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NPD October 2012 Sales Results [Up3: NBA, MoH, NSMB2 + History, Pokemon, RE6]

darkside31337

Tomodachi wa Mahou
Wait.

Code of Princess outsold SF x TK? Wow. Capcom deserves this shit.

It was also out 2 weeks longer than SF x T, doesn't have a digital version, isn't a port of a half year old game that wasn't all that popular to begin with and is on the platform that should be doing better. But yeah for Atlus' sake I hope the CoP sales were in line what they were expecting.

Really curious as to what the VLR sales split looks like as its one of the few games that are actually on both platforms.
 
I don't really think Sony or MS cares about market share to a degree .
It's all about making profit right now , we are 6 years into this gen market share don't mean as much .

Sony already has Vita that doing badly so best to make as much profit from PS3 .

PS3 price was cut - last year. Sales still collapsed. Cutting the price will do nothing but cut Sony's margins, its not going to sell more units.
 
Just like the PS2 right?

Yes the PS2 was in large part a big success because of the PS1. Likewise the PS3 was a huge benefactor from the success of the PS2. The 3rd party support and strong brand name they build from that era are what stopped the PS3 from cratering.

I'm not arguing that brand name and momentum determine everything (we all saw how this generation played out) but that doesn't mean it isn't important. This is a big part of how apple remains so succesful. Letting you momentum completely die off before releasing the successor to your product is not a smart strategy imo.
 

jcm

Member
That's pretty short term thinking. The momentum they have now and going forward is going to have a big impact on next gen.

It is short term thinking because the current gen will only last for a short term. The number of 360s and PS3s sold over the next year will have zero affect on the PS4 and 720. Both companies right now are rightly focused on maximizing current profit. This is the point in the cycle where you need to be making money, not buying share.
 
It is short term thinking because the current gen will only last for a short term. The number of 360s and PS3s sold over the next year will have zero affect on the PS4 and 720. Both companies right now are rightly focused on maximizing current profit. This is the point in the cycle where you need to be making money, not buying share.

I just completely disagree with this. You really think if PS3 and 360 sales crater next year that won't have an impact on sales of the PS4 and 720? Don't forget that the wii U will be on the market as well.

I think mindshare is important and having your brand die down before you release its successor is going to hurt it.

Personally i think if your business model is built like that than it is fundamentally broken in the first place.
 
Damn 35k? Looks like vita is on it's way out. It's the last dedicated handheld I'll ever purchase and I can't imagine being stuck with only iOS and 3ds. Hopefully iphone /iPod get a dedicated controller and big budget games. I'll probably be aboard that if ever happens.
 
I just completely disagree with this. You really think if PS3 and 360 sales crater next year that won't have an impact on sales of the PS4 and 720? Don't forget that the wii U will be on the market as well.

I think mindshare is important and having your brand die down before you release its successor is going to hurt it.

Personally i think if your business model is built like that than it is fundamentally broken in the first place.

I don't think expecting them to "crater" is a good argument. Nobody expects that and while there has been a slow decline they will most likely drop prices significantly after the announcement of the new consoles.

I mean, they still have this holiday to worry about and to squeeze any last profit out of the systems. Once the new systems are announced, we'll see price drops.
 
That's pretty short term thinking. The momentum they have now and going forward is going to have a big impact on next gen.

No, momentum is one of those words that mean practically nothing. What matters far more are things established over the course of the whole generation, not some temporary boost in sales or popularity. When the next generation starts, the playing field levels, as far as general public is concerned. Sony is all about profit at this point, and Microsoft's been like that for years.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
I just completely disagree with this. You really think if PS3 and 360 sales crater next year that won't have an impact on sales of the PS4 and 720? Don't forget that the wii U will be on the market as well.

I think mindshare is important and having your brand die down before you release its successor is going to hurt it.

Personally i think if your business model is built like that than it is fundamentally broken in the first place.
I think it is pretty hard to messure this. Would those people who pick up a PS3 or Xbox 360 that late had bought a PS4 or Xbox 720 instead if they had no choice? I guess it also depends on the price difference. Maybe someone picks up an older system this late because it is cheaper.

I agree with the mindshare thing. But ultimately it comes down to how interesting the products are.
 
No, momentum is one of those words that mean practically nothing. What matters far more are things established over the course of the whole generation, not some temporary boost in sales or popularity. When the next generation starts, the playing field levels, as far as general public is concerned. Sony is all about profit at this point, and Microsoft's been like that for years.

I don't believe this is true at all. I'm not even saying i want or expect them to drop the price i just disagree that momentum and brand name aren't important.

I agree that it's something that is established over the whole generation but i think losing all that momentum at the end before releasing your next console isn't a good thing.

I just don't think it's a very smart strategy. When sales start to taper off it's time to release its successor. The fact they are trying to desperately make back all the money they have lost isn't the makings of a good business strategy to me.

I don't think expecting them to "crater" is a good argument. Nobody expects that and while there has been a slow decline they will most likely drop prices significantly after the announcement of the new consoles.

I don't think many people expected wii sales to drop down so incredibly fast either. I can easily see a situation where both the PS3 and 360 sell pretty damn poorly next year.
 
I just completely disagree with this. You really think if PS3 and 360 sales crater next year that won't have an impact on sales of the PS4 and 720? Don't forget that the wii U will be on the market as well.

I think mindshare is important and having your brand die down before you release its successor is going to hurt it.

Personally i think if your business model is built like that than it is fundamentally broken in the first place.

In the short term it won't have any effect because the people that going to buy a PS4\720 at $400 are not the ones that buying consoles right now.
It's all about making as much profit as you can before PS4\720 hit then they going to lower the price of the other systems .
Right now mind share is not as important as profit if sales get to low they can lower the system then .

This whole problems come from them taking so long to release there successors and lower the price in the first place .
 

TheNatural

My Member!
I don't really think Sony or MS cares about market share to a degree .
It's all about making profit right now , we are 6 years into this gen market share don't mean as much .
Sony already has Vita that doing badly so best to make as much profit from PS3 .

Except they're not doing that either. A real price drop would have probably raised revenue so much that they could make a bigger profit on a lower price. But this is Sony, they're not in the business of making money.
 

jcm

Member
Except they're not doing that either. A real price drop would have probably raised revenue so much that they could make a bigger profit on a lower price. But this is Sony, they're not in the business of making money.

Gaming is currently profitable for Sony, and has been for a while.
 
RE6 isn't too surprising. In Japan its a gimmick, the first series put on steroids. In the West its a poorly received mess that has no identity anymore.

For Japan its actually a decent idea, big end of gen action blockbuster. Just going crazy to celebrate the series and see the world go to shit. Whilst in the West we've seen all this done already and tbh much better.

RE5 being a frustrating boring mess as well can't have helped :p
Least we might get a Revelations 2/U :)
 
I agree that it's something that is established over the whole generation but i think losing all that momentum at the end before releasing your next console isn't a good thing.

You can't lose that at the end, you can lose "momentum", but those two things are not one and the same. With PS3 and PS2 before it, Sony's been riding on brand recognition and third party support earned over the course of the whole generation (or two, in PS3's case). It didn't matter that PS2 was still selling like hotcakes in 2006, PS3 had a really abhorrent start (even the extremely limited quantities Sony managed to secure for the launch didn't sell out), and things didn't pick up until they dropped the price twice (for 33%, no less) in a matter of months. "Momentum" didn't help them with PSP, and it certainly didn't help them with Vita.

Likewise, it didn't matter that GC and the original Xbox had next to no "momentum", the game reset for them when the next generation started. Things that matter, like third party support which in turn spurs general public's interest, are dependent on your performance over the course of the whole generation and some other factors, the importance of short term momentum is comparatively minuscule.
 
Damn, maybe I was wrong because NSMB2 seems to be driving 3DS sales right now with those kind of legs. I can't even imagine what kind of disaster 3DS sales would be without it.

Least we might get a Revelations 2/U

Yeah, the one that sold much less. If anything we'll get a Raccoon City Sequel
 
Except they're not doing that either. A real price drop would have probably raised revenue so much that they could make a bigger profit on a lower price. But this is Sony, they're not in the business of making money.

Who cares about raised revenue if they are going to get less profit .
Making more revenue does not mean bigger profit and gaming is currently profitable for Sony which a price cut might put in trouble.
 
Medal of Honor Warfighter 300,000
Pokemon 867,000
Resident Evil 6 806,000
Skylanders 269,000
NBA 2k13 1.27m


http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-11-09-moh-warfighter-sells-300k-in-us-debut-week


MoH is a big bomb.
FIFA has done really well in US this year.

RE6 only did well in JP it seems and I'm not even sure why it did well there. Nostalgia? Maybe RE7 will be where the series decline there?


That's very low.
 
I think the market to a degree has hit that saturation point. We have to also figure that last gen we had the PS2 sell over 100 million units, Gamecube was around 35 million, and the Xbox was around 40 million (these are numbers going off memory so their a bit off). This gen you have the Wii at 90 million, PS3 and 360 neck and neck around 68 and 70 million roughly. The numbers are much higher than last gen and the two battling it out for second place are in a race to the finish line.

Sony made the mistake with the ultra slim by not cutting the price, it would of helped a little bit with their sales. MSFT should be selling their consoles at $199 or less by now. There is just so many mistakes being made left and right, I wouldn't be shocked if the gaming industry implodes again like in the 80's.

With the Vita selling only 35K in a month, that is bad news. Not sure how this company can be happy with this trend and not try to give it one more go with a rebranding, price cut, and marketing push or kill it off entirely cutting their losses. I still think the Vita name was bad for this thing, should of just stuck with PSP2 since people know the PSP brand.
 

omonimo

Banned
Except they're not doing that either. A real price drop would have probably raised revenue so much that they could make a bigger profit on a lower price. But this is Sony, they're not in the business of making money.

I'm with you. What a stupid decision, really. They have completely screwed the Christmas sales in US, congratulations Yoshida.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
RE: Dishonoured, I think the most direct comparison, game-wise, this generation would probably be BioShock (new IP, sort of "quirky" even though it takes place is a very common genre, apparent emphasis on narrative and world, from a major publisher but not THE BIG ONES, etc)... and BioShock debuted at 490k--so pretty much exactly equal sales-wise.

Now you might debate overall scope of marketing campaigns, whether the stealth element changes the basic value proposition, how BioShock debuted on 360-only versus Dishonoured on both, etc... but basically I think this comparison bodes pretty well for Dishonoured.

With XCOM, I think the best comparison is Civilization Revolution, with the quid pro quo that CivRev had some IP recognition going for it in a way that I'm not sure XCOM did, and also with the quid pro quo that XCOM had a PC release. CivRev premiered to 146k, so again I feel like XCOM comes off doing pretty well in that comparison. I don't view 116k as abysmal, and I'm 100% positive that the game didn't have anything remotely approaching a typical "AAA MEGATON" budget.
 
Anybody got LTD's?

During the month of October, Xbox 360 held six of the top 10 U.S. console game titles including: “NBA 2K13,” “Medal of Honor Warfighter,” “Resident Evil 6,” Dishonored,” “Madden NFL 13” and “Borderlands 2”

This is crazy to me as usual. It's like the PS3 doesn't exist. What are PS3 owners buying? Am i the only one with a variety of games (for fun when i play blops i sometimes randomly check out peoples gamer cards and they only have trophies for blops. sometimes 2 other games:/ )? Or are 360 owners buying that many more games than PS3 owners?
 

Gartooth

Member
Looks like an alright month, glad for Dishonored's performance this month as well as the combined sales of Pokemon BW2. Industry definitely in decline, and while I think November will be a good month for games (AC3, BLOPS2, Halo 4) I'm personally expecting spring 2013 to be the point when the game industry takes a huge dive into shark infested waters. This is due not only to the time period that these games are releasing in, but also because the sheer number of big games coming out at that time. (Wasn't Mass Effect 3 the only game to break 1 million units at the same time this year?)
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Actually, it sold more than 295k in September. And 245k in August.

By our charts I'm getting 240K in August and 300K in September.

Since it was "more than 240K" it could technically be 5K up on that and 5K lower in September, but at this level of sales that's not a huge difference.
 

omonimo

Banned
Anybody got LTD's?



This is crazy to me as usual. It's like the PS3 doesn't exist. What are PS3 owners buying? Am i the only one with a variety of games (for fun when i play blops i sometimes randomly check out peoples gamer cards and they only have trophies for blops. sometimes 2 other games:/ )? Or are 360 owners buying that many more games than PS3 owners?

What do you talking about? 360 userbase in USA is massively superior to ps3, where is the surprise? The last year 360 has sold almost the double of the ps3 every month, how can compete the ps3 with the 360 userbase for the top ten?
 
Pokémon seems pretty low :/

How does it compare to a typical third version like Emerald or Platinum? I was never really expecting it to top a new generation's title or a remake, but thought it would be pretty close :/
 

Gartooth

Member
Pokémon seems pretty low :/

How does it compare to a typical third version like Emerald or Platinum? I was never really expecting it to top a new generation's title or a remake, but thought it would be pretty close :/

I would say it is decent given not only that the DS is practically dead, but also because I believe the sales of a generation's "third" version is usually only 1/3 that of the originals.
 
What do you talking about? 360 userbase in USA is massively superior to ps3, where is the surprise? The last year 360 has sold almost the double of the ps3 every month, how can compete the ps3 with the 360 userbase for the top ten?

The PS3 has, i think, over 20 million consoles in the U.S. More than enough for huge sales.

Unless below the top ten the PS3 versions only sold thousands less.
 
Pokémon seems pretty low :/

How does it compare to a typical third version like Emerald or Platinum? I was never really expecting it to top a new generation's title or a remake, but thought it would be pretty close :/

Not sure about emerald, but Platinum sold 805K in its NPD debut.
 
Pokémon seems pretty low :/

How does it compare to a typical third version like Emerald or Platinum? I was never really expecting it to top a new generation's title or a remake, but thought it would be pretty close :/

About a hundred thousand more than Platinum, IIRC.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I just completely disagree with this. You really think if PS3 and 360 sales crater next year that won't have an impact on sales of the PS4 and 720? Don't forget that the wii U will be on the market as well.

I think mindshare is important and having your brand die down before you release its successor is going to hurt it.

Personally i think if your business model is built like that than it is fundamentally broken in the first place.

I don't think that people buying a PS3 or 360 in 2012, 6/7 years after launch, because its cheap are going to be first in line to buy a $400-$500 PS4/720.

Unless you think that people get more excited about PS4/720 when they see big PS3/360 numbers on the NPD chart, but I hope you don't think that, because it's ridiculous.

What will drive PS4/720 sales early on is appealing to the big fans who have been plugged into the ecosystems for years. That's what drove early 360 sales, not the awesome 2004-2005 Xbox sales.
 

omonimo

Banned
PS3 price was cut - last year. Sales still collapsed. Cutting the price will do nothing but cut Sony's margins, its not going to sell more units.

Yeah right 50$ of cut boost the sales, it's pretty knew... :/ & what a best strategy to increase the price more further.
 
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