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[Steverulez]

I thought digital prices in the UK were a huge ripoff.

Microsofts digital rrp in the U.K. Is a bit more favourable than other publishers, halo 5 is £45 and generally their titles have been that price (forza might have been £49 I can't remember) so it's not as bad as other publishers charging up to £55-£60 although I don't think halo 5 has necessarily done much more digitally compared to other titles (% wise)

 

[viHuGi]

Assassin's Creed had a weak launch, Halo had a weak launch. Maybe it's time to ask what is going on in the UK if another game fails to connect? Are UK consumers losing confidence in release quality, going digital or simply spending their money else where?

Fifa had a strong launch, black ops 3 will have a strong launch!

 

[Hasney]

They generally are, but a few games release at around the same price as retail. This has been in that ball park.

It's a decent price compared to most, but looking around, Halo 5 could have been had easily for under £40 at retail.

Fifa had a strong launch, black ops 3 will have a strong launch!

It's going to be interesting. I don't think Ghosts or AW did amazingly comparatively, but Black Ops might still have some name cache on top of just being another Call of Duty. I'm thinking second biggest launch of the year behind FIFA still.

 

[texhnolyze]

Surprise! People eventually get bored of stuff.

Yes, even you Halo.

How about those other FPS games and most annual sports games?

 

[Kusagari]

Destiny doing better on the bone than Halo would be hilarious

 

[Mpl90]

Yes; it's a bit of a spurious headline considering we don't have data for the original game, but that still makes it the lowest selling mainline game from the franchise in ~14 years. And although digital is gaining more and more ground, I think analysts still peg it around 20-25% copies sold for the biggest of releases. And I imagine they're mostly referencing North America when they say that, as certainly here in Europe we get shafted on digital pricing.

Actually...we got something on the matter recently by Nintendo.

That includes both 3DS and Wii U, btw.

 

[toweringinferno]

I thought digital prices in the UK were a huge ripoff.

They are. No one i know buys digital, but that's anecdotal. You can get most new games for under £40 and you can always lend them to other people like my cousins and i do.

 

[Kayant]

Well to begin Witcher 3 had 25% across all 3 platforms digitally. So how about you, or anyone else for that matter, provide evidence, rather than put LOL like a child.

Why should we if you yourself have not provided any evidence or data of digital *drastically outselling physical* or the number being on average more than 25%. Lol

 

[Primethius]

The digital spin in here by some is ridiculous. Digital accounts for 20 to 30 percent at best as others have pointed out.

Pretty poor sales for Halo 5, given that it's MS's flagship IP.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Well this is no surprise. Smaller install base + bad PR of Halo MCC = low sales.

This, remember Xbox is number 2 now, this was expected frankly

 

[Chobel]

Well to begin Witcher 3 had 25% across all 3 platforms digitally. So how about you, or anyone else for that matter, provide evidence? Rather than put LOL like a child.

I'd also speculate that the digital split for this will be much higher based on the nature of the original concept for the XB1, with it being first party and not being priced at £55 digitally.

I'd say it had similar numbers to Halo 2.

The witcher includes PC which is mostly digital.

You want evidence? Check the quarterly reports of big publishers, the most recent one

195million, up 27% YoY for freemium games

FIFA Online 3 from China is "meeting expectations", but no numbers given (was actually kind of curious about this)

New titles in quarter are seeing around 20% for digital sales, except for FIFA which was a bit lower than that (edit: This comment may have JUST been about FIFA)

"I'd say it had similar numbers to Halo 2." Digital is ~73% of retail? You're crazy.

 

[RichiRamjag]

Your using retail Amazon sales to make a case for digital sales. Digital sales are a scarecrow; if we compare Halo 4 and MCC which also were released in a recent time we can see its not great for Halo 5.

Digital sales are not new and a collection game sold 2/3rds of the mainline entry. Not great.



I absolutely think a big issue is not moving consoles. MCC vs 5 shows its lost wider appeal - but this is not a install base issue - this is Halo not selling those systems anymore - might be down to the competition but its still not competing well.

Definitely lost its appeal. It's not the game that it once was by any means to the general public. Folks wear the nolstalgia glasses when discussing halo and don't realize this sadly.

 

[Asd202]

Well to begin Witcher 3 had 25% across all 3 platforms digitally. So how about you, or anyone else for that matter, provide evidence, rather than put LOL like a child.

I'd also speculate that the digital split for this will be much higher based on the nature of the original concept for the XB1, with it being first party and not being priced at £55 on the store, like every other game is.

I'd say it had similar numbers to Halo 2 in that list.

Hehe can feel the meltdown.

 

[Carl]

A full price title which was priced cheaper digitally @ £45?



I live in the UK. I'll iterate, I know one person who bought this physically. That's digital 900% outselling physical in my friendship circle.

Is this a meme or something?

 

[dragonfart28]

Here is the actual Witcher 3 data:

The real eye opener there is that digital was double the amount of revenue as retail.

Wowzers

 

[Visualante2]

Fifa had a strong launch, black ops 3 will have a strong launch!

Black Ops seems like a big test for Activision.

 

[secondspace]

The last two games from the studio have been poorly received, they're trying to carry on a story that ended with Halo 3 for most people, the marketing doesn't have the wow factor that ODST or Reach had and a lot of Halo fans have moved to the new game from Bungie. Is it really a huge surprise this is struggling?

 

[Liamc723]

I bought it for £16 brand new, digitally. It's not UK region based, which would skew these figures, but personally I don't know why people are buying physical this gen.

There's literally no reason for me to choose digital over physical. Physical is better.

 

[Alo0oy]

According to TrueAchievements it's sold about triple of Forza Motorsport 6 so far. So in the 3 million range worldwide for the first week. That's not bad but Halo 4 of course sold three million on the first day. I'm sure a lot of people were sceptical after Halo 4 if Halo 5 would be any good so lower sales are expected, they'll pick up in the next week due to good word of mouth.

I don't think Forza is anywhere near 1 million.

 

[ViciousDS]

Well to begin Witcher 3 had 25% across all 3 platforms digitally. So how about you, or anyone else for that matter, provide evidence, rather than put LOL like a child.

I'd also speculate that the digital split for this will be much higher based on the nature of the original concept for the XB1, with it being first party and not being priced at £55 on the store, like every other game is.

I'd say it had similar numbers to Halo 2 in that list.

When did major get two accounts?

 

[Dragon Puncher]

50.000 digital doesn't seem unlikely to me. 200.000 still wouldn't be great though, but I guess 2 titles in a row that wasn't super well-received (Halo 4 especially with the hardcore fanbase and MCC because it was broke as fuck) will have some impact on your sales.

 

[Captain Smirk]

I'm going guess and say that both Black Ops 3 and Battlefront will sell more than 150k on Xbox One alone in their opening weeks.

 

[SparkTR]

The real eye opener there is that digital was double the amount of revenue as retail.

Wowzers

It's because a retail copies gets CDP less than $25 once everybody gets their cut, while a copy sold on Gog gets them the full $60, and a copy on other digital platforms like Steam and I assume PSN/XBL gets them $42. A digital copy is essentially worth two or even three physical copies sold depending on where they bought it.

 

[Dr Dogg]

I thought digital prices in the UK were a huge ripoff.

For third party publishers they are (Steam, Origin and Uplay for PC as well) but Sony and Microsoft are a little more lenient seeing as they're diving up less of the pie. Regards to Halo 5 though Tesco by me, the UK's largest supermarket chain, had a large display right at the front of the store for £35. Went up to £40 now but at the time the other retailers in the local area all price matched each other.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Just not interested no matter how much they push it, I was talking to some of my Xbox friends and even they were saying the same, they want something new with that sort of budget and backing.

 

[IronicSonic]

People still is playing Destiny I think

 

[remz]

There's literally no reason for me to choose digital over physical. Physical is better.

wat.

maybe not worrying about discs damaging, or having to worry about changing discs?

physical is only better because it's cheaper.

 

[Xater]

The real eye opener there is that digital was double the amount of revenue as retail.

Wowzers

And yet they want you to pay the same or more than for physical games. Go figure!

wat.

maybe not worrying about discs damaging, or having to worry about changing discs?

physical is only better because it's cheaper.

I don#t know what you do with your disc, that this is a legitimate worry.

 

[jimboton]

I feel this is quite a worry that Halo has become more niche and sold to a more core base tban a wider audience - this is supposed to be their flagship franchise.

No worries if you're a fan and not a shareholder though. Being 'niche' can allow for greater risks and more creativity. If they plan their budget accordingly they can still profit making great shooters for shooters fans.

 

[Hanmik]

360 install base for Halo 3 was approximatively the same as Xbox One istall base for Halo 5.

do you have any numbers..?

 

[ViciousDS]

wat.

maybe not worrying about discs damaging, or having to worry about changing discs?

physical is only better because it's cheaper.

Blu rays are not DVDs. I've taken nail files and slashed the underside of a blu Ray. They have a coating that makes it really, really hard to destroy. You have to actually try to damage a blu ray. This is t the Xbox 360 now lol

 

[leeh]

Hehe can feel the meltdown.

I like triggering full pages of green for myself when I'm bored at work.

The witcher includes PC which is mostly digital.

You want evidence? Check the quarterly reports of the big publishers, the most recent one


"I'd say it had similar numbers to Halo 2." Digital is ~73% of retail? You're crazy.

I can't argue with that. Obviously my friendship circle is in the digital demographic, with a 1/9 split. Although, I can't see that averaging out to 4/1 for the nation, but that's just my thoughts rather than actual figures. It is worth noting a lot of my friends do buy physical, and wait for sales, but they all wanted this day one and pre-ordered digitally.

There's literally no reason for me to choose digital over physical. Physical is better.

The price I mentioned in the quote? I bought H5 brand new for £16, cheapest elsewhere is £40. It's also ready at midnight with all the ridiculous day one patches installed, I can't see why you wouldn't.

 

[CmdBash]

are these numbers all adjusted for how many days they've been on the shelves?

 

[EGM1966]

The digital spin in here by some is ridiculous. Digital accounts for 20 to 30 percent at best as others have pointed out.

Pretty poor sales for Halo 5, given that it's MS's flagship IP.

The believers clearly need something to believe in.

Given how PC and smaller titles skew digital percentages I struggle, based on all the noted digital percentages many have posted in this thread, to believe a large, full priced game delivers much more than 15% on digital. There's just no evidence for it in the UK.

The majority buy physical because you can get much cheaper price and if you want have a trade in at some point.

Even being generous and assuming 20% the sales are clearly not what you'd expect from a numbered Halo that's the first new iteration on a new Xbox platform.

Given how low OG and 360 install bases in line with XB1 didn't hurt Halo 2 or 3 it's also clear install base is nothing much to do with it either.

The franchise simply hasn't been terrifically handled post Bungie and rushing out MCC broken to try and prop up XB1 early on was clearly a poor strategic move with hindsight.

 

[hooijdonk17]

wat.

maybe not worrying about discs damaging, or having to worry about changing discs?

physical is only better because it's cheaper.

To this day I've only had one disc damaged my entire life and that was a result of Gears of War collector edition's fucked up disc holder that broke DVDs.. I mailed it in and got a replacement right away.

 

[Hydrargyrus]

This is going to be interesting

 

[Conduit]

Well this is no surprise. Smaller install base + bad PR of Halo MCC = low sales.

But Halo 3 had a smaller install base in UK. Install base has nothing to do with Halo 5 sales.

 

[kadotsu]

I don#t know what you do with your disc, that this is a legitimate worry.

"Bro just borrow that copy to me"

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Actually...we got something on the matter recently by Nintendo.

That includes both 3DS and Wii U, btw.

Thank you; that's really interesting. If we can take this as a general trend for all regions then I guess it seems that Europeans just don't like buying games digitally - again, probably because we get fucked on price (although I don't know how this applies to Nintendo). From the Cheap Arse Gaffer topic it seems that a fair few people buy physical games from the UK and get them shipped to mainland Europe, as here we have a lot of retailer price wars and fast price drops, so games rarely hold their value for too long. I imagine a lot of us just outright buy digital from North America as well, as you can get codes for games very cheap or they actually offer fair prices on digital stores which match retail stores.

 

[BokehKing]

I'm going guess and say that both Black Ops 3 and Battlefront will sell more than 150k on Xbox One alone in their opening weeks.

Oh yeah, that's a given, those are easier games to play than Halo, people who can't "get good" at halo will be trading it in for COD, as people did with Halo4 for BLOPs2 last time these two devs went head to head

 

[Asd202]

wat.

maybe not worrying about discs damaging, or having to worry about changing discs?

physical is only better because it's cheaper.

I would say digital is more convenient not better. Some people just prefer to have a box copy of a game look here for example:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1130666

 

[dh4niel]

Halo: Reach representin'.

 

[chromatic9]

Microsofts rrp in the U.K. Is a bit more favourable than other publishers, halo 5 is £45 and generally their titles have been that price (forza might have been £59 I can't remember) so it's not as bad as other publishers charging up to £55-£60 although I don't think halo 5 has necessarily done much more digitally compared to other titles (% wise)

Halo 5 has been ~£35 retail all over the place. That is very cheap for a big new game, despite next gen tax mostly gone.

While I take onboard the cheaper than usual rip-off digital price, I doubt it's taken anymore or much more than 10-15% of sales.

 

[Huff]

Maybe it was just bad weather outside

 

[gossi]

To be honest between Assassin's Creed Syndicate (lowest selling AC game) and Halo 5, I think it's very very clear publishers shouldn't ship broken games in big franchises.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

I'm in the UK and I bought Halo 5 digital.

It was £45 which is cheaper than most new digital releases and having it on my HDD is nice and convenient.
Also, I got to pre-load the 8GB patch and play at midnight.

There may be a large number of people who thought the same.

 

[glaringradio]

A full price title which was priced cheaper digitally @ £45?

Full price title? Halo 5 was £40 in Tesco...

 

[soxinthebox]

Used to be a big fan but after Halo 4 being disappointing and MCC being a bit of a shambles I haven't even bought 5 yet. Im sure I will at some stage but I'm not in a huge rush as I'd rather play something like Titanfall for multi nowadays.

Can imagine there's other people out there like that.

 

[Hasney]

The price I mentioned in the quote? I bought H5 brand new for £16, cheapest elsewhere is £40. It's also ready at midnight with all the ridiculous day one patches installed, I can't see why you wouldn't.

But then you're not contributing to UK sales, so if a lot of people did that, it would still be the worst in the UK including digital.

 

[Floex]

I like triggering full pages of green for myself when I'm bored at work.


I can't argue with that. Obviously my friendship circle is in the digital demographic, with a 1/9 split. Although, I can't see that averaging out to 4/1 for the nation, but that's just my thoughts rather than actual figures. It is worth noting a lot of my friends do buy physical, and wait for sales, but they all wanted this day one and pre-ordered digitally.


The price I mentioned in the quote? I bought H5 brand new for £16, cheapest elsewhere is £40. It's also ready at midnight with all the ridiculous day one patches installed, I can't see why you wouldn't.

Oh c'mon, you're saying that you can buy new digtal console games for £16 and you think this is the norm? What world are you living in?