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[blazeuk]

The digital future for console gaming won't be realised for a long long time, numbers of around 10% show that despite MS/Sony pushing their digital marketplaces more every year, the majority simply don't care for it and can you blame people? Their prices are nowhere near competing with the market and it's a far more time consuming delivery method for most people with download sizes.

US digital sales were better than elsewhere? No shit, anyone smart enough to want to buy digital games goes through their store instead and gets them at half the price. What'd be more interesting to see is the percentage of those US purchases which were purchased with IP addresses outside of the US.

 

[Nethaniah]

This is the most notable number for me. We never, ever get this kind of breakdown. It's exactly what I suspected, about 10% of all multi-platform sales for these AAA games are on PC. This is why we get late, unoptimized ports. (I know WD released around the same time, I mean in general). At the most, maybe a more PC-friendly genre AAA game would sell 15% total on PC but 10-12% is about right for most of them and what I've always suspected. The PC market is doing well but it's still a drop in the bucket for the big publishers like Ubi, EA, Take Two, and Activision for their big releases, which is why we get late ports.

Didn't we get a specific number of units sold for the pc version of Far Cry 3? Can't seem to find the article right now unfortunately.

 

[serversurfer]

Damn. PS4 already more than doubling up the XBone. When people ask, "Why would devs drop support for XBone?" we can point them to this.

What's the difference between "Q1" and "3 months"? =/

 

[gundamkyoukai]

I'm almost positive they are in a far better position with splits than MS ever were with the 360.

Must be extremely grim reading for MS.

Sony had EU to fall back on WW when it come to the game splits after a while , MS don't have anywhere.
This gen splits just going to get worst as time goes on and more people buy consoles .

 

[Barack Lesnar]

Didn't we get a specific number of units sold for the pc version of Far Cry 3? Can't seem to find the article right now unfortunately.

You may be right but every time I've read one of these articles it's always a breakdown of PC physical sales vs the consoles, so there's always been the caveat that "well, they're not counting digital so it's not accurate at all".

This Watch Dogs breakdown is one of the very few times I ever remember reading a real breakdown that's counting both physical and digital, as it should. It's pretty a damn noteworthy sales-age tidbit.

 

[Bgamer90]

Damn. PS4 already more than doubling up the XBone. When people ask, "Why would devs drop support for XBone?" we can point them to this.

...We are talking about Ubisoft here. Pretty much the last company to support the Wii U. Xbox One game support isn't going anywhere.

 

[InsuRn]

Wow, I like seeing those sales data ! More company should follow. Is there a reason why they usually keep these data a secret ?

 

[sleepykyo]

Hopefully those low last-gen sales encourage the cut-off of cross-gen.

1/3 is low?

 

[Kinthalis]

You may be right but every time I've read one of these articles it's always a breakdown of PC physical sales vs the consoles, so there's always been the caveat that "well, they're not counting digital so it's not accurate at all".

This Watch Dogs breakdown is one of the very few times I ever remember reading a real breakdown that's counting both physical and digital, as it should. It's pretty a damn noteworthy sales-age tidbit.

This time last year PC was responsible for about the same share of sales as any other console though...

Not only that, but this represents sales, NOT profit. Given that 70% of sales are digital on PC, the share of profit for PC is larger than it's shar eof sales would indicate.

Finally, this probably varies from game to game. Watchdogs isnt exactly a big title on the lips of PC gamers, especially after the issues with performance.

I wouldn't be surprised ot see a nice bump up for this particular title on PC after the Xmas Sales hit.

 

[serversurfer]

...We are talking about Ubisoft here. Pretty much the last company to support the Wii U. Xbox One game support isn't going anywhere.

Err… what?? =/

1/3 is low?

Compared to the difference in installed bases? "Low" is an understatement. "Abysmal" would be more accurate, really.

 

[Jules Coast]

Wow, I like seeing those sales data ! More company should follow. Is there a reason why they usually keep these data a secret ?

Check out quarterly earnings reports (free) from big publishers (EA, Activision, Take-Two). Since they are public companies they disclose information like this.

 

[RdN]

Damn. PS4 already more than doubling up the XBone. When people ask, "Why would devs drop support for XBone?" we can point them to this.

What's the difference between "Q1" and "3 months"? =/

Dont be ridiculous. The 360 doubled game sales on the PS3 for almost the entire last gen and there were no drops.

 

[serversurfer]

Dont be ridiculous. The 360 doubled game sales on the PS3 for almost the entire last gen and there were no drops.

Links for world-wide platform splits?

 

[InsuRn]

Check out quarterly earnings reports (free) from big publishers (EA, Activision, Take-Two). Since they are public companies they disclose information like this.

Nice, I'll look for that ! Thanks !

 

[Denton]

How much does Ubisoft get from digital PC copy versus digital console copy versus retail console copy?

On digital PC they get most on uplay (95% ?) and around 70% from each copy sold on steam.
On console retail, they get what? 40% ? or more, or less?

 

[Guymelef]

Dont be ridiculous. The 360 doubled game sales on the PS3 for almost the entire last gen and there were no drops.

Lol... no.

 

[Frog-fu]

Hopefully crossgen will die out soon.

 

[RoboPlato]

...We are talking about Ubisoft here. Pretty much the last company to support the Wii U. Xbox One game support isn't going anywhere.

Yeah, XBO isn't going to lose support but the sales numbers are why I chuckle at "forced parity" fears. No studio is going to intentionally gimp the game on the platform most will play it on.

 

[benny_a]

How much does Ubisoft get from digital PC copy versus digital console copy versus retail console copy?

On digital PC they get most on uplay (95% ?) and around 70% from each copy sold on steam.
On console retail, they get what? 40% ? or more, or less?

Depends who you believe. The model used by Michael Pachter is that a $50 Steam game results in approx. the same as a $60 retail game.
(It's actually $1 higher for console retail.)

Ubisoft's best interest lies in getting you into UPlay at $50 or even better yet, $60.

No idea about Europe (including PC retail which would be a factor there.)

Didn't we get a specific number of units sold for the pc version of Far Cry 3? Can't seem to find the article right now unfortunately.

First Q after the game came out:

Q: Far Cry 3: Mix between consoles and PCs?
A: 1mil units on PC, 3.5mil on console.

 

[soulassssns]

Just a note to all US members

£59.99 is $102.

Imagine paying that on your PSN store.

I'd quit gaming at those prices.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Hopefully crossgen will die out soon.

Thats what i was thinking, it's not worth it now.

 

[Frog-fu]

Damn. PS4 already more than doubling up the XBone. When people ask, "Why would devs drop support for XBone?" we can point them to this.

What's the difference between "Q1" and "3 months"? =/

Utterly ridiculous, though given how you refer to XB1 as "Xbone" I'm not surprised by this veiled system wars/semi concern trolling.

Thats what i was thinking, it's not worth it now.

Hopefully it wont be for much longer.

 

[therapist]

Just a note to all US members

£59.99 is $102.

Imagine paying that on your PSN store.

Yea thats insane , i would never ever pay that for a game.

 

[benny_a]

Utterly ridiculous, though given how you refer to XB1 as "Xbone" I'm not surprised by this veiled system wars/semi concern trolling.

It is ridiculous, but not because of the usage of Xbone. That's just the most fun to write that platform shorthand.

 

[Uncle Rupee]

They'd probably have easily made up for the 1/3rd of sales on PS3/360 if they hadn't made the game a cross-gen title to begin with.

 

[gtj1092]

Dont be ridiculous. The 360 doubled game sales on the PS3 for almost the entire last gen and there were no drops.

Lol what? Pretty sure MS never evens discloses software sales. We know Wii was leading in software sales and that ps3 was closing in on that or may have surpassed it.

 

[Denton]

Depends who you believe. The model used by Michael Pachter is that a $50 Steam game results in approx. the same as a $60 retail game.
(It's actually $1 higher for console retail.)

Are there any other models? I could not find any info about this, weirdly. I always thought publisher/dev gets around 30%, rest goes to retailer/console manufacturer.

First Q after the game came out:

Q: Far Cry 3: Mix between consoles and PCs?
A: 1mil units on PC, 3.5mil on console.

So that is 1 million units on PC versus 1.75 million on each console (roughly), so considering that the average PC unit gives Ubisoft more revenue (due to prevalence of digital), all three platforms were fairly close to each other in revenue.

 

[icespide]

It is ridiculous, but not because of the usage of Xbone. That's just the most fun to write that platform shorthand.

I seriously do not understand why some people are so offended by calling it Xbone

 

[JohngPR]

Those digital to physical ratios can vary too, so WD isn't necessarily the be-all testing ground.

I have a feeling that Destiny will have a higher number than 10%, but I also have a feeling that they might not give out that info.

 

[Kinthalis]

Are there any other models? I could not find any info about this, weirdly. I always thought publisher/dev gets around 30%, rest goes to retailer/console manufacturer.



So that is 1 million units on PC versus 1.75 million on each console (roughly), so considering that the average PC unit gives Ubisoft more revenue (due to prevalence of digital), all three platforms were fairly close to each other in revenue.

Pachter is an imbecile.

Actual developers have said that a digital sale from Steam brings in about twice what a retail sale does on consoles. And if it's through your own store (Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft Store) it's almost pure profit.

Retail has sunk in costs of manufacturing and shipping, retail gets a cut of course as well, and so does the platform holder.

 

[Almighty]

It nice to finally have some number on digital sales. 70% is a little lower then I was expecting for the PC, but I do forget sometimes that PC games still have a retail presence in Europe unlike the US.

 

[benny_a]

Are there any other models? I could not find any info about this, weirdly. I always thought publisher/dev gets around 30%, rest goes to retailer/console manufacturer.

I've seen some unsourced images floating about.

Retial has sunk in costs of manufacturing and shipping, retail gets a cut of course as well, and so does the platform holder.

Which are all accounted for in the model used by him.

Also I object to you insulting a fellow member.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Ps4/xb1 owner, bought on Steam.

 

[kiguel182]

I think, given this numbers, we can expect cross-gen to die next year. These numbers are bound to get lower and the costs of porting them down to the PS3/360 aren't going to be worth it soon. At least when it comes to the big titles.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Are there any other models? I could not find any info about this, weirdly. I always thought publisher/dev gets around 30%, rest goes to retailer/console manufacturer.



So that is 1 million units on PC versus 1.75 million on each console (roughly), so considering that the average PC unit gives Ubisoft more revenue (due to prevalence of digital), all three platforms were fairly close to each other in revenue.

I don't think we have enough info from the company to reach such conclusions.

Do we know the average price its sold on each platform?
The subsequent average money Ubi make back on each platform?

 

[FaultTolerance]

Damn. PS4 already more than doubling up the XBone. When people ask, "Why would devs drop support for XBone?" we can point them to this.

Who is asking that?

 

[HarryKS]

Just a note to all US members

£59.99 is $102.

Imagine paying that on your PSN store.

When a guy makes £3000 per month, does it count as $5141 as well?

Come on now. Gotta be serious about the exchange rate. That's not how things work.

Not to forget that taxes are not included as part of the MSRP in Canada or the USA.

 

[serversurfer]

Who is asking that?

It comes up from time to time, but less often lately, because the general consensus seems to be that devs would be crazy to give up half of their sales, so they never will.

Yet XBone software already makes up less than a third of Gen8 sales, and I expect that ratio will get even worse for XBone as more people move to Gen8 and PS4 benefits from the snowball effect. Plus, you'll have some XBone early adopters picking up a PS4 down the road for their multiplats, further shifting the balance.

And for the record, the very same 2:1 sales ratio is prompting people to call for the hurried abandonment of Gen7, so we can properly focus on the superior platforms. Why does that argument only apply to generational gaps, and not the platforms themselves? Do we want our games held back by the weaker, marginal platforms, or not? Personally, I think it'd be pretty nice if AC and WD had inFamous-quality visuals.

 

[Mass Effect]

Damn. PS4 already more than doubling up the XBone. When people ask, "Why would devs drop support for XBone?" we can point them to this.

What's the difference between "Q1" and "3 months"? =/

Let's not get melodramatic now.

And I was wondering that as well.

Dont be ridiculous. The 360 doubled game sales on the PS3 for almost the entire last gen and there were no drops.

I highly doubt this is true. It may be for some cases like CoD, but I doubt the split was that large for most games.

Utterly ridiculous, though given how you refer to XB1 as "Xbone" I'm not surprised by this veiled system wars/semi concern trolling.

Really? The majority of GAF refers to it as Xbone. It's shorthand, no ill will intended (usually).

Yeah, XBO isn't going to lose support but the sales numbers are why I chuckle at "forced parity" fears. No studio is going to intentionally gimp the game on the platform most will play it on.

That's what I'm hoping for. Hopefully this means PS4 will continue to get the superior multiplats.

 

[RexNovis]

Really interesting how low Next-Gen console digital sales are. I would have guessed a lot higher. Like, under 10% on PS4? Wow!

I guess we really weren't ready for an all-digital future.

This was precisely my reaction too. So many of the people I know are going all digital this gen so the fact that the numbers for digital are so low just blows my mind. Completely unexpected.

The way that the initial post is phrased is a little confusing. Are the percentages the percent of total sales across all consoles or the % if sales across each individual console?
In other words are the PS4 digital sales about 10% of total game sales or total PS4 game sales?

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

This is the most notable number for me. We never, ever get this kind of breakdown. It's exactly what I suspected, about 10% of all multi-platform sales for these AAA games are on PC. This is why we get late, unoptimized ports. (I know WD released around the same time, I mean in general). At the most, maybe a more PC-friendly genre AAA game would sell 15% total on PC but 10-12% is about right for most of them and what I've always suspected. The PC market is doing well but it's still a drop in the bucket for the big publishers like Ubi, EA, Take Two, and Activision for their big releases, which is why we get late ports.

The difference being that this time next year wash_doges will be selling nothing on consoles, and will have just sold a bunch in the steam summer sale.

PC games have longer tails.

When a guy makes £3000 per month, does it count as $5141 as well?

Come on now. Gotta be serious about the exchange rate. That's not how things work.

Not to forget that taxes are not included as part of the MSRP in Canada or the USA.

Uk average income is £26.5k, US average income is $54,450 so.... yes?

 

[BigTnaples]

Bye bye cross gen. Good riddance.

 

[lowhighkang_LHK]

So in overall sales 10% is on PC, while 90% on consoles.

I would figured PC sales would generate a higher chunk than that.

 

[ascii42]

Damn. PS4 already more than doubling up the XBone. When people ask, "Why would devs drop support for XBone?" we can point them to this.

What's the difference between "Q1" and "3 months"? =/

I think the 3 months column indicates the total for the year, as in after next quarter it will say 6 months there and have the percentages for the full six months. But yeah, kind of pointless at the moment.

 

[serversurfer]

I think the 3 months column indicates the total for the year, as in after next quarter it will say 6 months there and have the percentages for the full six months. But yeah, kind of pointless at the moment.

Weird. You'd think they'd just label it as YTD.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

So in overall sales 10% is on PC, while 90% on consoles.

I would figured PC sales would generate a higher chunk than that.

Me too.

Kind of puts things into perspective from a Ubisoft standing.

Thing is PS4 is at 36% despite only having a meagre install base. Of course the rate of increase is not going to be linear with the increase of its install base but it shows that publishers majorly make their money from AAA games on consoles.

 

[Kiant]

This is what continues to baffle me. As a publisher you are saving costs going digital yet you charge them equal or greater for the digital version.

If you want digital adoption lower the price!!

You want to change the buying habits of consumers to adopt the more publisher friendly digital distribution model give them incentive to do so. If the consumer is giving up their ability to have a physical copy and to re-sell for a glorified long term rental that is dependent on the network it's attached to then you have to fairly price it to account for that.

You would think that would be the case, unless there is some sort of licensing cost the publishers have to pay to Sony that is forcing these sort's of prices.

Due to the "new-gen" we are already being charged a good £5 - 10 more for PS4 or XBO games as it in retail online stores. Nevermind, if you walk into a local Game store that charge £50+ for next gen games.

I would say the PC market digitally is better, but even that has started to increase, especially from certain publishers *cough* EA *cough*. Even through 3rd parties such as GMG, the prices are significantly cheaper if you buy a physical PC game - opposed to buying the digital version. Example; DS2, £20 on GMG physical at release, digitally £35.

I would love to go digital on my PS4 but there is literally no benefit to it at all.

 

[Denton]

I don't think we have enough info from the company to reach such conclusions.

Do we know the average price its sold on each platform?
The subsequent average money Ubi make back on each platform?

As far as I know those numbers were released pretty soon after launch, before any discounts. I think it is pretty certain that PC SKU brings in around as much revenue as any other single console SKU.

 

[HarryKS]

The difference being that this time next year wash_doges will be selling nothing on consoles, and will have just sold a bunch in the steam summer sale.

PC games have longer tails.



Uk average income is £26.5k, US average income is $54,450 so.... yes?

Ain't making no money in the UK then. Don't buy video games. Too expensive.

 

[Kinthalis]

I've seen some unsourced images floating about.


Which are all accounted for in the model used by him.

Also I object to you insulting a fellow member.

I call them as I see them. He spews nothing but nonsense, and he has some real console wariror hatred for PC.

A Console retail sale should break down something like the folowing (and, these are estimates, deals on either side cna change things up):

-$60 retail console sale-
Manufactuer: ~$10
Cost of shipping and manufacturing: ~$4
Retail cut: ~$15
Cost of returns: ~$4
= $27

-$60 PC Sale Via Steam -
Steam cut: ~ $18
= $42

-$60 PC Sale Via UIbistore -
Cost of bandwitdh: ?? probably less than a dollar.
= $59

The PC Sale can underperform by half and STILL bnring in about as much profit as a a single console platform brings in. This is WHY Ubisoft releases PC games, why they have severla PC exlcusive franchises, and why just about EVERY SINGLE big and medium size publisher outside of Japan does the same thing. The breakdown of a single game or a single quarter and sales, not profit doesn't tell the whole story.