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GSD European video game and hardware sales for September 2023 - PS5#1 (+175%) NSW#2 (-25%) XBS#3 (-35%) | EA FC 24#1 Starfield#2 MK1#3

yazenov

Member
Starfield #1 in the US and #2 in Europe behind Football (duh).

Looks like it's a huge retail sales success despite being on game pass.

Nice.

You have to admit that Starfield's sales 13% below Forza Horizon 5 is a little bit concerning in Europe, regardless of the #2 rank. That's with a whole month's worth of sales including the early access.

Are Sim racers other than Gran Turismo relevant nowadays?
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
You have to admit that Starfield's sales 13% below Forza Horizon 5 is a little bit concerning in Europe, regardless of the #2 rank. That's with a whole month's worth of sales including the early access.

Are Sim racers other than Gran Turismo relevant nowadays?

It being 10~% short of the biggest xbox launch in history isn't exactly bad, these are just two very big releases, they can co-exist.
 
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yazenov

Member

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Biggest in terms of sales or engagement?

At the time? probably both, don't forget, it had more than a million players with the deluxe / upgrade editions before the games retail release. It did pretty good back in '21.



old man relax GIF
 
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Ansphn

Member
Eventually Microsoft will pull the plug on Xbox. Why keep losing money on consoles when you have so many studios to make games you can send everywhere (PC, PlayStation, Nintendo, Mobile) and make way more profit than to send it to just PC and dying Xbox console? At this point, they're losing money on making the Xbox consoles.
 
No doubt they have the weakest brand.

Sincerely though, a new Elder Scrolls or Fallout (or both) being top tier would most likely bury the Starfield discourse. What it would do for hardware, who knows, but it would at least put Bethesda closer to their roots of the past. They may never again have another Skyrim if PlayStation isn't in the picture, but they can do better than Fallout 76 and Starfield.

None of those games are coming out within the next 3 maybe even 4 years
 

TheTony316

Member
Well, let me see:

- bad in EU;
- bad in Japan;
- not so good in UK;
- not so good even in US, their best market.

Yeah, I think all that talk about need Activision to compete might be true.

More like: dead in Japan.

Let MS buy Ubisoft and Capcom, so they can compete in Europe and Japan.
 
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What is the next big Microsoft game? The only one I can think of is Fable, and that comes out 2025 at the earliest. They have Avowed and Hellblade in 2024, but I don't think either of those games will be system sellers
 

X-Wing

Member
If they did not care about console sales, why did they buy and make these games console exclusives?
Because for now a big chunk of their subscribers is on console and the console is their biggest gateway to the ecosystem. The strategy is to use the content that they now have thanks to the Activision acquisition to get away from that situation. Whether it will be Game Pass PC having a major player increase when PC gamers are faced with the choice between paying 70 usd for COD on Steam or subscribing to the service or the push with the cloud to cheaper devices, the writing is pretty much on the wall. I don’t expect to see them releasing any more high end console hardware in the future.
 
Because for now a big chunk of their subscribers is on console and the console is their biggest gateway to the ecosystem. The strategy is to use the content that they now have thanks to the Activision acquisition to get away from that situation. Whether it will be Game Pass PC having a major player increase when PC gamers are faced with the choice between paying 70 usd for COD on Steam or subscribing to the service or the push with the cloud to cheaper devices, the writing is pretty much on the wall. I don’t expect to see them releasing any more high end console hardware in the future.

How exactly cancelling Playstation versions of games helps current Xbox GamePass subscribers?

They are just leaving money on the table....

Hardware is not selling, software is not selling on that hardware.

It seems like a decision out of spite, not business sense
 
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Killjoy-NL

Member
I don’t know what’s surprising about software sales being down compared to last year. We just got out of the pandemic. People actually spend more on activities they can do outside their home now.
Yes, until Spider-Man 2 numbers are in.
Then people will seem to have forgotten all about the pandemic.

OT:

Xbox is irrelevant in Europe. Starfield was never going to change anything, or sell amazingly.
 

mitch1971

Member
Even if MS decided to try and make a PS version of starfield, now, the horse has already bolted and PS users are not really impressed with it's averaging score. At least a release at the same time could of got more copies sold on the expectation of the game.
 
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Even if MS decided to try and make a PS version of starfield, now, the horse has already bolted and PS users are not really impressed with it's averaging score. At least a release at the same time could of got more copies sold on the expectation of the game.

We are talking about future games, Starfield's ship has sailed... Too late now
 
Their games bombed on xbox one so they started to release day and date on PC. Sale splits were bad so they looked into subscription. Splits are worse now than before.

He meant why allow their games on Steam when they should be pushing GamePass and THEIR store?

If you allow Steam and you don't care about console sales, why exclude Playstation then?

It's like bipolar strategy at this point
 
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Dr_Ifto

Member
XBOX's decisions, which people claim are pro-consumer, are actually hurting their business. Yeah they are making money, and with Activision, they will make more, but as a console, its dead in the water. XBOX might as well just be a publisher now. They should have actually went after Valve, which would have been extremely hard, rather than Acitvision. Then they could say they are the Premier market, the PC market.

Only time will tell. We need them in the market to make Sony nervous and innovate. I hope their next console and their go-to-market strategy moving forward drives console sales.
 

demigod

Member
He meant why allow their games on Steam when they should be pushing GamePass and THEIR store?

If you allow Steam and you don't care about console sales, why exclude Playstation then?

It's like bipolar strategy at this point
They are competing against PlayStation. They know they fucked up with GFWL and their store sucks. There is no competing against Steam.
 
XBOX's decisions, which people claim are pro-consumer, are actually hurting their business. Yeah they are making money, and with Activision, they will make more, but as a console, its dead in the water. XBOX might as well just be a publisher now. They should have actually went after Valve, which would have been extremely hard, rather than Acitvision. Then they could say they are the Premier market, the PC market.

Only time will tell. We need them in the market to make Sony nervous and innovate. I hope their next console and their go-to-market strategy moving forward drives console sales.

Yeah honestly the best thing for Phil to do is strike a deal for GamePass on PlayStation

Xbox audience seems to have either moved to PC or PlayStation, and that migration is just getting worse with no end in sight
 

Dr_Ifto

Member
He meant why allow their games on Steam when they should be pushing GamePass and THEIR store?

If you allow Steam and you don't care about console sales, why exclude Playstation then?

It's like bipolar strategy at this point
Your comment really made me think about this. They dont care about their store, and dont care about giving Steam 30% of the game, and seem to not be focusing on consoles as much anymore, there really isnt a reason to keep it off Playstation. In the end, its about making money, and Starfield was a guaranteed 10-15m copy game on PS alone. They could always advertise that its free on GP on XBOX, but you can buy the game on PS. Only time will tell what their strategy is going forward. Hopefully, its enough to make Sony actually do something.
 

hinch7

Member
He meant why allow their games on Steam when they should be pushing GamePass and THEIR store?

If you allow Steam and you don't care about console sales, why exclude Playstation then?

It's like bipolar strategy at this point
Phil Spencer and co, must've thought that Starfield would be a system seller despite the downward trend and interest in Xbox consoles. And releasing it on competitors platform wouldn't do the brand any favors.

Though the game released, was met with mixed reception and didn't really move the needle. And here we are, with barely any XBS titles talk about since their main flagships (Infinite and Starfield) has come and gone with other ones like Fable, seemingly years away.

That and the only relevant market for Xbox rn, is NA. And even that is shrinking.
 
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Yea, the Xbox brand is toast. If Starfield can't do it for them, nothing else can.


This is probably the last gen we are going to see a traditional Xbox console. The damage to the brand has been done already. Halo couldn't do it for them and now Starfield, their biggest and most hyped game ever couldn't do it for them in NPD and now it's also failing in Europe.
 

HeWhoWalks

Gold Member
XBOX's decisions, which people claim are pro-consumer, are actually hurting their business. Yeah they are making money, and with Activision, they will make more, but as a console, its dead in the water. XBOX might as well just be a publisher now. They should have actually went after Valve, which would have been extremely hard, rather than Acitvision. Then they could say they are the Premier market, the PC market.

Only time will tell. We need them in the market to make Sony nervous and innovate. I hope their next console and their go-to-market strategy moving forward drives console sales.
"Make Sony nervous and innovate". Now that's funny. The only thing that I imagine has worried Sony is the purchasing of pubs. Otherwise, nothing else they do is making anyone nervous. They have the lowest install base and sell the least amount of software. Nintendo and Sony need real competitors and Xbox hasn't been it.
 

Chastten

Banned
Honestly, Xbox could just exit our market and very few people would even notice at this point. They might as well not exist.

It's absolutely incredibly how they managed to fuck up the success the 360 had, with bad decision after bad decision. I doubt even Sega fucked up this bad. They simply had less money.
 

Pop

Member
Heres the truth--There is very little reason to own current or (future) Xbox consoles with gamepass around. PC market is and will continue to grow which eats into Xbox consoles when you factor in gamepass.

The more people who turn to PC gaming the less the need to own a Xbox. Just get PC gamepass for $10 a month or free* with Microsoft rewards. Don't be surprised when Microsoft announces they will exit the hardware market within the next 5 years.
 
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