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NPD Sales Results for November 2015 [Up3: Combined Hardware For PS4 + XB1 + Wii U]

leeh

Member
Just because the suits at MS and SE made a piss-poor business decision, I don't think the hard work of the CD dev team should be marginalized.
We got the statement that MS/SE was happy with the game, so at least it's not that the game was piss poor which led to bad sales. The dev team will just be moved to work on something else, not disbanded.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Man that CoD stat is kinda incredible, it's amazing that since 2007 that series has basically never slowed down :/

A little surprised Fallout beat Star Wars but that could be the word of mouth spreading.
 

orochi91

Member
You're an insider of sorts, right? I know you called out some stuff a long time before it actually happened, so this must be true. Wow, that's an interesting nugget of industry info. I guess Sony knows better than to drop money on a dev that's commercial poison by this stage.

I dunno, I feel that Sony should have forked over some money to get some of these titles.

With Yoshida being completely ineffective in his handling of Sony's WWS, having some great 3rd party exclusives in the meantime would have been ideal.

Ah, cheers guys.

No problem.
 
Why did either of them have to be offered anything? Why not just have the game be multiplatform?

They need a publisher to actually fund the development of the games.

I dunno, I feel that Sony should have forked over some money to get some of these titles.

With Yoshida being completely ineffective in his handling of Sony's WWS, having some great 3rd party exclusives in the meantime would have been ideal.

"Ineffective" would be funding a game like Bayonetta 2, a game that is the very definition of bomba. From a financial perspective, Sony made the right call there. Same, most probably, with Scalebound, which is bound to perform poorly in the charts as well.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Also, just me but AC and Halo really haven't fared well?

Put's that CoD stat in an even more impressive light to me given performance of other mainstays.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
We got the statement that MS/SE was happy with the game, so at least it's not that the game was piss poor which led to bad sales. The dev team will just be moved to work on something else, not disbanded.

You know that statement is as meaningless as it gets. No-one is happy about the outcome here, but PR does what PR does best.
 

Jigorath

Banned
Why did either of them have to be offered anything? Why not just have the game be multiplatform?

What kind of 3rd party is going to fund a big budget new IP from Platinum? There's nothing wrong with MS paying for it, I doubt it'd get made otherwise.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
"Last month was our best November ever in the U.S. for Xbox One, setting new records for console sales, game sales and Xbox Live engagement. The most critically-acclaimed holiday lineup of exclusives in Xbox history helped drive 44 percent growth in Xbox Live hours over last November, and 72 percent growth in U.S. first-party retail game sales comparing sales from August through November in 2015 to the same period last year."

So...

#1 Increase in Live hours, which is a non-news for console that is activley selling well and has larger and larger install base each new day.

#2 Software sales growth between Aug-Nov over same time last year... which is again non-news because last year they did not have game the size of Halo 5.


Weak PR MS, I expected better spins from you. :)
 
Preach on. This is the best news for people who really want a true 3D puzzle platformer honest to goodness proper tomb raider game.

That will not happen. AAA gamers aren't really THAT into puzzle-solving. Those ponderous huge puzzles are not something the masses are into -- not in numbers needed to compensate for the kind of budgets under which AAA Tomb Raider games will be expected to be produced.

That was clunkily worded. Essentially, AAA TR games will have expectations of gorgeous visuals, as in the 2 reboot games. Such visuals will cost a lot of money. If the gameplay were to consist of huge complicated platform puzzles a-la old-school Tomb Raider, it's just not going to sell enough to recoup the money. I think the maximum level of puzzle your average mass market "hardcore" gamer will be OK with can be seen in God of War games. A little thought required, and there is an appearance of epic achievement, but no puzzle takes more than a few minutes of thinking or tinkering. Tomb Raider, such as Underworld or Legend, is way way over that line.

You may get your wish on a smaller scale, like those isometric Lara Croft games, but a return to full-on large-budget old-school Tomb Raider is exceedingly unlikely.
 

Teeth

Member
Doh. I thought we were talking about Tomb Raider. My bad. Very early in the morning lol.

It is interesting to find out that Sony rejected Scalebound and Bayonetta 2 (if true). I wonder if it's because they felt those games were too similar to things they already had in the pipeline with internal teams (Horizon and God of War).

I'm trying to think of which games Sony is paying for that are with external teams, that aren't just marketing deals. Bloodborne is the only one I can think of (and I imagine there will be a Bloodborne 2).
 

foxbeldin

Member
"Ineffective" would be funding a game like Bayonetta 2, a game that is the very definition of bomba. From a financial perspective, Sony made the right call there. Same, most probably, with Scalebound, which is bound to perform poorly in the charts as well.

(•_•)

One could say that ScaleBound is about to become ( •_•)>⌐■-■

A SalesBomb (⌐■_■)

4795084610_efbd680b87.jpg



sorry
 

orochi91

Member
"Ineffective" would be funding a game like Bayonetta 2, a game that is the very definition of bomba. From a financial perspective, Sony made the right call there. Same, most probably, with Scalebound, which is bound to perform poorly in the charts as well.

In which case, I would argue that these IPs would have had a greater shot at success on PS4, especially Scalebound because it's a AAA JRPG.

Bayo would have done well, considering it has no competition since launch, other than the DMC4/DmC remasters.
 

ReaperXL7

Member
I dunno, I feel that Sony should have forked over some money to get some of these titles.

With Yoshida being completely ineffective in his handling of Sony's WWS, having some great 3rd party exclusives in the meantime would have been ideal.



No problem.

I don't feel that forcing developers to rush their games is a positive. I'm quite fine with the fact that they are giving their studios time to work on brand new IP like Horizon, or MM the ability to clearly make whatever the fuck they want to as very few publishers would allow that kind of stuff.

At this point it seems like most of Sony's first party are working on new IP outside of maybe SSM and Naughty. So if they feel like they need the time and Sony is willing to give it to them then so be it.
 

DieH@rd

Banned
I don't give a shit if it's your favorite game of all time, honestly, because my comment wasn't even about quality.

It's an abhorrent TOMB RAIDER game that destroyed a true original for checklist game design nonsense that I could play in thirty five other games every year.

They could have called it RETURN OF THE LADY WARRIOR and gave it no relation to Tomb Raider and no one would have gave a shit. They made their bed, now as an OG TR fan I have a right to dance in the fuckin' rain over seeing it crash and burn. As it is my only shot at ever seeing a return to the glory days of what the franchise was always about. This shouldn't bother you one bit.

demodded, not denutted

:D
 

Jigorath

Banned
In which case, I would argue that these IPs would have had a greater shot at success on PS4, especially Scalebound because it's a AAA JRPG.

Bayo would have done well, considering it has no competition since launch, other than the DMC4/DmC remasters.

Why would Sony fund a niche character action game like Bayonetta when they have God of War, the current sales king of the character action scene. Besides, Bayo1 didn't sell well on PS3/360, Bayo2 wouldn't have done anything on PS4 besides lose money.
 

Teeth

Member

The weird thing to me is, I actually think the opposite; if the exact same game came out, but starred SARAH PLISKIN, it probably would have been lauded as the most amazing and best new IP of the generation. With the correct rollout at E3, the core would have gone bonkers for the new UNCHARTED KILLER. Look at those environments and open combat areas! And actual puzzle dungeons! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW! DAY ONE PERCH.
But since it has the baggage of murking a beloved franchise, it has people frowning and whispering how they think it's pretty great but don't jump on me it's good please don't hate me oh please neogaf it's not my fault i like this game forgive me
 

demigod

Member
Just because the suits at MS and SE made a piss-poor business decision, I don't think the hard work of the CD dev team should be marginalized.

If so, CD dev team should've went to SE and told them "Hey this is a bad idea and the game will bomb by being exclusive to Xbone, I hope you don't fire us when it does bomb".

We got the statement that MS/SE was happy with the game, so at least it's not that the game was piss poor which led to bad sales. The dev team will just be moved to work on something else, not disbanded.

They are happy with the *game*. Sales wise is another story, lol.
 

nib95

Banned
It is interesting to find out that Sony rejected Scalebound and Bayonetta 2 (if true). I wonder if it's because they felt those games were too similar to things they already had in the pipeline with internal teams (Horizon and God of War).

I'm trying to think of which games Sony is paying for that are with external teams, that aren't just marketing deals. Bloodborne is the only one I can think of (and I imagine there will be a Bloodborne 2).

This year?

Until Dawn
Bloodborne (sort of)
Uncharted Collection
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture

Don't know about Dragon Quest or Disgaea 5. And there's stuff yet to come like Detroit, Street Fighter 5, Ratchet and Clank etc.
 

Carl

Member
Awesome to see some numbers in this thread (thanks George!)

Impressive numbers for MS and Sony, incredibly. WiiU continues to be dead as a dodo though. Great to see such good numbers.

December will be interesting.
 

allan-bh

Member
When Cosmic said Wii U is flat he meant literally flat (I was thinking in a small improvement). Definitely there's no more hope, is just a dead console waiting for an amazing game (Zelda) plus a few bonuses.

Anyway, I can't wait for software numbers, surely interesting data yet to be revealed.
 
The weird thing to me is, I actually think the opposite; if the exact same game came out, but starred SARAH PLISKIN, it probably would have been lauded as the most amazing and best new IP of the generation. With the correct rollout at E3, the core would have gone bonkers for the new UNCHARTED KILLER. Look at those environments and open combat areas! And actual puzzle dungeons! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW! DAY ONE PERCH.
But since it has the baggage of murking a beloved franchise, it has people frowning and whispering how they think it's pretty great but don't jump on me it's good please don't hate me oh please neogaf it's not my fault i like this game forgive me

That's a nice line of thinking.

#teamsarahpliskin
 

-MD-

Member
I don't give a shit if it's your favorite game of all time, honestly, because my comment wasn't even about quality.

It's an abhorrent TOMB RAIDER game that destroyed a true original for checklist game design nonsense that I could play in thirty five other games every year.

They could have called it RETURN OF THE LADY WARRIOR and gave it no relation to Tomb Raider and no one would have gave a shit. They made their bed, now as an OG TR fan I have a right to dance in the fuckin' rain over seeing it crash and burn. As it is my only shot at ever seeing a return to the glory days of what the franchise was always about. This shouldn't bother you one bit.

This doesn't happen often but I actually agree with everything you've said about TR in this thread.
 

leeh

Member
You know that statement is as meaningless as it gets. No-one is happy about the outcome here, but PR does what PR does best.
No it's not. Its a statement to say they're happy with the quality of the game. Sales is a different story. It's not the development teams fault that some tool chose to launch on the same day as Fallout 4. Also, the vacant advertising.

It's good that they released PR stating that they were happy with the quality of the game, shows confidence in the team that made it. That's a huge point. It'll also mean a lot to the team.
 
So the 1.5 M of this November is the highest in Playstaion history? PS2 didn't top that number in any November?

Black Friday wasn't nearly as big a deal for console sales in the PS2 days. It's a pretty recent phenomenon where November is now the highest sales month for consoles.
 

John Wick

Member
You know that statement is as meaningless as it gets. No-one is happy about the outcome here, but PR does what PR does best.

What pissed me off more than anything is that it was CD who suggested to SE to make it Exclusive to Xbox One and not the other way round. So I'm absolutely over the moon that it's done shit on Obox One and hopefully fails on PC and PS4. CD deserve as much especially their PR mouthpiece
 

RexNovis

Banned
What pissed me off more than anything is that it was CD who suggested to SE to make it Exclusive to Xbox One and not the other way round. So I'm absolutely over the moon that it's done shit on Obox One and hopefully fails on PC and PS4. CD deserve as much especially their PR mouthpiece

Do you have a source for this info?
 

allan-bh

Member
What pissed me off more than anything is that it was CD who suggested to SE to make it Exclusive to Xbox One and not the other way round. So I'm absolutely over the moon that it's done shit on Obox One and hopefully fails on PC and PS4. CD deserve as much especially their PR mouthpiece

This is confirmed?

Perhaps they suggested because S-E wasn't much interested in investing in the project
 

Occam

Member
What pissed me off more than anything is that it was CD who suggested to SE to make it Exclusive to Xbox One and not the other way round. So I'm absolutely over the moon that it's done shit on Obox One and hopefully fails on PC and PS4. CD deserve as much especially their PR mouthpiece

Oh, really? It was the idea of Crystal Dynamics to make Rise of the Tomb Raider a timed Xbone exclusive?
 

foxbeldin

Member
What pissed me off more than anything is that it was CD who suggested to SE to make it Exclusive to Xbox One and not the other way round. So I'm absolutely over the moon that it's done shit on Obox One and hopefully fails on PC and PS4. CD deserve as much especially their PR mouthpiece

It's the first time i hear about it that way. Do you have a source?
 

AniHawk

Member
When Cosmic said Wii U is flat he meant literally flat (I was thinking in a small improvement). Definitely there's no more hope, is just a dead console waiting for an amazing game (Zelda) plus a few bonuses.

Anyway, I can't wait for software numbers, surely interesting data yet to be revealed.

wii u had a good bundle this year that was discounted to the same price bundles were discounted to last year (although during december and not black friday). the platform hasn't had an actual price drop since before the other two 8th gen consoles launched. to top it off, the wii u didn't have any sort of high profile game for november, just multiplayer family stuff that traditionally sells best in the holiday, but isn't the sort of thing that garners interest in your console. zelda, and then star fox, were supposed to fill that role, and both were delayed.

the wii u should be doing worse at this point, with all that considered. and it can be doing a lot worse - i think the vita shows there's room to slide. 2015 is probably going to end up with a small dip in sales after 2014, but i think 2016 is where we'll see real decline. it'll be back to 2013 levels or worse, at least until/unless nintendo decides to fire sale remaining stock at $199.99 or something. i can't see this thing on the shelves in a major way in 2017 at all. 2016 will be its final holiday season.
 

barit

Member
clooney_chuckle.gif


That Tomb Raider Bomba. Sorry but can't hide my Schadenfreude

So to everyone who is saying that Lara didn't deserve this because it's such a great game you can share your feelings now with Tearaway fans :p
 
If so, CD dev team should've went to SE and told them "Hey this is a bad idea and the game will bomb by being exclusive to Xbone, I hope you don't fire us when it does bomb".



They are happy with the *game*. Sales wise is another story, lol.

As far as I'm aware CD only work on Microsoft platforms, so SE still needed to pay someone else to do the port anyway.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
No it's not. Its a statement to say they're happy with the quality of the game. Sales is a different story. It's not the development teams fault that some tool chose to launch on the same day as Fallout 4. Also, the vacant advertising.

It's good that they released PR stating that they were happy with the quality of the game, shows confidence in the team that made it. That's a huge point. It'll also mean a lot to the team.

I don't see how that hollow statement means jack shit to the team when you're seeing your game getting completely buried in sales because of a shoddy business deal. It didn't even crack the top 20 in the biggest buying month of the year. That's sure to feel rewarding for working your ass off for two years.

That PR statement isn't a 'huge point' by any metric imaginable, and I struggle to even imagine how you're reading it as such. Do you actually think PR would say they are 'unhappy' with the game? Of course not.
This is like their Halo 5 statements on it being the biggest and bestest game of all time when in fact it was the steepest decline a AAA franchise had seen in nearly a decade. PR always puts on a facade to save face, it's what they do.

I'm not saying CD gets hit with layoffs or disbanded. I'm sure Microsoft's money will have kept their expenses in check.
But when you see a franchise you're intending to reinvigorate bore itself into the ground because your hard work is bought up to pad Microsoft's holiday checklist, i'm sure that leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouths.
 
That Tomb Raider Bomba. Sorry but can't hide my Schadenfreude

So to everyone who is saying that Lara didn't deserve this because it's such a great game you can share your feelings now with Tearaway fans :p

I can't share this feeling. It was an accident waiting to happen, nevertheless a sad thing.
I liked the first game and think the second is by no means worse. It might not be a tomb raider like it used to be, but it's still fun to play.
There are dumber games with bigger success out there.
 

Malcolm9

Member
As poorly as it has sold so far it's possible. I still don't think it will do much on PS4 though. PC is the best chance to not be a complete bomba.



With "friends" like that who needs enemies?

Not really, considering Tomb Raider is more associated with Playstation. It will be interesting to see how it sells when it's released for PS4/PC though.
 

ArmGunar

Member
Is possible that S-E filled their pockets with Microsoft's money and isn't concerned about these sales.

Lol no, because it bombs hard and they look forward, the licence is damaged now ... and it will fail next year on PS4, has to face off Hoziron, TLG, Call of Duty, Mass Effect, etc ...
 

allan-bh

Member
wii u had a good bundle this year that was discounted to the same price bundles were discounted to last year (although during december and not black friday). the platform hasn't had an actual price drop since before the other two 8th gen consoles launched. to top it off, the wii u didn't have any sort of high profile game for november, just multiplayer family stuff that traditionally sells best in the holiday, but isn't the sort of thing that garners interest in your console. zelda, and then star fox, were supposed to fill that role, and both were delayed.

the wii u should be doing worse at this point, with all that considered. and it can be doing a lot worse - i think the vita shows there's room to slide. 2015 is probably going to end up with a small dip in sales after 2014, but i think 2016 is where we'll see real decline. it'll be back to 2013 levels or worse, at least until/unless nintendo decides to fire sale remaining stock at $199.99 or something. i can't see this thing on the shelves in a major way in 2017 at all. 2016 will be its final holiday season.

Price is too high indeed, $199 should be the standard at this point considering how bad is selling. I guess the cost of the GamePad really killed any chance that Wii U could have in the market at lower price.
 

Rymuth

Member
Morning, GAF. Finally caught up. Looks like I got here before cream did.

Thanks for the numbers, George.

With it being on 4 platforms it might have had a chance but I am with you. If it launched in november on all platforms I refuse to believe it owuld have made top ten. But the Jpegs and gifs are quiet funny I guess.
I liked you better when you were saying GAF is crazy/dumb/mad for saying RoTR is doing badly.
 

leeh

Member
I don't see how that hollow statement means jack shit to the team when you're seeing your game getting completely buried in sales because of a shoddy business deal. It didn't even crack the top 20 in the biggest buying month of the year. That's sure to feel rewarding for working your ass off for two years.

That PR statement isn't a 'huge point' by any metric imaginable, and I struggle to even imagine how you're reading it as such. Do you actually think PR would say they are 'unhappy' with the game? Of course not.
This is like their Halo 5 statements on it being the biggest and bestest game of all time when in fact it was the steepest decline a AAA franchise had seen in nearly a decade. PR always puts on a facade to save face, it's what they do.

I'm not saying CD gets hit with layoffs or disbanded. I'm sure Microsoft's money will have kept their expenses in check.
But when you see a franchise you're intending to reinvigorate bore itself into the ground because your hard work is bought up to pad Microsoft's holiday checklist, i'm sure that leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouths.
The primary metric of the success of a development team is the quality of the product. They've excelled there and in result, there was a statement saying the publisher and platform owner felt the same.

The team got paid, the quality of the game was great. They can be peeved that it didn't sell because of someones choices, but I'm sure they're happy with the reviews and peoples word of mouth of the quality and greatness of the game.

That's all that matters to them. If you're not saying they're going to be made redundant or disbanded as a team, then what are you even saying? Feel like your ranting, to rant. The PR statement saying their happy with the game definitely means something, it means that they're happy with how the game turned out, but not the sales.
 
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