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NPD January 2023: Small decline in general YoY, both PS5 (1st) and Switch (2nd) up YoY.

demigod

Member
Sony without an MS would literally be the worst....I dont honestly think people would want Sony to be the only choice out there and if they do, holy fuck we are doomed.

MS just need to get good games out, theyve got the best hardware theyve ever had, the best services and the best studio portfolio theyve ever had. 2023 needs to be a complete game changer of a year.
Sony are so evil yet their first party games only costed $40 during the PS2 days. Their games were competing with 3rd parties. Did y'all just started playing on consoles?
 
How does Spiderman: MM just keep selling so well?! WOW!

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Sony are so evil yet their first party games only costed $40 during the PS2 days. Their games were competing with 3rd parties. Did y'all just started playing on consoles?

Why are you bringing up what their games were priced at over 20 years ago? How is that relevant in any way in 2023? Let's look at what they're doing in 2023, as that's actually rational.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Sony are so evil yet their first party games only costed $40 during the PS2 days. Their games were competing with 3rd parties. Did y'all just started playing on consoles?
PS2 era sony and PS5 era sony nickle and diming their customers are a very different company.

Hell, PS4 era Sony charged $40 for their remakes. PS5 era Sony charges $70.

Sony and MS both need each other especially since Nintendo has effectively bowed out of the console war focusing exclusively on handhelds. Thats one reason why the CoD deal is so contentious. There are no other competition for MS and Sony when it comes to third party games. 99% of the third party games dont even come out on the switch. Sony and MS are both holding each other in check and if one bows, it's going to be bad for the consumers.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Because games on Xbox are sold on Xbox store, not Steam or another shop.
VR headsets are sold at loss or minimal profit, when a player no longer buys their game on your store to play on your headset, you gain ZERO from it, might even lose money.
No VR manufacturer will ever agree to making their headset work on Xbox unless Xbox pays them in full their share of games other developers made.

This still shouldn't have stopped MS from partnering with a VR headset manufacturer. Plus they 100% would be willing to give up 30% of their revenue if it game them one more place to sell their VR games.
 
It's scary to think that MS might have given up on the Xbox Series X and is pushing\making more Series S sells. It's scary because their biggest games this year need to be played on a beefy PC or the XSX. The Series S will not do Starfield and Forza 8 justice.
I don't think that doing justice is important for anybody aside DF though.

They were fully aware that there was a hard demand ceiling on the XSX.
The thing is that Playstation sales do not indicate that at all. There is no indication that people would rather buy a cheaper console now than the more expensive one. Later in the gen when the demand is satisfied - sure, but right now? They are still the first adopters and people right now want the "hottest" product which is the more powerful console, rather than just a cheaper price.

I do funny it is fascinating that Playstation's bet on third parties and transmedia IPs - something that did not work for Xbox One - is doing wonders this gen. Would not be surprised that the cheaper diskless PS5 will do the same thing that Series S supposed to do originally.

Still remains to be seen when the cadence of releases of Xbox changes. For now there is no big first party releases and no third party marketing (to the point that some people are not aware that HP is available on Xbox). So Xbox essentially does not exist for now.
 
PS2 era sony and PS5 era sony nickle and diming their customers are a very different company.

Hell, PS4 era Sony charged $40 for their remakes. PS5 era Sony charges $70.

Sony and MS both need each other especially since Nintendo has effectively bowed out of the console war focusing exclusively on handhelds. Thats one reason why the CoD deal is so contentious. There are no other competition for MS and Sony when it comes to third party games. 99% of the third party games dont even come out on the switch. Sony and MS are both holding each other in check and if one bows, it's going to be bad for the consumers.
Sony charges the amount the market allows them to.

They weren't charging 70$ for remakes because they probably had data that showed they wouldn't sell well and it's been 10 years.

- PS5 has remakes for 70$ and yet, they sell. TLOU remake is yet again increasing in all charts;

- People complained about the PS5 price increase and yet PS5 is selling out after that.

- People complained about the games price increase while complimenting the Game Pass model for years. One is selling over 11M copies of certain games in less than 3 months for 80€ / 70$...the other one's subscribers don't get publicly updated for over a year (and it's available in both PC and consoles).

- People laughed at Sony for making a TLOU remake yet it's proven it was the perfect strategy.

- People laughed at an Uncharted movie with Tom Holland and it became a box office hit;

- I spent 10 years hearing that TLOU story was "nothing special" and how lots of movies and TV shows have done this before and the only reason why the game was a hit was because we never got something like this on a videogame...Sony announces the TV show and it became one of HBOs biggest hits ever.

Maybe PS5 era Sony knows what they are doing in all fronts and forum users don't?
 
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You say that sarcastically but I'm actually genius 😂 and you clearly didn't understand why I would ask you why you would say what you said in a sales thread 😂
No its you who doesnt understand why i would post this in a sales thread and not in the greatest asses of videogames thread.
 
The million-dollar question: how? They have nothing big on the horizon to change the market perception.

I can't put myself in Phil's shoes at the moment; he really has a tough job to do. I'd have 0 ideas of what to do at this point if I were him.
Give me his job and in one year Xbox will release a new game every second month non stop. Too much coffee breaks, too much perks in office, not afraid to lose your job, no targets and deadlines make even the best workers lazy assholes, i would never lift my finger in a company that values mediocrity. When two people get the same salary and one does nothing and the other works but In the end of the month they get the same money the second guy after couple months he will turn and behave like the first guy. They work in America in the land of triggered liberals, they never worked with people criticizing them or putting pressure on them.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Give me his job and in one year Xbox will release a new game every second month non stop. Too much coffee breaks, too much perks in office, not afraid to lose your job, no targets and deadlines make even the best workers lazy assholes, i would never lift my finger in a company that values mediocrity. When two people get the same salary and one does nothing and the other works but In the end of the month they get the same money the second guy after couple months he will turn and behave like the first guy. They work in America in the land of triggered liberals, they never worked with people criticizing them or putting pressure on them.

Something tells me NONE of this is why Xbox isn't doing better.
 
Yearly worldwide calendar year shipments for PS5 and Switch

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Sony are expecting a huge Jan-Mar for PS5 possibly 5 to 6 million which would be a massive increase over last years 2 million, i expect a huge increase for the whole year with 2023 probably being PS5's peak year for sales. Switch is declining by 4 million a year which will likely continue and Xbox will probably sell poorly until some big exclusives arrive on the platform.

My 2023 Worldwide sales prediction

PS5:
24 million
NSW: 15 million
Xbox Series: 9 million
 
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GHG

Member
There's no other way to put it, Xbox have downed tools at a critical point in the generation.

Absolutely piss poor pipeline, talent and IP management. At least Phil got some awards last year though.

Something tells me NONE of this is why Xbox isn't doing better.

It's actually a lot more simple than that but he just so happens to be everyone's favourite fake friend huggy bear.
 
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Microsoft Q2 Earnings (Oct, Nov, Dec 2022): -13% hardware

Now negative January 2023 in their biggest market. How are they down for 4 straight months?

No games, diminishing mindshare

I told people 2023 was going to be a rough year for Xbox and 2024 might be a barren year.

There is this idea that Starfield as new IP is going to move units. The reality is that most people who know what Starfield even is and want it on console, already have an Xbox. Original IP is almost never a system seller. With it being available on GamePass and specifically GamePass PC... I'm not sure how well it will do with numbers. Microsoft's entire model is cannibalistic and it's starting to bite them. When you think about the number of people who will need to play Starfield for it to be a success... the number is crazy, like 30-40 million (and that would make it bigger than Skyrim which was multiplatform across multiple generations). When you take into account the percentage of these that will play on PC rather than console, it's probably at least 25% PC and I'm being generously conservative here. That gives you 22.5 million to 30 million on Xbox. Now maybe half of those are going to be GamePass... so now you're looking at 11.25 to 15 million buying the game... now how many of these are going to be net new users who are just buying the console for the first time. Of course some of that will be captured in net new gamepass users as well, but I think you can get the idea that it'll be very hard for this game by itelf to move the needle.
 
Nah bro. The difference between the Series S and Series X matters. It isn't just 10% less resolution or something small.
Except it is not. Ask a person playing game and he won't tell what fps and resolution the game is running.



Big time momentum

With GoW launch and now HP game marketed as if it is exclusive + the end of shortage for them, momentum is really big. + TLOU show.
 

onQ123

Member
Xbox isn't going anywhere.
As a brand but as far as consoles go it's up in the air if they will come out to play in a traditional way next go around. Lately Microsoft don't even talk about Xbox Consoles & it seems they are taking a wait & see approach instead of making a push for a turnaround for Series X . PlayStation quickly got the manufacturing price down on PS5 & they will take it further with the redesign but Xbox doesn't seem to be focusing on making a big hardware push. I can see them releasing Surface products that will play your Xbox games or moving to cheaper Xbox consoles moving forward.
 

kaizenkko

Member
Maybe you are right and this idea blows my mind. Why? I enjoy my series x with a huge backlog and I don’t understand why few gamers out there don’t feel the same.
It’s not a console war argument. There are good games in every system on the shelves.
From my pov as Xbox user (and switch too) there are a lot of games, it’s not a problem for me if they aren’t AAAAA….
Pentiment, Immortality, Hi-Fi rush, AoE2 HD and all the stuff on gamepass (Persona, return to Monkey Island and more) fills my days and enlarges my backlog (I still have to play Deathloop).
And next months will arrive Forza Motorsport (AAA), Redfall (AAA?), WOLONG(AAA) day1 gamepass…Starfield!
What is wrong with gamers around the world ?? They all wanna play only Harry Potter and be sheep in the flock? 😩
Xbox doesn’t deserve this poor numbers. No way.
1) Microsoft's marketing is really bad, and Playstation already dominates the "mouth to mouth" marketing.
2) The gamepass is the only attraction of the Xbox, and contrary to what Microsoft believes, it is not something that valuable.
3) Still theres a lack of AAA exclusive games, that type of game who can really catch the interest of the public.

Honestly, I don't see things changing. Including, I imagine that the Playstation will sell much more than the Xbox throughout the year.
 

SLB1904

Banned
There's no other way to put it, Xbox have downed tools at a critical point in the generation.

Absolutely piss poor pipeline, talent and IP management. At least Phil got some awards last year though.
Honestly is not looking good. And the news of the gamepass cannibalising sales just come out. I doubt developers are too thrilled to hear
 

Varteras

Gold Member
Still time to correct course for MS, but they screwed up by not capitalizing on the two first years, when the insane shortages put a dent on Sony's plans to outsell the PS4 by a healthy margin. The next 12 months will, I think, decide the fate of this generation for both players.
I don't even think we need to wait that long. I'm pretty sure this generation has already been decided. PlayStation came in hot off of PS4 while Xbox was dragging its own body across the line with XBO. PS5 came out marketing new features and big games at launch with various solid releases for the year ahead. Xbox Series was mostly more of the same with no big releases until a whole year after launch and one of them, arguably the most important, ultimately ended up falling well short. The first two years have watched game after game come out on PS5 while XBS struggles to get consistent, high-profile, and impactful releases. The occasional lower budget gems like Hi-Fi Rush just aren't going to move the needle. Especially when even PlayStation's re-releases are getting more attention than most of Xbox's new games.

No matter how good this year is for Xbox, it's not going to shift things because PlayStation isn't slowing down. Starfield could be amazing but it won't make people forget about God of War and Horizon and then get them to ignore Final Fantasy and Spider-Man coming up. We're seeing clear indications that the neck-and-neck race for North America is slipping out of Xbox's fingers while being painfully obvious that global sales outside that region are still not at all favorable for them. Gamepass has acted as an expensive flotation device to keep Xbox's head above water while hoping the content ship arrives soon enough to save them from a storm. It takes years and a number of big things to happen, both good and bad, for a mindshare shift to happen. That COULD happen this generation but by the time that begins changing sales this generation will be over.

PlayStation has been firing on all cylinders for over a decade now. Xbox, in all that time, still has not mounted a truly effective response yet. Until they do, what we've been seeing happen since 2010 will just play on repeat.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
With GoW launch and now HP game marketed as if it is exclusive + the end of shortage for them, momentum is really big. + TLOU show.
Right?

Just really think about it, and you gotta tip off your hat to SIE's management for their strategic, ever-building momentum strategies:
  • January-February = PSVR 2 + Hogwart's Legacy + TLOU Show
  • March-April = All of the above + Horizon Burning Shores
  • May-June = Final Fantasy XVI
  • H2 2023 = Spider-Man 2, TLOU Online (marketing and/or release), Helldivers 2, PS5 w/ detachable disc drive.
In between, there will be smaller exclusive games like Stellar Blade, Pacific Drive, Eternights, etc. Another big third-party like Hogwart's Legacy in the form of Avatar, which is also being marketed by Sony.

2023 will be crazy for PlayStation.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
This still shouldn't have stopped MS from partnering with a VR headset manufacturer. Plus they 100% would be willing to give up 30% of their revenue if it game them one more place to sell their VR games.
If they give up the 30% they would get nothing, just the costs of hosting the games and process payments for the VR manufacturer, just to say "we have VR too".
They are already losing game sales to gamepass, gamepass can't remain at current price to be profitable and if they increase price they'll lose subscribers, it's basically a time bomb, they can't add to that VR at a loss just to stay relevant, and it's probably too late in this gen for that, even if they don't design their own VR headset.
 
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