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GameStop: Halo 5 digital sales are in line with other AAA game releases

Just because each is trying to maximize its share of the business and work towards its own internal goals while doing business together doesn't make them competitors in a way where a President of one company would come out in an earnings call and lie or provide misleading statements about something like digital share to Wall Street. Can we get real, for just one minute, in this thread?

Of course not. I 100% agree with the statement that Halo 5's digital sales are typical of other AAA games. I was making the case that just because businesses are in cooperation doesn't preclude them being in competition. I'll quote the last two sentences of my comment to once again explain the point I was making.

"All that being said MS currently has close ties with GameStop for all the reasons you cite. I am just pointing out that their relationship is more complicated than simply being business partners."
 

Trey

Member
Nothing surprising here, Halo isn't dead yet but it won't survive this gen.

It probably will. Shame Halo 5 sold below average. 343 has an opportunity to rebuild the community, so they better consolidate their efforts. And probably find some way to get coop back in.
 

GnawtyDog

Banned
Harassing a mod with angry PMs...
Shaking-Head-GIF.gif
 

RexNovis

Banned
any highlights regarding those fallout threads? havnt really been paying attention to those

This is entirely off topic. It isn't the time nor the place. Move it to PM.

Let's keep this thread on the topic of Halo 5 sales and retail:digital ratio and not devolve it into a meta GAF hate thread please.
 

Gator86

Member
So since I'm now getting angry PMs about this thread, I thought I'd mention I've been posting on this topic (and splitting out threads related to it) for years:

Watch Dogs sold 2/3rds of copies on PS4/XB1/PC, Ubisoft reveals digital sales ratios
EA: PS4/XB1 retail games have 10-15% digital sales
Square Enix making ~37% of their HD game sales through digital downloads in the West
Battlefield Hardline sold 80% of console on PS4/XB1, 20% dig, "very happy" with sales
Take-Two (2K/Rockstar): ~20% of new AAA console game sales revenue come from digital

This is not even a complete selection, much less getting into my postings on digital revenue in general.

That this disaster is what happens when I make it about a first party title instead says a lot about the current state of the community and our willingness to have potentially uncomfortable sales discussions around first party properties.

Fucking embarrassing. I can't really think of another way to describe this. It's genuinely astounding to see the defensiveness about this stuff sometimes.
 
Amazing that even with all the information regarding digital sales for Halo 5, so many are still denying the facts.

Nobody's reveling in H5's decline but the thrust to have a conversation as to the variables that have created this are scrambled by the inane rumblings of "digital!" and MS PR.

So since I'm now getting angry PMs about this thread, I thought I'd mention I've been posting on this topic (and splitting out threads related to it) for years:

Watch Dogs sold 2/3rds of copies on PS4/XB1/PC, Ubisoft reveals digital sales ratios
EA: PS4/XB1 retail games have 10-15% digital sales
Square Enix making ~37% of their HD game sales through digital downloads in the West
Battlefield Hardline sold 80% of console on PS4/XB1, 20% dig, "very happy" with sales
Take-Two (2K/Rockstar): ~20% of new AAA console game sales revenue come from digital

This is not even a complete selection, much less getting into my postings on digital revenue in general.

That this disaster is what happens when I make it about a first party title instead says a lot about the current state of the community and our willingness to have potentially uncomfortable sales discussions around first party properties.

See now this is just sad. Angry PM's to mods now eh?
Maybe with a bit more distance we can have better sales discussion without some folks throwing their toys out the pram.
 
So since I'm now getting angry PMs about this thread, I thought I'd mention I've been posting on this topic (and splitting out threads related to it) for years:

Watch Dogs sold 2/3rds of copies on PS4/XB1/PC, Ubisoft reveals digital sales ratios
EA: PS4/XB1 retail games have 10-15% digital sales
Square Enix making ~37% of their HD game sales through digital downloads in the West
Battlefield Hardline sold 80% of console on PS4/XB1, 20% dig, "very happy" with sales
Take-Two (2K/Rockstar): ~20% of new AAA console game sales revenue come from digital

This is not even a complete selection, much less getting into my postings on digital revenue in general.

That this disaster is what happens when I make it about a first party title instead says a lot about the current state of the community and our willingness to have potentially uncomfortable sales discussions around first party properties.

While complaining about threads via PM isn't a great way to foster discussion, I would point out that the threads you referenced all have information coming directly from the publishers themselves. While this one is from a retailer saying we have no reason to believe its higher, not a definitive yes or no since they don't have the numbers.

Before anyone attacks me for this I do believe the digital are probably around the discussed percentage.
 
As Rex said before we should probably get back on OT, otherwise this thread will probably get locked anyway. Which of course would simply appease those people that we're shaking our heads at.
 

Chobel

Member
The bundle thing is different because they can do something about it, such as not accept bundles with digital vouchers.
But for standalone games, whether their digital adoption rate is low or high, they can't do much about it. If low digital sales then it's all good, if it rises fast then their options are limited to lowering their price, which can't happen because that'd cut away at their margin. If they do then Microsoft will just lower the digital price to match again. They can't ask Microsoft to do anything like in the case of the bundle situation.

It's not about "what they can do about it?", it's more "what they can do with it". Such info is critical for GS, they can plan better to counter it, or at very least adapt better in this new climate.

And they can do something about it, lower prices, more promotions for the types of games that sell more than usual in digital, more promotions for games types of games that sell less than usual in digital...etc

"If they do then Microsoft will just lower the digital price to match again": and yet no publisher does that, as the physical is usually cheaper than digital.
 
MCC fucked Halo up so bad. It doesn't help that the MP feels plain as fuck compared to CoD.

I honestly think the series will be dead if halo 6 doesn't drastically do better.
343 man, not just mcc. It is barely halo any.ore anyways. I haven't had feeling to play all week.



No one should be getting angry. Halo has a very deep and rich fan base. People will be hurt and unhappy about changes in the halo formula. I haven't been on the thread for halo that much recently cause its obvious of 343 doesn't agree with me liking their game they don't care what I or others want. If they hear of a bug or other issue they will fix that and that's great... But this doesn't fix the base issue in their designs, art and mechanics. They can keep losing sales and thinking of how to nickel and dime people with lame req the customer wallet packs.

I'm about as big of a halo fan as can be and if they must ignore me. I'll find another series to play along with millions of others.

343 mostly wants to view and see the ideas of the people who say they like their game. As far as I can tell they take the negative and ignore it. Which is fine, I can't honestly say how much they take on negative criticism, but it's obvious they wanted to sprint and micro transactions. I can't say I'd hate buying extra things in a game I like a lot.

But halo fans don't want skins and shit on their guns. How about buying good maps and gameplay we want. That's what is in any base game.
I bought every map for halo 3 day one.

Didn't buy a map pack for reach actually. Didn't even buy halo 4.

Wish I had waited for halo 5 to be 10 dollars. I won't be buying one req pack.
 

GHG

Gold Member
This thread man...

Its like Some of you are forgetting that Gamestop also sell digital game codes and xbl/psn store credit codes.

They are not competing with Microsoft. They have the same interests - to sell as many games and hardware units as possible. When they make a sale both them and Microsoft ultimately take a share of revenue from it, its a partnership.

They will have close communication with each other on topics like this because the landscape of how people purchase games is now changing. They will share information like this as it is in each others best interests to then align and come up with strategies in order to exploit any potential trends/changes in the market.

So for example if digital sales go up then it is not in Microsoft's (nor GameStop's) best interests to continually provide Gamestop with the same amount of physical stock. What they might do however is provide Gamestop with more store credit codes or more digital codes to be more efficient and give customers what they want. Even when it comes to sales/bundles and promotions this information is important.

Can't believe the degree of idiocy I'm seeing in this thread.
 

SwolBro

Banned
Can't believe the degree of idiocy I'm seeing in this thread.

I know right. The balls on some of these people that would suggest Gamestop could be concerned and downplaying the rise in digital downloads that can't be brought back into their store to flourish their used games sales.... Audacious!

And to go so far as to suggest Microsoft would wan't an all digital platform as if it wasn't something they were actively pushing. Sheer craziness!

"Is Gamestop's Future Played Out?"http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-gamestops-future-played-out-1448312316

Wall Street Journal- GameStop’s business isn’t politics. But the videogame retailer’s future with investors may hinge on its persuasive abilities. And, lately, it has been pretty unpersuasive.

This was apparent Monday when the company posted disappointing results for its fiscal third quarter. At the same time, it was working to convince investors that its business isn’t being destroyed by digital downloads.

That has weighed heavily on the stock, which has shed more than $800 million in market value since Nov. 12. That is when NPD’s monthly game sales report led many to conclude that Microsoft’s “Halo 5: Guardians” sold a much higher percentage of digital copies than previous games of that caliber.

Digital downloads hurt GameStop’s new software sales, which accounted for one-third of total revenue in the period ended Oct. 31. More worrisome, they eventually challenge the company’s used-game business, which accounts for nearly half of gross profit.

For its part, GameStop claimed downloads of “Halo 5” are actually in line with previous big game launches. On its earnings call, the company said the discrepancy between reports from Microsoft and NPD could be chalked up to a number of factors—including the fact that NPD only tracks retail sales in the U.S.

Investors aren’t buying it. The heavily shorted stock was still off sharply after the call and has lost 18% since the NPD report. GameStop’s shares have given up most gains made this year, and now trade about 8.3 times forward earnings—or about half the multiple of the S&P 500.

A dividend yield in the 4% range and a low valuation could argue for hitting the pause button on the selloff. But GameStop will struggle to move higher in the near term. The company is quickly building up alternative businesses in the sale of phones, electronics and other merchandise. These still account for just 15% of total sales, though.

For the foreseeable future, GameStop’s business will hinge on the task of getting gamers off their chairs and into stores. And that will only grow more difficult.
 

RexNovis

Banned
I know right. The balls on some of these people that would suggest Gamestop could be concerned and downplaying the rise in digital downloads that can't be brought back into their store to flourish their used games sales.... Audacious!

And to go so far as to suggest Microsoft would wan't an all digital platform as if it wasn't something they were actively pushing. Sheer craziness!

"Is Gamestop's Future Played Out?"http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-gamestops-future-played-out-1448312316

You literally cut out the entire rest of the dudes post explaining why it was idiotic. You're also quoting an article that assumes MS PR about Halo is true at face value which it isn't. That has been argued and proven ad naseum time and again. It's alarmist tripe that fickle investors are lapping up as gospel. That doesn't make it any more accurate it just makes it misleading. While digital is growing and it will be a problem in the future it is not a big enough segment of the current market to be of significant concern. Using laughably misleading MS PR as some sort of proof otherwise is ABSURD. No amount of bold type will change the fact that their underlying source is misconstrued and therefore their logic is flawed.

Way to gloss over what so many other people have already explained numerous times in this thread. If you aren't even going to bother reading and responding to other peoples statements/arguments why should we bother doing so for yours?
 
This thread man...

Its like Some of you are forgetting that Gamestop also sell digital game codes and xbl/psn store credit codes.

They are not competing with Microsoft. They have the same interests - to sell as many games and hardware units as possible. When they make a sale both them and Microsoft ultimately take a share of revenue from it, its a partnership.

They will have close communication with each other on topics like this because the landscape of how people purchase games is now changing. They will share information like this as it is in each others best interests to then align and come up with strategies in order to exploit any potential trends/changes in the market.

So for example if digital sales go up then it is not in Microsoft's (nor GameStop's) best interests to continually provide Gamestop with the same amount of physical stock. What they might do however is provide Gamestop with more store credit codes or more digital codes for the game to be more efficient and give customers what they want. Even when it comes to sales/bundles and promotions this information is important.

Can't believe the degree of idiocy I'm seeing in this thread.

No no! Get out of here with all that sense.

Of course Gamespot are fibbing about digital sales being in line with other games, since their entire outdated business model is crumbling/.s
 

leeh

Member
Missed this thread and its hit 9 pages already.

In the OP he states there's no reason to believe it's higher, so they've not heard anything, although it broke digital sales record? Considering it didn't do too great in physical, but broke records digitally, points me to a higher split. At least in the first month.

Listening to Gamestop about digital sales guys? He just basically said, we've not heard anything so we're going to make out we're still relevant.

I can't get to Gamestop at work, but is that update on the same gamestop article? Also, who by?

Just for the record for dignity, I never ever thought it'd be 90/10, but just thought the trend would be higher.

This thread man...

Its like Some of you are forgetting that Gamestop also sell digital game codes and xbl/psn store credit codes.

They are not competing with Microsoft. They have the same interests - to sell as many games and hardware units as possible. When they make a sale both them and Microsoft ultimately take a share of revenue from it, its a partnership.

They will have close communication with each other on topics like this because the landscape of how people purchase games is now changing. They will share information like this as it is in each others best interests to then align and come up with strategies in order to exploit any potential trends/changes in the market.

So for example if digital sales go up then it is not in Microsoft's (nor GameStop's) best interests to continually provide Gamestop with the same amount of physical stock. What they might do however is provide Gamestop with more store credit codes or more digital codes to be more efficient and give customers what they want. Even when it comes to sales/bundles and promotions this information is important.

Can't believe the degree of idiocy I'm seeing in this thread.
If you think the sale of digital store cards make brick and mortar stores more relevant to an ever growing digital market, well, I don't know what to say.
 

RexNovis

Banned
Missed this thread and its hit 9 pages already.

In the OP he states there's no reason to believe it's higher, so they've not heard anything, although it broke digital sales record? Considering it didn't do too great in physical, but broke records digitally, points me to a higher split.

Listening to Gamestop about digital sales guys? He just basically said, we've not heard anything so we're going to make out we're still relevant.

I can't get to Gamestop at work, but is that update on the same gamestop article? Also, who by?

Perhaps you should bother reading the thread where every single pint you have made has been discussed and explained multiple times before declaring your undying faith in the Halo digital revolution.
 

SwolBro

Banned
Using laughably misleading MS PR as some sort of proof otherwise is ABSURD.

But we should trust Gamestop playing down digital downloads to investors when their fearful of a stock decrease?

See how it can work both ways? There's silliness going on here on both sides. There's no need to pretend H5 did amazing digital sales that it blew everything out of the water, but there's also no need to sit here and talk about Gamestop not being some type of competitor to microsoft and not having to worry about digital sales.

Get what i'm saying?
 

leeh

Member
Perhaps you should bother reading the thread where every single pint you have made has been discussed and explained multiple times before declaring your undying faith in the Halo digital revolution.
Well I've skimmed it and seen the updates, I can't get on the gamespot article. Maybe summarising it for me?

I haven't got all the time to thoroughly read a 9 page thread. Be nice.
 
Amazing that even with all the information regarding digital sales for Halo 5, so many are still denying the facts.

Nobody's reveling in H5's decline but the thrust to have a conversation as to the variables that have created this are scrambled by the inane rumblings of "digital!" and MS PR.

Yeah, no one >_>
 

RexNovis

Banned
But we should trust Gamestop playing down digital downloads to investors because their fearful of a stock decrease?

See how it can work both ways? There's silliness going on here on both sides. There's no need to pretend H5 did amazing digital sales that it blew everything out of the water, but there's also no need to sit here and talk about Gamestop not being some type of competitor to microsoft and not having to worry about digital sales.

Get what i'm saying?

Except we KNOW MS' PR is a crock of shit. Which isn't even news given the crab they've peddled the past few years. GameStop is speaking to investors. They lifestyle have a legal obligation to be truthful. This is not PR. This why MS opted to stop disclosing sales figures in their investor calls and instead switched to MAU. They can't even reference sales because they wouldn't be able to spin the figures into a positive outlook. The two statements are not equal. One of them is flowery unregulated PR and the other is an official statement to investors in an earnings call. Treating them as like for like is ridiculous.

Yeah, no one >_>

We aren't we are sick of repeating our selves over and over and over in response to the same damn arguments that don't hold up to even the lost elementary level of scrutiny. You try maintains a level head when you're responding to the same thing for pages on end. It basically destroys any chance of an actual discussion of the decline because we keep having to refute these asinine theories.
 

leeh

Member
Except we KNOW MS' PR is a crock of shit. Which isn't even news given the crab they've peddled the past few years. GameStop is speaking to investors. They lifestyle have a legal obligation to be truthful. This is not PR. This why MS opted to stop disclosing sales figures in their investor calls and instead switched to MAU. They can't even reference sales because they wouldn't be able to spin the figures into a positive outlook. The two statements are not equal. One of them is flowery unregulated PR and the other is an official statement to investors in an earnings call. Treating them as like for like is ridiculous.
This. Just this.

It won't of been because of hardware, moreso company direction. If the hardware was #1, then they'd still say but I have a feeling MAU would be prominent.
 

Hasney

Member
Missed this thread and its hit 9 pages already.

In the OP he states there's no reason to believe it's higher, so they've not heard anything, although it broke digital sales record? Considering it didn't do too great in physical, but broke records digitally, points me to a higher split. At least in the first month.

AFAIK, there's only a few games that have sold better on XB1 in week 1 and they are Call of Duty Black Ops 3 (possibly Advance Warfare as well, but the splits only have %'s for Xb1 and 360 combined) and (based on UK sales) Fallout 4. Both of those came out after Halo 5.

FIFA and Madden could be up there too, but since they only appeal to one of the main XB1 regions each, they might not be. There's no reason to think that 20% in week 1 wouldn't amount to best ever digital.

Halo 5 did great for an XB1 game. It didn't do great for a Halo game.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Except we KNOW MS' PR is a crock of shit. Which isn't even news given the crab they've peddled the past few years. GameStop is speaking to investors. They lifestyle have a legal obligation to be truthful. This is not PR. This why MS opted to stop disclosing sales figures in their investor calls and instead switched to MAU. They can't even reference sales because they wouldn't be able to spin the figures into a positive outlook. The two statements are not equal. One of them is flowery unregulated PR and the other is an official statement to investors in an earnings call. Treating them as like for like is ridiculous.

Yeah, trying to equate a Press Release where spins can happen in several ways and actual fact-based talk to investors, where you can't lie to stakeholders is...interesting.[cit.]
 

RexNovis

Banned
This. Just this.

If you think this, you're being absurd. I can't be bothered to even explain why.

WHAT?!?!?!? Ok please enlighten me then oh wisest Leeh? How am I wrong about this? We had this discussion in another thread yesterday only to have Matt come in and say Yes MS did change their reporting metrics to discount the underperformance of their HW sales. I can't believe I am having this discussion yet again.
 
We aren't we are sick of repeating our selves over and over and over in response to the same damn arguments that don't hold up to even the lost elementary level of scrutiny. You try maintains a level head when you're responding to the same thing for pages on end. It basically destroys any chance of an actual discussion of the decline because we keep having to refute these asinine theories.

You're telling me on a site that has multiple threads with thousands of comments on the subject, there's not a single one rejoicing in the underperformance of Halo 5, on the the same site that has members that would send angry PMs over digital sales of the same Halo 5?
 

SwolBro

Banned
Except we KNOW MS' PR is a crock of shit. Which isn't even news given the crab they've peddled the past few years. GameStop is speaking to investors. They lifestyle have a legal obligation to be truthful. This is not PR. This why MS opted to stop disclosing sales figures in their investor calls and instead switched to MAU. They can't even reference sales because they wouldn't be able to spin the figures into a positive outlook. The two statements are not equal. One of them is flowery unregulated PR and the other is an official statement to investors in an earnings call. Treating them as like for like is ridiculous.

Ok, conference calls with investors isn't an audit. And it does serve as a form of PR, they attempt to answer questions and reassure investors on specific concerns.

And if you actually read the article I linked from the Wall Street Journal it seems that many people aren't fully convinced, and are worried about Game Stops future.

WHAT?!?!?!? Ok please enlighten me then oh wisest Leeh? How am I wrong about this? We had this discussion in another thread yesterday only to have Matt come in and say Yes MS did change their reporting metrics to discount the underperformance of their HW sales. I can't believe I am having this discussion yet again.

Dude, you're not helping your point here. You're foaming at the mouth with MS hate.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
WHAT?!?!?!? Ok please enlighten me then oh wisest Leeh? How am I wrong about this. We had this discussion in another thread yesterday only to have Matt come in and say Yes MS did change their reporting metrics to discount the underperformance of their HW sales. I can't believe I am having this discussion yet again.

Groundhog day, groundhog day, groundhog day, groundhog day.
 
Missed this thread and its hit 9 pages already.

In the OP he states there's no reason to believe it's higher, so they've not heard anything, although it broke digital sales record? Considering it didn't do too great in physical, but broke records digitally, points me to a higher split. At least in the first month.

Listening to Gamestop about digital sales guys? He just basically said, we've not heard anything so we're going to make out we're still relevant.

I can't get to Gamestop at work, but is that update on the same gamestop article? Also, who by?

Just for the record for dignity, I never ever thought it'd be 90/10, but just thought the trend would be higher.

Leeh pls, you don't even know what held the previous digital sales record so coming to that conclusion is reaching firstly. Of course it did great but for all we know its a couple percentage points above the previous record holder.

And then you say Gamestop is just pointing out the digital ratio to try show its still relevant to the industry. Good grief the denial is strong.

I don't see whats wrong with admitting that Halo 5 sales have normal digital splits. Sure they maybe a bit higher than average but it's not some industry leading digital ratio here as if its a PC game.
 

RexNovis

Banned
Ok, conference calls with investors isn't an audit. And it does serve as a form of PR, they attempt to answer questions and reassure investors on specific concerns.

And if you actually read the article I linked from the Wall Street Journal it seems that many people aren't fully convinced, and are worried about Game Stops future.

They aren't convinced because of the MS PR. It's referenced in the article. People don't realize the PR was sold-in and included bundles, accessories and Microtransactions to reach that figure. It's a spin that had for some reason gone unchallenged by pretty much the majority of publications.
 

RexNovis

Banned
Dude, you're not helping your point here. You're foaming at the mouth with MS hate.

Excuse me? No. It's not. It's exasperation at literally having to explain the same exact thing over and over and over again. It's ducking maddening and it has nothing to do with hating MS.
 

BokehKing

Banned
This. Just this.

If you think this, you're being absurd. I can't be bothered to even explain why.
Why not? It's a shift in strategy that any business with poor numbers would do for damage control

Look at Activision/Warcraft numbers, that subscription number is getting the lowest it has ever been, so they switched up what they decide to report
 

leeh

Member
WHAT?!?!?!? Ok please enlighten me then oh wisest Leeh? How am I wrong about this? We had this discussion in another thread yesterday only to have Matt come in and say Yes MS did change their reporting metrics to discount the underperformance of their HW sales. I can't believe I am having this discussion yet again.
They're a software and services company moving to a unified platform, active monthly users provides a better metric because it shows how many active customers you essentially have. Customers which browse your store, are more likely to follow products on your ecosystem and have subscriptions (XBL, Office365, Onedrive).

The guy is a developer, doesn't mean he knows exact reasons for the shift of metrics for MS PR. No offence to him. Although from Sataya's focus, it's bloody clear and just makes sense.
 

SwolBro

Banned
They aren't convinced because of the MS PR. It's referenced in the article. People don't realize the PR was sold-in and included bundles, accessories and Microtransactions to reach that figure. It's a spin that had for some reason gone unchallenged by pretty much the majority of publications.

That's fine. I get your point. But again my post was in response to people downplaying Gamestops concerns, and overall business strategy overlapping with Microsoft. Digital sales will continue to rise, Gamestop is concerned. There's no need, like that poster did, to claim people are crazy for thinking some of this. It's within reason (besides that one guy in the other thread going all crazy with his percentages)
 

RexNovis

Banned
They're a software and services company moving to a unified platform, active monthly users provides a better metric because it shows how many active customers you essentially have. Customers which browse your store, are more likely to follow products on your ecosystem and have subscriptions (XBL, Office365, Onedrive).

The guy is a developer, doesn't mean he knows exact reasons for the shift of metrics for MS PR. No offence to him. Although from Sataya's focus, it's bloody clear and just makes sense.

Educate yourself

Dude, the "primary metric" is just PR spin. You are acting like it is a real policy change inside of Microsoft. You are wrong.

I'm done having this conversation again. It never fucking ends no matter how many times it is misproven,
 

leeh

Member
Educate yourself
On what? The quote of some random developer?

You guys with so-called 'insiders', get a hold of your self. Unless he's been proven to work close to the team which create these statements and collate the information, then go figure.
 

Rymuth

Member
On what? The quote of some random developer?

You guys with so-called 'insiders', get a hold of your self.
If you have an issue with insiders and suspect them to be lying, why not PM the Mods about them and out them as liars? The Mods here don't tolerate false info, so if you have evidence that proves otherwise, I guarantee you there'll be swift rebuttal.
 
Yeah, no one >_>

You're telling me on a site that has multiple threads with thousands of comments on the subject, there's not a single one rejoicing in the underperformance of Halo 5, on the the same site that has members that would send angry PMs over digital sales of the same Halo 5?

Of course there's always a few bad eggs who take genuine glee in Halo 5's decline and those kind of posters are idiots.

But I've read every Halo sales/digital/PR thread since the first infamous UK chart track and the overwhelming majority of posters seem to just want to discuss sales of the game.

You have defenders who believe you commenting on the games decline is equivalent to declaring warfare. It's annoying retreading old ground when simply trying to discuss all the variables involved in sales thus far.
 

leeh

Member
If you have an issue with insiders and suspect them to be lying, why not PM the Mods about them and out them as liars? The Mods here don't tolerate false info, so if you have evidence that proves otherwise, I guarantee you there'll be swift rebuttal.
If he's been approved as a dev who works on major console titles, which I'm pretty sure he has, then he won't know the exact reasons for a shift of metric in PR from a very large team. It'll be about as much guess work as me or you.

Unless he works for MS, then I'll believe him.
 

Matt

Member
And if you actually read the article I linked from the Wall Street Journal it seems that many people aren't fully convinced, and are worried about Game Stops future.

I mean, obviously the amount of digital sales will increase in the future. But right now, it's ~20%, 30% tops.
 

Steroyd

Member
The bundle thing is different because they can do something about it, such as not accept bundles with digital vouchers.
But for standalone games, whether their digital adoption rate is low or high, they can't do much about it. If low digital sales then it's all good, if it rises fast then their options are limited to lowering their price, which can't happen because that'd cut away at their margin. If they do then Microsoft will just lower the digital price to match again. They can't ask Microsoft to do anything like in the case of the bundle situation.

Why do you think digital prices are expensive in the first place? Why do you think in MS's "all digital fututre" with the initial Xbox One plans they didn't have the balls to cut out retailers completely but have "selected retailers" included their re-selling plans including guess who?

Gamestop is the alpha male in the relationship between the 2, Gamestop is fully aware that digital is eating into the margins and they're trying their best to adapt to the future (like selling digital vouchers in the store for example), but I find it hard to believe that they'd be completely oblivious as to how much digital is cutting into their sales.
 

RexNovis

Banned
If he's been approved as a dev who works on major console titles, which I'm pretty sure he has, then he won't know the exact reasons for a shift of metric in PR from a very large team. It'll be about as much guess work as me or you.

Just FYI there are about 12 other members who participate in that conversation and detail repeatedly why Matt is most likely correct. I refuse to repeat myself or them again for the sake of rebutting something that has already been discussed at length. Inform yourself and stop arguing from a place of ignorance.
 

leeh

Member
Just FYI there are about 12 other members who participate and that conversation and detail repeatedly why Matt is most likely correct. I refuse to repeat myself or them again for the sake of rebutting something that has already been discussed at length. Inform yourself and stop arguing from a place of ignorance.
Go to the thread where these numbers were first shown and you'll see plenty of posters who agree with what I was outlying as well.

You've gave me nothing back other than, 'this person said so'. It's all bloody guess work. They may of full well done it for the reason you're stating, I could be mistaken, I just don't believe it is the main factor in play.
 

SwolBro

Banned
I mean, obviously the amount of digital sales will increase in the future. But right now, it's ~20%, 30% tops.

Possibly? But it doesn't look like Wall Street believes that number. From everything i've read they think it's higher than 20%.
 
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