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NPD Sales Results For August 2016

Those Deus Ex numbers are brutally bad for such a great game. Square simply cannot stop fucking up their release timing. PS4 Tomb Raider in October is next. Breaking Hitman up into regularly released episodes that generate a lot organic video coverage might be the smartest decision I/O ever made. If it had simply released as a delayed retail product, the marketing push would not have existed beyond last December.

FFXV coming in way below expectations with the bizzaro post Black Friday release is the only thing that will get the message across at this point.

I would be surprised if SE actually gets the message though.
 
I would be surprised if SE actually gets the message though.

Disagree with your view. Square knows full well. They just... struggle to hit their plan.

Deus Ex's timing was due to delay.It was initially February 2016 which would had been a decent window.

PS4 Tomb Raider is due to one-year-ish exclusivity deal with MS. October is probably the earliest it can be, and tying in a VR-mode makes October the best timing it could have. Delaying it to 2017 is madness. (Hyperbole) No one will care by then, regardless of Jan, Feb, Mar, April or whenever.

FFXV was also due to delay. It wanted to hit a sweet-spot, but unfortunately it failed and had to be delayed to post-BF, and can't capitalise on that sweet FFXV bundle for BF lavish spendings.

If we look at the initial planned release window for many of their games, they did aim for good timings this year. Too bad many of them had to be delayed.
 
For those who are debating Human Revolution > Mankind Divided, please consider the following:

Deus Ex Human Revolution launched August 23 2011

Madden NFL 12 launched August 30 2011. One week after Human Revolution

Deus Ex Mankind Divided launched August 23 2016

Madden NFL 17 launched August 23 2016. The same day as Mankind Divided

Most video games make most of their money in week 1
 

Fdkn

Member
For those who are debating Human Revolution > Mankind Divided, please consider the following:

Deus Ex Human Revolution launched August 23 2011

Madden NFL 12 launched August 30 2011. One week after Human Revolution

Deus Ex Mankind Divided launched August 23 2016

Madden NFL 17 launched August 23 2016. The same day as Mankind Divided

Most video games make most of their money in week 1

this is a poor excuse tbh, the audience overlap is not really apparent there.

Also the UK is not buying Madden and Deus Ex still bombed there. And Fifa is not out, before you use that lol.
 

Aselith

Member
What could had been done differently though? (without doubling the marketing budget or anything like that)

It was announced before E3 last year with its own reveal event with quite a good bit of attention to it, it came out of E3 with a good (not great) demo and positively glowing impressions. It carried that all the way to this year, largely praised, with good drops every now and then showcasing the gameplay, the mission, the hub, etc. Had an average marketing push near launch, and thus here we are.

There were some low points, like the preorder nonsense and the art allusions to real-world events, but I would consider those to be very small blips amidst what was a very conventional, safe, if unspectacular boring marketing cycle from April last year till launch.

Sure, in hindsight, it's clear that Deus Ex needed more than an "average" marketing campaign because it has failed to excite people in the same way NMS, etc did, but in hindsight, I couldn't tell that Deus Ex was a game that needed a campaign of massive excitement for it to even sell decently.

I think the problem was that it was announced too early esp with the delay and the lackluster push at launch didn't do enough to reignite interest. Releasing the E3 demo as playable would have helped people get hyped I think.
 

Shin-chan

Member
I loved Human Revolution and couldn't care less about Mankind Divided. I can't point out why, but obviously I'm not alone.
Yeah I'm in the same boat.

I guess it just looked like more of the same, and after HR failed to do much interesting with the story I didn't feel compelled to continue with this one.
 
I got the Uncharted bundle from BB yesterday, but already have Uncharted. In fact I have like 4 unopened games. ( No mans sky, UC4, Smash Brothers, TW3, etc...)

Will Best Buy give me more than the usual $20 for them? This eBay thing is taking too long.
 

R aka Bon

Member
Man. I want to play Inquisition, but all the posts about padding and side quests that I have read makes me not go anywhere near it.

Don't let the opninion of others sway you from playing. I personally thought it was a really good game. I am not sure what quests are in question, but i often times felt like the quests made sense in the context. Unlike the Witcher 3 that constantly requires you to go through boring dialogue for tedious reasons, inquisition felt more cohesive in a sense. I despise most of the quests in the Witcher 3, as i allways had to do 1,2,3... 100 more favours in order to accomplish something very simple. The characters/drama and the enviroment will allways be what i remember the most about DA.I.

On topic, glad to see the xbox one s doing very well, as it comes with a lot of great features. Also surprised that GTA and minecraft still continues to sell...
 

Kill3r7

Member
I have to bring it up almost every time Siege sales get discussed on this board but Siege started big and has legged great. It did almost a million in its 1st NPD (over 800k if I'm remembering correctly).

However it didn't start off well in the UK charts and I think that's where this weird narrative has formed around it that it wasn't a big seller from the start since those were released prior to its 1st NPD.

R6S benefited from great word of mouth and for once Ubi's aggressive price drops helped to keep the momentum going. To a certain extent, similar to DOOM this summer.
 

timberger

Member
Always good to see NMS doing well. Had a great time with the game.

Wonder if Sony will have enough PS4 Slims out there in Sept to crush XB1 sales next NPD or if we'll have to wait for Oct for that.

November is obviously gonna be Pro's month for the taking.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Call of Duty.

COD will not bomb especially with MW4 bundled. It may not sell as high as Activision expects but it won't bomb.

FFXV on the other hand has a good chance of significantly underperforming due to post BF release. That timing is frankly stupid. They should have released a week or two earlier even if it meant a bigger post release Day 1 patch.
 
Those hardware year on year numbers are depressing. These console makers are going to see what happens when you don't ever reduce the price of your hardware and instead try to offer "improved" versions instead at the same price point.

Fucking ridiculous that they dont have $199 MSRP consoles ready to go this year.

At this point the only reason the ps4 slim isn't $199/249 is because it makes the ps4 pro look bad in comparison.
 

hemo memo

Member
NMS did well despite all the criticism, GTA5 is a beast. I guess the .pro version will sell even more copies......

It also prove that:
-People don't care about release day reviews or reviews in general
-late embargo is always a concern
-Pre-order culture is big
-Marketing would sell pretty much anything
-False promises works
-Price is irrelevant to the actual product or its value
Chose from the above.

In simple words: Redbull is 60$ because it gives you wings.
 

Kill3r7

Member
It also prove that:
-People don't care about release day reviews or reviews in general
-late embargo is always a concern
-Pre-order culture is big
-Great marketing and hype would sell pretty much anything
-False promises works
-Price is irrelevant to the actual product or its value
Chose from the above.

In simple words: Redbull is 60$ because it gives you wings.

Ditto. If you can compel or reach the casual gamer you are golden.
 
Those hardware year on year numbers are depressing. These console makers are going to see what happens when you don't ever reduce the price of your hardware and instead try to offer "improved" versions instead at the same price point.

Fucking ridiculous that they dont have $199 MSRP consoles ready to go this year.

At this point the only reason the ps4 slim isn't $199/249 is because it makes the ps4 pro look bad in comparison.

Or because console hardware costs a lot more to make now than it did 2 generations ago? Just the hard drive, for example, will have a flat cost of like 40 bucks (even in bulk) to Sony and the BD rom would be similar. Those are just 2 components and that's already potentially more than 1/3 of the cost of the parts. Let alone the retailer cut required, the margin required for papa Kaz and the cost of testing transport and packaging.

If you see it for 199 at any point soon it's because papa Kaz has decided no (or negative?) margins are cool with him for now. And that's not usually cool with investors.

That, or a retailer decides to forego their margins to rid of old stock, and even potentially asks papa Kaz for some rebates.

RIP Tomb Raider
RIP Deus Ex.
RIP Hitman.
What's next?

DQ ps4
 
Those hardware year on year numbers are depressing. These console makers are going to see what happens when you don't ever reduce the price of your hardware and instead try to offer "improved" versions instead at the same price point.

Fucking ridiculous that they dont have $199 MSRP consoles ready to go this year.

At this point the only reason the ps4 slim isn't $199/249 is because it makes the ps4 pro look bad in comparison.
I think the Wii U is the only guilty console of not dropping that much in price over time. The OG Xbox is $250-$270, if not cheaper. Come November/December you're going to see it hit $200-$225. No doubt the OG PS4 will also see some similar deal numbers.

I don't understand the outrage.
 

dr_rus

Member
COD will not bomb especially with MW4 bundled. It may not sell as high as Activision expects but it won't bomb.

FFXV on the other hand has a good chance of significantly underperforming due to post BF release. That timing is frankly stupid. They should have released a week or two earlier even if it meant a bigger post release Day 1 patch.

I don't think that either of the titles listed in Guymelef's post "bombed", they just underperformed compared to expectations. I fully expect the same to happen with CoD now after Ghosts and BlOps3 even though IW seems to be a really interesting take on the series.
 
Mankind Divided is a way better game than Human Revolution, it's my favorite title of 2016 so far, and easily my second favorite of the series now, so seeing it not reach the numbers it deserves is really depressing.


Honest question: what incentive does a consumer have to buy a single player only game at launch? The game is at its most expensive and least stable time. It will probably be able to be had for $20 - $30 during Black Friday week and will have received a few patches by then as well.


Those hardware year on year numbers are depressing. These console makers are going to see what happens when you don't ever reduce the price of your hardware and instead try to offer "improved" versions instead at the same price point.

Fucking ridiculous that they dont have $199 MSRP consoles ready to go this year.

At this point the only reason the ps4 slim isn't $199/249 is because it makes the ps4 pro look bad in comparison.


The YoY decline has everything to do with people waiting for the Sony announcements and little to do with hardware pricing.
 

hemo memo

Member
Honest question: what incentive does a consumer have to buy a single player only game at launch? The game is at its most expensive and least stable time. It will probably be able to be had for $20 - $30 during Black Friday week and will have received a few patches by then as well.

Pre-order bonuses
Marketing
To not feel left out
 
Who are these people buying GTA V for their newborn child?
Let the shock of this sink in a minute...but it's almost as if a 15-16 year old might be finally getting to the age where their parents allow them to finally buy this GTA game all their friends are talking about. It's a very shocking concept I know
 
That and people continue to buy current generation hardware. I imagine alot of people buy either game as their first purchase with said console.
Yep this too!

It's shocking to me the amount of people who constantly don't get how the human age process works and that everyone isn't born on at the same time once a year.

That and that people that have been well of age are finally jumping into current gen and might want to purchase two of the most popular games in the past 10 years to keep playing them
 

Peru

Member
But people keep trying to convince me dedicated handhelds are no longer viable, just because the 3DS fails to outsell the all-time bestseller DS. Oops. Guess people want handheld hardware (and software) enough that even a visibly aging system like the 3DS can have a banner 'last' year. Promising for the NX.
 
But people keep trying to convince me dedicated handhelds are no longer viable, just because the 3DS fails to outsell the all-time bestseller DS. Oops. Guess people want handheld hardware (and software) enough that even a visibly aging system like the 3DS can have a banner 'last' year. Promising for the NX.
Let's not kid ourselves. 3DS resurgence was pretty much brought alone as a by product of Pokémon GO.

Not trying to take away from its recent new success, but it's obvious to me the selling power of the Pokémon brand is the real story here
 
But people keep trying to convince me dedicated handhelds are no longer viable, just because the 3DS fails to outsell the all-time bestseller DS. Oops. Guess people want handheld hardware (and software) enough that even a visibly aging system like the 3DS can have a banner 'last' year. Promising for the NX.

The dedicated handheld market is clearly contracting, we just don't know to what extent. It will ve interesting to see what the NX is and how it does at retail.

I personally find it telling that the 3DS gets a watered down Mario Maker port while mobile sees an all new Mario game....
 
But people keep trying to convince me dedicated handhelds are no longer viable, just because the 3DS fails to outsell the all-time bestseller DS. Oops. Guess people want handheld hardware (and software) enough that even a visibly aging system like the 3DS can have a banner 'last' year. Promising for the NX.

I'm starting to think the same.

Mobile has shown amazing growth the last few years, but the recent lifts for 3DS shows that there may be some demand being unfulfilled in the dedicated HH space. The 3DS is so old now, perhaps NX as a new system could reinvigorate sales. Maybe not at the same levels in the past, but could still be significant.

Of course, it's not just a HH. But the use case of it being a handheld could drive a good chunk of demand.
 

Chris1

Member
It's almost like teenagers are continuing to get older and children are being born and also growing older or something.

It's still crazy how GTA V has sold, that game is doing insane numbers.

GTA is a unique situation though, not only is it an amazing game but it appeals to people of all ages, kids and adults alike. Usually people grow old of a franchise when they get older but GTA is one of the very few that actually gets better when you get older as you understand all the references etc. So instead of losing it's fanbase as people get older like most games do, for the most part they keep it while appealing to the new generation. GTA V is the first GTA game that really takes advantage of both fanbases like that (GTA3>4 is only 7 years, but GTA 3>5 is 12 years - if you could from 1 then it only helps, but I think counting from 3 is fair as that's where they got most of their fans).
 

Morts

Member
Deus Ex deserves better, it's going to be near the top of my game of the year list. I'm going to be so bummed if we don't get a sequel.
 
Let the shock of this sink in a minute...but it's almost as if a 15-16 year old might be finally getting to the age where their parents allow them to finally buy this GTA game all their friends are talking about. It's a very shocking concept I know
You (and the other folks who have said this) aren't explaining anything, though. About 300,000 children are born each month in the U.S. If they're who's getting the game, then fully 50% of all newly-eligible customers are in fact making the purchase.

That becomes the shocking stat, the number that needs explaining. Adults didn't buy the game at a 50% clip, not even close. So why are you asserting that teens are?

It is far more likely that new young teen customers make up only a portion of the sales (equivalent to their cohort size). Most copies are sold to older people who are just getting around to it.
 

Sterok

Member
Let's not kid ourselves. 3DS resurgence was pretty much brought alone as a by product of Pokémon GO.

Not trying to take away from its recent new success, but it's obvious to me the selling power of the Pokémon brand is the real story here

Pokemon took an 8 year old handheld and made it the most relevant device to kids. Mario has failed to make a system successful. Zelda has failed. Wii_ has failed. Smash has failed. But Pokemon? Pokemon has never failed. I suppose that's why I'm relatively optimistic about NX. Pokemon gives them a safety net that hasn't broken once and is unlikely to break in the near future.

I'm starting to think the same.

Mobile has shown amazing growth the last few years, but the recent lifts for 3DS shows that there may be some demand being unfulfilled in the dedicated HH space. The 3DS is so old now, perhaps NX as a new system could reinvigorate sales. Maybe not at the same levels in the past, but could still be significant.

Of course, it's not just a HH. But the use case of it being a handheld could drive a good chunk of demand.

I feel the 3DS had two major problems. It was not designed to compete against mobile, and Nintendo halfway abandoned it the last few years, giving it very little big software. Theoretically NX won't have either of those issues. So I think there is a case for Nintendo to grow in the hardware space, albeit a tough one.
 

matmanx1

Member
Interesting numbers this month. Good on Microsoft for releasing a compelling product in the S at a good price. That model should do well for them this holiday. Much more of a question for me is the fate of the PS4 Slim and upcoming Pro. Will they split the potential sales of the PS4 or will they grow the market for Sony? Or will people just not care either way?

I can see the Pro having a big Christmas as long as it isn't supply constrained but will it and the Slim be able to live together and both sell decent numbers over time? It's a brave new (hardware) world we are walking in to!

Also somewhat selfishly of me I am happy to see Overwatch still charting. I think it's the freshest new shooter in a long time (certainly since Splatoon but with the added bonus of being much more mass market because of the console and PC release) and I hope many more folks try it out and buy it.
 
GTAV sales show one of the side effects of only getting a fraction of the number of big, disc based games released in prior gens.

That attach rate to new HW and all.
 

Ryng_tolu

Banned
I'm starting to think the same.

Mobile has shown amazing growth the last few years, but the recent lifts for 3DS shows that there may be some demand being unfulfilled in the dedicated HH space. The 3DS is so old now, perhaps NX as a new system could reinvigorate sales. Maybe not at the same levels in the past, but could still be significant.

Of course, it's not just a HH. But the use case of it being a handheld could drive a good chunk of demand.

It's pretty obvius what is the Nintendo stategy right now, they are going to use mobile for advertise their hardware.
Pokémon GO show us that the interest for handhelds is still alive, and i never doubted about this.
Super Mario Run, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem titles are gonna do a good job to boost the popularity of those brand, and, the sales of Nintendo hardwares.
NX, unless a massive high price (which i doubt is gonna have), won't do bad.

And before all, those recents months also show us how 3DS is NOT death.
Because there is no way in the hell a system which is the best selling hardware in a month is death, and the "but Pokémon GO" point is silly.

If a system is death, this mean that is DEATH, it's not like is death in a month, then resuscitate in another thanks a pricedrop, then is death again, then Pokémon GO is out and is still alive, ecc... 3DS is alive. /fact

Can't wait to see how crazy Pokémon moon and sun will do this holidays.
 
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