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NPD Sales Results for April 2010
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Saint Gregory
Member
That's the good news for Sony; the bad news is that if the 3DS launches in Japan this year all that will change in a few hours.ULTROS! said:
I wonder if Sony will push ahead with PSP2 this year or wait a year to make sure that they feature match the 3DS. I don't really think that these pig PSP games coming up are an indication that they won't be launching a PSP2 sooner rather than later, since the PSP2 will most likely play all PSP games. Although the PSP might have another year left in it if they price drop at E3.
Darthdevidem01
Banned
DR2K said:
{suicides}
ULTROS! said:
The PSP is doing the same so far this year in Japan that it has every year except for 2008 (i.e. after the Slim launch). It's only marginally ahead of the DS this year, because DS has slowed down so much.
In the U.S., it's down 36% YOY, and 2009 was hardly a stellar year for the system. 2009 was down ~30% YOY from 2008 through April. Japan is "okay," but that's hardly reason to be ecstatic.
Saint Gregory
Member
It still seems so crazy to me to describe the 3rd best seeling system this gen (and the 2nd best in Japan) as a "dead" system. I really hope Sony takes a close look at what went so wrong with the software sales and tries to address it before they launch a PSP2.
Personally, I always felt that their biggest mistake was launching the PSP as sort of a companion to the PS2 when really it should have been its replacement. If Sony had trasitioned from the PS2 fat then the PS2 slim and then the PSP I think we'd be looking at a completely different story here. Can being born too soon in this case be fatal?
Personally, I always felt that their biggest mistake was launching the PSP as sort of a companion to the PS2 when really it should have been its replacement. If Sony had trasitioned from the PS2 fat then the PS2 slim and then the PSP I think we'd be looking at a completely different story here. Can being born too soon in this case be fatal?
charlequin
Banned
Zen said:
Has anyone in this thread ever heard the phrase "opportunity costs" before?
Darthdevidem01 said:
Yes, there's a quite obvious pattern which we've all been discussing already in this thread: the pattern where in the last twelve years, main-series Final Fantasy titles have declined from a high of 8+ million worldwide sales to around half that.
Darthdevidem01 said:
Suck it
Saint Gregory said:
We've learned this generation that install base doesn't matter to a publisher if people are not buying their products. Whether it is piracy (PSP) or indifference (a lot of third party games that get released on Wii).
I'm not even sure what Sony would do with a PSP2 that would make third parties want to get involved. The only long term solution to piracy would be requiring a PSN sign in to play a la Steam, but that wouldn't really work. We've seen the headaches caused by single player PC games that use this scheme, and a 14 year old that wants to play Madden 2012 on the go probably isn't going to have a 3G connection.
The only sure thing is that PSP Go was one of the most ill conceived product refreshes ever. Can't say I'm sad to see the result. Releasing a system that didn't work with all the games people had legitimately purchased over a four year span was just flat out stupid.
charlequin said:
When you give up whatever your next best choice is because you chose the better option. The lost value is your trade off, or opportunity cost.
Baki said:
Fair enough. I think PSP2 will come when it's ready, not when Sony feels that they've wrung everything they can from the stone that is the PSP. If Sony wasn't so hamstrung by the PS3 costs I think we could have seen the PSP do slightly better than emancipate for three years since the last price drop.
It just makes not much sense to kill the PSP between then and now.
H_Prestige
Banned
Talamius said:
The funny thing is, it's not even interactive storytelling anymore. All story sequences are literally just movies, whether it's in game or fmv. The only time the player is involved is during battles.
Saint Gregory
Member
My memory is a little fuzzy but it seemed like for a time (before Go) the PSP was doing pretty decent hardware #s in the US. Not DS numbers but it seemed like it was keeping pace with the PS360 but rarely did anything show up for it in the Top 10 NPD.Man God said:
I have a hard time believing piracy had that kind of impact of software sales since it seems much worse in DS circles so what went wrong? Were people really just buying them to wear around their necks like medallions ala the early PSP marketing?
boiled goose
good with gravy
obaidr said:
the most baffling thing is why PSP gets ports of AC and Dantes inferno and wii gets shafted
publishers should at least be consistent...
Baki
Member
Zen said:
It makes wayy too much sense to kill the PSP now (but who are we kidding the thing is already dead :lol :lol). I mean, sure keep producing it but a successor is waaaay overdue. The wrung everything they can from the PSP and then some. Now what they need to do is build upon what they've learnt with the PSP and release a PSP 2. If they do it right, they might have a shot at giving Nintendo a good marketshare battle worldwide (well, definitely in Japan).
I mean look at Ninty, the DS is still trucking (much, much better than the PSP) and they're more than willing to send out a successor. And hey, they haven't made a bad business decision so far which means it might not be a bad idea to release a successor for the PSP.
I think the most surprising thing is that people are still debating whether this is neccessary or not. I'm not asking SCE to put out a half baked product but I am suggesting they step on things and stop resting on their laurels.
Unidentified
Member
I think that is the case. People have been calling even the hardware sales of PSP dead for years, but last year was the first year the PS3 beat out the PSP in the U.S.Saint Gregory said:
I'm not sure about worldwide sales, but I doubt the gap between the PSP and the PS3/360 are all that big. Looking at the U.S. and Japan combined sales, it should have outsold the 360 and PS3 until last year.
The more I think about it, the more 3DS being pushed out because Nintendo is finally sick of rampant DS piracy makes sense.
Hardware numbers are great. Software numbers are terrible. It's probably the worst Software seller of any non failure system.
Unidentified said:
Hardware numbers are great. Software numbers are terrible. It's probably the worst Software seller of any non failure system.
Dedication Through Light
Member
amtentori said:the most baffling thing is why PSP gets ports of AC and Dantes inferno and wii gets shafted
publishers should at least be consistent...
Probably because they either sell decently enough to make profit for the cost of getting the game to the PSP (or maybe SONY is giving them extra behind the scenes incentives), or it is just less pricey to make a PSP port than a Wii game.
Maybe software sales on the PSP are just well enough to turn a profit, longstanding, though it seems like PSP has never charted on NPD Software charts here.
Dedication Through Light
Member
Baki said:
The fact that the system is still selling millions a year at 99$ thrwats any negative comments people can make. lol. It will probably still be selling even next year and the year thereafter.
xs_mini_neo
Banned
TruePrime said:
Kuja's bikini was lame. I didn't even comment on his hair....my god you love Kuja?! Oh the humanity.
All other FF's sold "like crap" compared to FF7 & FF8. Not surprising since those two were plastered all over every fucking channel, mag and god knows what else I'm forgetting here, before and after they released.
lol @ bringing up DQ9 because that is one oldschool as fuck series...and guess what? It has not seen a decline in sales all these years! Imagine that! Take THAT oldschool fanboys/girls! lulz DQ9 even took a step back in graphics!
Darthdevidem01 said:
The reality is FF8 had the first real backlash to the series (used copies flooded stores much like FF13 has), and the sales stopped growing and dropped pretty hard until it is now hovering at around 2 million or less, in JAPAN, where it matters most (if the series dies there, it dies everywhere. ). WW sales for FF7 & FF8 were also much higher than all the FF's that followed. No wonder you capped at "5 million +"
I don't think anybody really counts FFX-2 as a main entry...FF11 sure wasn't. FF12 got hate from people who loved FF10, and love from people who never gave a shit about FF until it "copied" WRPGs and people who hated FF10's guts. Just like FF10 got hate for its corridor shit, no airships, no worldwap and Tidus, while FF9 got hate for not looking "omgzsobadass" like FF7 & FF8. But none of those compared to the FF8 backlash. And that was before we had the "omg I hate JRPGs!!!1!1" crowd.
Another thing is FF8 had FF7's hype to help sell it , which FF13 did not have from FF12, nor did FF12 have it from FFX, X-2 or FF11. The series has remained stagnant and survived off the combination of the goodwill from fans who can't let go or don't want the series to die or hope the next one will get better or all of the above. On top of that you have all the (mostly young) newbies who join with each new installment to mask the decline that would show from those who DO give up and stop buying.
Just look at DQ and how healthy the series still is. It hasn't been thrown across the room several times like FF, and because of that DQ's fanbase isn't fractured to hell and full of fans demanding completely different things from DQ. Trying to expand is one thing, but doing stupid shit like Square did to FF only leads to an impossible to please fanbase and stagnant or declining sales. Just like what happened to Zelda.
Oh and dear god @ 4WOL. It's like it was made by (or tampered with) people who didn't want oldschool FF to ever get a second chance. Just wow. Mystic Quest has finally been dethroned!
Zen said:
Opportunity cost. Which is better: 1) soaking up some profits to make up for Sony's disastrous losses the last couple of years, while giving the 3DS ample room to establish itself and making it increasingly difficult to penetrate the market when the 3DS already has a 10M, 20M or 30M unit advantage, or 2) Sacrifice those profits (or rather, loss reductions) to try and compete with Nintendo on more even footing?
Sony doesn't really have any good choices -- but you are correct that it's not obvious which choice they should pick. Sony essentially must pick the least-bad option, as there aren't any good ones.
Edit: Charlequin said essentially the same thing.
TheThunder
Member
Indyana said:
Leaks this month are weak.
Maybe we'll get some after the weekend ?
Opiate said:
I'm thinking that they'd be worse off if the 3DS has some key feature they don't, look at how the stylus took off and made the original PSP seem so outdated in comparison. It's certainly not a good position for Sony.
EDIT: All I meant before was that Sony shouldn't 'kill' the PSP.
Me, trying to damage control? I don't own a PSP, I'm not interested in buying one. I don't give a monkeys.RBH said:
I was just saying - I'd like my product to sell that much. And if they're making a profit on each one sold...there's no need to "pack the whole thing in" - it's just not going to be a huge success in the rejoins of the DS.
Macho Madness
Member
65k for a product that used to do MUCH MUCH more than that is pathetic. That's why people are saying that. Let's say you're used to your product selling 400-500k per month and then it starts selling only 65k per month. Go ahead and tell me you'd be happy about that.deepbrown said:
Quadrangulum
Banned
thewesker said:
I would. Isn't the point of any product to make a profit? Even if the PSP only net one dollar for Sony, that's still 65000 dollars in ONE month, far greater than even the YEARLY average personal income of citizens of the USA, the most prosperous and wasteful state in the history of the world.
Quadrangulum said:
Every dollar spent on psp could've been spent on another product, with better returns. Sony doesn't have unlimited funds that they can spend on everything that ends up being profitable. Turning a profit is not something any companies aspires to do in itself, it is a baseline minimum requirement to run a buisness. They're concerned with how to maximize profit, and spending their funds on psp probably isn't it from here on out.
With PSP2 so close they're hardly spending that much on the PSP project at this point. If they 'wrap up' the PSP they'll just have idle capacity because all the infrastructure is already in place and running. Obviously they'll wind down the PSP when the PSP2 comes about. Heck the PSP2 might be coming this year or next march. Killing the PSP is the height of making a bad business decision.
Doo you want to guess how much money Sony would have lost on the PS3 if they'd killed the PS2? The sales of the PSP is likewise helping their bottom line.
That doesn't even address his point. Sure Sony isn't happy, but that's neither here nor there. He made a factual statement related to business and economics and you retort with 'oh yeah? But are they happy about it?'. Talk about missing the point.
It will probably be back up to its 100k a month range next month or whenever, which is still pretty bad, but why should they throw away money for no reason? The PSP2 will come when it's ready.
Doo you want to guess how much money Sony would have lost on the PS3 if they'd killed the PS2? The sales of the PSP is likewise helping their bottom line.
thewesker said:
That doesn't even address his point. Sure Sony isn't happy, but that's neither here nor there. He made a factual statement related to business and economics and you retort with 'oh yeah? But are they happy about it?'. Talk about missing the point.
It will probably be back up to its 100k a month range next month or whenever, which is still pretty bad, but why should they throw away money for no reason? The PSP2 will come when it's ready.