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NPD Sales Results for January 2016

FireCloud

Member
LMAO, he really is mad at MS... over releasing to PC. I thought it would blow over.

Might want to remove that twitter picture....a mod has already warned about continuing that topic in this thread.

I'm surprised creamsugar hasn't posted yet. There's not much to go on except for the statement about the PS4 being up 20% YoY and the next gen consoles sales being relatively flat in January. Would be nice to get some pie to see what happened last month.
 

Welfare

Member
If being a market leader was easy then the XB1 would be doing it. The PS4 sales aren't expected. They are earned. Are you forgetting all the talk at the end of last gen that console sales were dying? The sales certainly weren't expected to all those people and publishers then. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Being market leader isn't that easy seeing as we went from one gen being clearly Playstation, to Nintendo, then within that same generation Xbox, to Playstation the gen after that.

Sony wasn't expected, yeah, because MS botched this gen in the worst possible way and now they can't come back. The PS4 is "the" console to own, so consumers will pick that up. The XB1 isn't doing Wii U numbers right now because the 360 was such a successful console in the US that users are just going to stick with Xbox. Shit, Brand is one of the top reasons consumers upgraded to the XB1 to begin with. Xbox One mainly attracts Xbox owners and the PS4 is attracting everyone. The PS4 sales are expected at this point.

That talk of consoles dying was rubbish and was during a lull period where there was no new consoles for a while, and the one that did come out first was a massive failure. The Wii U's performance had no bearing PS4/XB1 performance, and Sony and Microsoft were prepared for their consoles successes, seeing as 4.5m PS4's and 3.9m XB1's were shipped in their first quarter. Sony did not expect the PS4 to sell as well as it did though because most people actually weren't going to Xbox. Once the launch allure wore off, XB1 sales plummeted and consumers wanted PS4's.
 

allan-bh

Member
That is like saying the PS4 sales aren't impressive because it is the more powerful console and it should sell more. The fact is that the entire package that is the PS4 has impressive sales.

The PS4 also sold for $299 just last month. It was not a given that going back up to $349 would not have depressed sales as people waited for the $299 price point to come around again. Something similar happened to the XB1 last January before they were forced to reduced the price again.

It's not some preordained prophesy that the PS4 is selling so well. It was by design. What's going to be the next excuse to down play its sales.

"Well of course the PS4 would sell so well. Uncharted, one of it biggest franchises is releasing."
"Well of course the PS4 is selling well. It has Ratchet and Clank in the movie theater promoting it."
"Well of course the PS4 is selling so well. It has a huge VR marketing push going on."

No, is not. I'm talking about jan 15 / jan 16 sales and the effect of a price drop, not an inherent aspect of the PS4. The part of the impact of the $299 temporary price cut is true, wich doesn't change the fact that if PS4 had registered lower sales YoY, would be a bad signal for the $349 price point.

The fact is that PS4 in january 2016 is less expensive than in january 2015, if sales didn't improve Sony would be worried.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Delete that tweet if you don't want the Mods coming down on you.

Consider it my good deed for the day.

Done and done. Was a bit late to this, it had me in stitches but don't mean to piss up the thread if that's what it's been doing.
 

Cornbread78

Member



The real shocker here is there is no Sword Art Online (HF or LS) on this list..... damn.


PS Vita Games:
1 Persona 4 Golden
2 Bastion
3 Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition
4 Tearaway
5 Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
6 Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
7 Terraria
8 Steins;Gate
9 FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster
10 Don’t Starve: Giant Edition
 

allan-bh

Member
October 2014: 297k
October 2015 with price drop: 275k.

Do you see Sony worried?

In this month sales were bad, but Sony was positioned to big sales in holidays.

Now it's a new year and january is a first trend of how sales will be in the next months. Starting with a YoY drop would be bad news, like is for MS (but XBO didn't received a price cut in 2015).
 
Now it's a new year and january is a first trend of how sales will be in the next months. Starting with a YoY drop would be bad news, like is for MS (but XBO didn't received a price cut in 2015).

except it did? Jan 15 Xbox went back to to $399, then they had to cut it half way through the month to $349 as sales cratered.

Jan 15 = half at $399, half at $349

Jan 16 = all $349 or less and is down.

Gears bundle is $300 on amazon..
 

Trojan

Member
Jesus H Christ, GTA V's numbers are just beast. That game doesn't just have a long tail, it's practically becoming a right of passage for every new console owner to buy it sight unseen.
 

Welfare

Member
except it did? Jan 15 Xbox went back to to $399, then they had to cut it half way through the month to $349 as sales cratered.

Jan 15 = half at $399, half at $349

Jan 16 = all $349 or less and is down.

Gears bundle is $300 on amazon..

XB1 has been $349 for more than a year. 2 holiday periods of being at the same price (and even dropping another $50 for three weeks this past December) has done all it can for selling XB1's. A price drop should happen soon.
 

QaaQer

Member
I sit somewhere in the middle of the 'exclusives don't matter' and 'exclusives are huge drivers of sales' camps. Like demigod I think exclusives when considered collectively makes a significant difference - individually only a few like 'Uncharted' and 'Halo' make a big enough impact to sway customers.

The proper way to look at it is this: what makes a customer's hand go one way and not the other in the last two feet before grabbing a box in the store.

A little extra power, a few exclusive games, nicer box, price, brand loyalty, good advertising, these are some of the things that determine the end result. Having fewer or no exclusive 'only on xbox' games, changes that equation.

In other words, there are many variables at play in the complex equation that determines the behavior of a customer in the last two feet. Don't look at it in isolation or try to ascribe an absolute value to it, just understand that it is a factor.

People who say lack of exclusives do not matter or is actually beneficial don't understand marketing and how it is used to influence behavior.
 

truth411

Member
Jesus H Christ, GTA V's numbers are just beast. That game doesn't just have a long tail, it's practically becoming a right of passage for every new console owner to buy it sight unseen.
Yea, how many have they sold by now? Over 55 million?
 
No, is not. I'm talking about jan 15 / jan 16 sales and the effect of a price drop, not an inherent aspect of the PS4. The part of the impact of the $299 temporary price cut is true, wich doesn't change the fact that if PS4 had registered lower sales YoY, would be a bad signal for the $349 price point.

The fact is that PS4 in january 2016 is less expensive than in january 2015, if sales didn't improve Sony would be worried.

The fact is that being a lower price than a year ago doesn't automatically mean increased sales which is proved by the XB1's performance last January.

The only possible argument you could make would be in the month of the actual price drop. Then you could claim it was a one time surge that isn't indicative of future sales performance. That isn't the case hear. The $349 price point now is an inherent aspect of the PS4 that is taken into consideration when buyers decide what to get.

The PS4 is now in an excellent position. Microsoft knows that Sony will drop the price down to $299 if it needs to to be competitive. That means Microsoft is stuck. Lowering the price now would only reduce profits and would have little effect on sales. I suspect MS will have a temporary sale to clear out all those bundles that are apparently stacking up but that is about it. The inherent aspect of the PS4 is that it is simply a much better value now and with an increasing network effect, it is only going to become more so.

Being in such an advantageous strategic position doesn't happen by accident and wasn't expected as others have said. After all the PS4 was predicted right here in NeoGaf before the start of this gen to have sales well behind Microsoft's offering. Everything Sony did, from the hardware performance, to the price, to the marketing deals and so on made those predictions utterly wrong. Now people are trying to act like they knew it all along and it was no big deal. Ha!!!
 

Fady K

Member
The fact is that being a lower price than a year ago doesn't automatically mean increased sales which is proved by the XB1's performance last January.

The only possible argument you could make would be in the month of the actual price drop. Then you could claim it was a one time surge that isn't indicative of future sales performance. That isn't the case hear. The $349 price point now is an inherent aspect of the PS4 that is taken into consideration when buyers decide what to get.

The PS4 is now in an excellent position. Microsoft knows that Sony will drop the price down to $299 if it needs to to be competitive. That means Microsoft is stuck. Lowering the price now would only reduce profits and would have little effect on sales. I suspect MS will have a temporary sale to clear out all those bundles that are apparently stacking up but that is about it. The inherent aspect of the PS4 is that it is simply a much better value now and with an increasing network effect, it is only going to become more so.

Being in such an advantageous strategic position doesn't happen by accident and wasn't expected as others have said. After all the PS4 was predicted right here in NeoGaf before the start of this gen to have sales well behind Microsoft's offering. Everything Sony did, from the hardware performance, to the price, to the marketing deals and so on made those predictions utterly wrong. Now people are trying to act like they knew it all along and it was no big deal. Ha!!!

Well said
 

donny2112

Member
I would imagine Minecraft 2 just has to look better and costs the same price and people will upgrade.

Minecraft 2 "look better"? Does that even make sense with this game? The boxy graphics are what make it so fun to play around in and mod for people who aren't experts at graphics. What would making it "look better" be without breaking its core attraction to non-pro modders, which make up most of the reason it's so big to begin with?
 

onQ123

Member
This sounded like a spin to make the result look better than really is.

With $50 price cut that happened not a long time ago, going up is what should happen, otherwise it would be a sign that the current price isn't working.

Sony strategy is working, that's good, but not impressive because that's what normally happen when the price is down.

You could get a Xbox One for $300 this whole January but it's sells went down while PS4 sells went up at $350.


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viHuGi

Banned
Yeah man Sony must be worried, their Console will crush 100m as easy as a Ferrari hits 100km per hour.

I'd be worried about all those milion on PSN paying PS+ and buying games.
 

allan-bh

Member
Being in such an advantageous strategic position doesn't happen by accident and wasn't expected as others have said. After all the PS4 was predicted right here in NeoGaf before the start of this gen to have sales well behind Microsoft's offering. Everything Sony did, from the hardware performance, to the price, to the marketing deals and so on made those predictions utterly wrong. Now people are trying to act like they knew it all along and it was no big deal. Ha!!!

The major factor for the current level of PS4's success is not Sony, but Microsoft. Same thing can be said about 360's success, Sony did more for this than MS.

Of course Sony has its own merits (like MS had in the previous generation too).
 

panda-zebra

Banned
This sounded like a spin to make the result look better than really is.

With $50 price cut that happened not a long time ago, going up is what should happen, otherwise it would be a sign that the current price isn't working.

Sony strategy is working, that's good, but not impressive because that's what normally happen when the price is down.

This sounded like a spin to make the result look worse than really is.
 

J-Skee

Member
Damn, GTA, can anybody else eat out here?!?

NBA2K is a beast on the low.

15 pages in & this is the only mention of NBA 2K I've seen. Y'all better stop treating the NBA 2K series like some fatherless child. That series is a monster & it's only been getting bigger year after year.
 

Elandyll

Banned
Yeah, I predicted 200K and I thought I was overdoing it a bit. I can't say I expected it to be up. Never mind being up by the degree that it seemingly is.
I think the common idea was that sales would drop significantly for both XB1 and PS4, possibly YoY, because even while removing seasonality a few weeks beforehand the consoles were both under $300...

That the PS4 still increased YoY is indeed impressive imo.
 
Maybe people just have different definitions of the word "impressive".

Over the 2H of last year, PS4 was seeing average monthly growth significantly higher than Jan this year.

So while current estimates are certainly better than market averages, and clearly best in industry in terms of performance in the month, I can see why someone may not consider it to be "impressive" performance.

It's good, and in the context of the current market, which has the lowest Jan hardware sales in at least more than a decade, really good.

I guess it's all context. Looking at the rest of the pack, then yes I can see why someone would say the Jan performance is "impressive". Looking at PS4's recent history, and the state of the market in general compared to past years, it really isn't. Basically, it's about where the recent trends would place it, reasonably. It's certainly within a reasonable range of error given past performance.

Shrug.

except it did? Jan 15 Xbox went back to to $399, then they had to cut it half way through the month to $349 as sales cratered.

Actually, the difference in ASP between Jan 16 and Jan 15 is only about -5%.

15 pages in & this is the only mention of NBA 2K I've seen. Y'all better stop treating the NBA 2K series like some fatherless child. That series is a monster & it's only been getting bigger year after year.

What an incredibly odd post.

Yeah man Sony must be worried, their Console will crush 100m as easy as a Ferrari hits 100km per hour.

As is this one.
 

SwolBro

Banned
The major factor for the current level of PS4's success is not Sony, but Microsoft. Same thing can be said about 360's success, Sony did more for this than MS.

Of course Sony has its own merits (like MS had in the previous generation too).

Pretty much.
 

allan-bh

Member
This sounded like a spin to make the result look worse than really is.

But I found the result good, I don't need to make spin because I'm saying that is good.

I just thought that it was funny because the guy said that is impressive that PS4 is up YoY after a price cut (and tried to downplay the price cut, because in his words is "only" $50).

This doesn't make sense for me, was a price cut so going up is not "impressive".
 

Fdkn

Member
The major factor for the current level of PS4's success is not Sony, but Microsoft. Same thing can be said about 360's success, Sony did more for this than MS.

Of course Sony has its own merits (like MS had in the previous generation too).

If thinking that makes you happier, good for you. But as a non-american I find that very funny.
 
The major factor for the current level of PS4's success is not Sony, but Microsoft. Same thing can be said about 360's success, Sony did more for this than MS.

Of course Sony has its own merits (like MS had in the previous generation too).
I'd say what MS did complimented what was going to happen by default.
 
If thinking that makes you happier, good for you. But as a non-american I find that very funny.

As a non american I find that post perfectly right on the money? I mean PS4 would still probably have a decent lead WW even had MS done things differently (better) but it would be a lot smaller gap and in US (what this thread is about) Xbox One would be definitely in a lot better position. Just like PS3 would have been had Sony not screwed up with the console early on like MS this time around.

This entire statement only really works for NA.

It works worldwide. No one is saying that Xbox One would be leading consoles sales in regions like Europe but it would have done a lot better which is the point.
 
The major factor for the current level of PS4's success is not Sony, but Microsoft. Same thing can be said about 360's success, Sony did more for this than MS.

Of course Sony has its own merits (like MS had in the previous generation too).
This entire statement only really works for NA.
 
Are yoy saying that XBO was at $300 in all major stores during all month of january?

Well, as told to you already, last January, the XB1 was at $399 for half the month before returning to the $349 pricetag.

This January, the XB1 was at $349 all month long plus Amazon selling it for only $299. With those two advantages, one would anticipate the console to be up YOY, but instead, we saw the opposite happening.
 

allan-bh

Member
If thinking that makes you happier, good for you. But as a non-american I find that very funny.

Success or failures of companies and the reasons doesn't make me happy or unhappy, I'm just looking at how the things happened.

Without Sony and Microsoft mistakes, 360 and PS4 situations would be very different, specially on 360 case, PS4 would be fine despite not being this huge success.
 

Fdkn

Member
As a non american I find that post perfectly right on the money? I mean PS4 would still probably have a decent lead WW even had MS done things differently (better) but it would be a lot smaller gap and in US (what this thread is about) Xbox One would be definitely in a lot better position. Just like PS3 would have been had Sony not screwed up with the console early on like MS this time around.



It works worldwide. No one is saying that Xbox One would be leading consoles sales in regions like Europe but it would have done a lot better which is the point.

He's saying MS is the major factor in PS4 success. I don't see how can you agree with that.
 

Elandyll

Banned
Pretty much.
It's a matter of perspective I guess, but generally having your competitor fumble out of the gate shouldn't diminish your achievement if you do a nearly perfect run I think.

People should also admit that Sony read their userbase and the market expertly, made the right calls pretty much all along (including when unseen circumstances such as delays and technical problems arose, cf Driveclub/ UC4/ R&C...) and had to rely mostly on third party for 2015.
"A" factor for the PS4's success was certainly MS botching their launch, no doubt. But even if it was a big one I doubt it still explains this global domination when within 6 months MS had 180'd most problems and launched programs to try one'uping Sony everywhere they could.
It's also frankly a very American PoV, when it's actually Sony building their brand, presence and support internationally that explains the WW ratio mostly imo.

In the US, they positionned their messaging "for the gamers" with a mix of relatively powerful hardware architecture, no Drm messaging, Gaming identity and marketing savyness (which is sort of new imo, for SCEA at least).
The biggest mistake Sony made in the US imo was a very limited run of the GTA bundle at $349 in 2014. But again, they made more money (less sales), and now we're up to 1.32m gap at the end of December in the US alone.
 

allan-bh

Member
Actually, the difference in ASP between Jan 16 and Jan 15 is only about -5%.

Well, as told to you already, last January, the XB1 was at $399 for half the month before returning to the $349 pricetag.

This January, the XB1 was at $349 all month long plus Amazon selling it for only $299. With those two advantages, one would anticipate the console to be up YOY, but instead, we saw the opposite happening.

Not a significant advantage, plus Amazon is only 6% of the market, if XBO was at $300 in all stores the situation would be another.
 
Not a significant advantage, plus Amazon is only 6% of the market, if XBO was at $300 in all stores the situation would be another.

Not a significant advantage, but not the only advantage either.

EDIT: Welp, looks like the XB1 is $299 at Walmart, too, which does hold a significant marketshare.
 

gtj1092

Member
The major factor for the current level of PS4's success is not Sony, but Microsoft. Same thing can be said about 360's success, Sony did more for this than MS.

Of course Sony has its own merits (like MS had in the previous generation too).

Except for the fact that ps1/2 also existed. Are we to believe Sony keeps seeing console success by accident or because everyone else keeps making mistakes? Even their "failure" console ps3 sold 80 plus million units.
 
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