NPD August 2016 Sales Results, Results Ranked by Revenue (Hardware Now, Software Later)

[iroboto]

A lot of talk about PS4 Pro growing the PS market lead over XB, but I'm not entirely sure TBH.

It can sell amazingly well, but barely grow their market share. I have very strong suspicion that Pro is mainly purchased by already existing PS4 owners. If they wanted to grow their market, the PS4 slim should either have been much cheaper, or at least offer full 4K feature set like XBO S.

Everyone who bought PS4 already was because they knew it was the stronger system, also the cheaper system. Even when it was the more expensive system it still sold more. Now selling an even more powerful PS will cater to the same people that bought into it in the first place.

They needed some different feature sets to grow their audience.

Regardless, Simple way to find out is if they start releasing Increases in PSN subs after Pro launch.


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[MrFox]

Even the old PS4s are currently outselling the xb1 slim on amazon.com. That's new gamers who were just waiting for the price drop. And obviously the Pro is #1 and should hold there until out of stock, and restart on black friday with the usual restocking magically timed for it.

PSVR coming out next month, it ties in very well with PS4 Pro for new buyers. There's much more interest in VR than UHD-buray.

Upgraders are reselling/trading their console, which shift back into the market as used consoles and impact the new console sales. The sum still grows the market.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Upgraders are reselling/trading their console, which shift back into the market as used consoles and impact the new console sales. The sum still grows the market.

Or gets moved into the kids room, guest room, etc. There's a few families I know that are doing that so that they don't have to share time on the console. Same applies to the XBO-S.

Regards,
SB

 

[iroboto]

Even the old PS4s are currently outselling the xb1 slim on amazon.com. That's new gamers who were just waiting for the price drop. And obviously the Pro is #1 and should hold there until out of stock, and restart on black friday with the usual restocking magically timed for it.

PSVR coming out next month, it ties in very well with PS4 Pro for new buyers. There's much more interest in VR than UHD-buray.

Upgraders are reselling/trading their console, which shift back into the market as used consoles and impact the new console sales. The sum still grows the market.

I'll wait for sub data. It's just too much speculation on both sides of the spectrum. Is it replacing itself or growing the market, both, sure, but how much? We Dunno. I am curious to find out.

Same with XBox. Selling UHD players but not necessarily getting people to pay the games. Subs are the key!

As of the moment it's true OG PS4 bundles are selling better than Slim. The other ps4 Slim models are not. That should be concern for them unless the goal was to get everyone onto Pro.

We predicted this I guess with that Pro price point, it should eat into new Slim sales.

Also for some reason Amazon has the worst bundles this go around.
https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/co..._bundle_w_4k_ultrahd/?st=ISYJAW2U&sh=79f0a252


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[Clukos]

I have to say that it's been funny reading on the internet the last few days. Suddenly, 4k blu-ray playback is all important for any console for the Xbox fanbase and vice versa for the playstation fanbase which is all about games and blu-rays suddenly don't matter. It looks like both the marketing team and the fanbases have switched sides since last gen

People forget way too quickly what they've been so adamant about only some years ago. Doesn't change the fact that Sony have cheaped out on UHD BD and MS is still struggling with their first party output other than Forza/Gears/Halo (and even that isn't as strong as it used to in the past). This season will be interesting™.

 

[mpg1]

I have to say that it's been funny reading on the internet the last few days. Suddenly, 4k blu-ray playback is all important for any console for the Xbox fanbase and vice versa for the playstation fanbase which is all about games and blu-rays suddenly don't matter. It looks like both the marketing team and the fanbases have switched sides since last gen

People forget way too quickly what they've been so adamant about only some years ago. Doesn't change the fact that Sony have cheaped out on UHD BD and MS is still struggling with their first party output other than Forza/Gears/Halo (and even that isn't as strong as it used to in the past). This season will be interesting™.

I have bought Xbox, Xbox 360 and will probably buy Scorpio but I think Sony is right when it didn't bother with a 4K blu-ray drive. Physical media is dying. I think streaming services will quickly adopt 4K HDR.

 

[MrFox]

I'll wait for sub data. It's just too much speculation on both sides of the spectrum. Is it replacing itself or growing the market, both, sure, but how much? We Dunno. I am curious to find out.

Same with XBox. Selling UHD players but not necessarily getting people to pay the games. Subs are the key!

As of the moment it's true OG PS4 bundles are selling better than Slim. The other ps4 Slim models are not. That should be concern for them unless the goal was to get everyone onto Pro.

We predicted this I guess with that Pro price point, it should eat into new Slim sales.

Also for some reason Amazon has the worst bundles this go around.
https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/co..._bundle_w_4k_ultrahd/?st=ISYJAW2U&sh=79f0a252


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Yeah it's certainly a mix of both. I just noticed there are better bundles at bestbuy for ps4 too... They are giving the current $150 headset with a 299 bundle! I suppose because there is a new headset coming soon, they must have a large stock accumulated and these accessories have an insane markup for retailers.

Using subs as a reference will have to wait for january, a large part of november sales are for gifts, preordering to make sure they get it before xmas.

 

[BRiT]

Using subs as a reference will have to wait for january, a large part of november sales are for gifts, preordering to make sure they get it before xmas.

I agree, we won't have a solid idea until February on how things break down in new consumers vs upgrade consumers. They won't all create new accounts or go online in December. I expect that to fill out throughout January.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I'll wait for sub data. It's just too much speculation on both sides of the spectrum. Is it replacing itself or growing the market, both, sure, but how much? We Dunno. I am curious to find out.

Same with XBox. Selling UHD players but not necessarily getting people to pay the games. Subs are the key!

As of the moment it's true OG PS4 bundles are selling better than Slim. The other ps4 Slim models are not. That should be concern for them unless the goal was to get everyone onto Pro.

We predicted this I guess with that Pro price point, it should eat into new Slim sales.

Also for some reason Amazon has the worst bundles this go around.
https://www.reddit.com/r/xboxone/co..._bundle_w_4k_ultrahd/?st=ISYJAW2U&sh=79f0a252


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There's a lot of factors there.

For one, just like with the original XBO, both Sony and retailers will be wanting to clear out old stock ASAP.

As well, there's a twist in all of this. While XBO-S offers upgrades to the user above and beyond just a smaller size, the PS4-S only offers smaller size along with quieter operation. They both come at slightly cheaper prices compared to the original consoles as well. So the XBO-S is a slightly more compelling compared to the PS4-S.

However, Sony doesn't only have the PS4-S, they also have the PS4-P. By not offering UHD HDR for the PS4-S, they are basically pushing any consumer that is interested in that to the PS4-P. So, the PS4-S isn't really as compelling of an offering other than just being cheaper.

It will be interesting to see what consumers value more. Cheaper price or more features? If going for cheaper price, the XBO-S suddenly makes a very compelling offering versus the PS4-S due to more features.

I do wonder if Microsoft would have followed with a similar marketing plan for their consoles if Project Scorpio was launching in the same time frame as the XBO-S? IE - no UHD HDR for XBO-S to push people to Project Scorpio.

It's an interesting contrast between the two companies.

Regards,
SB

 

[MrFox]

The original ps4 is selling at 299 everywhere I looked. Other than the bestbuy deal with the headset, retailers *and* consumer don't seem to care about old vs slim. It's a price drop without any concern about stock clearance. There is no firesale of the old one because they don't have to.

If my ps4 would break right now I would probably get another fat ps4, for the same price it looks better.

 

[iroboto]

The original ps4 is selling at 299 everywhere I looked. Other than the bestbuy deal with the headset, retailers *and* consumer don't seem to care about old vs slim. It's a price drop without any concern about stock clearance. There is no firesale of the old one because they don't have to.

Oddly, PS4S is selling for 379 in Toronto while XBOS is 399. It's mind boggling.
And yea! Amazon is failing us LOL

 

[Silent_Buddha]

The original ps4 is selling at 299 everywhere I looked. Other than the bestbuy deal with the headset, retailers *and* consumer don't seem to care about old vs slim. It's a price drop without any concern about stock clearance. There is no firesale of the old one because they don't have to.

Not yet, but some retailers like Best Buy were. They were throwing in a Platinum Headset for free in order to clear stock of the older PS4.

And yeah, there's less incentive to lower the price of the older PS4 as the PS4-S offers no compelling upgrades other than a smaller size and quieter operation (Personally that quieter operation would be huge for me, but not so much for other people), unlike the XBO-S which offers feature upgrades in addition to a smaller size. Meaning the older XBO absolutely needed to be lower priced than the XBO-S if anyone wanted to sell them.

Regards,
SB

 

[bunge]

Aren't size, sound and power improvements an ideal and compelling set of features for a slim update?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

And yea! Amazon is failing us LOL

Amazon seems reliable in a stable market but not when markets are transitioning. That in itself is interesting, suggesting that Amazon is not particularly representative of sales to early adopters - but probably is for average joe gamer.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Aren't size, sound and power improvements an ideal and compelling set of features for a slim update?

Size may be a factor if you (or your AV centre) is constrained by size but how many people really chose a console based on it's power draw? Not a lot I'd wager. Ditto for noise, as long as it's not 'too noisy' that's likely a secondary considerable if it's a consideration at all.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Aren't size, sound and power improvements an ideal and compelling set of features for a slim update?

Only if those things matter to you. And obviously some people would value those things at the same price, but many people don't. Hence you see the older PS4 selling better on Amazon than the PS4 slim, due to the included bundles (Black Ops 3 being more popular than Uncharted 4). And even with the same bundle, it's in relatively the same position (6 versus 7). If it was in large demand the pre-orders for PS4 slim would be much higher than any older PS4 bundle.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why did people 'upgrade' their PS1 and PS2's to Slim? Power draw (and thus heat and noise) and size (dinky PS2!) are the very basis of the slim models. It won't necessarily increase interest in the product, although the associated price drop will, but it does provide a bit of value for existing owners. Being that quiet is definitely of interest to me - just not as much as the upgrade cost.

Although incidientally, having had my first experience of PS4 as a media device last night, I'm gonna stick with PS3 for that. PS4 really is a clunky machine IMO.

 

[MrFox]

Not yet, but some retailers like Best Buy were. They were throwing in a Platinum Headset for free in order to clear stock of the older PS4.

It's the other way around, there was a promotion with the SLIM where they gave the new platinum headset for free if you preorder.

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/09/1...n-4-slim-uncharted-get-free-platinum-headset/

It looks like sony wants to put this headset in the hands of gamers to get reviews start to spread, and are giving a limited number for retailers promotions. Still an insane preorder bonus.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It's the other way around, there was a promotion with the SLIM where they gave the new platinum headset for free if you preorder.

http://www.siliconera.com/2016/09/1...n-4-slim-uncharted-get-free-platinum-headset/

Whooops, my bad, reading comprehension fail when I visited the PS4 reddit.

Regards,
SB

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Why did people 'upgrade' their PS1 and PS2's to Slim? Power draw (and thus heat and noise) and size (dinky PS2!) are the very basis of the slim models. It won't necessarily increase interest in the product, although the associated price drop will, but it does provide a bit of value for existing owners. Being that quiet is definitely of interest to me - just not as much as the upgrade cost.

Although incidientally, having had my first experience of PS4 as a media device last night, I'm gonna stick with PS3 for that. PS4 really is a clunky machine IMO.

Yes, there's always people that are interested in it due to a variety of reasons. Some just like the smaller look. Some like quieter operation, etc. But the PS4 shows that for people that are not interested in the PS4-P, the PS4-S doesn't offer much to new PS4 buyers. The older PS4, despite being the same price is outselling the PS4-S significantly. At least if Amazon is anything to go by. It shows that what game is bundled is far more important than whether it's a slim or a fat.

Regards,
SB