Both Shadow Fall & Second Son were the fastest selling in their respective franchises, we don't know if they sold better overall or not, but the small userbase did not prevent SS from selling 1 million in 9 days, which was the fastest the franchise has hit 1 million, & Shadow Fall sold 2.1 million in less than a month & a half.
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NPD Sales Results for January 2015 [PS4 #1, Nintendo Numbers, XB1 Minimum]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Both Shadow Fall & Second Son were the fastest selling in their respective franchises, we don't know if they sold better overall or not, but the small userbase did not prevent SS from selling 1 million in 9 days, which was the fastest the franchise has hit 1 million, & Shadow Fall sold 2.1 million in less than a month & a half.
ArchedThunder
Banned
Yeah, what a lot of people don't realize is that the worldwide install base of the PS4 will likely be over 30 million when Uncharted 4 comes out, especially if it gets a price drop before the holiday season.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Yup. Better than the average non-holiday month.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
For framing, if you want to look at a bigger metric for success, it actually is more beneficial to look at how much revenue a title brings in within the fiscal it launches.
So I see a lot of "best selling" vs "fastest selling" arguments. Obviously for franchises "on the bubble," overall sales is important since it brings a wider base into your funnel you could potentially re-sell to down the line.
But not to be overlooked and potentionally more important is how much up-front sales a title does because that's generally what games are budgeted for. You have new products next fiscal to hit your financial goals, so when you launch a product in one fiscal and it sells 7mm units from Nov-March and never hits 10mm lifetime but are comparing it to a previous release that sells 5mm units in its Nov-March timeframe but sells 10mm over the course of 4 years, the "faster selling" title will be looked at as the bigger success in a lot of ways because chances are it over achieved its forecasting compared to the timeframe it was budgeted for.
The books change once the fiscal does and the tie becomes "catalogue sales" - again important, but if a company spends $50mm on marketing in one fiscal you better believe they want their return on it in that fiscal... It's looked at a little differently if it takes longer to get there.
Sometimes titles are much slower burners (though it's rare) and in thos cases you tend to see more re-releases and expansions than full sequels. Tests the market to see if that title was just lucky or a fade or if the market really will support a ground up, full budget sequel.
Vs a game like CoD or AC that may be in decline year over year but does gangbusters at launch and hits or comes close to its targets ... All that cash, it's really hard for a company to make up that windfall if they don't have a similar revenue generation product in the same quarter next year. Hence annulalization and giant condensed marketing spends. Gotta keep those lights on as you bake your next big game.
So I see a lot of "best selling" vs "fastest selling" arguments. Obviously for franchises "on the bubble," overall sales is important since it brings a wider base into your funnel you could potentially re-sell to down the line.
But not to be overlooked and potentionally more important is how much up-front sales a title does because that's generally what games are budgeted for. You have new products next fiscal to hit your financial goals, so when you launch a product in one fiscal and it sells 7mm units from Nov-March and never hits 10mm lifetime but are comparing it to a previous release that sells 5mm units in its Nov-March timeframe but sells 10mm over the course of 4 years, the "faster selling" title will be looked at as the bigger success in a lot of ways because chances are it over achieved its forecasting compared to the timeframe it was budgeted for.
The books change once the fiscal does and the tie becomes "catalogue sales" - again important, but if a company spends $50mm on marketing in one fiscal you better believe they want their return on it in that fiscal... It's looked at a little differently if it takes longer to get there.
Sometimes titles are much slower burners (though it's rare) and in thos cases you tend to see more re-releases and expansions than full sequels. Tests the market to see if that title was just lucky or a fade or if the market really will support a ground up, full budget sequel.
Vs a game like CoD or AC that may be in decline year over year but does gangbusters at launch and hits or comes close to its targets ... All that cash, it's really hard for a company to make up that windfall if they don't have a similar revenue generation product in the same quarter next year. Hence annulalization and giant condensed marketing spends. Gotta keep those lights on as you bake your next big game.
Welfare
Member
I'll PM
That only applies to titles that get discounted very quickly though, The Last of Us on PS3 for example remained at full price until the PS4 version launched, so a sale at launch brought as much revenue as a sale in April the next year for example.
But to your point, the first Bayonetta sold 1 million units, but the majority of its sales came from the bargain bin edition.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
I don't get the sale analogy?
Are we talking retailer price slashing to remove units from shelves or BER-funded sale tactics from publishers to temporarily boost revenue?
If modeled and funded the right way back end rebate tactics from publishers are a healthy way to drive sales... Look at Just Dance, they play that card a lot and it makes them good money. Or Amazon Gold Boxes.
You know what I'd like to see. A Hyrule Warriors update.
It'd be cool to see what rate the game sells through at during 2015. Musou games in general have very long legs in the west, Dynasty Warriors 3 being a good example to use, the game took a total of over 3 and a half years to sell more than 420k (and was still selling) when it sold half of that in just it's first 4 months.
Hyrule Warriors sales do seem to be more front loaded but based on trends seen in DW3,4,5,6 etc... we could see Hyrule Warriors sell much more than the 370k in the USA we know about.
It'd be cool to see what rate the game sells through at during 2015. Musou games in general have very long legs in the west, Dynasty Warriors 3 being a good example to use, the game took a total of over 3 and a half years to sell more than 420k (and was still selling) when it sold half of that in just it's first 4 months.
Hyrule Warriors sales do seem to be more front loaded but based on trends seen in DW3,4,5,6 etc... we could see Hyrule Warriors sell much more than the 370k in the USA we know about.
Sony announced 4.9m for Uncharted 2 in october 2011, so it's not 6 million in 2 years. For Uncharted 3 we only know 3.8m shipped on launch.
We don't know if Uncharted 3 outsold Gears of War 3, so Uncharted 4 surpass Halo 5 is definitely not simple.
Every game has different circumstances is all I'm saying, not every game aims to sell all of its units within its launch quarter.
Nintendo games & Gran Turismo for example see the majority of their sales outside the launch quarter, & at full price. Minecraft debuted very cheap & still made over a billion dollar in revenue, the vast majority of that revenue did not come from its PC launch but mobile & consoles, you are applying one business model to all video game releases.
SuperLeviathan
Member
Oh, yeah. The Wii U did 55k in January 2013, IIRC.
The sad thing is, this could very well still be the Wii U's peak year. Not that that's saying much.
The sad thing is, this could very well still be the Wii U's peak year. Not that that's saying much.
You're right, I was actually wrong, Uncharted 3 sold at least 7.8 million 5 months after launch.
The Uncharted series sold 13 million units one month after UC3's launch, & we know that at least 3.8 million of them were Uncharted 3:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-12-05-uncharted-series-sells-13-million-copies
Four months later, the series hit 17 million:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-04-24-uncharted-franchise-hits-17-million-units-sold
& that's if we assume there were no additional shipments between launch day & the reported 13 million number, & that's also if we assume UC3 did not sell any additional units after March 2012.
Wow! I never realised all the Uncharted games sold that well! Especially Uncharted 3.
One thing to point out, wouldn't the 17 million number include 2 months of shipments for Golden Abyss? I know it won't be much but it probably means Uncharted 3 was less than 7.8m at that point.
My thinking is that it wouldn't have mattered if the Xbone was $350 the entire month. I think what allowed them to beat Sony over the holiday season were the insane bundles and discounts below $350 we saw. I bought one a few days before Xmas with two games packed in and a $70 gift card bringing the net price to $280. (Honestly I wasn't planning to buy one this Xmas season but that was enough to get me to jump in, I figured I might be able to get one under $250 this upcoming holiday but being able to play it for a year would be worth it.) My guess is that they saw a nice sales bump when they initially dropped to $350 which flattened out, and then they incentivized retailers to bundle things like gift cards, extra games/controllers, XBL subs, etc. to bump sales again before Xmas.
They probably decided to test the waters at $400 in Jan. to see how much demand was left but I'm guessing it didn't look good for them. It'll be interesting to see what Feb. looks like, my guess would be that PS4 will outsell them even at $350, but we'll see.
Imru al-Qays
Banned
This seems spot-on to me. I think people have a tendency to back project the Wii model back into the sixth generation and assume that the PS2 had to have been appealing to casual/peripheral gamers in order to have been as successful as it was. But that's not true: the Wii was weird and innovative and the blue ocean was a blue ocean precisely because no one had figured out how to tap it before. And that includes Sony with the PS2. The PS2 was a very successful console principally because it was very successful with the core, and the core is still around in large enough numbers that the PS4 is basically matching the PS2's sales worldwide even with increased competition from Microsoft and the total evaporation of the PS2's entire casual demographic, such as it was.
Speaking of... whatever happened to that Wii U chalboard thing?
Someone clearly forgot to add Zelda Musou to that!!!!!
Zelda Musou is the saviour.
Well everybody knows Wii U is a failure sales wise and nothing will save it so it isn't funny anymore.
Thanks for reminding me, Golden Abyss by that point sold 500k at best, since that number was reported in the Summer of that same year:
http://gamingbolt.com/uncharted-golden-abyss-sells-over-500000-units-worldwide
EDIT: Actually, looking at more sources, The Uncharted series sold 8 million units 1 month before Uncharted 3's launch:
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net...mes-a-shining-star-with-over-8-million-sales/
So Uncharted 3 definitely sold around ~9 million in around 5 months, so it has to be well over 10-11 million by now.
You are ignoring Uncharted Vita. Also Uncharted Dual Pack was launched in november 2011.
Uncharted Vita hit 500k 3 months after the reported 17 million figure.
Don't know what source Play Magazine UK used (I'm afraid is Chartzz), but I suppose this is sell through figure. Sony is referring to shipments.
It wasn't chartzzz, Sony themselves announced the figure (it was actually 17.3 million, no doubt the 300k was UC Vita).
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...-deception-game-of-the-year-edition-announced
EDIT: Thanks for the discussion Allan, I actually didn't realize UC3 sold this well, I never dug around the sales of the series this deep, it actually could have sold better than Gran Turismo 5 (if we exclude prologue).
James Sawyer Ford
Member
They'll always be following the leader if their plan is to simply only be relevant for two months out of the year.
They've exhausted all price cut/bundle maneuvers while Sony hasn't even played the price drop card yet, which is assuredly on the table this year.
So yes, Microsoft will do their best to compete in the US, but they'll always be second place here and everywhere else globally.
Hey know I'm late to the party. Just wanted to drop this off.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2015-02/videogames#1
The Order: 1886 is selling better than COD:AW on Xbox One at the moment. We are at the half-way mark for the month already.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2015-02/videogames#1
The Order: 1886 is selling better than COD:AW on Xbox One at the moment. We are at the half-way mark for the month already.
That's not the interesting part since AW is a couple of months old, the interesting part is that it's selling better than Evolve, even though Evolve is already out & The Order is selling better via pre-orders alone.
Mass_Pincup
Banned
I'm already awaiting the "How did The Order sold so well?" thread after next month's NPD.
I know Sony announced 17 million. Uncharted Vita 530k figure is not from Sony.
Uncharted 3 really sold well, I believe over 6 million with is pretty solid.
Also Ubisoft just revealed that around 57% of their game sales come from North America. This would explain their partnering with Microsoft on the Unity bundle. While it's going to be a little harder to secure exclusives from 3rd party studios, Microsoft knows the importance of the American market. This isn't to belittle any other market either. This E3 will seems to be one to watch. Please give us and update on Black Tusk's Gears.
Ouch!!!! This has got to hurt TurtleRock a little bit. The $130 DLC outside of the Season Pass article hurt them alot. You can barely find anything about Evolved that isn't tied to that article. It definitely took it off my radar when I heard about it. I know it is micro-transactions and nothing significant to gameplay but you still expect that to be covered by the season pass.
6 million is very low if we look at the 8 million the series hit before UC3 launch & the 17 million 5 months after launch, unless you believe Uncharted Vita sold 4 million units in two months, which means that at the time of the reported 17 million figure, every Vita owner owner had 2.5 copies of Golden Abyss.
Uncharted 3 definitely sold 9 of those 17 million, & probably a couple of million more since, making it *possibly* the best selling PS3 exclusive.
Honestly 11 million for Uncharted 3 doesn't make any sense, this is Halo 3 level, a game that sold 3.3m on first NPD, when Uncharted 3 sold ~840k.
I know NPD is just USA, but 11 million.. no...I can't see this level of sales.
Woo-Fu
Banned
My PC barely survives while I'm horrified by the game's performance, so yeah.
Fine, you can go ahead & make sense of the 9 million increase in the franchise's sales from 8 million before UC3's launch to 17 million 5 months after launch.
2 million additional units since that number is completely possible, since GOTY edition launched in 2012.
The situation could be the same as Gran Turismo, GT5 sold only 2.8 million in NA, the rest of the sales were outside of NA, last gen NA only represented ~25% of the PS3's userbase.
EDIT: Unless you're suggesting Sony was lying about the 17 million figure.
I don't have any reason to believe that Sony is lying, but Uncharted was at over 14 million on march 2012, than 17 million at the end of april.
Uncharted 3 was selling like hotcakes months after launch, or we have to find an explanation.
http://www.gamepur.com/news/7364-uncharted-franchise-ships-over-14-million-copies-worldwide.html
Uh... why exactly would you exclude Halo 3 though? I mean, other than to back up the groundless assertion about less than 8m, obviously.
The explanation is that Uncharted 3 sold well, there is no other possible explanation.
Uncharted 3 had about 3 million in shipments between march and april of 2012... That's really strange. At this level game should be topping NPD and European charts, but wasn't, not even close.
Welfare
Member
You aren't taking into account Earth-2 sales.
Calamari41
41 > 38
Speaking of... whatever happened to that Wii U chalboard thing?
Someone clearly forgot to add Zelda Musou to that!!!!!
Zelda Musou is the saviour.
Yeah, the Wii U chalkboard and all non-PS3 chalkboards are stupid. It was funny with the PS3 because it consisted of things that people actually expected to save the system. Barely anybody, after launch, expected anything to save the Wii U. Much less the stuff on the chalkboard.
bananafactory
Banned
Yup. Infamous is also selling better than Evolve, lol.
Yes I know it's 19.99, but still..
Oh, my bad.
slavesnyder
Member
It's a shame. evolve has one of the best logos I've seen in a while.
did Sony bundled Uncharted 3? and what about dual packs and GOTY editions. might have played a sizable role
Heh, that's not their plan. They have games releasing outside of just two months of the year -- not sure why you think otherwise.
Not sure how they've exhausted their deals when the system still has popular franchises that haven't had their true current gen debut (e.g.: Halo and Gears).
Deals alongside those games will more than likely help just as much as they did during last year's Holiday season -- especially with last gen consoles continuing to fade away/become irrelevant.
Globally probably -- in America though? Still feel it's too soon to say. The gap isn't big enough yet for me to say "always". I can't travel to the future.
The gap in America by this time next year could be at 500K and keep on going down for all we know -- simply depends on what the deals will be and when future games release.
Gamespur is a shitty source that makes numbers up.
In USA they launched a bundle with 320GB console for $299. PS3 160GB was the basic model at the time for $249. I Don't remember prices for Europe.
Later they included Uncharted 3 with New Playstation 3 Super Slim, but that was in september of 2012.
The games releasing outside those two months are irrelevant. They won't do much.