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NPD Sales Results for December 2014 [Up2: Nintendo Sales Notes]

How did you come to that 36% for November? Sony didn't release any sold through at that time.

And Sony had promotions everywhere beside the US, MS concentrated mainly in US and UK.

I edited that out soon after I posted it. 36% was the ratio earlier in the year, not through November. I don't think that the promotions elsewhere matter in terms of ratio though for the PS4 because aren't they supply constrained in Europe? The ratio will probably lower when they're able to meet demand.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Can't stop the frozen train man.

That's stupidly impressive for Frozen DS hahaha. Why wouldn't they just say "top 16 titles on Nintendo portables"? B/c top 15 on 3DS is more impressive? DS sales are sales anyhow, and they could for some random reason playing that on their 3DS.
 

phanphare

Banned
avymnw.gif

oh wow that's hilarious
 

Curufinwe

Member
I wonder if Sony even cares that MS is catching up. They've got the rest of the world locked up and they've got to be happy still selling systems at $400 not to mention all the PS+ accounts that go with that. The PS4 has probably wildly outperformed their expectations already.

They dont care enough to drop the price.
 
Loss (and a pretty big one per console sold) is pretty much a lock given the following.

- both the PS4 and the XB1 were given around $400 in cost of fabrication at launch (isupply I think). The XB1 slightly more expensive if memory serves due to ESRAM and size of the chipset
- the XB1 undersold compared to its production for most of 2014, particularly early in the year and MS themselves said they were doing drawdowns on retail channels and were lowering production. That means no cost saving on size of production.
- By end of 2014 it was pretty much expected that both consoles were making around $50 per unit sold. Cf Sony saying they were profitable per PS4 sold in early/ mid 2014.
- MS not only dropped $50 on the price, returning to 0 profitability per unit, they bundled 2 THIRD PARTY games, which should easily cost around $40-$50 per bundle to MS. Ubisoft isn't in the business of banking MS after all.
Add to that the often available $50 gift card, and you'll see why it's reasonable to think that MS has been losing between $50 and $100 per bundle sold depending on the promotion.

This being said, they can take the loss and their strategy is obviously to expand the userbase, but tbh it's looking a little bit desperate. Specially this sudden return to $349 after two weeks of being outsold in January.

I think we're agreeing here. In my post you quoted I stated they're prob selling at a loss on the Holiday bundles.
 

Chobel

Member
$332+15+ misc and that's from over a year ago. I would say right now at $349 they are breaking even or a little positive

While I really doubt that, my point was that Kinect wasn't really expensive. Losing Kinect and cutting the price by $100 actually make things harder for MS to profit from XB1.
 
I wonder if Sony even cares that MS is catching up. They've got the rest of the world locked up and they've got to be happy still selling systems at $400 not to mention all the PS+ accounts that go with that. The PS4 has probably wildly outperformed their expectations already.

Would you care? I wouldn't care. Who cares?

(They could also have data showing that these Xone sales are going to a relatively high % of households that already own a PS4, who knows)
 
Thanks for the numbers Cream.

Happy to see that KH 2.5 HD has done well since it was exclusive to PS3, which pretty much sells less software compared to other consoles in US. Will buy it again on the PS4 :D

Also any thing for the Vita fans? Considering it is pretty much dead at retail and mostly sells digitally, I don't really think there is anything left except for hardware, maybe? If you can, please do share Danganronpa series numbers.

I sure hope Bloodborne and The Order are a sucess. It is sad to see that a good RPG (Dragon Age) still can't sell well in US and the Top 10 is dominated by shooters and what not =/

Doesn't even deserve half those sales.
I am not surprised. Ubisoft markets their games fairly aggressively.
 
270k - 275k

Yup combine that with Xbone getting KH3 and with there being exactly zero KH games on an Xbox console I for sure see PS4 / Xbone remake happening.

Here's the thing though, is there any licensing issues with Sony over those titles? None that I'm aware of but curious.
 

Chobel

Member
I edited that out soon after I posted it. 36% was the ratio earlier in the year, not through November. I don't think that the promotions elsewhere matter in terms of ratio though for the PS4 because aren't they supply constrained in Europe? The ratio will probably lower when they're able to meet demand.

Fair enough.
 

C4Lukins

Junior Member
So Black Ops 3 coming to Wii U then? I don't see the excuse since they always release it on PC to crap sales.

This is silly. Have you been to a major retailer in the US over the past 5 years that sells PC games? It is like a tiny shelf, with maybe 5 PC games that were released last year, a ton free to play cards, and maybe a dozen 9.99 games that you never heard of or are 10 plus years old. Very few PC gamers purchase retail.
 

Isotope

Member
I wonder how much the price tag for Captain Toad helped out. Wonder if the same could be said for Kirby and the Rainbow Curse.
 
While I really doubt that, my point was that Kinect wasn't really expensive. Losing Kinect and cutting the price by $100 actually make things harder for MS to profit from XB1.

Don't forget that the lower price means more units sold. You have to factor what's better, 1 unit sold with $30 profit, or 5 units with $8 profit plus extra side revenue.


Numbers are tales from my backside obviously. Just for illustration purposes.
 

RedAssedApe

Banned
Yup combine that with Xbone getting KH3 and with there being exactly zero KH games on an Xbox console I for sure see PS4 / Xbone remake happening.

Here's the thing though, is there any licensing issues with Sony over those titles? None that I'm aware of but curious.

wouldn't see why. its SE + Disney. there have been mobile and 3ds games
 

cornerman

Member
Sony should stick to the long game. Last gen it was laying the groundwork to repair the PlayStation brand after the missteps of the PS3 launch. They lost alot of marketshare to MS. They've built up their first party studios and set expectation for quality (they've got to maintain that this gen). They've got some compelling services and differentiators. This gen is about eroding MS's marketshare by competing neck-and-neck in the US, strengthening their studios and offerings, and padding the reserves. I don't think Sony sees this gen as a means of dealing a deathblow to MS. They proved the rest of the world was theirs last gen; so being neck and neck with MS in the US is gained ground. MS is on their heels; so for Sony why not let MS bleed to compete.

MS is doing what they have to do in the short term. They need the same approach Sony took with the PS3...knowing that this generation is lost to them sales-wise, but that they can make efforts to improve their brand. Some part of that has to contain a strategy of getting WW support; otherwise they'll find themselves in a similar situation at the start of the next generation (possibly with a stronger, more aggressive Sony).

I think both companies have learned a lot about the market this gen; had some things reaffirmed and had some beliefs tested and shattered. While there's still a lot of time left in this gen, I think we know the trajectory of things at this point. I'll be looking at this gen to see how serious MS takes this industry. There are virtually no pathways to victory, so I think this gen must be seen as an investment in the next. When XB1 peaks and as the competition gets stronger; will they still invest in year 4,5, on up? How long does the 'all about the games' strategy last? In Sony's case, they've got to execute on what they've done in the past (no more Driveclub or LBP3 fiascos), strengthen PSN infrastructure, take note of MS's cornered strategy, cause its likely they'll see it again.
 
Really solid sales for Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX, it didn't have a drop over the previous title which sold exactly the same (273,000).

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD won't get close to those sales.

Type-0 will do better than HD Remix. It has the advantage of never having ever been released in the US.
 

On Demand

Banned
So the only people who bought games in December are people who were buying consoles too? Not people who had them months before December?

I just think it's funny that this is supposedly "not surprising" when I highly doubt anyone here would have predicted it just 2-3 weeks ago. I mean, GTA V did better on the PS4 last month even with the GTA V bundle doing very well on Black Friday.

I mean you said it yourself. The months before multiplatform games were selling more on PS4. So what would cause that to change for December?

You don't see any of what i, and others, have said are related to that?
 
Mushroom ~ 250k
HD remix ~ 275k
Retro remix total ~ 130k
Open world racing game > 300k (4>1>360)
I did my part. And I have to say I really warmed up to Toadette as a character. She's got moxy, I'll give her that.

And ouch at the Crew. That game was a comedy of errors - online only for absolutely no reason where everyone plays the same character and goes through the same (bad) story. I mean how do you mess up a racing game set in the entire (well, truncated) United States? The potential was all there. I hope my studio Reflections doesn't get screwed over by this.
 

adixon

Member
How do you know they're selling at a loss? They removed the expensive Kinect peripheral and its been reported they gained some manufacturing wins. It was probably a loss with the holiday bundles because of the games involved, but now I'd wager it's about break even with real revenue coming from Gold, accessories like the controller, headsets, media remote, and of course software sales.

I could see this too -- at the very least they're probably not losing much, right? That said, 350 isn't nearly as aggressive as the price points over the holidays that made the xbox sell more. Weren't there sales for ~270 with multiple bundled games? Or maybe it was just 300 with games. Someone should to make an archive of how low the price went.

The main interesting thing to see going forward is whether microsoft can make the console more desirable by growing the install base in the US, despite the fact that the method they used to grow the install base was lowering the price drastically, which obviously could also have the effect of devaluing the product in peoples' eyes.
 

Lemondish

Member
So now what? Sony's eventually got to swing back right? All the talk about early this gen about the ps4 being positioned for competitive price cuts will be tested now. But i don't know how realistic that is with Sony's health as a whole. Microsoft can eat the costs of price drops no problem. Maybe Sony waits until February and drops a bundle with The Order for 349.99?

I'm not really surprised by this turnaround though. Sony just hasn't really done anything to take advantage of their headstart. It seems nobody in north america sees anything but price when it comes to differentiating between playstation and xbox.

Why do they need one? They're seeing a competitor pull out all the stops to win two months in a row in one market while Sony dominates literally everywhere else. They also have a 2015 lineup that begins hitting a lot sooner than next Fall, so I'm not really sure they really need to respond.
 
good momentum by slashing the price by 150 bucks in 13 months and taking losses with every unit sold?

Can't be all that bad if they're continuing the trends of high tie ratios for retail software sales of the X360 and building on the momentum that digital sales have been riding across all platforms. Couple that with the greater share of subscriptions and it can't be the same as an upfront loss meant in generations past where the digital sales, DLC, and subscription component meant nothing to much less.
 

GHG

Member
Interesting that both of the top 10 software lists don't have a single ps4 or xbox one exclusive.

Goes to show that so far this generation exclusives don't matter but price and marketing does.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
I did my part. And I have to say I really warmed up to Toadette as a character. She's got moxy, I'll give her that.

And ouch at the Crew. That game was a comedy of errors - online only for absolutely no reason where everyone plays the same character and goes through the same (bad) story. I mean how do you mess up a racing game set in the entire (well, truncated) United States? The potential was all there. I hope my studio Reflections doesn't get screwed over by this.

Didn't it do better than both 2x FH2 and DriveClub combined did in their opening months? If it was actually that broken it sold better than I'd expect.
 
Mushroom ~ 250k
HD remix ~ 275k
Retro remix total ~ 130k
Open world racing game > 300k (4>1>360)

Consider me very surprised. 2.5 opened pretty much exactly the same as 1.5 then. Serve me some crow.

I wonder how the heck NA is the only region where KH didn't fall far off from the first game.
 
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