Circana (NPD) September 2023: #1 Starfield #2 Mortal Kombat 1 #3 EA FC24; PS5 #1 Units + Revenue, XBS #2 Units + Revenue

Where is all this "Starfield was supposed to be the game of the generation" stuff coming from? Is this in reference to anything Xbox or Bethesda stated directly?
 
Number 2 even the month the game of the generation comes out. Oof.

PS5 had barley anything going for it in september.

No discount was active and very limited spiderman bundles.

Not true. It had Baldur's Gate 3 come out for it.
 
Starfield outsold FFXVI's YTD in just its first month.



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yeh, ok. if that includes gamepass; then this is the biggest news in this release.

They don't separate out GP from other subs. So GP might have had a significant rise, while the others had a significant fall. We just don't know.

p.s. It's also inaccurate to say that Starfield didn't push any hardware. It did. Just single digits YOY.
 
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It's interesting to see people praise the #1 position on this chart. Based on the Bethesda name, Microsoft's marketing, the time this game was in development and the lack of competition for the month I think it was expected to be 1 for September.

The bigger and real concerns for the game and why I called it a flop and a disaster is because I didn't think it moved enough Xbox units to displace the ps5 and because it fell off the charts soon after its release.

Anyone praising it as a success willing to go on the record for where it'll be positioned in October?

It's the 7th best selling game of the year on two platforms. The games it's ahead of are largely fighting games, exclusive titles to one platform, remakes, or annual releases.

I just think it's really sad to see the goalposts get moved.

If this game wasn't able to push Xbox ahead of ps5 for a single month October November and December are going to be brutal.
 
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Most hardware units sold since Sep 2016, most dollars in nearly a decade.

'Flop' indeed 😂
For septembers only.

Maybe you want to do an analysis as to what games were released in September of each of these years.

I don't think that's saying much, especially when we consider the Xbox one had been dead in the water since like 2017 or 2018.
 
They don't separate out GP from other subs. So GP might have had a significant rise, while the others had a significant fall. We just don't know.

p.s. It's also inaccurate to say that Starfield didn't push any hardware. It did. Just single digits YOY.

I think if that was the case, "THEY" would be telling us that. THEY went from never using the Xbox name (remember "other consoles") to using Xbox's name everywhere now that there's good news to share.
 
We have a YTD chart showing it's already outsold quite a number of 'big' titles from its first month.

It outsold Resident Evil 4 and Final Fantasy 16.

This game has a higher budget than both. It's going to need to do more before it's considered a success.
 
Starfield outsold FFXVI's YTD in just its first month.



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You make it sound like FF16 had been out for 6 months.

It released on ps5 only ie no PC and it came out at the end of June. So 2 months and a week.

Not the boast you think it is. Especially with FF16 underperforming.
 
Yeah, two platforms vs one, definitely need a case study on how this is possible
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I was referring to the sales figures. If it is stated here that FFXVI has been a great success but SF has sold more in less than a month...... You can illustrate what we should understand 😉

That said, FFXVI comes out on PS5, a highly anticipated exclusive from a very famous license, in a period with little competition and without being a game released on a day one subscription service... I don't know about the logic It doesn't fit much either.
 
Starfield and Series S 1TB launch but as expected still couldn't beat the PS5 even in Xbox strongest territory. If it was going to win a month this was the one to do it. I guess Xbox One level sales really are the best that can be hoped for Series. It doesn't look like that ships getting turned around.
 
I think if that was the case, "THEY" would be telling us that. THEY went from never using the Xbox name (remember "other consoles") to using Xbox's name everywhere now that there's good news to share.

I don't like to make assumptions based on lack of data.
 
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One is an exclusive game for a single platform and the other is not.

One is supposed to be the game of the generation and the other is not.

Its fun to compare things.
All he'll do is post a laugh emoji and ignore the real points you made.

.... up, like clockwork!
 
The bigger and real concerns for the game and why I called it a flop and a disaster is because I didn't think it moved enough Xbox units to displace the ps5

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We can clearly see the hardware bump from Starfield. Posting growth where they would certainly have had declines like Sony and Nintendo.

Clearly not enough to overcome the PS5's strong headwinds for 2023 + Spiderman bundle
 
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One is an exclusive game for a single platform and the other is not.

One is supposed to be the game of the generation and the other is not.

Its fun to compare things.


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Awkward The Office GIF




All he'll do is post a laugh emoji and ignore the real points you made.

.... up, like clockwork!


Oh no, see above, I didn't ignore the real points he made
 
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Starfield not being enough to push XS to #1 and only giving it a single digital % increase YoY is really not a good sign for Xbox as a hardware business. I'd love to see a breakdown in sales/users between Xbox and PC to confirm.

If (the admittedly mid) Starfield can't do it, I'm not sure anything can.


It's hard for just one game to achieve that in the middle of a gen race, that usually happens near launch. I think GTA 3 was probably the only game that I could think of where people were lining up to get a PS2 for that game alone, or Halo for the OG Xbox, but it's nice to see Starfield taking the #1 spot, it really deserves it, if you invest enough hours into the game, you start to realize how much effort was put into it, its so inmense that I can't even begin to explain it, I've sunk over 100hrs so far and I feel like I'm only scratching the surface.
 
Really great result for Starfield!

But didn't get Xbox to #1 in a month. I wonder if that gets people inside Xbox more or less worried about Game Pass. As in "Hey we can still sell games!" or "It doesn't matter how many games we sell, the boxes aren't moving."
 
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