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NPD Sales Results for August 2014 [Up4: PS4 #1, XB1 last week sales 2x last Jul week]

The assumption that they decouple the Gamepad is the same assumption that they stop making Gamepads.

Sure but Nintendo could simply have left over from the production run and sell that remainder out of Amazon, their online webstore, other online retailers without having to tie down retail stores with a very expensive peripheral.

I see little reason to believe that Nintendo must wait until absolutely every Gamepad is sold from the initial production run to transition to the gamepad-less SKU
 
The scary thing if I'm Nintendo is that the price ceiling keeps getting lower and lower on mobile devices.

I used to say they needed to hit the market at $99 with a dedicated device but now Amazon has their machines hitting the market at $99. By the time Nintendo launches 4DS, it's going to be competing with like $2.99 tablets made by Xiaomen or whatever from China that play all the games kids want and are even edible or some crazy shit.

Waiting is such a bad idea. I honestly do not understand New 3DS at all.

The scary thing is that there is no price floor on mobiles for their target audience. It's trivial just to hand a kid a cellphone that works perfectly well for playing mobile games when the parent upgrades. Why bother buying a dedicated handheld at all?
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Well, obviously because they like the franchises and the games are worth it. But the marginal benefit is sort of strained further and further with the way competitor prices are dropping.
 

Ty4on

Member
The scary thing is that there is no price floor on mobiles for their target audience. It's trivial just to hand a kid a cellphone that works perfectly well for playing mobile games when the parent upgrades. Why bother buying a dedicated handheld at all?

Never underestimate the power of convenience. Just look at Apple products.

This isn't a 4DS will sell 900 million comment, but a gaming product with a one time fee could do wonders with all the lawsuits against in app payments targeted towards children. I dunno what it could be specifically, but Nintendo has always focused a lot on not making parents angry.
 

MilesTeg

Banned
sörine;130943321 said:
Where are you getting that indication? From what I see they're doubling down on Wii U for the foreseeable future, rightly or wrongly.

I bet retail would still take SE Gamepads bundled with key software releases. Or maybe a revised Gamepad Mini that costs less and eats less shelf space. Even if retail shrugs their noses at the Gamepad as if it were a Vita, it's probably better for Nintendo than them doing it to Wii U as a whole. All I see with decoupling are more options for Nintendo really.

If Nintendo were doubling down on the console they would be slashing the price to clear stock as soon as possible for a Gamepad free SKU. Instead they hold tight at $299. The console has never even seen a true price drop as there has always been a $299 option. They are content letting stuff like CoD and AC disappear from their ecosystem. They barely market the console. These things are not exactly a show of confidence in a product when consoles have a limited life span. Every day that goes by is one less day in the console's life and one less day to turn things around (it's already too late though).

To me, it looks as if Nintendo has essentially thrown in the towel regarding Wii U and have decided that they need to just weather the storm until their next box.
 
Well, obviously because they like the franchises and the games are worth it. But the marginal benefit is sort of strained further and further with the way competitor prices are dropping.

And how's that working out for nintendo's console division? Are mario, zelda, kart, etc games people no longer like? are the games no longer worth it? or was there inevitable attrition to other platforms as nintendo was unable to find a permanent solution to compete in this area?

The writing is on the wall for dedicated handhelds- we're not far from a situation where the hardware is everywhere, and the software is "free". there's not really a good way to compete against this with a dedicated handheld, no matter how fun nintendo's first party is. Convenience will win out.
 

Opiate

Member
Well, obviously because they like the franchises and the games are worth it. But the marginal benefit is sort of strained further and further with the way competitor prices are dropping.

Frankly I feel Nintendo should consider a dramatic restructuring of their pricing model; figure out how to make Mario F2P, for instance. They've made it explicitly clear they don't want to do that however.
 
Frankly I feel Nintendo should consider a dramatic restructuring of their pricing model; figure out how to make Mario F2P, for instance. They've made it explicitly clear they don't want to do that however.

one of the few situations where I agree with Opiate. The current model is unsustainable, at least in the portable area.
 
Well what really and truly is unsustainable is $35 - $40 for a handheld game. I think they've pushed it down to mostly $30ish dollars but in this day and age people don't see a reason to pay that for every game

At the absolute least Nintendo needs to get handheld prices down to something more manageable. $20 would be a good start although certainly not a perfect solution

4DS makes it hard as if it's to be a more powerful system than the games will probably cost more to make thus forcing up budgets
 

AniHawk

Member
If Nintendo were doubling down on the console they would be slashing the price to clear stock as soon as possible for a Gamepad free SKU. Instead they hold tight at $299. The console has never even seen a true price drop as there has always been a $299 option. They are content letting stuff like CoD and AC disappear from their ecosystem. They barely market the console. These things are not exactly a show of confidence in a product when consoles have a limited life span. Every day that goes by is one less day in the console's life and one less day to turn things around (it's already too late though).

To me, it looks as if Nintendo has essentially thrown in the towel regarding Wii U and have decided that they need to just weather the storm until their next box.

there are worse things than not being able to massively grow a userbase, and even a cut of $50 on every system sold would be pretty not great - at least $100m in lost revenue at their current projections. the wii u project probably will never turn a profit, but they can try and minimize the loss it will take as much as they can. a mini gamepad that can be sold separately, made of cheaper and fewer materials could do well to lessen the price of the console and device, depending on cost of goods and how it could be marketed.

looking at the schedule for upcoming games, i think the wii u and 3ds are basically done. on the 3ds side they're in remake mode, aside from codename steam. if a new handheld is two years away, i wouldn't have any problems believing that seeing how the release schedule for the 3ds has dried up.

on the wii u side, 2015 looks to be the year with the most steady stream of releases. however, zelda, yoshi, and xenoblade have been in development for years. mario party 10 and mario maker require few development resources. even splatoon was supposedly made by a small team, and i wonder if it would have even come out unless nintendo was so desperate for a release schedule - it's the sort of thing that makes me think mario maker and the miyamoto projects were games pulled from the trash like steel diver. just something to slot in a release schedule. the only games announced last year that might go against that line of thought are star fox and kirby. it's hard to know when those games were started and how big of a budget they received.

if nintendo will be making a sort of double-platform, where same games or a lot of the same games can be shared across libraries, i think ead tokyo, retro, and ead 4 (the pikmin/nsmb team that's currently doing mario maker) would be the likeliest first-party candidates to have launch titles ready. ead 5 would probably be put on qol stuff seeing as they're the wii fit people.
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
Frankly I feel Nintendo should consider a dramatic restructuring of their pricing model; figure out how to make Mario F2P, for instance. They've made it explicitly clear they don't want to do that however.

Their pricing model for franchises such as Mario, Pokemon & Zelda will not change moving forward; however, I believe their B-tier franchises such as Star Fox Wii U will be sold via episodic content a la Resident Evil Revalations 2, with a retail release planned later.
 

MilesTeg

Banned
Well what really and truly is unsustainable is $35 - $40 for a handheld game. I think they've pushed it down to mostly $30ish dollars but in this day and age people don't see a reason to pay that for every game

At the absolute least Nintendo needs to get handheld prices down to something more manageable. $20 would be a good start although certainly not a perfect solution

4DS makes it hard as if it's to be a more powerful system than the games will probably cost more to make thus forcing up budgets

The hope is that if Nintendo succeeds in creating an environment next generation where their console and handheld share software, that could lower software prices across the board as they will essentially be selling the same game twice on two platforms. Reducing the need for a $40 handheld game and a $60 console game.

Of course if Nintendo does have successful new hardware launches they won't feel the need to cut software prices as they would look at it as money left on the table. But again if they succeed in shared software, theoretically a new 2D Mario could be something like $24.99 on handheld and $34.99 on console and still generate *at least* the same amount of money as one $39.99 handheld title.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
And how's that working out for nintendo's console division? Are mario, zelda, kart, etc games people no longer like? are the games no longer worth it? or was there inevitable attrition to other platforms as nintendo was unable to find a permanent solution to compete in this area?

The writing is on the wall for dedicated handhelds- we're not far from a situation where the hardware is everywhere, and the software is "free". there's not really a good way to compete against this with a dedicated handheld, no matter how fun nintendo's first party is. Convenience will win out.

Are you asking me why I would buy a console or why nebulous "people" would?

I think Nintendo's handheld franchises have some power with young audiences, though. I don't think they have the same pull with people spending 300 on consoles. But then again, I've always said it's on Nintendo to price things appropriately (they won't).
 

MilesTeg

Banned
there are worse things than not being able to massively grow a userbase, and even a cut of $50 on every system sold would be pretty not great - at least $100m in lost revenue at their current projections. the wii u project probably will never turn a profit, but they can try and minimize the loss it will take as much as they can. a mini gamepad that can be sold separately, made of cheaper and fewer materials could do well to lessen the price of the console and device, depending on cost of goods and how it could be marketed.

looking at the schedule for upcoming games, i think the wii u and 3ds are basically done. on the 3ds side they're in remake mode, aside from codename steam. if a new handheld is two years away, i wouldn't have any problems believing that seeing how the release schedule for the 3ds has dried up.

on the wii u side, 2015 looks to be the year with the most steady stream of releases. however, zelda, yoshi, and xenoblade have been in development for years. mario party 10 and mario maker require few development resources. even splatoon was supposedly made by a small team, and i wonder if it would have even come out unless nintendo was so desperate for a release schedule - it's the sort of thing that makes me think mario maker and the miyamoto projects were games pulled from the trash like steel diver. just something to slot in a release schedule. the only games announced last year that might go against that line of thought are star fox and kirby. it's hard to know when those games were started and how big of a budget they received.

if nintendo will be making a sort of double-platform, where same games or a lot of the same games can be shared across libraries, i think ead tokyo, retro, and ead 4 (the pikmin/nsmb team that's currently doing mario maker) would be the likeliest first-party candidates to have launch titles ready. ead 5 would probably be put on qol stuff seeing as they're the wii fit people.

Yeah, Wii U's release schedule next year isn't exactly a sign they are investing significantly in the console because these games were most likely green lit quite some time ago (with the exception of Star Fox which just seems like Miyamoto giving the Gamepad it's last hurrah). They are HD games so it's not like Nintendo could easily just switch these projects over to 3DS. They got nowhere else to release them. And lets face it Nintendo's developers need the experience, especially if their new handheld will play HD games.

Nintendo is actually set up pretty well for new hardware launches in 2016/2017 software wise when you think about it. Retro will be due for a game, NSMB will be due for a release as it would have been at least 4 years. 3D Mario team will have had three years since SM3DW. They could do to Zelda U what they did with Twilight Princess. Next Level could have a game, Camelot could have a game, Alpha Dream could have a M&L. Mario Kart team could be making a new one right now.

One thing shorter console life spans means is that next wave of software that would have been for the current consoles gets pushed to new ones giving the new ones an appearance of lots of games, and should result in stronger launches and post launches for the new consoles especially if the shared software thing works out.
 

AniHawk

Member
Yeah, Wii U's release schedule next year isn't exactly a sign they are investing significantly in the console because these games were most likely green lit quite some time ago (with the exception of Star Fox which just seems like Miyamoto giving the Gamepad it's last hurrah). They are HD games so it's not like Nintendo could easily just switch these projects over to 3DS. They got nowhere else to release them. And lets face it Nintendo's developers need the experience, especially if their new handheld will play HD games.

Nintendo is actually set up pretty well for new hardware launches in 2016/2017 software wise when you think about it. Retro will be due for a game, NSMB will be due for a release as it would have been at least 4 years. 3D Mario team will have had three years since SM3DW. They could do to Zelda U what they did with Twilight Princess. Next Level could have a game, Camelot could have a game, Alpha Dream could have a M&L. Mario Kart team could be making a new one right now.

One thing shorter console life spans means is that next wave of software that would have been for the current consoles gets pushed to new ones giving the new ones an appearance of lots of games, and should result in stronger launches and post launches for the new consoles especially if the shared software thing works out.

mario kart team has been stretched to their limit and then some. back-to-back games rushed for release is hell. they will be taking some time off to have a less hectic schedule and make sure their next game comes out probably holiday 2017. zelda team might have a handheldish game ready in 2016, maybe, but with zelda wii u in 2015 and possibly majora's mask 3d the same year, i wouldn't expect anything until 2017 at the earliest, either.

i think we're seeing what the plan will be right now anyway. captain toad is being done in about a year with super mario 3d world assets. if nintendo won't be making completely separate machines, they could have more time to focus on different kinds of games, with existing franchises like kirby, yoshi, and captain toad, or new ones like codename steam and splatoon. there wouldn't be so much pressure to do a mario kart for a handheld and a console. a 3d mario for a handheld and a console. a 2d mario for a handheld and a console. ideally, it would create more variety and push creativity.
 

MilesTeg

Banned
mario kart team has been stretched to their limit and then some. back-to-back games rushed for release is hell. they will be taking some time off to have a less hectic schedule and make sure their next game comes out probably holiday 2017. zelda team might have a handheldish game ready in 2016, maybe, but with zelda wii u in 2015 and possibly majora's mask 3d the same year, i wouldn't expect anything until 2017 at the earliest, either.

i think we're seeing what the plan will be right now anyway. captain toad is being done in about a year with super mario 3d world assets. if nintendo won't be making completely separate machines, they could have more time to focus on different kinds of games, with existing franchises like kirby, yoshi, and captain toad, or new ones like codename steam and splatoon. there wouldn't be so much pressure to do a mario kart for a handheld and a console. a 3d mario for a handheld and a console. a 2d mario for a handheld and a console. ideally, it would create more variety and push creativity.

Yeah. Honestly I've talked about this subject so much here on Gaf that I think people are probably getting tired of hearing about it, and I'm actually coming to my limit I think. I do agree that the shared software could lead to much more creativity from Nintendo, and again should also work to get more games out in a timely manner on both devices, helping to reduce software gaps across the board.

One thing I think would be awesome is that after NSMB team puts out a new entry, they can potentially work on a new 2D IP. Stuff like that is pretty exciting because Nintendo has been stuck putting out the same IPs for a long time, especially since they work on handheld and console versions of these IP. Like before it would have been "well, time for the console version now I guess".
 

spekkeh

Banned
I think Nintendo should and maybe will go for a tiered system. Have a 'parents edition' of their games, which is a severely gimped version for 10 dollars, and a full version for 35 dollar. Likewise, the old handhelds will get progressively cheaper and they keep introducing new handhelds every year with premium materials and nicer upscalers. Much like Apple there is an ensured parity, at least for a number of years, meaning you can play the games on all systems, but they will look nicer on the newer ones. That way parents won't have to pay a lot for their kids' systems, but if they want to play with it themselves, they can get the full version.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
there are worse things than not being able to massively grow a userbase, and even a cut of $50 on every system sold would be pretty not great - at least $100m in lost revenue at their current projections. the wii u project probably will never turn a profit, but they can try and minimize the loss it will take as much as they can. a mini gamepad that can be sold separately, made of cheaper and fewer materials could do well to lessen the price of the console and device, depending on cost of goods and how it could be marketed.

looking at the schedule for upcoming games, i think the wii u and 3ds are basically done. on the 3ds side they're in remake mode, aside from codename steam. if a new handheld is two years away, i wouldn't have any problems believing that seeing how the release schedule for the 3ds has dried up.

on the wii u side, 2015 looks to be the year with the most steady stream of releases. however, zelda, yoshi, and xenoblade have been in development for years. mario party 10 and mario maker require few development resources. even splatoon was supposedly made by a small team, and i wonder if it would have even come out unless nintendo was so desperate for a release schedule - it's the sort of thing that makes me think mario maker and the miyamoto projects were games pulled from the trash like steel diver. just something to slot in a release schedule. the only games announced last year that might go against that line of thought are star fox and kirby. it's hard to know when those games were started and how big of a budget they received.

if nintendo will be making a sort of double-platform, where same games or a lot of the same games can be shared across libraries, i think ead tokyo, retro, and ead 4 (the pikmin/nsmb team that's currently doing mario maker) would be the likeliest first-party candidates to have launch titles ready. ead 5 would probably be put on qol stuff seeing as they're the wii fit people.

Why does it matter Splatoon is made by a small team? It only shows how talented that team is imo. And who says they wouldn't have greenlighted it if sales weren't so bad? It looks be an awesome title so far...

And how's that working out for nintendo's console division? Are mario, zelda, kart, etc games people no longer like? are the games no longer worth it? or was there inevitable attrition to other platforms as nintendo was unable to find a permanent solution to compete in this area?

The writing is on the wall for dedicated handhelds- we're not far from a situation where the hardware is everywhere, and the software is "free". there's not really a good way to compete against this with a dedicated handheld, no matter how fun nintendo's first party is. Convenience will win out.
The mobile software model is even more unsustainable. It's only a matter of time before it collapses there. Hopefully we'll end up with something in between that makes sense. Most app store developers are super frustrated with the pricing model. Only indie developers just doing it on their spare time seem to have much success, and some a fairly small percentage are decently profitable.


A tiny bit of hope for Wii U?

Disney Infinity Starter Pack Amazon (US) rankings
360 - #41
Wii U - #88
PS3 - #127
XB1 - #154
PS4 - #351

Disney Infinity Premium Pack Amazon (US) rankings (is this exclusive to Sony platforms or something?)
PS4 - #78
PS3 - #250 (not available)
Wii U - #1046 (not available)
XB1 - #1534 (not available)
360 - #2281 (not available)
 

AniHawk

Member
Why does it matter Splatoon is made by a small team? It only shows how talented that team is imo. And who says they wouldn't have greenlighted it if sales weren't so bad? It looks be an awesome title so far...

it doesn't really matter with regards to the quality of the title, just the amount of resources put towards it and what that means for the recent push on wii u software and the future.
 
Mini update on Amazon -

The PS4 Destiny bundle has reached rank 39 for 2014, outselling any X1 SKU for the year.

Update on your update

PS4 Destiny bundle is now #36 moving up 3 places for the year. It started out around #41 when Destiny came out right ahead of the XB1 TF bundle and has since moved up the yearly charts a bit which is impressive considering yearly charts should represent quite large numbers
 
Kind of surprised at the Xbox One not being too far behind PS4. Assumed that PS4 had North America on lock given their momentum and traction but it seems that Microsoft may have a chance on their home turf after all. PS4 is cumulatively still winning but by a very limited number of units.

More exclusivity deals like Tomb Raider that are very probable over the near future could see Microsoft potentially take a month or two.
 
Kind of surprised at the Xbox One not being too far behind PS4. Assumed that PS4 had North America on lock given their momentum and traction but it seems that Microsoft may have a chance on their home turf after all. PS4 is cumulatively still winning but by a very limited number of units.

More exclusivity deals like Tomb Raider that are very probable over the near future could see Microsoft potentially take a month or two.

The US market is certainly where XB1 seems to be the most competitive with the PS4 [besides perhaps Brazil or Australia but we don't see into those markets much]

Having said that, last generation the previous Xbox console, 360, sold ~41.5M units in the US [~49% of its WW LTD] versus the PS3 which only sold ~26M units in the US [~31% of its WW LTD]. Hence it's quite clear that the US market is the most important market to MS and a large part of the reason why they were able to be so competitive last generation. After all they had ~60% lead in units sold in the US.

Compare to the sales of the current consoles, PS4 just shy of 4M units, XB1 at around 3.25M units. And in less than a year the PS4 having launched side by side with the XB1 [360 launched a year ahead of the PS3 in the US] already has three-quarters of a million unit lead [~23%] on the XB1 in what is clearly its most important territory.

So do I think XB1 can outsell the PS4 in certain months? Absolutely. It would surprise me greatly if the PS4 was never outsold again by the XB1 in the US for a month.

Do I think the XB1 can catch up LTD with the PS4 and pass it? Yes but I don't think its particularly likely. It's certainly a possibility though.

The other thing is that while it may only be 750k lead at present, that's only through August 30th. PS4 should easily win September due to Destiny and Fifa [which is stronger on PS systems generally] and likely add another 100k - 150k to the gap between the two as it outsells the XB1 for the month of September. I strongly suspect the PS4 will be outselling the XB1 in the US by over a million units before the year is out.

Just some ramblings :\
 
The US market is certainly where XB1 seems to be the most competitive with the PS4 [besides perhaps Brazil or Australia but we don't see into those markets much]

Having said that, last generation the previous Xbox console, 360, sold ~41.5M units in the US [~49% of its WW LTD] versus the PS3 which only sold ~26M units in the US [~31% of its WW LTD]. Hence it's quite clear that the US market is the most important market to MS and a large part of the reason why they were able to be so competitive last generation. After all they had ~60% lead in units sold in the US.

Compare to the sales of the current consoles, PS4 just shy of 4M units, XB1 at around 3.25M units. And in less than a year the PS4 having launched side by side with the XB1 [360 launched a year ahead of the PS3 in the US] already has three-quarters of a million unit lead [~23%] on the XB1 in what is clearly its most important territory.

So do I think XB1 can outsell the PS4 in certain months? Absolutely. It would surprise me greatly if the PS4 was never outsold again by the XB1 in the US for a month.

Do I think the XB1 can catch up LTD with the PS4 and pass it? Yes but I don't think its particularly likely. It's certainly a possibility though.

The other thing is that while it may only be 750k lead at present, that's only through August 30th. PS4 should easily win September due to Destiny and Fifa [which is stronger on PS systems generally] and likely add another 100k - 150k to the gap between the two as it outsells the XB1 for the month of September. I strongly suspect the PS4 will be outselling the XB1 in the US by over a million units before the year is out.

Just some ramblings :\

It was cool and informative post. I don't think I'm yet to read such an intelligent breakdown like that yet with numbers and everything. It was cool and enjoyable to read.

Not much to add about Xbox One versus PS4 apart from that I agree with you on all of your points.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Btw, what do people think of Ubisoft's position with Just Dance? Now that the XB1 doesn't sell with Kinect by default, Ubisoft is kind of banking on last gen sales (360/Wii) plus the Wii U basically (does the PS4 support the game via its camera? Not sure how this works). If the sales from the Wii & 360 start dropping this year, do you think Ubisoft might put some muscle behind the Wii U (and maybe XB1) versions with either marketing or deals?
 
Btw, what do people think of Ubisoft's position with Just Dance? Now that the XB1 doesn't sell with Kinect by default, Ubisoft is kind of banking on last gen sales (360/Wii) plus the Wii U basically (does the PS4 support the game via its camera? Not sure how this works). If the sales from the Wii & 360 start dropping this year, do you think Ubisoft might put some muscle behind the Wii U (and maybe XB1) versions with either marketing or deals?

Well there are PS3 and PS4 SKUs available for Just Dance 15 so i would have to assume there is some method to play the game. I mean PS3 had playstation move which while a fail commercially was a pretty good control system for that sort of thing. I assume the PS4 version just uses the camera?

As per what Ubisoft's future plans are with Just Dance, currently at least they are obvious with Just Dance Now

http://blog.ubi.com/just-dance-now-release-date/

Basically Ubi is trying to grow Just Dance into the mobile phone sector of gaming, it's an intriguing idea but I'm not sure how effective it will be
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Well there are PS3 and PS4 SKUs available for Just Dance 15 so i would have to assume there is some method to play the game. I mean PS3 had playstation move which while a fail commercially was a pretty good control system for that sort of thing. I assume the PS4 version just uses the camera?

As per what Ubisoft's future plans are with Just Dance, currently at least they are obvious with Just Dance Now

http://blog.ubi.com/just-dance-now-release-date/

Basically Ubi is trying to grow Just Dance into the mobile phone sector of gaming, it's an intriguing idea but I'm not sure how effective it will be

Hm interesting. Didn't know about Just Dance now.

Also based on what I'm seeing on Amazon so far, it looks like Disney Infinity 2.0 could do better on Wii U than at least the XB1 version (and maybe PS4?). Thoughts? Kind of interesting given Sony actually made the deal with Disney about Marvel characters...

Right now.... we've got
Infinity 2.0 Starter Pack

360 - 35, Wii U - 70, PS3 - 132, XB1 - 136, PS4 - 315. The rankings have pretty much been in this general order all day. Obviously it's still pretty early, but if the Wii U version actually is the second best selling version (which Disney seems to be promoting in some ways via the free eShop download at least), how do you think they might react in the future (apart from releasing 3.0 on the platform)? Actually upping the resolution of the game (which is weirdly a bit lower than the 360/PS3 versions)? Making deals w/ Nintendo instead of Sony?
 
Hm interesting. Didn't know about Just Dance now.

Also based on what I'm seeing on Amazon so far, it looks like Disney Infinity 2.0 could do better on Wii U than at least the XB1 version (and maybe PS4?). Thoughts? Kind of interesting given Sony actually made the deal with Disney about Marvel characters...

Right now.... we've got
Infinity 2.0 Starter Pack

360 - 35, Wii U - 70, PS3 - 132, XB1 - 136, PS4 - 315. The rankings have pretty much been in this general order all day. Obviously it's still pretty early, but if the Wii U version actually is the second best selling version (which Disney seems to be promoting in some ways via the free eShop download at least), how do you think they might react in the future (apart from releasing 3.0 on the platform)? Actually upping the resolution of the game (which is weirdly a bit lower than the 360/PS3 versions)? Making deals w/ Nintendo instead of Sony?

So generally I don't really like using Amazon instant rankings [or whatever you want to call them] as they are very little information for comparisons. Weekly or monthly contain a lot more sales information in general

That being said for having released today there does seem to be a notable lack of excitement from the PS4 SKU. If I had to predict an ordering for the game I'd probably guess something like (360, PS3, Wii U, XB1, PS4) with PS4 being a bit of a wildcard as I am curious why it appears so low, I feel comfortable it will go 360 -> PS3, but third place and after is anyone's game.

I'd also take a look at last year's release of Disney infinity to see platform comparisons

So Disney Infinity 1.0 released in August for PS3, Wii and 360, but November 28th for Wii U and 3DS

138689058428yfpko.jpg


So not much tracking but looking at the December bestselling software includes the annual best sellers

138991395288zqojr.jpg


It's interesting that Disney Infinity 2.0 isn't releasing on the Wii this year but I feel very comfortable with with 360 then maybe PS3. Wii U is probably 3rd. Not sure on 4th or 5th

Hmm I can't quite peg where PS3 casuals of last year are this year

-----------

Interesting side tangent, I just realized if you look at the Top 10 Annual bestsellers for 2013 that the PS4 SKU of Madden 25 sold better than the XB1 SKU so 2 years in a row?
 

ascii42

Member
Well there are PS3 and PS4 SKUs available for Just Dance 15 so i would have to assume there is some method to play the game. I mean PS3 had playstation move which while a fail commercially was a pretty good control system for that sort of thing. I assume the PS4 version just uses the camera?

As per what Ubisoft's future plans are with Just Dance, currently at least they are obvious with Just Dance Now

http://blog.ubi.com/just-dance-now-release-date/

Basically Ubi is trying to grow Just Dance into the mobile phone sector of gaming, it's an intriguing idea but I'm not sure how effective it will be

The PS4 version can be played just using the camera, or with Move.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Just saw a gamasutra article and these #s seem really off... Is that the case?

From the article:
DS vs 3DS SALES
DS lifetime total sales: 153.98 Million
DS sales from 2004-2007: 47.27
3DS lifetime total sales (from 2011-2014): 44.14 million
3DS-to-DS hardware sales ratio: 9.3:10

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Tyro...The_iPhone_vs_3DS_Debate_and_Some_Numbers.php

The DS had already sold 21,173,051 by end of 2007 in Japan. Am I missing something here? I'm assuming it sold even more in the rest of the world.
 
Just saw a gamasutra article and these #s seem really off... Is that the case?

From the article:
DS vs 3DS SALES
DS lifetime total sales: 153.98 Million
DS sales from 2004-2007: 47.27
3DS lifetime total sales (from 2011-2014): 44.14 million
3DS-to-DS hardware sales ratio: 9.3:10

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Tyro...The_iPhone_vs_3DS_Debate_and_Some_Numbers.php

The DS had already sold 21,173,051 by end of 2007 in Japan. Am I missing something here? I'm assuming it sold even more in the rest of the world.

Here are figures straight from Nintendo:


Japanese DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 21.66 million
North American DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 20.18 million
European / Other DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 22.94 million

Total DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 64.79 million


I have no idea where the numbers in that article came from, but clearly the author didn't properly fact-check his figures.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Here are figures straight from Nintendo:


Japanese DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 21.66 million
North American DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 20.18 million
European / Other DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 22.94 million

Total DS Shipments as of December 31st, 2007 - 64.79 million


I have no idea where the numbers in that article came from, but clearly the author didn't properly fact-check his figures.

That's what I thought. Just tweeted the author about his error since I don't want people misinformed. Thanks!
 

Game Guru

Member
Actually, the DS and 3DS respective sales from that author are to the middle of their respective years, not the end of their respective years (2007-06-30 for DS and 2014-06-30 for the 3DS) so the proper DS total sales in Japan for that comparison is actually 18.11 million, since that is the total sales of the DS in Japan to 2007-06-30. The 3DS total sales in Japan for this comparison is 16.15 million. This and this are the two relevant sources for this author, apparently.
 
Actually, the DS and 3DS respective sales from that author are to the middle of their respective years, not the end of their respective years (2007-06-30 for DS and 2014-06-30 for the 3DS) so the proper DS total sales in Japan for that comparison is actually 18.11 million, since that is the total sales of the DS in Japan to 2007-06-30. The 3DS total sales in Japan for this comparison is 16.15 million. This and this are the two relevant sources for this author, apparently.

Then the author needs to clarify.

He clearly states "DS sales from 2004-2007" which implies a full-year comparison through CY 2007.

More effort needs to be put into the precise terminology used in that article.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Actually, the DS and 3DS respective sales from that author are to the middle of their respective years, not the end of their respective years (2007-06-30 for DS and 2014-06-30 for the 3DS) so the proper DS total sales in Japan for that comparison is actually 18.11 million, since that is the total sales of the DS in Japan to 2007-06-30. The 3DS total sales in Japan for this comparison is 16.15 million. This and this are the two relevant sources for this author, apparently.

Oh, hm... interesting... so they were that close. He's still comparing a console that was rising to its peak (DS) to one that may have already hit its peak (3DS).

It also shows that the problem for the 3DS is the Americas so far. 3DS > GBA in Japan already, 3DS doing about the same to a bit worse in Europe. The 3DS is doing much much worse in the Americas though. I think the price is still a big factor (price of hardware and price of games). Sales in both the Americas & Europe have basically been flat the past 3 fiscal years, actually going down a bit (despite the awesome quality of titles in 2013 imo...)

Americas/Other
GBA:
FY3 2002 - Americas - 757; Other - 460 vs. FY3 2011 - Americas - 132; Other - 123
FY3 2003 - Americas - 780; Other - 377 vs. FY3 2012 - Americas - 467; Other - 406
FY3 2004 - Americas - 945; Other - 500 vs. FY3 2013 - Americas - 427; Other - 400
FY3 2005 - Americas - 856; Other - 449 vs. FY3 2014 - Americas - 433; Other - 356
FY3 2006 - Americas - 472; Other - 261
FY3 2007 - Americas - 300; Other - 122
FY3 2008 - Americas - 54; Other- 82
 
That is kinda depressing to look at because you know November 2014 will be:

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
GTA V (PS4 & Xbone)
Madden 15
NBA 2K15
Assassin's Creed whatever-it-is-called-this-year
Skylanders TRAP Force
FIFA 15
Disney Infinity 2.0
+2 more random stragglers

But hey on the bright side, no battlefield! :D
 
Oh, hm... interesting... so they were that close. He's still comparing a console that was rising to its peak (DS) to one that may have already hit its peak (3DS).

It also shows that the problem for the 3DS is the Americas so far. 3DS > GBA in Japan already, 3DS doing about the same to a bit worse in Europe. The 3DS is doing much much worse in the Americas though. I think the price is still a big factor (price of hardware and price of games). Sales in both the Americas & Europe have basically been flat the past 3 fiscal years, actually going down a bit (despite the awesome quality of titles in 2013 imo...)

Americas/Other
GBA:
FY3 2002 - Americas - 757; Other - 460 vs. FY3 2011 - Americas - 132; Other - 123
FY3 2003 - Americas - 780; Other - 377 vs. FY3 2012 - Americas - 467; Other - 406
FY3 2004 - Americas - 945; Other - 500 vs. FY3 2013 - Americas - 427; Other - 400
FY3 2005 - Americas - 856; Other - 449 vs. FY3 2014 - Americas - 433; Other - 356
FY3 2006 - Americas - 472; Other - 261
FY3 2007 - Americas - 300; Other - 122
FY3 2008 - Americas - 54; Other- 82

on the flip side, you could argue that the GBA just did abnormally well in the US

also could you pull up DS fiscal year totals?
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
on the flip side, you could argue that the GBA just did abnormally well in the US

also could you pull up DS fiscal year totals?

DS in Americas starting with FY3 2005 - 219 292 663 1,065 1,207 1,229 839 262 211 7
DS in Europe starting with FY3 2005 - 95 376 781 1,330 1,511 1,081 678 225 23 6
DS in Japan starting with FY3 2005 - 212 478 912 636 401 401 235 23 1
 

Game Guru

Member
Then the author needs to clarify.

He clearly states "DS sales from 2004-2007" which implies a full-year comparison through CY 2007.

More effort needs to be put into the precise terminology used in that article.

True, I just checked the article and he does need to clarify that, but I am clarifying that his numbers aren't wrong, just mislabeled. In any case, I've always thought the main issue with Nintendo at the current moment is the Wii U since it's doing poorly. From what I can tell, the 3DS appears to be only slightly behind the sales its predecessor within the same timeframe. Distressing, but relatively stable given the mobile boom supposedly eating into handheld sales.

Again, I've always considered the eighth generation a return to the norm in regards to the PS4 and 3DS, the norm being Sony dominating consoles and Nintendo dominating handhelds as things have happened with the fifth generation's PS1 and Game Boy and the sixth generation's PS2 and GBA. The seventh generation was abnormal in that every console and handheld sold well, not just Sony's console and Nintendo's handheld.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
True, I just checked the article and he does need to clarify that, but I am clarifying that his numbers aren't wrong, just mislabeled. In any case, I've always thought the main issue with Nintendo at the current moment is the Wii U since it's doing poorly. From what I can tell, the 3DS appears to be only slightly behind the sales its predecessor within the same timeframe. Distressing, but relatively stable given the mobile boom supposedly eating into handheld sales.

Again, I've always considered the eighth generation a return to the norm in regards to the PS4 and 3DS, the norm being Sony dominating consoles and Nintendo dominating handhelds as things have happened with the fifth generation's PS1 and Game Boy and the sixth generation's PS2 and GBA. The seventh generation was abnormal in that every console and handheld sold well, not just Sony's console and Nintendo's handheld.

Well, the DS started selling insane numbers at around this time (aka right after the cutoff), so I don't think comparing the 3DS to the DS is really fruitful. The GBA is probably a better comparison, as it was before Nintendo hit the blue ocean with Brain Age, etc. However, considering the lack of software from non-Japanese third parties, I'd say the 3DS is doing remarkably well all things considered (mobile, high priced hardware, higher priced software).
 
Isn't the 3DS tracking behind the PSP? Or is that just in the US? DS went on to sell like 150M WW or is it more? It's the only console/handheld that really went toe to toe with PS2 dominance.
 

Evenflow

Member
Hey while this is bumped, does the September tracking period go through Oct 3rd? In other words, will it include Smash 3ds...the calender looks to me like it might.
 

Welfare

Member
That is kinda depressing to look at because you know November 2014 will be:

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
GTA V (PS4 & Xbone)
Madden 15
NBA 2K15
Assassin's Creed whatever-it-is-called-this-year
Skylanders TRAP Force
FIFA 15
Disney Infinity 2.0
+2 more random stragglers

No Halo? That's gotta be in the top 5.

Hey while this is bumped, does the September tracking period go through Oct 3rd? In other words, will it include Smash 3ds...the calender looks to me like it might.

Yeah, 2 days of sales.
 
Hey while this is bumped, does the September tracking period go through Oct 3rd? In other words, will it include Smash 3ds...the calender looks to me like it might.

yes it includes 2 days of Smash 3DS

Isn't the 3DS tracking behind the PSP? Or is that just in the US? DS went on to sell like 150M WW or is it more? It's the only console/handheld that really went toe to toe with PS2 dominance.

3DS is about to fall behind the PSP in the US....though it could maybe catch back up via the holidays (I'm not so sure, but it's possible)

also last gen was weird, literally every single system sold over 80 million

(and yes DS is over 150m WW)
 

Game Guru

Member
Well, the DS started selling insane numbers at around this time (aka right after the cutoff), so I don't think comparing the 3DS to the DS is really fruitful. The GBA is probably a better comparison, as it was before Nintendo hit the blue ocean with Brain Age, etc. However, considering the lack of software from non-Japanese third parties, I'd say the 3DS is doing remarkably well all things considered (mobile, high priced hardware, higher priced software).

Actually, Brain Age came out in 2005 in Japan and 2006 everywhere else... The first version of Nintendogs came out in 2005. In the middle of 2007, DS already had a year of Brain Age sales and two years of Nintendogs sales.
 
True, I just checked the article and he does need to clarify that, but I am clarifying that his numbers aren't wrong, just mislabeled. In any case, I've always thought the main issue with Nintendo at the current moment is the Wii U since it's doing poorly. From what I can tell, the 3DS appears to be only slightly behind the sales its predecessor within the same timeframe. Distressing, but relatively stable given the mobile boom supposedly eating into handheld sales.

Again, I've always considered the eighth generation a return to the norm in regards to the PS4 and 3DS, the norm being Sony dominating consoles and Nintendo dominating handhelds as things have happened with the fifth generation's PS1 and Game Boy and the sixth generation's PS2 and GBA. The seventh generation was abnormal in that every console and handheld sold well, not just Sony's console and Nintendo's handheld.

Yeah I saw that. The author's numbers are through June 30th.

It's a shame that the DS will soon leave the 3DS in the dust, but the 3DS has done remarkably well hardware-wise, given the current handheld climate.
 
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