• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

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

MisterR

Member
i just dont understand what makes people root for something to fail so bad

People aren't rooting for the game to fail. They are rooting for common sense discussion. These made up, pie in the sky, delusions of Halo selling millions digitally don't help anyone and they lower the quality of discussion. You can't have an honest, grown up discussion of the sales and the implications without having to explain this shit over and over.
 
All I see are remarks like this, give me evidence to prove why what I'm saying is wrong.

How about you prove what you're saying is right? The onus is on the person making the claim. And anecdotal evidence does not count.

Also we're talking about actual figures here, not vague numbers(like harware/software revenue) that don't actually state anything concrete.
At least with what Gamestop is saying we have comparable data to relate to.

But anyway, you've been posed this question repeatedly and we're still at the same point. So I don't know why I'm bothering.
 

leeh

Member
Some of us have, but you refuse to accept the facts anyway, so most of us just gave up.
Right, let me be clear. I think that the digital split was around 30-40% on launch week, which if true, put the launch around Halo 2 numbers, just short if I remember rightly.

I'm saying it seems plausible due the fact of how much it sold physically and the fact that it was the best selling digital title on the platform.

I haven't been given anything otherwise. The only argument is the metric is in revenue, which isn't true, as it would of been worded that way.
 

MisterR

Member
All I see are remarks like this, give me evidence to prove why what I'm saying is wrong.

You've been given ample evidence. MS isn't going to come out and tell you so you'll have to use some common sense. We have Cosmic's long list of examples from publishers. You have the CEO of MS's biggest retail partner telling you they have constant discussions with MS and Halo wasn't a huge outlier. You have several insiders with industry connections and insight telling you this is the case. On the other hand, what evidence do you have for your stance. You have the fact that several of your friends buy games digitally and some shaky, vague MS PR statements.
 

RexNovis

Banned
Quality of a game won't affect sales or can't be in line with sales or the reasons why sales are down? I mean, come on?

It can but its at best completely tangential to the current discussion and the aforementioned posts were not in reference to any effect on sales they were simply stating their opinions on the quality of the game regardless on the context of the thread at large.

It'd be hard to argue Halo 5 failed as opposed to underperforming.

It didn't seriously change the sales of the Xbox One, but the Xbox One is also not a failed system, rather simply one in second place.

It didn't grow the Halo franchise, but I don't think that was a realistic goal on a notably smaller user base.

What's clear though is that Halo as it is today isn't working for as many people as it once did, even given the current scenario, so what do they change to try and grow again?

It's still selling a lot, and in the markets it can still succeed in, it is selling like a big (but not top) title, so there's definitely a lot of potential worth pursuing.

Also what I feel is important as well is that GameStop said none of the AAA titles outperformed digitally, suggesting we can use whatever the third party baseline us to model every title with reasonable accuracy barring other information pointing otherwise.

I don't think anyone here is actually arguing that it failed. That sort of language is reserved for things like The Order or Rise of the Tomb Raider that have incredibly low sales in even their strongest markets. What people are saying is that Halo is in the midst of a steep decline. One that has many possible causes but inevitably leads to the conclusion that franchise is less appealing now than it was in the past. For some reason people take this to mean "failure" when it really isn't. It just means it's smaller than it was and something needs to happen in order to stem the waning tide of public opinion on the franchise if they want to see it growing again. I honestly have no idea why people are so adamantly against this observation but you would think we are demanding the crucifixion of master chief the way some are going on about it any time this discussion occurs.
 

nib95

Banned
Yup, it sold 1.46 millions first month on XB1 and 4.7 millions all versions combined.
But BO III, and maybe Follaut 4 e Battlefront could beat it this November NPD.

Right, so last year if 10% of AW XBO sales were digital, simply for NPD and for that month (not going by global numbers as I don't have them), that'd mean it sold 146k copies digitally. Or 219k if you make it 15% digital.

Now Halo 5 sold what, 935k? If 20% of those sales were digital, that'd make 187k. Depending on the digital sales split of AW, Halo 5 could be the best selling Xbox One digital title ever, even with a 20% digital split.

In terms of guessing what the split could have been with Advanced Warfare, bare in mind, in Germany last year, digital sales accounted for only 9% of all sales.

Source

And these are other notable splits.

All right, digital examples.

Witcher 3: 25% of total sales http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1116442 (Keep in mind this is a major PC franchise)
Ubisoft in 2014 on PS4/XB1: 10% http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=852745
EA in 2014 on PS4/XB1: 10-15% http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=860335
EA 2015 with Battlefield Hardline PS4/XB1 (similar game to Halo): 20% http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1041340


Based on the above, I'm sure Halo 5's digital split is on the higher end of the norm, but I can't see it being close to half. GameStop is most probably accurate.
 

leeh

Member
You've been given ample evidence. MS isn't going to come out and tell you so you'll have to use some common sense. We have Cosmic's long list of examples from publishers. You have the CEO of MS's biggest retail partner telling you they have constant discussions with MS and Halo wasn't a huge outlier. You have several insiders with industry connections and insight telling you this is the case. On the other hand, what evidence do you have for your stance. You have the fact that several of your friends buy games digitally and some shaky, vague MS PR statements.
"We have nothing to believe it is higher". Meaning, we don't know, so we're going to assume based on other publishers.

If they said, "it aligns with AAA titles on the current-gen consoles" then yeah, I wouldn't be saying this.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Best selling means the amount sold, highest grossing is revenue. Especially in PR which was about revenue and had highest grossing on the title.
I have a hard time believing MS said "best selling" in units terms in a revenue PR.
 
Looking at sales of the big franchises in the UK, it looks like the quality of the previous entry is what dictates sales the most.

I am a gamer and I don't mind bugs and issues (and I think that has been a lot of the issue) but what I do care about is design and gameplay and imo that is wehre games like UC, tomb raider, MGSV have really really failed. So, I am happy to see these things failed so developers can actually start being creative and making things fun to simply play.


I'm sick of cut scenes and graphics trying to sell people.

It's time to add fun game play ideas, physics and better game play experiences to the mix. At least I hope that is what a push will be.

I'm not from the uk, but I appreciate you guys who are :)
 

MisterR

Member
"We have nothing to believe it is higher". Meaning, we don't know, so we're going to assume based on other publishers.

If they said, "it aligns with AAA titles on the current-gen consoles" then yeah, I wouldn't be saying this.

based on conversations with Microsoft. "We are in constant discussions with all publishers and platform-holders and we believe that all major full-game titles launched in this quarter were in line with previously announced digital download levels," he said.

I'm done discussing this with you at this point. Believe what you want to believe.
 

ethomaz

Banned
The definition of best selling:
"selling in greater quantities than others of same same kind"
lol

MS or others companies never used "best selling" for revenue sales... ohhhhh wait they just do that every year.

You are unbelievable.
 

leeh

Member
based on conversations with Microsoft. "We are in constant discussions with all publishers and platform-holders and we believe that all major full-game titles launched in this quarter were in line with previously announced digital download levels," he said.

I'm done discussing this with you at this point. Believe what you want to believe.
They believe, they don't know. Key word, believe.

lol

MS or others companies never used revenue for "best selling".

You are unbelievable.
So in a PR statement where it specifically states it's the highest grossing Halo title, then say it's also the best selling digitally, they're on about revenue?

Your unbelievable. You guys say I'm stubborn.
 

DeepEnigma

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.
.
 
It can but its at best completely tangential to the current discussion and the aforementioned posts were not in reference to any effect on sales they were simply stating their opinions on the quality of the game regardless on the context of the thread at large.



.

I agree with you a bt that this thread is about the digital issue, but it's already a bit silly and over played by people that it makes more sense to point to game play aspects, but I apologize for going a bit off topic in that respect.


I have no idea who leeh is, but man is this guy sort of a guy who typically trys to make things feel like he is pro MS or something?

it would be nice to have digital sales but it's hard to talk about something no one really knows. At least that is why I refrain from it, it's rather stupid to feel the numbers are this versus this when it is being hidden.

If we had a realistic guess that we can agree on for actual sales then that's different. I have a feeling if this thing bombs for november we will be back here again...
 

ethomaz

Banned
They believe, they don't know. Key word, believe.


So in a PR statement where it specifically states it's the highest grossing Halo title, then say it's also the best selling digitally, they're on about revenue?

Your unbelievable. You guys say I'm stubborn.
You know it is not the "highest grossing Halo title" if you add hardware and what MS added to Halo 5 sales to previous titles lol

That is what we call spin.

When you need to combined everything you have related to a title to beat previous titles with only game sales... you know how it is bad.
 

RexNovis

Banned
Right, let me be clear. I think that the digital split was around 30-40% on launch week, which if true, put the launch around Halo 2 numbers, just short if I remember rightly.

I'm saying it seems plausible due the fact of how much it sold physically and the fact that it was the best selling digital title on the platform.

I haven't been given anything otherwise. The only argument is the metric is in revenue, which isn't true, as it would of been worded that way.

Leeh what the fuck man. This is getting ridiculous. I gave you two separate reasons why over 50 posts ago

There's also the matter of the record breaking PR



specifically referencing the "Xbox Store" which was a new thing for XB1 (before it was the Xbox Live arcade and Xbox Live store) as well as specifying "for an opening week." There's also the matter of "best-selling" as we don't know if this in revenue or licenses.

All in all, due to the aforementioned reasons, the PR is anything but a reliable source let alone grounds to question statements made by companies in an earnings call. Yet here we have people arguing that info being provided in an earnings call must be false because it clashes with a previously confirmed misleading PR message.

Can you stop with this shit please. It's one thing to refute arguments or oppose them. It's another thing entirely to constantly claim they don't exist. Repeatedly. Stop it.
 

Javin98

Banned
Right, let me be clear. I think that the digital split was around 30-40% on launch week, which if true, put the launch around Halo 2 numbers, just short if I remember rightly.

I'm saying it seems plausible due the fact of how much it sold physically and the fact that it was the best selling digital title on the platform.

I haven't been given anything otherwise. The only argument is the metric is in revenue, which isn't true, as it would of been worded that way.
We already had several insiders saying that Halo 5 is within the common percentage for digital sales, around 20%. Furthermore, that list of digital sales percentages from publishers keeps getting posted in this kind of threads, but you chose to ignore them. The Witcher 3, a PC centric game, had only 25% digital sales in total. I shouldn't have to tell you that most of the sales on PC are on Steam, contributing a very large portion of digital sales. You have evidence and insight right in front of you, yet you choose to use your friends and Microsoft's PR as evidence. This is the reason many of us just gave up debating with you.
 

leeh

Member
We already had several insiders saying that Halo 5 is within the common percentage for digital sales, around 20%. Furthermore, that list of digital sales percentages from publishers keeps getting posted in this kind of threads, but you chose to ignore them. The Witcher 3, a PC centric game, had only 25% digital sales in total. I shouldn't have to tell you that most of the sales on PC are on Steam, contributing a very large portion of digital sales. You have evidence and insight right in front of you, yet you choose to use your friends and Microsoft's PR as evidence. This is the reason many of us just gave up debating with you.
Developers who're clued up technically with the consoles don't know sales figures. Unless we've got people who work for MS and have stated this.

Leeh what the fuck man. This getting ridiculous. I gave you two separate reasons why over 50 posts ago
Can you stop with this shit please. It's one thing to refute arguments or oppose them. It's another thing entirely to constantly chain they don't exist.
You don't believe the MS PR, it said best selling, means number of copies not revenue.

I'm out.

Homework for the next thread:
How can a physical/digital split of a game align with other titles when it's been outperformed physically by other games, but is the best selling digital title?

Clue: It's not that the metric is store revenue.
 
I'm out.

Homework for the next thread:
How can a physical/digital split of a game align with other titles when it's been outperformed physically by other games, but is the best selling digital title?

Clue: It's not that the metric is store revenue.

Now I see the light!

There is no light.
 

MisterR

Member
I'm out.

Homework for the next thread:
How can a physical/digital split of a game align with other titles when it's been outperformed physically by other games, but is the best selling digital title?

Clue: It's not that the metric is store revenue.

Because the two statements have nothing to do with one another. If they said Halo is the best selling Xbox One game of all time for opening week and it was outsold by other games at retail. Then you could say, well they had to make up for it with digital. They didn't say that. They said it was the best selling digital title, which has no connection to how much it sold physically.
 

Bluenoser

Member
"We have nothing to believe it is higher". Meaning, we don't know, so we're going to assume based on other publishers.

If they said, "it aligns with AAA titles on the current-gen consoles" then yeah, I wouldn't be saying this.

The best part is how you dismiss what an executive at Gamestop says because he didn't use certain terms, but then you think it's ok to pull the 30-40% figure straight out of your asshole and use it in an argument. You have literally NO evidence to back up your number. Just stop. Please.
 

leeh

Member
Because the two statements have nothing to do with one another. If they said Halo is the best selling Xbox One game of all time for opening week and it was outsold by other games at retail. Then you could say, well they had to make up for it with digital. They didn't say that. They said it was the best selling digital title, which has no connection to how much it sold physically.
More digital sales = higher digital split.
 

Javin98

Banned
Developers who're clued up technically with the consoles don't know sales figures. Unless we've got people who work for MS and have stated this.


You don't believe the MS PR, it said best selling, means number of copies not revenue.

I'm out.

Homework for the next thread:
How can a physical/digital split of a game align with other titles when it's been outperformed physically by other games, but is the best selling digital title?

Clue: It's not that the metric is store revenue.
That's it, I give up. You're free to believe Halo 5 had a 900% digital sales figure if it helps you sleep at night. Frankly, I never met anyone on this forum as stubborn as you. The Artisan made a ridiculous claim of the XB1 selling to 1% of China's population, which remains a meme to this day, but at least he was willing to learn from his mistakes. With you, it's a never ending cycle of your own beliefs. You're like the Sales GAF equivalent of thelastword.
 

Fliesen

Member
Developers who're clued up technically with the consoles don't know sales figures. Unless we've got people who work for MS and have stated this.


You don't believe the MS PR, it said best selling, means number of copies not revenue.

I'm out.

Homework for the next thread:
How can a physical/digital split of a game align with other titles when it's been outperformed physically by other games, but is the best selling digital title?

Clue: It's not that the metric is store revenue.

Game A sells 1.000.000 copies
Game B sells 999.999 copies

100.000 of said A copies are digital
100.001 of said B copies are digital.

A outsold B, B is the best selling digital title.

The split is still 10% (sorry, 10,00011% in the case of B, that is! higher split!)

of course this is an extreme example, but the constellation of Halo 5 being the "best selling title digitally", yet "underperforming physically" is still possible, even with a split aligning with other titles.
(21% aligns with 15-20%, you know)
 

leeh

Member
That's it, I give up. You're free to believe Halo 5 had a 900% digital sales figure if it helps you sleep at night. Frankly, I never met anyone on this forum as stubborn as you. The Artisan made a ridiculous claim of the XB1 selling to 1% of China's population, which remains a meme to this day, but at least he was willing to learn from his mistakes. With you, it's a never ending cycle of your own beliefs. You're like the Sales GAF equivalent of thelastword.
Hahaha, you honestly think that I think that?
 

Bluenoser

Member
That's it, I give up. You're free to believe Halo 5 had a 900% digital sales figure if it helps you sleep at night. Frankly, I never met anyone on this forum as stubborn as you. The Artisan made a ridiculous claim of the XB1 selling to 1% of China's population, which remains a meme to this day, but at least he was willing to learn from his mistakes. With you, it's a never ending cycle of your own beliefs. You're like the Sales GAF equivalent of thelastword.

To be fair he did abandon the 90% digital and change it to 30-40%, and while more reasonable, still reaching very very far without proof to back it up.
 

RexNovis

Banned
You don't believe the MS PR, it said best selling, means number of copies not revenue.

I'm out.

Homework for the next thread:
How can a physical/digital split of a game align with other titles when it's been outperformed physically by other games, but is the best selling digital title?

Clue: It's not that the metric is store revenue.

Did you seriously just try to assign ME homework on the details of these sales as if I don't know what we are talking about? Ok that's it. I have argued these pints with you REPEATEDLY only to have you either ignore my arguments even going so far as to claim they don't exist or shifting your argument to some other detail to which I respond only to see the cycle repeat anew. The problem here is not my lack of knowledge in the subject at hand it's your obstinate refusal to consider any evidence that refutes your desired answer. So how about instead of telling everyone else they need to study the facts you actually read and consider what everyone else is trying to explain to you then we can avoid this bullshit tangent again in the next Halo sales thread and actually discuss the sales and what they mean? How about that?
 

MisterR

Member
More digital sales = higher digital split.

Only if it sold the same amount. If Titanfall sold 1.3 million and 195k were digital and Halo sold 1 million and 200k digital. That would be 15% for Titanfall, which falls into line for EA's statements and that would be 20% for Halo digital. This would fit the PR statement with Halo being at that 20% ratio.
 

Javin98

Banned
Hahaha, you honestly think that I think that?
Fine, my bad, I exaggerated just to make fun. But 30-40% is still way too high for any game out today. You honestly don't think that Microsoft would be yelling from the rooftops if that was really the case?

To be fair he did abandon the 90% digital and change it to 30-40%, and while more reasonable, still reaching very very far without proof to back it up.
Yeah, I was kinda making fun of his claims, not entirely serious on that one.
 

ethomaz

Banned
You don't believe the MS PR, it said best selling, means number of copies not revenue.
Source? You have no proof about that like I don't have opposite too.
The only think we know is that MS spin a lot and they using revenue on PRs... they don't talk about copies sold anymore.

I'm more inclined to believe they are talking about digital sales revenue like every other company and well MS.
 

foxbeldin

Member
This is kind of incredible.

Every single piece of information we have points towards this game digital/physical ratio being in the same range as every other game released lately. But someone wants to believe it almost doubles everything else ever seen, juste because his guts (agenda) say so.
 
As with lots of people in the thread, most people I know bought this digitally.

Also, how the hell would GameStop know what sold on the marketplace? Oh wait, they wouldn't.
 

Chobel

Member
Right, let me be clear. I think that the digital split was around 30-40% on launch week, which if true, put the launch around Halo 2 numbers, just short if I remember rightly.

I'm saying it seems plausible due the fact of how much it sold physically and the fact that it was the best selling digital title on the platform.

I haven't been given anything otherwise. The only argument is the metric is in revenue, which isn't true, as it would of been worded that way.

Umm, no. UK sales include bundle sales which are actually digital sales.
 
As with lots of people in the thread, most people I know bought this digitally.

Also, how the hell would GameStop know what sold on the marketplace? Oh wait, they wouldn't.

Ok then take these lots of people, gather the data until you have an ample sample size and then extrapolate it. Maybe then this sort of anecdotal evidence would have any credence.
 

Bluenoser

Member
As with lots of people in the thread, most people I know bought this digitally.

Also, how the hell would GameStop know what sold on the marketplace? Oh wait, they wouldn't.

Yeah, because it's not as if they said they are in constant communication with the publishers in the main article in the OP. Why would anyone read that before making argumentative comments? Psshhh.
 

MisterR

Member
As with lots of people in the thread, most people I know bought this digitally.

Also, how the hell would GameStop know what sold on the marketplace? Oh wait, they wouldn't.

I think this is the time to bow out of the thread. Good luck to anyone who wants to try to keep dealing with this stuff.
 
As with lots of people in the thread, most people I know bought this digitally.

Also, how the hell would GameStop know what sold on the marketplace? Oh wait, they wouldn't.

Please please read the OP and thread.

I can already see this can resurrect the "all my friends bought digital" story.
Amazing how this narrative is like the hydra. Cut one head off..
 
I think this is the time to bow out of the thread. Good luck to anyone who wants to try to keep dealing with this stuff.
owxzNDC.jpg

Lol they're running everyone out.
 
Top Bottom