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NPD Sales Results for August 2017 [Up: Video From NPD]

sirronoh

Member
I honestly wonder if it's Xbox One X affecting sales of the Xbox One, or is the low sales something that was always going to happen regardless.

It's likely a mix of both, though far more on the "low sales were always going to happen" side.

As has been mentioned numerous times in numerous threads now, hardware sales at this point in the life cycle are driven primarily by the lowest price as well as what new games are available. It's very unlikely that brand new customers who are finally interested in buying an Xbox One in year 4 will hold off to pay twice as much for a better version of the same system they can purchase today.

We know from the leaked data that Xbox One sales in the first half of 2016 were ~1.1m. From that same data, we know that Xbox One sales saw a nice boost in the second half of the year thanks to the Xbox One S -- a boost that completely evaporated by January as sales for the first half of 2017 were down, landing at ~0.98m.

So again, from the little that was shared, Xbox One sales were already declining (and would likely be worse if the Xbox One S never released). Xbox One X should provide a similar but better boost to Xbox One sales from November through February but then it's likely that sales in general will fall right back to the downward trend they were already on, especially with heavy competition from PS4 and Switch in the first half of 2018.
 

Rymuth

Member
I honestly wonder if it's Xbox One X affecting sales of the Xbox One, or is the low sales something that was always going to happen regardless.
If it was simply the case of XBX, then PS4 sales would be affected as well as people would rather wait for the more powerful console...except it isn't (it's up YoY)
 
There are items with * and ** but I didn't see anything that defined what those meant.

I honestly wonder if it's Xbox One X affecting sales of the Xbox One, or is the low sales something that was always going to happen regardless.

If we're specifically talking about the August 2017 numbers...

Madden NFL 18
Grand Theft Auto V
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Splatoon 2*
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Mario Kart 8*
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered
Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
Overwatch**
Injustice 2
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Minecraft
For Honor
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Agents Of Mayhem
Forza Horizon 3
Battlefield 1
NBA 2K17
UFC 2

What's the title that might have lifted Xbox? Everything I see would either lift

- only Nintendo
- only Sony
- or MS/Sony/PC as a whole (and given the sales disparity between XB1 and PS4, Sony probably sees the biggest number)

What in that lineup would have motivated someone to buy an Xbox rather than PS4 or Switch in August?
 

Elandyll

Banned
If Amazon is anything indicative at all of how hardware is going atm, September could be one very weird month.

After going back to $299 (having spent a large portion of the year between $249 and $269) the PS4 slim has dropped like a stone, the XB1S seems to still be as unenticing as it has been in sales, the 1X looks to have pre sold very well but those will basically be Holiday sales counted in November and if you count the Destiny bundle and the regular model, the PS4Pro seems to have done ok for itself...
The Switch seems to have done well again, though maybe less so than in previous months, but hard to position due to stock/ 3rd party seller selling above MSRP...

Makes me wonder how things are going for Abdiel and our other retail insiders in this "lul" before the serious things start.

Kinda feels like a $50 price drop on the PS4 is coming tbh.
 
To the Xbox One question... baseline demand changes can be explained by two things from the data I look at. First, exclusive content is having an impact, explains a big chunk of the performance change. The other thing the data suggests is that the early announce of One X may be slowing sales a bit over the summer.

As to which is having more impact... tough to say.

PS4 still holding strong UP YoY.

In units.

Spend is down on all platforms except for Switch (obviously) and Plug N Play devices like the NES Classic.

There are items with * and ** but I didn't see anything that defined what those meant.

As LordRaptor mentions, it's retail only.

And note that in the rankings Minecraft sales on Switch aren't counted since it's digital only, as will be the case with Minecraft 3DS.

If you tack on reasonable assumptions for the digital content that's missed, you can make a case for YoY content growth to be in the high single-digit to teen percentage, perhaps even a bit higher.
 

sirronoh

Member
To the Xbox One question... baseline demand changes can be explained by two things from the data I look at. First, exclusive content is having an impact, explains a big chunk of the performance change. The other thing the data suggests is that the early announce of One X may be slowing sales a bit over the summer.

As to which is having more impact... tough to say.



In units.

Spend is down on all platforms except for Switch (obviously) and Plug N Play devices like the NES Classic.



As LordRaptor mentions, it's retail only.

And note that in the rankings Minecraft sales on Switch aren't counted since it's digital only, as will be the case with Minecraft 3DS.

If you tack on reasonable assumptions for the digital content that's missed, you can make a case for YoY content growth to be in the high single-digit to teen percentage, perhaps even a bit higher.

Thanks as always Matt! I'd be very curious to know that if Xbox One sales are partially slowing from Xbox One X, is the audience here people who already own an PS4 or Switch or if the Xbox would be their first console this generation. I can see individuals who already own another console who may have wanted to purchase an Xbox as a second (or third) console holding off on a purchase but I'm far less inclined to see a customer new to the generation altogether holding off on a purchase for the Xbox One X.
 
Thanks as always Matt! I'd be very curious to know that if Xbox One sales are partially slowing from Xbox One X, is the audience here people who already own an PS4 or Switch or if the Xbox would be their first console this generation. I can see individuals who already own another console who may have wanted to purchase an Xbox as a second (or third) console holding off on a purchase but I'm far less inclined to see a customer new to the generation altogether holding off on a purchase for the Xbox One X.

Good questions. I'm of the mind that Sony was right in saying who the Pro was targeted at, and thinking the same kind of target will be the case for One X.

This late in the cycle, people that are coming into the generation as new customers are, by definition, late majority buyers (Moore's definition from Crossing the Chasm, which is essential reading for fans of console/tech sales imo). These folks are more price oriented than anything, and they're far more likely to choose a One S or Slim model than come in at a higher priced iterative model designed for the more Core audience that was likely in on this gen very early.
 

Welfare

Member
Xbox has had nothing this year to boost sales or even notable hardware pricing events. 2017 is the truest form of Xbox waiting for the holidays.

YoY with 2016, XB1 managed to have some increases in January, March, and May, but every month they are down from had massive price drops to boost sales. March and April 2016 had the $249 price cut, and June and July had severe price cuts in the lead up to the One S.

XB1 has been selling on the equivalent of hot air. It being an Xbox, it being cheap, and it coming with Minecraft/Battlefield 1.
 

ethomaz

Banned
In units.

Spend is down on all platforms except for Switch (obviously) and Plug N Play devices like the NES Classic.
That is what matter for hardware (and software IMO) because you increase userbase to spend more on subscriptions and software.

Spend is down most because the lower avg. price of the consoles compared with last year, no?
 
sorry Matt to annoy you, but i have another important question:

how are different game SKUs tracked, that release in a different reporting period
the $100 Forza Motorsport 7 Ultimate Edition releases 29th September in the September tracking period,
while the $60 Standard Edition is 3rd October in the October tracking period
(afaik this is the first time ever happening. we had early access SKUs before, but not in a different tracking period)

the UK charts for example track the sales, but postpone the counting for the regular release week
in Germany when retailers break street dates, we see games even charting a week before the official release data


so how does the NPD handle this?
 
Thanks for the heads up Hanspampel. This hadn't popped up on my radar until your post.

Well, sales are tracked based on SKU release. Given those dates, Ultimate would be in Sept, the others in Oct.
 
Lots of information

Thanks for the post! Just one minor thing: you might wanna double check Xbox Ones YoY performance. It's impossible for it to be down by more than 100% - unless it actually sold negative numbers. For example selling 100k in Aug 2017 while selling 1 million units in Aug 2016 would result in the YoY comparison being -90%.
 

pswii60

Member
Sorry if this has already been discussed, but do we know if PS4 is up or down on this month last year? I'm wondering whether Switch is taking a share out of PS4's sales, or if in fact (like the Wii) it's carving its own market and growing the industry again.
 
Sorry if this has already been discussed, but do we know if PS4 is up or down on this month last year? I'm wondering whether Switch is taking a share out of PS4's sales, or if in fact (like the Wii) it's carving its own market and growing the industry again.

Data suggests to me that it's clearly carving out its own market and growing the pie.
 
Thanks for the heads up Hanspampel. This hadn't popped up on my radar until your post.

Well, sales are tracked based on SKU release. Given those dates, Ultimate would be in Sept, the others in Oct.
thanks. important to know
will be interesting to see, if the game manages to chart in September with only the $100 SKU counting for 2 days


Thanks for the post! Just one minor thing: you might wanna double check Xbox Ones YoY performance. It's impossible for it to be down by more than 100% - unless it actually sold negative numbers. For example selling 100k in Aug 2017 while selling 1 million units in Aug 2016 would result in the YoY comparison being -90%.
that number should be 57.8%
maybe some excel formula miscalculation


Sorry if this has already been discussed, but do we know if PS4 is up or down on this month last year? I'm wondering whether Switch is taking a share out of PS4's sales, or if in fact (like the Wii) it's carving its own market and growing the industry again.
Ps4 is up 18.8 YoY for August*

*based on leaked NPD sales and GAF crunching numbers via prediction results
 

cakely

Member
Sorry if this has already been discussed, but do we know if PS4 is up or down on this month last year? I'm wondering whether Switch is taking a share out of PS4's sales, or if in fact (like the Wii) it's carving its own market and growing the industry again.

I've quoted the answer from Liabe's post on the previous page. Short answer: PS4 is up, at least in NA, so Switch seems to be tapping into a different market and not cutting into PS4 sales.

Just thought I'd fill in the missing numbers from July and August, to the best of my ability using parametrics.

...

Code:
[U][B]PERCENT CHANGE[/B][/U]
      [B] MoM       YoY   
SWI[/B]   -3.2%      ---
[B]PS4[/B]  -12.4%    +18.8%
[B]XB1[/B]   -5.7%   -136.9% [i](last year was launch of One S)[/i]

[U][B]CUMULATIVE SALES[/B][/U]
       [B]LTD       YTD   YTD vs 2016
SWI[/B]   2.01m     2.01m      ---     [i]March launch[/i]
[B]PS4[/B]  19.73m     2.19m    +15.1%
[B]XB1[/B]  17.08m     1.23m    -21.0%

...

PS4 is having its best year in the US so far, and by a decent margin.
 
Pre-ordered the One X over the weekend. Hope it does well, but whatever happens at the very least I'll have a 4K player ready for my new TV early next year.
 

ethomaz

Banned
5 years is quite awhile.
Well in 2010 Wii was already dead in sales terms.

More like 3-4 years... btw these 3-4 years are what Wii did record breaking performance... after that it dropped so hard that it lifetime sales are not something to grab about.
 

Wereroku

Member
Is it really a blue ocean though? What untapped new market are they reaching?

One market they could be hitting are people who only buy handhelds. Bringing in a new group that generally avoid consoles would cause an increase without lowering PS4 or XBO. I wonder if some of those customers will pick up an PS4/XBO that they would have avoided before because they enjoy the tv mode for the Switch.

So they may not be bringing in a brand new gaming audience but instead bringing handheld numbers into the console numbers. NPD specifically categorizes the Switch as a console and not a handheld.
 
Is it really a blue ocean though? What untapped new market are they reaching?

I'd argue the other way around: If they tapped into a red ocean with a strong product, all the other products on that very market would have taken a dent by now. The XBOX has, of course, seen a decline, but as Matt pointed out there are other reasons which perfectly explain that development.

Frankly, of course Switch impacts both PS4 and XBOX, but to a much lesser degree than at least I expected.
 
Every month, i come into these threads, see Rainbow Six Siege still doing great and think to myself... Lord, please let Sony see the hope for SOCOM within the very real tactical shooter market on consoles. I'll be back next month then.
 
Well in 2010 Wii was already dead in sales terms.

More like 3-4 years... btw these 3-4 years are what Wii did record breaking performance... after that it dropped so hard that it lifetime sales are not something to grab about.

No it wasn't? Wii still sold huge amounts during 2010 holidays in US. 1.27 million in november and 2.36 million in december. For whole year it still moved over 7 million units in US during 2010. Even in 2011 it still sold close to 5 million for a year (not that much less than PS4 last year). 2012 was when it died.
 
Thanks for the correction.

in Japan Xbox One sales are already over 1 million units behind the 360 to date, or down 93% over the previous generation.
just for some perspective, why Xbox One is still ahead in the US, but most likely down world wide.

and Xbox One will stay ahead of 360 in the US for at least another year, because until 2010 the Xbox 360 really didn't sell gangbusters


No it wasn't? Wii still sold huge amounts during 2010 holidays in US. 1.27 million in november and 2.36 million in december.
yeah Wii was still the best selling console in 2010 with over 7 million units sold
that only changed in 2011 with X360 overtaking it

edit: and only 3 consoles ever sold more units than the Wii in 2010 for exactly just one year each
the Xbox 360 in 2011, the Ps2 in 2002 and the Ps1 in 1998
 

Fiendcode

Member
Well in 2010 Wii was already dead in sales terms.

More like 3-4 years... btw these 3-4 years are what Wii did record breaking performance... after that it dropped so hard that it lifetime sales are not something to grab about.
Wii sold over 7m in the US in 2010. If that's dead then PS4 was never alive.
 

ethomaz

Banned
No it wasn't? Wii still sold huge amounts during 2010 holidays in US. 1.27 million in november and 2.36 million in december. For whole year it still moved over 7 million units in US during 2010. Even in 2011 it still sold close to 5 million for a year (not that much less than PS4 last year). 2012 was when it died.
Now look at previous holidays... 3 million in holidays? Pretty much dead.
 
Now look at previous holidays... 3 million in holidays? Pretty much dead.

You have very weird definition of dead. Is PS4 currently dead as it will sell less this year in US than Wii did in 2010? Yes Wii was already in decline in 2010 but sure as hell wasn't dead.
 
Now look at previous holidays... 3 million in holidays? Pretty much dead.

Wii sold
2m in 2007
4m in 2008
5m in 2009
3m in 2010
2m in 2011
1m in 2012

and you call 3 million dead already?


btw: the peak Ps3 year was 4.5 million
that is exactly what the Wii sold in 2011 a full year after the console was already dead
 
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