hike in Sweden. They will probably roll it country by country.

Saw others say it's still $100 cheaper than the PS5 and just hitting the price point of PS5 before Sony increased prices in Sweden, and puts it in line with prices in the rest of Europe.

 

[mr magoo]

I did LoL at this. The world is occupied with costs of living crisis, war in Europe, balloons and other UFOs being shot down left, right and centre, earthquakes, and whatever is going on with all the hazardous spills in the US. Perhaps some perspective about what is important to people?

But on the reduction of subscribers, this is the risk with changing things. I bet there were people who have forgotten they even subscribed to PS+ but being reminded about it, resulted in a subscription cancellation. In general any change may result in people questioning the value of a service. I would comment that what Sony did with PS+ is a long way from trying to upturn the economic model that Microsoft pursued with GamePass. Sony were a lot more cautious in terms of numbers of games, what content goes into which (if any) tier, and when.



I have never been convinced of the economics of a game subscription service, and at every step questioned how Microsoft intended to make it all work. When the subscriber base was smaller and GamePass was not impacting sales, Microsoft commented "Gamepass was not a big profit play" but now the subscriber base is larger it is impacting sales so what does that do to the numbers I wonder. The lack of any visibility of viable economic model continues to make be doubt this as being a viable business over the long term. People keep saying Netflix, yet most TV shows are produced in under a year and the potential audience is massive compared to videogames. It's not the same at all.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1625852960931741698

Three Years of Astroneer: By The Numbers

Lets talk about all manner of juicy data points from 5 years of live development on Astroneer.

medium.com

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1627738439129890819

 

[Deleted member 11852]

@mr magoo - I get the appeal of GamePass for users (I'm a subscriber) and publishers, it's the profitability and longevity for Microsoft that are of interest to me.

If gamers get more games for what they would otherwise have spent money buying games, then somebody is losing out. It's not publishers because they are really happy. So it's Microsoft, ergo how sustainable is this model without Microsoft changing the way they develop games they put into GamePass, or put prices up, or both?

 

[chris1515]

Some number from Microsoft

Microsoft says it is 'more than ready' to answer regulator concerns.

Brad Smith says: "Think about the market in Europe. It is a market where Sony has an 80% share. Globally, it is about 70/30. In Japan, it is 96/4. These numbers have been remarkably steady for two decades. Even last year, when there were issues with Sony's supply chain, they came back strong."

Sony outsold Microsoft by 69/31 towards the end of last year.

 

[Nesh]

Saw others say it's still $100 cheaper than the PS5 and just hitting the price point of PS5 before Sony increased prices in Sweden, and puts it in line with prices in the rest of Europe.

Well dont know about Sweden but in the rest of Europe the official price of a Series X is around €500 and Series S for around €300, with shops often marking the price up a bit due to scarcity.
The disk based PS5 is €550 with shops marking the price up for the same reason.

 

[SmooTh]

So far, they have only increased the price in Japan, India and now Sweden, the other countries are still to come.

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1627811840200679427

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1628273414354894848

 

[chris1515]

A law forced Microsoft to give Xbox MAU in EU, the number is low. They only have 4 to 6 millions MAU for Xbox in EU.

From CliveLH user in era from a french article

L'UE force Xbox à dévoiler ses chiffres en Europe et ils sont très bas

Quand il s'agit des résultats de Xbox, Microsoft est habituellement très avare en détail. L'EU Digital Services Act force la firme à délier sa langue et donner des chiffres. Et en Europe, ils sont bas.

www.frandroid.com

When it comes to Xbox results, Microsoft is usually very stingy with details. The EU Digital Services Act forces the firm to loosen its tongue and give figures. And in Europe, they are low.

We can read that on the video game side, Microsoft estimates that it has an average of 4 to 6 million users of its online game store, depending on whether they access it from an Xbox console or the website. Let's keep in mind that the Xbox is a platform where buying games online is highly favored by gamers. The Xbox Game Pass is also not available in all countries of the European Union.

Information on Average Monthly Active Recipients of Service in the European Union - Microsoft Support

Information on average monthly active recipients of service in the European Union in accordance with the EU Digital Services Act

support.microsoft.com

This is probably low balling the number of Xbox because this is not the user connecting to Xbox live but accessing the Xbox store and not counting people using Gamepass.

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1628748859617968132

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1628854870827753473

EDIT:

Hogwarts Legacy Is Biggest Global Launch Ever for Warner Bros. Games

Warner Bros. Games’ Hogwarts Legacy, the critically acclaimed, open-world, action role-playing game (RPG) has sold more than 12 million units and $850

www.businesswire.com

 

[Inuhanyou]

A lawforced Microsoft to give Xbox MAU in EU, the number is low. They only have 4 to 6 millions MAU for Xbox in EU.

From CliveLH user in era from a french article

L'UE force Xbox à dévoiler ses chiffres en Europe et ils sont très bas

Quand il s'agit des résultats de Xbox, Microsoft est habituellement très avare en détail. L'EU Digital Services Act force la firme à délier sa langue et donner des chiffres. Et en Europe, ils sont bas.

www.frandroid.com

Information on Average Monthly Active Recipients of Service in the European Union - Microsoft Support

Information on average monthly active recipients of service in the European Union in accordance with the EU Digital Services Act

support.microsoft.com

This is probably low balling the number of Xbox because this is not the user connecting to Xbox live but accessing the Xbox store and not counting people using Gamepass.

Even so, it shows the effect of MS not even being in half of European markets to begin with compared to Sony. That tier 1 and tier 2 and tier 3 strategy of Xbox one still rings

 

[Dr. Nick]

For the first time in I'm not sure how long, an Xbox game charted in the Top 30 in Japan, with Forza Horizon 5 at number 15. FH5 is also one of the few Xbox games to get a physical release in Japan.

Famitsu Sales: 2/13/23 – 2/19/23 [Update]

Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software and hardware sales data for Japan for the week of February 13, 2023 to February 19, 2023.

www.gematsu.com

IMO, when it came to really big "gets," Microsoft should have had limited prints of 1000 copies for Japan even if they could only be sold online through Microsoft's Store. Games like Tales of Arise, Persona 5, One Piece Odyssey, and Monster Hunter( I'm sure I'm forgetting some) are "gets" worthy of a collectors edition for consumers over there.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

@mr magoo - I get the appeal of GamePass for users (I'm a subscriber) and publishers, it's the profitability and longevity for Microsoft that are of interest to me.

If gamers get more games for what they would otherwise have spent money buying games, then somebody is losing out. It's not publishers because they are really happy. So it's Microsoft, ergo how sustainable is this model without Microsoft changing the way they develop games they put into GamePass, or put prices up, or both?

Well GP, if truly successful (ie. 100+ million subs) will redistribute profits from Sony to MS. That's why it can still be profitable for MS. Even if MS's margins are smaller, they might make more because Sony loses out. That's why Sony is deathly afraid of the ABK merger. CoD in GP will definitely increase GP adoption rates.

 

[chris1515]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1630501568574287875

Ampere Analysis number for 2022

Console market 2022 review: Hampered by lack of hardware availability

Ampere Analysis data reveals that the 2022 global console gaming market declined by 7.8%* (constant currency -2.1%) to $56.2bn, down from $60.9bn in 2021.

www.ampereanalysis.com

 

[Globalisateur]

Sony are currently and finally flooding the french market with their consoles (at least online). It's the first time I see non-bundled consoles on amazon.fr for more than a day. Demand is very high as it's in 3rd place and sells better than next Zelda on Switch. Considering the price (620€ with Ragnarok) is >2x over Switch it's really quite impressive.

There was consoles available elsewhere (also on Amazon) since 1 month ago but usually only the bundles + 1 physical game were available.

 

[chris1515]

Sony are currently and finally flooding the french market with their consoles (at least online). It's the first time I see non-bundled consoles on amazon.fr for more than a day. Demand is very high as it's in 3rd place and sells better than next Zelda on Switch. Considering the price (620€ with Ragnarok) is >2x over Switch it's really quite impressive.

There was consoles available elsewhere (also on Amazon) since 1 month ago but usually only the bundles + 1 physical game were available.

In Spain, this is not the case for the moment. It will arrive a bit later.