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NPD Sales Results for October 2014 [Up3: All of Nintendo's 3DS million sellers]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
I agree with your list. I think which is unfortunate for you that ac will be third. DA, smash,halo, and far cry will fight the rest of the spots. What has me intrigue is how well lbp3 will do saleswise sans bundle.
Edit: OK forgot pokemon. Cod>GTA>Pokemon> everyone else.
speculawyer
Member
I doubt FarCry beats GTA V. Amazon indicates otherwise. But the fight for #1 will be tough despite the many SKUs of CoD.
your timing is waaaaay off on the ps2 era. god of war happened in 2005. so did shadow of the colossus. yakuza was 2006 in the states. dragon quest was an existing intellectual property.
when i look back at the ps2 era, i see sort of an evolution of the previous process. sony evolved the idea of a video game player into that with more utility than just games. the ps2 also played dvds, which was a pretty big thing in 2000 and 2001. it allowed games to be bigger and fit more voice work and cutscenes than ever before. it's also when nintendo introduced the wireless controller, the only one from a first-party that generation. microsoft brought the xbox and with it, hard drives to gaming. a couple years earlier, sega had pioneered online console gaming, and microsoft continued to work in that space. the real breakout hits from that generation though? halo and grand theft auto iii. especially grand theft auto iii. after gta iii, games had to have a sandbox. so many people wanted in on that action.
gta iii hadn't been done before. not like that, and it defined a generation. i don't need a game to exist in a franchise for it to be new and interesting. i just need the idea to be new and interesting. splatoon looks like fun, but it's yet another colorful kid-friendly family game from nintendo. that's not to disparage it - it's what it is. i don't feel like it's the sort of thing that will be a breakout hit in a wider sense, even if it does well for them. that's sort of my attitude towards other new ips that you mentioned. oh the limbo guys are making another game like limbo. that's nice, but it's not exactly about to set the world on fire. it's a lot of pressure to put on those devs, and it's actually not their fault. they're pretty small compared to microsoft, sony, nintendo, and the big third-party publishers who should be driving change.
and none of that is actually a good thing for the traditional model. the traditional model relies on having a box and going to retail. get enough people to stop going to retail, well... why bother actually getting anything at retail? why bother with the box? this is the sort of reasoning i suspect microsoft will try launching their own marketplace box next-gen (especially since they gave it a half-assed attempt in may 2013 already).
i think there's some middle ground between losing everyone and keeping everyone. surely there were revenue streams that could have been kept open at a time. the current remaining wii userbase baffles me that it can still purchase family games like it does. i mean, at all, for such a dead userbase. it's stuff like that that says microsoft, nintendo, and sony are all really doing a piss-poor job at reaching out to these people.
but more than that, i think gaming has potential to be more than just family games and fitness games and cinematic games and shooters etc. i think there's still untapped potential in what video games can be and how they can still be exciting and seem new in the traditional space. it's just that it hasn't been explored much at all. vr is one way. holograms would be another. more advanced alternate reality gameplay is another way still. right now i just feel like things have hit a standstill, and no one is in the mood to actually engage in imagination.
i think it's inherent in its makeup. sony hides multiplayer behind a paywall. games cost $60. the system itself is hundreds of dollars. compare that with steam. multiplayer is free. games also cost $60, but there isn't a clear divide between download titles and retail games (meaning littler stuff has a better chance to stand out and thrive). the platform exists within any computer powerful enough to run it. one big difference in favor of consoles is that you're guaranteed to have a ps4 game work on your ps4 while a game on steam may not actually function on your computer (maybe you have linux or mac and it only runs on windows, for example).
Final Verdict
Member
I'm counting on the last gen versions of farcry 4 to push it past GTA
Oops, yeah, I knew I was forgetting something!People always forget Pokemans. Makes me sad
Well shit, for the first time all month, that Plane Jane $399 no games SKU has gone ahead of the X1 on Amazon's best sellers list. That console sure has legs!
Oh damn.
The streams have crossed again. There are still more Xbox One bundles, though -- but the incoming PS4 bundles are a larger relative savings than what's currently available for the Xbox One.
I'm not sure I'm ready to call 150k+ in gap in November for the Xbox anymore. It will be a close race.
GifGafIsTheBestGaf
Member
Well shit, for the first time all month, that Plane Jane $399 no games SKU has gone ahead of the X1 on Amazon's best sellers list. That console sure has legs!
GTA hype my good man.
SwiftDeath
Member
In regards to Disney Fantasia's less than stellar sales, It's a $60 kinect only game on XB1, $50 kinect only game on 360 with absolutely no marketing or presence of any sort.
It did actually sell impressively badly I suppose but it certainly was going to pull poor numbers given its positioning or lack there of.
SSO numbers sound about right, bundles I'm sure will help but it was never going to be that big of a seller. Sorry Hindle if you're reading this
Exclusives simply aren't big sellers short of Halo, Gran Turismo [Still a seller???], Naughtydog, and some of Nintendo's older franchises
It did actually sell impressively badly I suppose but it certainly was going to pull poor numbers given its positioning or lack there of.
SSO numbers sound about right, bundles I'm sure will help but it was never going to be that big of a seller. Sorry Hindle if you're reading this
Exclusives simply aren't big sellers short of Halo, Gran Turismo [Still a seller???], Naughtydog, and some of Nintendo's older franchises
Boombloxer
Member
AstuteClass
Banned
Yeah this is crazy. Even if the X1 wins but by like 50k for the month, that will be a Pyrrhic victory at best for MS. It's not even sustainable because they have no exclusives for most of next year last time I checked, and we still don't know if they will put the price back up!
Yeah, gotta be honest, I don't know if I could be an analyst because given how insane GTA V originally sold, I'd have thought most people who wanted it would have it now, and that these new remasters wouldn't get that hyped, but I guess I was wrong!
Indeed, but I've been checking these all month, and the X1 had two bundles about 5-7 places above PS4 a week ago. Then for the past week the ACU bundle was still ahead of PS4 by 4-5 spaces all week. Then in the past 2 days, I've seen the PS4 close that gap and now go ahead of it. It's crazy I tell you. You cannot stop that black steel death mech!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/2014-11/videogames/
Looking at this month, currently xbone stands at 7 and the ps4 is at 15... I still feel that BF is when a great deal of this months sales will take place and it can change the outcome, but it will be close nonetheless. Something to keep an eye on once the month ends.
Goodacre0081
Member
if bundles were counted, Unity would have a shot at being # 2/3 i bet
gundamkyoukai
Member
In regards to Disney Fantasia's less than stellar sales, It's a $60 kinect only game on XB1, $50 kinect only game on 360 with absolutely no marketing or presence of any sort.
It did actually sell impressively badly I suppose but it certainly was going to pull poor numbers given its positioning or lack there of.
SSO numbers sound about right, bundles I'm sure will help but it was never going to be that big of a seller. Sorry Hindle if you're reading this
[Exclusives simply aren't big sellers short of Halo, Gran Turismo [Still a seller???], Naughtydog, and some of Nintendo's older franchises
True but 100k plus is still really poor , that is not even low tier sales.
SwiftDeath
Member
Yes SSO certainly did sell poorly. I kind of wonder if it will manage to crack 1M WW at this rate. Probably depends on MS's propensity to bundle it with consoles going forward
Oh I forgot Gears on that list of exclusives that sell strongly, probably a few others I imagine
Well shit, for the first time all month, that Plane Jane $399 no games SKU has gone ahead of the X1 on Amazon's best sellers list. That console sure has legs!
The Assassin's Creed Unity bundle with Kinect has picked up a decent amount and is ahead of the Destiny PS4 bundle (when it was a few spots behind before). Guessing it's due to the Call of Duty bundle being unavailable.
Going to be a hard month to predict due to all of the SKUs (and some of the Xbox One SKUs selling out).
Well shit, for the first time all month, that Plane Jane $399 no games SKU has gone ahead of the X1 on Amazon's best sellers list. That console sure has legs!
Marketing works. IP-Brand association is a helluva drug. Then again it's not just GTA V doing the work but also LittleBigPlanet 3 and Far Cry 4....
GT6 didn't do too well but I'm thinking it's due to it coming out so late in the generation. GT7 will determine if the series is still popular IMO.
In Europe GT is a system seller, in America? Definitely not anymore.
LowEndTorque
Member
Well shit, for the first time all month, that Plane Jane $399 no games SKU has gone ahead of the X1 on Amazon's best sellers list. That console sure has legs!
I didn't expect that to happen so soon. If the X1 price cut + free games only causes a temporary spike in sales and not any kind of sustained long term momentum, the November NPD victory will be a pretty hollow one.
Well shit, for the first time all month, that Plane Jane $399 no games SKU has gone ahead of the X1 on Amazon's best sellers list. That console sure has legs!
AstuteClass
Banned
God damn... I rarely make a typo, but I did actually mean "Plain Jane".
I think so too. GT7 will help make things clearer for America though.
3rdamention
Member
Well shit, for the first time all month, that Plain Jane $399 no games SKU has gone ahead of the X1 on Amazon's best sellers list. That console sure has legs!
Edit: I should have made clear that these are the hourly best sellers! Overall for the month, the ACU bundle is a few places ahead of PS4. But if the hourly sales keep showing PS4 ahead, the PS4 will start to climb on the overall November best sellers!
Yeah, hourly sales, I know. But the Destiny Bundle is holding strong recently, only 3 spots behind the 2nd Xbox Bundle and rising. I still think Microsoft will win November, but there has definitely been a little shift in sales the past 24 hours or so. The Call Of Duty bundle has been a weird one lately too, dropped to 99th.
The Destiny Bundle was previously ahead of the Assassin's Creed SKU; The latter got ahead of it recently. Said it before -- it's going to be a tough month to predict. So many SKUs with us not knowing how many were made.
It was sold out for a few days (was higher than the regular price on Amazon). I see that it's back now. MS must have sent more of them. Guessing that it will rise a bit as things get closer to Black Friday.
CosmicQueso
Member
Maybe I'll keep my copy of Fantasia in its shrink wrap and frame it at some point with other memorable sales failures like my copy of Dirty Dancing on PC and my original 2600 ET cart.
lonedigitalwolf
Banned
I don't need any X-mas presents, i just want the PS4 taking Nov/Dec... that would be the ultimate gift for me...
3rdamention
Member
As SaleGaffers Bgamer, it IS very weird to predict, but is still going to be fun to watch. I think there is definitely some type of GTAV Effect, more than Xbox One sales dropping off. Im curious as to how long it will maintain, and if it can maintain more than a day like this.
These are basically the past hour, so things can change so drastically. Overall in November, we haven't seen much of a change, but it is only updated daily. So today's sales have had no impact on that. I don't see today changing the overall November too much, the interesting thing will be where those sales are in a week.
This is not happening. This is not happening. This is not happening. THIS IS NOT HAPPENING.
Fantasia is easily one of the best, polished, and most innovative titles to release this year. I'm actually sad.
In regards to Disney Fantasia's less than stellar sales, It's a $60 kinect only game on XB1, $50 kinect only game on 360 with absolutely no marketing or presence of any sort.
It did actually sell impressively badly I suppose but it certainly was going to pull poor numbers given its positioning or lack there of.
SSO numbers sound about right, bundles I'm sure will help but it was never going to be that big of a seller. Sorry Hindle if you're reading this
Exclusives simply aren't big sellers short of Halo, Gran Turismo [Still a seller???], Naughtydog, and some of Nintendo's older franchises
Exclusives aren't as big of console movers as people make them out to be. The majority of people are more than happy playing third party games.
shinra-bansho
Member
I think we've discussed before, but some middle ground presumably still exists. The console as the home entertainment device for the non-enthusiast was a thing before the Wii, and it remains to be seen how much of it has been retained after the Wii.
And had Nintendo recognised that accessibility was the key to their success in the 7th gen and not input innovation (which I'd surmise was their take-home for whatever reason given the focus of their new system) and created another accessible system in all forms (low priced hardware and software, intuitive accessible gameplay and interfaces, both physical and visual), then they'd probably be faring much better and the collapse would have been somewhat less pronounced.
But just given how much better smart devices are at meeting these needs for these gamers, I still expect the collapse would have been massive. The three hardware vendors and various software vendors simply aren't/weren't set up in terms of their resources and capabilities towards presenting an offering that can compete for these consumers against swipe simplicity and intuitiveness, free software, always-in-pocket convenience and free hardware due to devices being owned for entirely different utility. The dimensions of value they can offer aren't necessarily value at all to these segments (immersive worlds, visual spectacle, narrative-driven content, integrated online capabilities etc.etc.), and they simply can't match on the qualities that do create value.
The remnants of an active user-base on such a massive installed base managing to sell a million units of a game franchise targeted specifically at them isn't really that baffling to me. I think the PS2 continued to sell reasonable amounts of software even as it began to dwindle although I'm open to correction. And likewise it doesn't baffle me that the remnants of that market aren't the target of future looking output, given the seismic shifts in the industry environment.
A Star Trek like holodeck future would be amazing, if technically impossible at this stage (although I would have thought narrative-driven interactive content wouldn't be where you'd want to see the industry go, though perhaps I'm mistaken.) I would imagine all the companies are exploring such technologies from a conceptual standpoint, but it just seems unrealistic to expect practical consumer level application at this stage. Maybe in a few years time depending upon how much money gets poured into Oculus.
SwiftDeath
Member
Yep, the XB1 sku of Shadow of Mordor for instance outsold FH2 on XB1 and they released the same day. Granted FH2 could have better legs I suppose but the point is most exclusives are fairly smaller in terms of sales than 3rd party games on consoles.
Brad Grenz
Member
1M? Sunset is going to struggle to get over 300K WW at this rate.
ninjablade
Banned
The ps4 being significantly more powerful, has really made it the console of choice in the US, that's a pretty huge turn around from last gen.
I think it would be doing similarly in the US if the specs were switched. The good PR and cheaper price made it the system to get for many people who were only interested in the multiplats. The momentum it had when it was the cheaper price still hasn't been completely stopped by the cheaper bundles that MS has been making for the Xbox One.
SwiftDeath
Member
You're right with a debut like that, 1M WW would really be unlikely in any case. That being said the 110k is without bundle or digital for the US, It could be as high as 150k - 175k when accounting for those. As such 300k WW is probably not a hard hurdle to cross for it, although I guess 400k, 500k would probably be somewhat difficult
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
That is false. LBP, GOW, GEOW all are big sellers. And GT is still a big seller. I am still laughing at the people who said GT5 was a flop. It went and sold over 10 million copies.
that's right. gran turismo 5, the most recent entry in the series, was a very big success.
SwiftDeath
Member
Trying that thing where you just keep posting instead of editing a reply to a follow up post into a post you just made
Yeah I mentioned in a post just after that that my list was incomplete and mentioned Gears as a missing one for instance.
Yeah I mentioned in a post just after that that my list was incomplete and mentioned Gears as a missing one for instance.
Papacheeks
Banned
So my first sentence when talking about first 2 years of launch titles I specifically show in order you totally disregard?
If you look back you'll see I mention Tekken which was a launch titles, Twisted metal black was within the first year, so was MGS2, so was Gran turismo 3-Spec, and go up the later from there?
What is so off about that? I show the progression, ICO was within the first year as well and paved the way for Shadow of the Colossus.
Currently we just went through our first year. And we are getting highly praised Indie titles that rival AAA.
And the best part is they are getting more noticed on Consoles as they are promoted through as big sellers on the consoles. And also through youtube and streaming people can become exposed to games they might not have known about.
I think your confusing your nostalgia for the video game boom we had couple generations back.
We are in a place where small games like Child of Light, Wild, Valiant Hearts, Rime, The tomorrow children become actually center stage at game events.
I can see you being jaded from all the sequels, but I feel you don;t look at the other games that are super creative and boundary pushers.
Look at the Horror boom we had, and because of games like Outlast being streamed people who would never be caught dead on youtube stream their game-play's of themselves screaming.
ZSaberLink
Media Create Maven
Well I only really have concrete #s for Japan, but it seemed like in 2007, even spinoff titles sold decently well all things considering. I felt that high-quality titles were being rewarded with better sales in 2007 than more ambitious titles were getting on Wii in 2010 let's say. RE4 Wii also seemed to have sold well if I'm not mistaken. I also assumed that if Umbrella Chronicles sold enough to warrant a sequel, it sold "well enough". I also thought the original Red Steel sold quite a bit despite being a subpar game, but I realize my memory might have been tarnished by reading chartz all those years ago. Maybe the actual US sales #s for a lot of these titles make the rest of my argument not make much sense. It just seemed like there was a sizable market on the Wii for these type of titles, even if it was smaller than the one on 360 & PS3. I had heard Tiger Woods Golf sold best on Wii for about 3-4 years (up until about 2009). How did Tales of Symphonia 2 do for example? For some reason I had assumed it did decently off the back of the original GC game + Wii popularity.
However, by 2009-2010, it seems like it was already fairly late to release titles that would normally be on 360/PS3 and that the window of opportunity had mostly disappeared. The audience that was looking to buy those games mostly had a 360/PS3 already. Thus titles like Samurai Warriors 3 (which did alright in JP), Red Steel 2, etc. may have not done as well as expected. I know MHTri did well in Japan for 2008, and I thought it did decently enough in the US (I'm basing that on the release of 3U and eventually 4U). I just thought the window of opportunity had closed for marketing games targeting that demographic on Wii by about 2009. The 360 and PS3 had obviously become the primary platforms for that type of content, and I feel like the lack of CoD: Modern Warfare on Wii for several years might have cemented that point.
shinra-bansho
Member
It's accurate. LBP manages to do the numbers it does through aggressive bundling. And it isn't going to be the sales driver in November, GTA, COD, AC, Madden, FIFA, NBA 2K, Far Cry, are going to drive system sales.
People aren't buying PS4s for Knack, Infamous and Killzone.
The only system that's being sold primarily on exclusives is the Wii U, because that's essentially all it has. And you can see how that's faring, despite Nintendo's first party properties being notably stronger brands than nearly every property Sony and Microsoft own.
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
That was so not the point, at all.
I have not said that these exclusives sell consoles, and swiftdeath was not talking about that either. I have not mentioned that at all. All i have said that they exclusive sell a lot software, and they do.
ninjablade
Banned
The good PR was mostly specs, just look at both Threads when both console specs revealed, one caused huge amount of insane hype, the other a huge disappointment, with most Xbox fans saying there switching to playstation, and it seems to be happening in real world.
i expect it would have been similar to the 3ds except in the console space. something that sells like the n64 with better-performing games. i could live without the constant praise of the wii u's 'amazing' library if it meant actually seeing more games in a healthier ecosystem.
but i think you're right that they felt the big takeaway from the ds and wii era was 'DIFFERENT!' instead of 'IMAGINATION!' what sold the wii and the ds so well, i feel, was the sense of wonderment that was easily conveyed through software and hardware. it's what i think sold the playstation and the n64 to a degree too when 3d games were new. there's nothing imaginative about 3d. i see 3d all the time. there's nothing special about the tablet as a game controller. people already do that. and if there ever was anything interesting about either one, they have yet to sell me on them.
and i think that is a huge monumental failing, and what will ultimately lead to further consolidation until the implosion of the traditional market. the bigger budgets = bigger ideas theory rings false to me, and i think it sucks that so much time and energy gets spent put into this segment of the market. i mean we still haven't moved past cutscene -> gameplay -> cutscene since donkey kong and that was over 30 years ago. if they're going to be doing something, at least try and evolve something more than a quarter century old.
what baffles me most really isn't that there's a market. the ps2 market existed into 2010 because several developers were still making games for it. what surprises me is how awareness of the wii died, yet those games moved such large amounts of software. it's like the audience was just waiting for new stuff to happen upon them.
star trek holodeck wasn't really what i had in mind. imagine a 3d platformer but built from items in your own home. a sort of real life littlebigplanet. or hell to stay relatively conventional, why not have a racing game where it reads in and approximates traffic in real time, and you can cruise down a freeway. of course, that's the sort of thing that would require massive computational power. it's the sort of thing that isn't really being done either. i want developers to think outside the box and not just developers, but publishers - first-parties. the whole idea of sharing your experiences is a nice one, but ultimately it doesn't add much to the gameplay experience. certainly not to the extent alternate control methods or online multiplayer defined last generation.
Don't agree; DRM played a far bigger role.
Said it before but the PS4 being weaker wouldn't have mattered since the console was still significantly cheaper out of the gate.