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NPD Sales Results for March 2014 [Up4: FFX/X-2 HD]

TheHater

Member
These. Why even bother putting these games on Xbox One when the PS4 versions of those games will most likely sell very well?

It's just a waste of time & money.

how so? It's not like they will develop the game from the ground up for the xbox one. Porting it would be a lot cheaper.
 
jesus fucking christ.....
4xlZ2mB.png
 

Pain

Banned
LOL, melodramatic much?

Worldwide sales are apparently (based on the latest numbers) roughly 7 million for PS4 and 5 million for Xbox One.

I'm sure MS would have liked to see a bigger bump from Titan Fall, but it's not like the console is putting up Wii U numbers.
Xbox One has SHIPPED 5 Million.
PS4 has SOLD 7 Million.

That is a huge difference, even if you count shipped as sold, which you shouldn't.
 
You're kidding right? That's like claiming Activision was stupid for putting MW2 on the PS3 given how skewed the sales for COD4 were towards the Xbox 360.

All they have to do is crank down the resolution and put the port out the door. It's well worth the return on investment for Square.

In case anyone missed it.

Can you break down for me how much it would cost to port XV to the One versus how much revenue 400,000 copies would generate. And then can you give me your projections for what it would take to develop a brand new 3DS game or XII HD and explain why both a XII HD port AND a XV Xbox One port couldn't be done? To be perfectly clear here, my angle here is not that I think an Xbox One port is assured and is definitely the perfect business call. However, I will state plainly that I think your motivation here has less to do with your understanding of the logistics involved with the tradeoffs of Square Enix making these kinds of decisions and more with your affinity for Sony hardware. Now that I've laid that out, I'll conclude by stating that I'm not actually terribly interested in your estimates.
 

Chobel

Member
RyanMcCaffrey just posted this TIME article on twitter.
http://time.com/67954/5-reasons-the...les-figures-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do/

isaNKyF.png


Imma go with Colin on this one.

1. Regions
Microsoft launched in every significant region they're siginificant in.
I doubt that more regions would change anything for MS. Those 60(or so) missing regions compared to the PS4 would give them maybe 100.000 sales more in total at most.

2. Price
Of course price is a huge deal, but wasn't the Titanfall bundle sold at 450$ almost everywhere? 450$ with a games is Ps4 price region.

3. Supply Constraints
Well the XboxOne sure as hell ain't supply constrained, otherwise MS wouldn't have given us "shipped to retailers" numbers.
I don't know how the Ps4 situation is in the US, but in the EU its definitely heavly supply constrained. You can't go out and buy a Ps4 here.

4. Numbers are good compared to previous consoles
Yes.

5. Titanfall wasn't supposed to change anything.
Yes it was. Its a strawman to say it was supposed to close the 2mil sales gap, but it was supposed to at least close the gap in the US a bit.
It didn't do that, in fact the gap widened in march by 60k.

How the hell is the points 1 and 3 are flawed?

EDIT: Sorry, I'm an idiot, I should have read the article?
 
Again I think you are confusing XBox One hardware sales slowing down since launch to how well Titanfall sold. At least that's the way I'm reading it. Sony's PS3 sold just as well as the XBox 360, if not more on a year to year basis so I'm not sure how the two are related. Microsoft clearly knows they are being beaten by Sony this round which explains the aggressive nature they are taking.

PS3 wasn't selling as well as the Xbox 360 throughout the majority of it's life-cycle, and never sold as well in the US. It picked up steam WW later in it's life-cycle and ultimate surpassed 360 WW numbers (I believe) relatively recently. At the time the MGS4 bundle hit, the PS3 was getting shit-kicked, and MGS4 didn't really budge the hardware numbers.

In any case, you're right that the XBO hardware numbers and TF sales numbers in this month can't be directly correlated. There are a ton of existing Xbox One owners who purchased the game for the console they already own.
 

Toth

Member
Look, you can't try to extrapolate things in an effort to justify or rationalize LR's sales, and then when someone takes the analysis to its next logical step (ie, how much did it actually cost to make and how much did the company actually earn), you suddenly retreat with "I don't know." It makes this entire line of discussion incomplete and exactly pointless.

I can not answer those questions, Mecha, because I do not know the operating costs or breakdown. I can only guesstimate based on what we can extrapolate from the data so yes, it is pointless. It's all opinion until SE's report so I am just going to wait.
 

FiggyCal

Banned

This article was written by the same guy who wrote this article I posted a while back.

http://time.com/67549/sonys-playsta...icrosofts-titanfall-was-the-top-selling-game/
Xbox One owners, exhale: Microsoft had a very good March. While the company continues to cede the top monthly console sales spot to Sony’s PlayStation 4, its Xbox- and Windows-exclusive massively multiplayer first-person shooter, Titanfall, was tops in software sales.

That’s good news, as is Microsoft’s disclosure of a new sales figure: 5 million, or the number of Xbox Ones sold worldwide since launch. Yes, it’s some 2 million shy of Sony’s 7 million-selling PlayStation 4, but remember that Sony had a one-week lead...

Evidently, he does not know much about the videogame market.
 

Jomjom

Banned
RyanMcCaffrey just posted this TIME article on twitter.
http://time.com/67954/5-reasons-the...les-figures-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do/

isaNKyF.png


Imma go with Colin on this one.

1. Regions
Microsoft launched in every significant region they're siginificant in.
I doubt that more regions would change anything for MS. Those 60(or so) missing regions compared to the PS4 would give them maybe 100.000 sales more in total at most.

2. Price
Of course price is a huge deal, but wasn't the Titanfall bundle sold at 450$ almost everywhere? 450$ with a games is Ps4 price region.

3. Supply Constraints
Well the XboxOne sure as hell ain't supply constrained, otherwise MS wouldn't have given us "shipped to retailers" numbers.
I don't know how the Ps4 situation is in the US, but in the EU its definitely heavly supply constrained. You can't go out and buy a Ps4 here.

4. Numbers are good compared to previous consoles
Yes.

5. Titanfall wasn't supposed to change anything.
Yes it was. Its a strawman to say it was supposed to close the 2mil sales gap, but it was supposed to at least close the gap in the US a bit.
It didn't do that, in fact the gap widened in march by 60k.

I'd add to number 4, that the 360 in its first year wasn't exactly blazing the charts and also had supply constraints. Also lol PS3. Wii was a monster and would have sold a bajillion had it had supply during its first 6 months.
 
I don't like the term flop. The Vita was a flop, the WiiU is a flop. Titanfall is not a flop.

I think we should stay level headed here and call Titanfall not matching expectations.

I agree, I think failure is the better word, though again, not in the sense that it didn't sell well, rather in the sense that it completely failed to do what it was supposed to. The X1 should start tracking behind the 360 eventually, and then what's MS going to say? Will they just go completely quiet on sales.
 
Xbox One has SHIPPED 5 Million.
PS4 has SOLD 7 Million.

That is a huge difference, even if you count shipped as sold, which you shouldn't.

You're right that the numbers are shipped, I missed that. That makes things worse for Microsoft and they should probably start taking steps to address the issue.

Honestly, the only thing I can see working at this point given the momentum PS4 has is putting money into even more big exclusives (since they don't really have the internal studios necessary to crank a lot of them out) and lowering the price.

That said, given that we're not even a year into each console's life-cycle, I'm a little hesitant to jump on board the 'Xbox One is doomed' bandwagon.

I own both consoles for the record.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Eh... there are only like 8 instances of a console from the last three gens (current included) selling 371K or more in March.

There are only like 4 instances of a console selling 440K or more, 3 by the Wii and 1 by the PS2. Although I'm missing the breakdown or earlier PS2 data.

I'm not sure where those levels of expectation come from...

I know it's a big number to expect, but it was a big expectation made more reasonable by circumstances. I'll explain this again, hopefully more clearly.

February is a much better month, sales-wise, than January, especially in recent times, especially when January is a 4-weeks-month...but PS4 sold around the same as January. This due to severe, undeniable massive shortages, which is true and well documented (Amazon.com had the console for...not so much, just for an example).

January had 271,000 units sold, with shortages, but not as severe as in February, where they sold as much as in January (4-weeks month v.s. 4-weeks month). So, there was "thrist" still to satisfy, apparently a good amount of demand not fulfilled. "Suppressed" demand, as I call it (probably there's a better term for it, but whatever): people that wanted to buy the good (in this case, the console), but didn't have the possibility because it wasn't available broadly enough, so they patiently awaits for it to be back on stock. Given the sales trajectory, and how it was influenced by shortages in both months, but severly in February, with no change from January to February, while hardware overall saw a 40-50% increase from January Thus, the circumstances made a possibility to expect very big sales for March, which is a month with better average sales than January but worse than February historically, but PS4 has had clear problems in satisfying the demand earlier in the year, with February being the biggest representation of this. Average weekly sales didn't increase that much

PS4 in February - 269,000. Average: around 67,500 units/week
PS4 in March - 371,000. Average: around 74,000 units/week

Not even 10,000 units per week. So, this means that there's a concrete possibility the "suppressed demand" wasn't as big as we all thought: consoles were widely available in March, much more than in February, but sales didn't see a huge average weekly sales increase reflecting the presence of a big amount of people waiting since January and, above all, February. Thus, PS4 could be already in the 200,000/220,000 zone in April, which doesn't mean doing bad, as I already stated. At all. It would mean doing certainly well, but not very well, or as big as the main 8th generation console (for now) could have done in the past.
 

Bunta

Fujiwara Tofu Shop
RyanMcCaffrey just posted this TIME article on twitter.
http://time.com/67954/5-reasons-the...les-figures-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do/

isaNKyF.png


Imma go with Colin on this one.

1. Regions
Microsoft launched in every significant region they're siginificant in.
I doubt that more regions would change anything for MS. Those 60(or so) missing regions compared to the PS4 would give them maybe 100.000 sales more in total at most.

2. Price
Of course price is a huge deal, but wasn't the Titanfall bundle sold at 450$ almost everywhere? 450$ with a games is Ps4 price region.

3. Supply Constraints
Well the XboxOne sure as hell ain't supply constrained, otherwise MS wouldn't have given us "shipped to retailers" numbers.
I don't know how the Ps4 situation is in the US, but in the EU its definitely heavly supply constrained. You can't go out and buy a Ps4 here.

4. Numbers are good compared to previous consoles
Yes.

5. Titanfall wasn't supposed to change anything.
Yes it was. Its a strawman to say it was supposed to close the 2mil sales gap, but it was supposed to at least close the gap in the US a bit.
It didn't do that, in fact the gap widened in march by 60k.
Yep, this is spot on. Especially the point on regions.
 

TheHater

Member
How the hell is the points 1 and 3 are flawed?

Point 1: Sony have to allocate their shipment of PS4 to 70+ countries while MS only have to ship to 13 countries. MS can flood the UK and US market.

Point 3: Sony themselves said they will be supply constraint until the summer. You can walk into bestbuy, gamestop, etc and pick up a Xbox One.
 
Nope, you're wrong. Microsoft has said they will at worst case break even. That's worst case. So they are likely making a very slight profit, not losing money on every console told. No idea where you're pulling this misinformation from.

And you need to forget profit and loss. We're talking REVENUE, not profit. Do you know the difference?

MS said there were breaking even when system came out and it was $500 .
Since then they have drop the price by $50 , gave away there system seller , gave away live subscription etc etc .
That is not even counting places like UK where the machine had a $100 plus price drop thanks to exchange rates .
I really don't think MS is breaking even right now with X1 thanks to all of that .
 
Again I think you are confusing XBox One hardware sales slowing down since launch to how well Titanfall sold. At least that's the way I'm reading it. Sony's PS3 sold just as well as the XBox 360, if not more on a year to year basis so I'm not sure how the two are related. Microsoft clearly knows they are being beaten by Sony this round which explains the aggressive nature they are taking.

I'm not even sure what we're arguing about. The price cuts and bundling are responses to disappointing Xbox One sales. I would have expected a $110 price drop to dramatically increase weekly sales for March vs. February. But they didn't. In fact, it sold less on a weekly basis.

PS3 wasn't selling as well as the Xbox 360 throughout the majority of it's life-cycle, and never sold as well in the US. It picked up steam WW later in it's life-cycle and ultimate surpassed 360 WW numbers (I believe) relatively recently. At the time the MGS4 bundle hit, the PS3 was getting shit-kicked, and MGS4 didn't really budge the hardware numbers.

In any case, you're right that the XBO hardware numbers and TF sales numbers in this month can't be directly correlated. There are a ton of existing Xbox One owners who purchased the game for the console they already own.

PS3 actually sold better than the 360 during most of its lifespan, WW. But it still struggled out of the gate, and particularly in the US Sony was hoping titles like MGS4 would change the tide. It managed to let the PS3 outsell the 360 for a month before it was back to business as usual. But even during that month, Sony didn't resort to bundling it for free and chopping $50 off the price on top of that.
 
Just my two cents but I for one think Titanfall sold fantastically well

NPD numbers would only track XB1 retail sales and PC retail sales of the game

PC retail sales would be almost negligible

With the fact it sold > 1M [not sure if that includes bundles or not]

TF sold ~1M at least on an install base of 2.527M

That's an attach rate of 39.57%

That's insane. Well done Respawn and EA
 

kswiston

Member
I hope. Cause if I remember well PS4 only released in Canada and USA, a week later Xbox One released in 13 countries, and a week after Xbox released, ps4 released in the rest of the countries it was planned to launch,

1 extra week is also pretty insignificant now that these systems are approaching the 6 month mark.
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
jesus fucking christ.....
4xlZ2mB.png
That was a response to what they had in store for E3. That seems like the best possible response he could have typed, if you ask me.

Edit: Are people really thinking Spencer's comment is at all related to PS4? The only thing that needs a "Jesus Christ" are people, who don't like context.
 

Chobel

Member
Just my two cents but I for one think Titanfall sold fantastically well

NPD numbers would only track XB1 retail sales and PC retail sales of the game

PC retail sales would be almost negligible

With the fact it sold > 1M [not sure if that includes bundles or not]

TF sold ~1M at least on an install base of 2.527M

That's an attach rate of 39.57%

That's insane. Well done Respawn and EA

Includes
 

IN&OUT

Banned
PS3 wasn't selling as well as the Xbox 360 throughout the majority of it's life-cycle, and never sold as well in the US. It picked up steam WW later in it's life-cycle and ultimate surpassed 360 WW numbers (I believe) relatively recently. At the time the MGS4 bundle hit, the PS3 was getting shit-kicked, and MGS4 didn't really budge the hardware numbers.

In any case, you're right that the XBO hardware numbers and TF sales numbers in this month can't be directly correlated. There are a ton of existing Xbox One owners who purchased the game for the console they already own.

Explain to me how did PS3 managed to close a 10m sales gap?

Stop spouting nonsense.
 
Obviously, YMMV, but as far as I can tell, you can walk into any Best Buy, GameStop, etc. and buy a PS4 as well now.

The Targets I've been to in southern California, and the Toys R Usses (plurals, how do they work?) I went to for the clearance sale, I have yet to see a PS4.

But I heard anecdotes from friends visiting Indiana that it's fully in stock now. I'm guessing it's easier to meet demand in the less metropolitan areas.
 

Into

Member
"Salient points" Ryan? Really?

Is this guy ignorant or full of some false hope that a country like Netherlands, a PlayStation market more or less just like every other continental European country is, will have any meaningful sales impact on the Xbox One? Or maybe Japan is just itching for the Xbox One? Maybe Denmark, with its history of vikings is just itching for that Xbox One, oh wait that is a PlayStation/PC market too.

I have to assume that people like him, Kuchera, Gies, etc all have qualifications and talent for something else, that warranted them to work in the industry. And them talking about sales and showing such lack of basic knowledge is a side effect and not their area of expertise. Like Barack Obama being elected to run the country, but having no clue how to water his flowers at the White House.

Either its straight up ignorance, having no clue the size of these remaining markets for XB1, or flat out bias, a need to hope for some sort of touraround because it means something to him, that Xbox One does well.
 
You're right that the numbers are shipped, I missed that. That makes things worse for Microsoft and they should probably start taking steps to address the issue.

Honestly, the only thing I can see working at this point given the momentum PS4 has is putting money into even more big exclusives (since they don't really have the internal studios necessary to crank a lot of them out) and lowering the price.

That said, given that we're not even a year into each console's life-cycle, I'm a little hesitant to jump on board the 'Xbox One is doomed' bandwagon.

I own both consoles for the record.

Moneyhatting must cost a lot for Microsoft right about now...
 

Pain

Banned
You're right that the numbers are shipped, I missed that. That makes things worse for Microsoft and they should probably start taking steps to address the issue.

Honestly, the only thing I can see working at this point given the momentum PS4 has is putting money into even more big exclusives (since they don't really have the internal studios necessary to crank a lot of them out) and lowering the price.

That said, given that we're not even a year into each console's life-cycle, I'm a little hesitant to jump on board the 'Xbox One is doomed' bandwagon.

I own both consoles for the record.
I doubt Microsoft would be able to secure any more big exclusives considering how much better the PS4 is selling.

BTW, just because XB1 is in 2nd place, it doesn't mean its doomed. It just means its losing.
 
Explain to me how did PS3 managed to close a 10m sales gap?

Stop spouting nonsense.

Combination of price drops (mostly via new hardware revisions), lots of great exclusive games, and big improvements to PSN, most of which came post-2010.

It was a gradual come from behind victory for the PS3, it wasn't one big release that pushed them past the Xbox 360.
 

Portugeezer

Member
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