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

robo

Member
What's the usual trend for consoles sales in April? Do they fall off from march or stay about the same?

If titanfall can't stop a week by week decline in console sales (even though it did probably boost some sales) what is the likely fall off next month in sales?



Does aquamarine have the march-April trends from previous years available.
 

fedexpeon

Banned
Are we going to pretend that Sony didn't have just as big an ad campaign for I:SS? Hell, I saw a lot more ads for I:SS than I did for TF.

And I do mean a lot more. Sony went all out to market I:SS. It's the biggest ad campaign for a game I've seen from them since The Last of Us...

Who cares about the marketing dollars.
For SS to sell that close, and really well when going against the behemoth that is the PC install base, it is pretty amazing for the SP team.

More important is the split sales between X1 and PC.
No one seems to want to release this information at all.
Not even MS or EA PR.
 

liger05

Member
I'd be curious to see how the Dreamcast software sales stack up against the Wii U. I mean, the Wii U must have about as many games right now in the US but it sure doesn't feel like it.

Aqua posted some stuff in the past and from what I remember the DC had some pretty good numbers on the software side.
 
The thirst is real.

X3OxYZJ.gif

PS4 looks like it's just coasting* there.



* y u hav no gaemz? hoo byin u?
 
Sony marketed ISS, but it was nothing like what MS did with TF. Also TF was touted to be the biggest game in console history since its debute in E3...it ended up average all around.
I haven't played it but I thought the general consensus was that TF is still a very good game?
 
Sony marketed ISS, but it was nothing like what MS did with TF. Also TF was touted to be the biggest game in console history since its debute in E3...it ended up average all around.

Nope, Sony were very clear about how heavily they would be marketing I:SS.


The campaign was just as big as that for TF. It's disingenuous to claim otherwise.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Who cares about the marketing dollars.
For SS to sell that close, and really well when going against the behemoth that is the PC install base, it is pretty amazing for the SP team.

More important is the split sales between X1 and PC.
No one seems to want to release this information at all.
Not even MS or EA PR.

The behemoth that is the PC install base do not buy games physically unless I missed some revolution.
 
Oh, I didn't know Second Son's million was for worldwide.

I certainly hope Titanfall did well on PC, although I wouldn't be surprised if Origin drugged it through the mud a bit.

Heres a quote:

So it comes with great excitement to learn that within the first nine days of launch, global sales of inFAMOUS Second Son exceeded over 1 million units*, making Second Son the fastest selling inFAMOUS title to date!

The article:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/04/10/infamous-second-son-sales-surpass-1-million/

Its Sony's only PS4 blog.
 

Dire

Member
TF vs Infamous sales are almost identical, what makes ISS sales so impressive is its only on PS4 vs Xbone+PC + a seven figure Marketing budget from MS.

I would say that TF sales were very underwhelming giving the crazy manufactured hype all media was trying to create.

Yeah... that's why people don't really realize how epically bad these numbers are for Microsoft/EA.

Microsoft's marketing for Titanfall was absolutely positively in the tens of millions and likely in the hundreds of millions. Marketing is e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e. Let's start with a random factoid. A single US prime TV 30 second spot can go for upwards of $300k. Here's a neat graph: http://www.ibtimes.com/economics-pr...econd-ad-prime-time-weeknight-tv-show-1424544

A worldwide marketing project including random things like having professional parkour guys run around the UK bouncing off buildings, building some 10 meter mech replica and shipping it around from E3 to Germany and everywhere in between, getting teams/games/demos out to every single game show, nonstop marketing on television - in retailers - on physical transport like buses, etc. And let's keep all that rolling for months. That is almost certainly going to end up in the 9 figures. This isn't even counting however much they paid to keep it off of Sony consoles. Pachter estimated that $50million which is about what I'd expect as well.
 
Sony marketed ISS, but it was nothing like what MS did with TF. Also TF was touted to be the biggest game in console history since its debute in E3...it ended up average all around.
I'm not sure if you've played titanfall but nothing about it is average, it's easily the best fps game right now. The only problem with it is lack of content
hopefully titanfall 2 will be huge like mw2
 
But are these the types of games that MS are going to drop 10 figure sums on with the expectation that they'll shift consoles in the thousands? You would think anything that would move consoles like that would be successful enough to sustain itself.

Not saying that any one franchise is enough to reverse the momentum by itself. Just that the current momentum and lead isn't yet enough to automatically preclude a publisher from signing an exclusive deal (if it means either side partially funds development and marketing).

Development is hella expensive. It's better for a CoD or a GTA to be multiplatform because those franchises are powerful brands unto themselves and will sell huge on every platform.

But what about the old dusty but beloved franchises? Or a publisher who's got a great back catalog but has had some bad luck or poor-performing recent titles? They could still be open to a deal.

Just because Sony has all the early momentum doesn't mean exclusivity deals will suddenly go away.
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
I'm finding this to be the most humerous console war, memes and gifs are helping.

If the epic battle of N64 and Playstation had gifs, I'm sure it would have been so legit....
 
Nope, Sony were very clear about how heavily they would be marketing I:SS.



The campaign was just as big as that for TF. It's disingenuous to claim otherwise.

This is a US sales thread. I don't see how a UK marketing campaign is relevant in here. If US based members can chime in on the kind of marketing campaign Infamous and Titanfall received there, then that would be useful.
 
Sony really needs to get around to creating PS4's in a more efficient pace.

Right now, it seems like there they are still having problems keeping the supply up with the demand.

It seems like they have produced around an average of a million units per month.

Not bad, but even that cannot match the consumer interest, as of yet.
 

stonesak

Okay, if you really insist
Not saying that any one franchise is enough to reverse the momentum by itself. Just that the current momentum and lead isn't yet enough to automatically preclude a publisher from signing an exclusive deal (if it means either side partially funds development and marketing).

Development is hella expensive. It's better for a CoD or a GTA to be multiplatform because those franchises are powerful brands unto themselves and will sell huge on every platform.

But what about the old dusty but beloved franchises? Or a publisher who's got a great back catalog but has had some bad luck or poor-performing recent titles? They could still be open to a deal.

Just because Sony has all the early momentum doesn't mean exclusivity deals will suddenly go away.

Exclusives won't go away, but the AAA console-moving third party exclusive are gone.
 

stilgar

Member
I'm finding this to be the most humerous console war, memes and gifs are helping.

If the epic battle of N64 and Playstation had gifs, I'm sure it would have been so legit....

Wii/X360/PS3

Those where the days of timely NPD numbers, rage and eternal, delicious tears.
 
Who cares about the marketing dollars.
For SS to sell that close, and really well when going against the behemoth that is the PC install base, it is pretty amazing for the SP team.

More important is the split sales between X1 and PC.
No one seems to want to release this information at all.
Not even MS or EA PR.



OMG you forgot the fact that TitanFall is a new IP and that there are less xbox ONE than PS4 out there.... xD
 

TheCloser

Banned
It's a new record low for Vita!

How low can Vita go before Sony finally shuts production down?
You couldn't buy one if you wanted to. There was a serious lack of availability as Sony attempts to clear stock for the new model. You couldn't find one in my city at all the stores. There was no new stock in the retail channels so it was just harder to find. This is why it sold 10k...
 

Vashetti

Banned
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.
 
So Xbox One sold fewer units on a weekly basis compared to last month. That's a very bad sign with Titanfall and the retailer price cuts in mind.

I don't see how MS can be happy with this 311k figure, down 3.5% MoM with their biggest release of the year and price cuts. Horrible, just awful.

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.
 

liger05

Member
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.

What did it sell in Jan & Feb? Isnt March just the continued decline.
 

AniHawk

Member
I'd be curious to see how the Dreamcast software sales stack up against the Wii U. I mean, the Wii U must have about as many games right now in the US but it sure doesn't feel like it.

through the end of 2000 there were about 16m units of software sold for the dreamcast in the us. through the end of 2013, nintendo shipped 15m units to north america.
 

jiiikoo

Banned
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.

Could the reason be that people don't want an Xbox. And I have a feeling the whole DRM debacle left a sour taste in most peoples mouth.
 

Zalman

Member
You couldn't buy one if you wanted to. There was a serious lack of availability as Sony attempts to clear stock for the new model. You couldn't find one in my city at all the stores. There was no new stock in the retail channels so it was just harder to find. This is why it sold 10k...
There's a reason why you can't find it to begin with.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
So Xbox One sold fewer units on a weekly basis compared to last month. That's a very bad sign with Titanfall and the retailer price cuts in mind.

I don't see how MS can be happy with this 311k figure, down 3.5% MoM with their biggest release of the year and price cuts. Horrible, just awful.

So much money went into Titanfall, they hyped it ever since last E3! 9 months of promotions, giving away "free" copies of the game since Titanfall launched with each new console, eating sometimes even more cost for discounted consoles...

... and they managed to loose even more ground in the US territory.

I really dont know what can help them to fight for lead in US? [in the rest of the world they are DONE] Project Spark and Sunset Overdrive will not move the needle, pricedrop will either hurt them financially or force them to drop the Kinect [which is hopelessly underutilized by devs].



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.
A lot of people [early adopters/hardcore users] who wanted to play Titanfall puchased the console before March. And when March came, console did not managed to attract new users. Game is definetley not a strong "system seller" for general population. It did not move casual COD crowd [which is incredibly large group of gamers].
 
Could the reason be that people don't want an Xbox. And I have a feeling the whole DRM debacle left a sour taste in most peoples mouth.

I get that totally, but im talking in terms of dropping from last month. Even if it didnt outpace ps4, you would still think it would sell better than the previous month with TF coming out and having bundles/ price cuts.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
TLoU was a new IP and it did close to 4 million in one week without crazy marketing and free giveways...

Er

3.4 million in 3 weeks, worldwide. Great success and all but not at all relevant to NPD.

If you want to do that, then it was IIRC 985k for the month.
 

Into

Member
The manufactured hype bullshit is just that. People(both the press and public) liked the game for clear identifiable reasons.

It definitely sold systems, the question is how many. The Xbone is really unattractive hardware and people would rather get TF for PC or 360.

Saying the game itself underperformed is pretty early until we get the numbers for the bundles/Xbone/PC as well as the 360. It beat out an established quality franchise release.

People were buying the system at release for TF. Also TF is now bundled with Xbone everywhere going forward. It definitely didn't have a huge effect but that can be more easily attached to how toxic the Xbone is, rather than anything to do with TF.


The irony of your posts and attempts at damage controlling Titanfall is that you are doing precisely the same thing that EA and Microsoft tried with this game: Force a narrative on what Titanfall is.

They hyped this game as the best thing since oxygen, it had just about as much hype, awards, coverage as something massive like GTA5. And yet it produced a minor blip of a bump in sales for the Xbox One, showcasing that nobody but existing Xbox One owners gives a shit about it, hence topping software but having almost impact on hardware sales.

Dont get me wrong, i like the game a lot, its really good, ill argue the game's quality against anyone here, but the whole push for this game to be the second coming of Jesus was a gigantic farce, manufactured by EA and Microsoft, and then spread by Xbox One owners to be the second coming, to be the next FF7, WoW, GTA3, Halo, Modern Warfare, and now reality finally rears its ugly head.

Its absolutely not a system seller, not even close. And the time to push some agenda and narrative on this game is finally over. Results speak far louder than hopes, wishes and marketing campaigns.
 

stonesak

Okay, if you really insist
Could the reason be that people don't want an Xbox. And I have a feeling the whole DRM debacle left a sour taste in most peoples mouth.

I think price is the main problem. There just isn't that huge of a market for a games console (and that's all Xbox One is ever gonna be despite what MS wanted) that's over $400 and MS is about to find out just how small that market is.
 

Griss

Member
It's interesting, part of me thought that Titanfall might 'fail' as it's not exactly the hyper-real military fantasy that seems to sell, and because the lack of a single player mode is an issue both for casuals and for marketing material. But the hype fooled me completely, and I thought it would be huge.

However in the week after it launched it was clear to me that it hadn't 'hit' like Microsoft would have hoped. Oh, it sold a ton of copies, sure. But it wasn't some breakout mass-market thing, there was no huge buzz about it. Once I saw that I was expecting some grim news for XB1 this month and here it is.

Titanfall 2 will be multi-plat and have single player. You can pretty much guarantee both. Won't help MS at this stage, though. I can't really see any way PS4 fails to win the generation considering this start and MS's problems in Japan and Europe. If Sony manage to not drop the ball they'll be king of the console hill for the next few years at least. I love my PS4, so that's fine by me. Now just get more OS updates out, Sony!
 

ethomaz

Banned
So TF figures are Xbone only?

Close to 1 million? Amazing for a 2.5m userbase... that shows most guys that wanted TF bought Xbone before March.
 
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