NPD April 2008 (Post #16)

Economic crisis ? People waiting for 80Gb MGS4 bundle ? What is the normal pace for PS3 in April or May (What is your reference for PS3 not improving in April and May) ? In any case, none of these contradict my comment that BR is not a major selling factor for PS3 yet. Or do you want to declare that BR contributed to PS3 majorly in April ?

As I mentioned the sales number speak for themselves.

 

All I know is that as a long time gamer, the less than stellar sales of both HD consoles despite GTAIV makes me sad The prospect of a Wii centric gaming industry kind of makes me want to quit the business. Luckily 3rd parties don't make jack on the Wii, so HD console development is likely to continue, for a while at least.

 

Why does MS need to cut 360's price? 188K is pretty decent for an April number, they're still doing great on the game sales charts, all the major titles are still coming to the machine, and there's no indication that 3rd parties are moving their first-rank development teams to the Wii. Furthermore, they're still not making money. People are obviously buying Wii for things like traditional Nintendo games and the "blue ocean" titles, not because they can't afford to play GTA IV.

 

Economic crisis?
April 2007 April 2008
$839 million $1.23 billion

More like desireability crysis for the HD consoles.

So now it's the MGS4 budle? It's always the next thing right? For 360 fans, oooh wait for the price drop. For Sony fans, it's now wait for the MGS4 bundle. We'll see soon enough.

Wanna see a game move hardware? Look at the Halo3 numbers from last year.

There is always a BR contribution to the PS3. Is it any higher this month than last month or the month before or since Jan? You tell me! Are you saying BR doesn't have an effect on sales? Didn't I just read a little while back how much the BDA was gloating about BR disc sales since they won the war and how people are jumping into BR now? Couple that with reports (NPD) of BR player sales down, you can extrapolate that the boost in PS3 sales is helping BR! The software sales haven't been real impressive so either people are using them as decoration pieces or folding! I doubt either.

The PS3 being one of the cheapest and easily the best BR player on the market certainly makes it a great buy for those looking to get into BR and judging by various forums (some non tech related) consumers are picking the PS3 for their BR needs.

Getting back to this month though, no spin will void the simple fact that the 2 biggest franchises from last gen failed to move hardware. The hardware should atleast be greater on a weekly average than last month. If we can't agree on that, this becomes an endless argument and you're certainly more than welcome to the last word.

 

I am interested to see the sales worldwide.

 

The 80gb PS3 has been out of retail for at least a month now, maybe two and I'm sure it has had some effect on PS3 sales.

I don't think having it would give it any significant lift, however anecdotal musings from several of my friends indicate that they are in the market for a PS3 but will wait until the MGS4 80gb PS3 bundle is offered again.

There are people out there waiting for the better valued PS3 but I don't think it'd do anything to give Sony a consistent 20 - 30% bump over existing sales.

Have any of us considered the slowing/recessionary economy as a fairly important factor in explaining the modest hardware sales of the PS360? With bills to pay and the higher prices of all commodity goods, it would appear a lot of folks are delaying or being much more tentative about their purchases of 'luxury' electronics - especially those that are offered at $349 or above?

Oh well, as always NPD releases are always great for armchair analysts!

 

Samsung just released a Profile 2.0 capable stand-alone for $399. It will be interesting to see how this impacts PS3 sales and the perceived value-proposition of the BR-centric consumer from here on out as stand-alones drop in price and the PS3 is no longer 'the cheapest BR player'.

 

Well PS3 would have beat 360 with Japan alone which is good and reason alone they don't need to price drop.

 

That's the equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears, closing your eyes and singing "la la la Wii doesn't exist! la la la...."

 

Those numbers include software (for existing diehards) and are past performance right ? Shouldn't we wait for a few more months to see whether and how things change in hardware terms ?

Also, do the numbers include Wii h/w and s/w ? If so, the alternate conclusion could be Wii is outdoing the economic crisis, while PS3 and 360 new sales succumbed ? Didn't some report say the casual gamers this gen masked the weakness in hardcore market ?

Sorry, it has always been about the total package, not just the next thing. I am not sure why you're so concerned.

I mentioned it's not a major contribution.

We know PS3 users have contributed to BR movie sales. Does that necessarily translate to BR helping PS3 sales majorly ? The number was 10-20% owners use PS3 exclusively for BR watching. Up to 80% of PS3 users watch PS3 movies. We used to have 5 free BR movies with every PS3 purchase. Now we don't. For BR to help PS3 sales majorly without pack-ins, Blu-ray has to establish itself more in the average consumers' eyes. That day may come but I don't think it is here today.

Sure, some enthusiats will buy standalone, some will buy PS3. Still doesn't tell me people are buying PS3 majorly for BR. It may help but I doubt it's driving the sales based on the past statistics.

Perhaps, but there could be multiple factors at play. I'd wait for 2-3 more months of data before concluding.


EDIT:

Yes, it would be interesting. For what it's worth, Walmart has started selling Funai Blu-ray players @ $298. This is great news for Blu-ray. Overall, I think as long as BDA achieve better penetration, it will be good for PS3 in the long run. The trick is to position PS3 well, so that it's not affected by lower cost players. In particular, Samsung does not have great reputation amongst the BR enthusiasts. But new and cheaper players are critical to help establish Blu-ray.

 

I am interested to see their performance in Europe and Australia too excluding Japan since it is pretty obvious

 

patsu,

Simple question. Why did sales go down in a month when GTA4 and GT5 are released?

 

This is a NPD thread. Make a "rest of the world" one. You can find snippets of data in the weekly Euro data posted on gaf and other PR stuff.

 

Most who want to play GTA4 in the first two days have already owned an Xbox or PS3 ? I personally wasn't planning to buy GTA4 until all the graphics debate gained my interest (See my post in the GTA4 poll).

Then, see my post above about trending (Economic crisis and wait for more data ).

 

The moment you've all really been waiting for: The PR Spins.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/05/npd-spin-first.html#more

My favorites:

MS's Don Mattrick:
"History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle."

Our buddy Jack Tretton:
“Clearly, the tremendous legacy of Grand Theft Auto on PlayStation, combined with the blockbuster launch of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue packed a one-two punch with consumers at retail this month."

 

Just a slight correction. NPD coverage was until May 3rd so that's 5 days.

 

Sure. Would be the same explanation. You'll need to give time for the newcomers to see existing players play GTA4 before they bite.

You'll also need more data for subsequent months and for other regions. e.g., if sales in Europe is better than usual for both platforms, than it lends more credence to US's economic threat, or a possible shift in their taste. It's impossible to conclude based on one month change unless you have other sources for support.

 

It's interesting how much the portables hardware sales pick up on popular software. Pokemon game ships, DS crushes PSP.

 

Have you seen the latest PS3 numbers in Japan? Hint, PS3 & the 360 are both irrelevant. 8k per week vs the 1k per week for the 360. That makes up what, 28k for a whole month. That's not much help.

 

I don't want his, I want Michael Pachter's. He's the one that is way off this month.