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

Piggus

Member
April and May will be "interesting" as some of you like to put it.

Major Nelson's stupid winky tweet sounded like an official price cut is in order soon.... But honestly I don't think that even that will be enough. They simply built a system that isn't as good. Yes, it has its unique features and I really think Kinect 2.0 has great potential considering the tech that's in it but the games that the majority of people buy are multiplatform titles and every single one of them is better on PS4.
 

geordiemp

Member
Pretty much this. But honestly, how does that happen? Why did the sales actually decrease? I dont have any reason why it did. TF released and there were price cut and bundles.

Because some people have good eye sight and 1080p TV's LOL ?

I think people buy consoles for multiplat games mainly - your COD's, FIFA's BF's....and Ps4 plays them better....

Exclusives are icing on the cake, and a reason to buy a console is lower although some do......

Hence, beyond the hard initial adopters.....the casual will go where his mates are playing COD and word of mouth on what plays these games #da best#.....

Once you understand the sales volumes of multiplat games, all becomes clear.

How to win a generation in this modern socially connected age : make a console that has the best experience of the most popular games..

I know its anecdotal, but COD Ghosts only 720p was a real issue for Xbox ONE in my opinion...and MS biggest mistake was weak GPU and memory
 

Kinan

Member
I love the " shipped" behind the Xbox one... why only there? if a chart is made everything on it should be compared the same and not as somebody likes it to have so it looks better....

what if MS "shipped" 100 million xbox one`s. Would they lead ? well in this chart yes...

Because we dont have any other data for Xbox one, when we'll get some sell through numbers, I'll update the chart.... Besides, only 2 last points (3.9 and 5 M) are shipped, at the beginning they were reporting sold. :p

Other number are sold to the best of my knowledge.
 
Vita deserves better.

Sure does. I love the build quality in the original 1000 model. The problem is the price of the proprietary memory cards, the dependence on multi-platform titles (there really aren't that many must-have vita exclusives that aren't just an update or rehash from another platform, like muramasa, ffx and x-2, dragon's crown, ys, disgaea, persona, ninja gaiden, virtue's last reward, the indie titles, etc.)
 
There is zero indication on the graph that any of those are the shipped numbers aside from the Xbone. May I ask where/how you're certain that the rest of the numbers are shipped ones as well?

because they are worldwide numbers and the only place those come from is platform owner PR/fiscal reports which is shipped
 
Sony should start in the future creating "bundle packages" to make the PS4 more appealing like Microsoft does.

Sure, they don't really need to do this now with insane demand and meager supply to go around, but when the Holidays comes, they should definitely do this.
 
Thank you for the numbers you glorious people. Reminds me of the good old days.

jb1nRXSeqHhgau.JPG
 
It's kind of cute that outselling a title of a franchise which never sold stunning is an amazing act.

Never read such statements some months ago.
 

FDC1

Member
Europe must be deciding the Vita-Wii U sales battle.
Sadly we have no HW data for EU.

Media Create numbers: +80k for Vita
NPD numbers: +60k for Wii U
We don't have exact numbers for Europe but it's unlikely I believe than Wii U is doing +20k there right now from the rumors we got. Correct me if I'm wrong guys
 
Again, that's not the issue. I find it highly unlikely that the US marketing spend for Infamous was anywhere near what EA/MS spent for Titanfall in the US. Sony aren't stupid, they will have deployed resources where they would make the most difference.

Also, the $100m figure quoted by that article does not seem realistic. There is absolutely no way that the corporate heads in Sony would allow so much to be spunked on a single game. Especially one with such a marginal appeal. Even with the solid 1m sold figure, that derives revenue to Sony of around $30m, afaik, Sony rarely make games that require more than 2m sales to break even with marketing included.

What you are not taking into account is the extraordinary spend by MS to include TF in every sale with the hardware over the last month, that alone will have cost more than the total marketing spend for Infamous. Even if MS have sold just 600k TF bundles, that alone would cost them $25-30m, and they still have a lot of stock left in the retail channel. That must be included in the marketing budget for TF, it's not free for MS to go down that route. The other cost would be whatever MS paid EA to delay the 360 version, it's pretty clear now that the delays to the 360 version were not for technical reasons, so that means EA must have had an incentive to delay that SKU. Again, that's another $5-7m. The last bit of indirect marketing spend was funding retailer price cuts or incentives, that all comes from the marketing budget. Then direct marketing spend, which in the US for a shooter will have been higher than for a hero sandbox. The marginal appeal for the genres are in different leagues in the US, and the nation as a whole is much more open to Xbox as a brand, something MS will have wanted to capitalise on with TF's marketing.

While in Europe or here in the UK I could see Sony spending the same kind of money on Infamous in terms of marketing as MS for TF, in the US I don't see it. Based on the appeal of the genre, the multiplier for marketing spend on shooters is much higher than for hero sandbox games. Add in the pre-existing hype, manufactured or otherwise, for TF and that multiplier increases.

Finally, I think it has to be taken into account that Infamous is just another game to SCE, it's nothing special. Fun game, great graphics, but it is just another title from their first party studio line up. TF was supposed to be the game changer for MS and in the US I believe the marketing spend will have reflected that.

You're going off point, which is that Sony had just as big as ad campaign for I:SS that MS did for TF.

I''d also argue pretty strongly against the idea that this I:SS was just another title to SCE. This was the first big exclusive since launch and it's one that Sony needed to put all their muscle behind and it shows with the marketing campaign and the series best sales.

Marketing spend tends to fall in line with expected potential sales and returns. And by most account Sony expects much less from Infamous: Second Son than EA and Microsoft are expecting from Titanfall.

You're essentially arguing incompetence on the part of Sony in terms of forecasting and/or highly inefficient spending, in spending as much on advertising to achieve half the sales.

Second Son sold a million. Yay. It will ultimately sell a few million I imagine. It will not, nor is it intended to be, Sony's next big thing, in the same way that EA want Titanfall to be their COD. Baird & Co expects EA to ship 2.4M units of the title in the quarter ending March, and 6M total in 2014.

Also your prior quote about analysts thinking the title could cost hundreds of millions is disingenuous, in itself. It precedes a very general comment about how much AAA titles can cost.

It was more a general example that Sony spent a lot of money advertising I:SS. It was their first big exclusive since launch, it seems naive to think that they wouldn't give it a huge marketing blitz and that's shown by how well it sold. 1m+ in the space of just nine days...

Not sure why this is an issue. Do people want to pretend that I:SS sold well without Sony having to lift a finger?
 

TechnicPuppet

Nothing! I said nothing!
Sony should start in the future creating "bundle packages" to make the PS4 more appealing like Microsoft does.

Sure, they don't really need to do this now with insane demand and meager supply to go around, but when the Holidays comes, they should definitely do this.

They do bundles already and they are very popular.
 
not really. it was sony's duty to read the markets and make good decisions. they hit a homerun with the ps4 but who honestly thought the vita would be a true success?

It's an exceptionally solid and well-engineered device. Where they failed was in pricing the memory, and not releasing it with must-have exclusives already in the pipeline. Most of the titles on it that people want are already available on other platforms.
 

GlamFM

Banned
not really. it was sony's duty to read the markets and make good decisions. they hit a homerun with the ps4 but who honestly thought the vita would be a true success?

Everybody? Honestly, they made exactly the system everybody asked for. Too bad nobody bought it. (Love my vita BTW)
 

Celine

Member
Any reason why we got all this numbers this month?

I love the " shipped" behind the Xbox one... why only there? if a chart is made everything on it should be compared the same and not as somebody likes it to have so it looks better....

what if MS "shipped" 100 million xbox one`s. Would they lead ? well in this chart yes...
Everything in that chart is shipped.
When you read a worldwide figure it must be shipped.
 
Holy shit @ Titanfall beating Second Son with that install base
To be fully expected. Titanfall also has the PC, and however small that number may be it is still a boost to it's figures and in addition Titanfall was much more highly anticipated and a more popular game type.

So if I'm reading this right MS are now using sold to retailers figures rather than sold to consumer figures that Sony are continuing to use and they're still 2 million behind?

Also poor Vita, only 5k more than the PSP!
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
Everything I could say right here has been said already.

No-one saw this coming, X1 taking march NPD was a lock.
Even i'm blown away that Sony managed to come out on top, and not by a small margin either.
The hype, the deals, the bundles, the pre-march sales bump. I thought the people who were predicting the PS4 to take the number one spot this month were delusional.

The thirst. It's out there and it's real.
So congrats, Sony. The US will be yours until the holidays at least.

---

But meanwhile, Europe is starving for PS4's.
Jesus christ, pre-orders are still being fulfilled, some of which have been placed months and months ago.
The PS4 sales worldwide stand to increase waaaay beyond their current numbers simply by increasing production and adequate supply towards Europe.
You done won the US, Sony. It's time to come home.
 

smurfx

get some go again
Everybody? Honestly, they made exactly the system everybody asked for. Too bad nobody bought it. (Love my vita BTW)
who is everybody? psp buyers? they were selling a handheld to a market that was dying. nobody bought it because they had already moved on to smartphones.
 
You're going off point, which is that Sony had just as big as ad campaign for I:SS that MS did for TF.

I''d also argue pretty strongly against the idea that this I:SS was just another title to SCE. This was the first big exclusive since launch and it's one that Sony needed to put all their muscle behind and it shows with the marketing campaign and the series best sales.

It was more a general example that Sony spent a lot of money advertising I:SS. It was their first big exclusive since launch, it seems naive to think that they wouldn't give it a huge marketing blitz and that's shown by how well it sold. 1m+ in the space of just nine days...

Not sure why this is an issue. Do people want to pretend that I:SS sold well without Sony having to lift a finger?
I'm not sure where you derive that. Sony likely spent much on advertising.

The contention is with the idea that the advertising spend, even excluding the many millions that would be incurred in bundling the title, of Titanfall would be the same as the advertising spend of Infamous: Second Son. An idea you again repeat.

The titles aren't particularly analogous in intent. It is just another SCEWWS title. It's not Gran Turismo. It's not Uncharted. It's not God of War. And there's no real indication it was expected to be. It's a title for which 1M copies by now is well within expectation. It's a title that will be considered reasonably successful only selling a couple/few million LT.

It simply isn't logical, and tests the limits of credulity.
 
who is everybody? psp buyers? they were selling a handheld to a market that was dying. nobody bought it because they had already moved on to smartphones.

Mobile games and handhelds are for two different markets. They don't compete with eachother. Mobiles soak up all the casuals that don't have the interest in "core" gaming experiences, and the price tags that go along with that. Vita needed monster hunters, but instead they've got monster-hunter-rip-offs. This is like when Sony made a smash bros rip-off.
 
Q

qizah

Unconfirmed Member
Everybody? Honestly, they made exactly the system everybody asked for. Too bad nobody bought it. (Love my vita BTW)

This is kind of hilarious, because Sony did the exact opposite. They made a platform that people don't really care about or want. Nintendo is in the exact same position with the Wii U. Both have failed at creating a need/want for the market to invest.
 
You're going off point, which is that Sony had just as big as ad campaign for I:SS that MS did for TF.

And how do you know this?

All we can infer is that MS/Sony spent a lot, in the range of millions for marketing for TF/SS.

As someone who's worked in marketing, I can say that part of our job is to stretch our dollar value. We've worked marketing campaigns at 1/5th the cost of our competition, but with just as far a reach.

From a consumer standpoint, it's very difficult to grasp the scope of how much the cost of the campaign stretches throughout an entire campaign. There's a ton of hidden cost involved, such as negotiations of media buys, etc.
 

Sandfox

Member
who is everybody? psp buyers? they were selling a handheld to a market that was dying. nobody bought it because they had already moved on to smartphones.

I really don't see much overlap between the two to the point where the Vita is selling this low.

Also, Sony didn't really do much to get PSP buyers on board when you consider what was popular on it.
 

GYNGA

Member
This is kind of hilarious, because Sony did the exact opposite. They made a platform that people don't really care about or want. Nintendo is in the exact same position with the Wii U. Both have failed at creating a need/want for the market to invest.
Nah. Vita's problem isn't its hardware.
 

Majmun

Member
No Titanfall number btw?

Best selling software, ok. Still strange MS didn't brag about it. Did it even reach 1mln sold?
 
Could Vita be so low because Sony announced the Slim 2000/Borderlands bundle and people are holding out for the new model?

I'm not saying Vita numbers will suddenly jump to 100k when it releases, but this isn't the first time we have seen low sales while people hold out for the new version.

how many people really know about the bundle? How many people actually care about a bundle for a game that is 2 years old?

Vita is toast in the US. No doubts about that!
 
i highly disagree. you don't think they compete for space in your pocket/backpack/purse?

Don't be coy. You know entirely what I mean. Anecdote: My gf has sunk countless dozens of hours into her mobile games but has never demonstrated any interest in spending a single penny on console or handheld gaming. She demonstrates no patience or interest in doing so, and she is as stereotypically representative of the "casuals" as it gets. Mobile games are designed for an entirely different audience. Any mobile game designer can tell you that. If you played more mobile games then you'd see how bloody obvious it is. Blaming mobiles for Vita's failure is just lazy and wrong. The 3DS's relative success (11+ million sold?) should tell you as much.
 
Q

qizah

Unconfirmed Member
Nah. Vita's problem isn't its hardware.

Yeah it's not, but it's become pretty obvious that the market for a dedicated handheld that emulates a home console experience is pretty small. Most people don't want those type of games on a portable. That market has shrunk significantly from the PSP days to now.
 
You're going off point, which is that Sony had just as big as ad campaign for I:SS that MS did for TF.

I''d also argue pretty strongly against the idea that this I:SS was just another title to SCE. This was the first big exclusive since launch and it's one that Sony needed to put all their muscle behind and it shows with the marketing campaign and the series best sales.



It was more a general example that Sony spent a lot of money advertising I:SS. It was their first big exclusive since launch, it seems naive to think that they wouldn't give it a huge marketing blitz and that's shown by how well it sold. 1m+ in the space of just nine days...

Not sure why this is an issue. Do people want to pretend that I:SS sold well without Sony having to lift a finger?

But you aren't including all of the indirect marketing spend from MS. The cost of the bundle, the cost of the funding retailer price cuts, the cost of securing the exclusive after the agreed 13 month period. All of that comes from the marketing budget and will be more than what Sony spent on Infamous.

No one is saying that Sony didn't spend any money on marketing Infamous, I would say it got the second largest spend I have ever seen for an SCE title after TLOU, but it is dwarfed by what MS spent in total for TF. What we saw on TV or in newspapers was the tip of the iceberg for MS in relation to TF marketing, but for Sony WYSIWYG. The Infamous bundle was priced higher than the vanilla console, there was no extra money spent to secure the exclusive, there was no extraordinary hype campaign and a lot of the pre-launch direct hype was delivered through the PS Blog, which is a no cost option.

TF marketing was in the same league as GTA and COD. Infamous was not in the same category, it was in the AC and BF one. Again, I will add that I believe in the US TF will have been given an even larger push than here because people are more ready to accept the Xbox brand so the multiplier is much higher. Companies deploy resources where they can get the best return. I do not believe the ROI for marketing Infamous would be as high as TF, and neither do I believe that Sony are interested in making a few extra console sales on the back of a huge spend. MS, otoh, were going to do whatever it took to sell more units with TF, and sadly it did not work out for them.
 
Regarding the what is the best selling XBO game it's probably COD. Creamsugar posted a list of best selling PS4/XBO game in the December NPD thread

PS4

ps4 ltd

cod
800k
600k
bf
550k
ac
500k
450k
2k14
kz
400k
25
300k
nfs
250k
14
200k
KNACK
150k
lego
100k

example: cod>800k, 150k>logo>100k

XBO

900k
COD
650k
BF4
550k
DR3
FM5
500k
450k
RYSE
400k
25
AC4
350k
2K14
200k
14
150k
NFS
LEGO
JD2014
100k

NPD show that the XBO version of Ghost overall outsold the PS4 version in 2013

iOdboyMrJQIlN.jpg


So we know Ghost XBO >800k and the best selling XBO game overall as of Dec.
 
To be fully expected. Titanfall also has the PC, and however small that number may be it is still a boost to it's figures and in addition Titanfall was much more highly anticipated and a more popular game type.

So if I'm reading this right MS are now using sold to retailers figures rather than sold to consumer figures that Sony are continuing to use and they're still 2 million behind?

Also poor Vita, only 5k more than the PSP!

The titanfall >1M excluded PC version
So while the buy ratio is crazy,it also feel like most of current ~2.5m of Xbox One owner were bought the console just for titanfall
 
Reposting

Hardware

PS4: 371k
Xbone: 311k
3DS: 159k
360: 111K
Wii U: 70k
PS3: 67K
Wii: 28k
Vita: ~10k
PSP: 5k

Software

TitanFall> 1 million (X1 version/ no PC)
Infamous: Second Son &#1617;<500k
South Park: SoT< 440k, 360 55%
Dark Souls 2<350k PS3 ~51%
MGSV: GZ =278k, PS4 ~ 54%, XBO ~ 20% (both combined 204k), PS3 ~ 19%
FFXHD - 260k (208k PS3, 52k Vita)
Yoshi's New Island <160k
GTA V ~150K
Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze - 84K (highest selling Wii U game this month)

Total PS4 software = 6.78M
Total XBO software = 7.48M
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
The platform breakdowns for GZ are really interesting. I thought that would be a game that did far better on PS3/360 but that's clearly not the case.
 
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