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NPD Sales Numbers for November 2008
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
BenjaminBirdie said:
On one hand I feel badly for Sony, they couldn't have known the economy would turn to shit and their tethering the PS3 to Blu-Ray would be such an apparent flop. Right now there is simply no value proposition that Sony can promote for the PS3. How could you possibly recommend a PS3 over a 360 to someone at this point? And I say that as a PS3 owner. Blu-Ray standalone players are quickly dropping in price, and console exclusives that have an 'arguably' better visual quality on the PS3 is too tenuous to communicate to the average consumer.
But on the other hand, no console has succeeded at this high of a price point relative to competitors, and others have tried. The arrogance in Sony thinking their brand would be enough to convince customers to pay substantially more than competitors is comical arrogance.
Metaphoreus
This is semantics, and nothing more
Maxwell House said:
I've never believed in Sony's ten-year plan "PR-speak," as you say, but I still think it's possible. I don't mean to seem to be trolling the Wii (as I do prefer it), but Sony could just modify Nintendo's plan from GameCube to Wii so that they have something of a "re-launch" a few years down the road. This could also be similar to the NXE once they finally reach that mystical mass-market price of $200.
Metaphoreus said:
Miyamoto said something back when the Gamecube was bombing hard that they could see it having a 10-year lifespan, that they were going to keep it alive through peripherals. I think this was right around when they first showed off the bongo drums, actually. And look at the Wii. Gamecube visuals, Wii remote, Wii fit board, Wii wheel, Wii Motion+.
lowrider007
Licorice-flavoured booze?
What was Sony's PR statement on this ? was it posted it this thread because I can't find it ?
EDIT
Found it.
EDIT
Found it.
2 millions.
Holy shit. And we thought 800-900k was ginormous...
I remember the "magic peripheral" talk. Actually iirc he just mentionned one single peripheral.
My guess is they wanted to release the wiimote for the GameCube, but they finally thought they had to relaunch everything with a more "classy" design, a new name, and a whole new image.
Holy shit. And we thought 800-900k was ginormous...
AniHawk said:
I remember the "magic peripheral" talk. Actually iirc he just mentionned one single peripheral.
My guess is they wanted to release the wiimote for the GameCube, but they finally thought they had to relaunch everything with a more "classy" design, a new name, and a whole new image.
lowrider007
Licorice-flavoured booze?
Trevor360 said:
Not much else they can say really, I don't suppose they can come out and say we've sold really poorly compared to everyone else, I do feel sad for the Sony atm, the PS3 is not a bad console but how can it ever compete the 360 when they are so cheap, yes the arcade pack is missing certain features but the fact is you can pop into town in the uk and pick up a 360 and Gears of War 2 for less than £150, that just madness, I hope for all are sakes the PS3 does well because the prospect of a two console feature is quite scary.
lawblob said:
easily. its still a great console with some great games. Personally for me its the right fit, so I guess it must be for others too.
I like the fact that it plays blurays really well - saves me buying a standalone player. Yes, you can buy them separately so if you're mostly into movies there isn't a solid reason anymore to buy a PS3, but if you like both games and music then its a good reason to go PS3 over 360
Free online is perfect for me. I don't have much time to play online so I found the cost of LIVE on 360 was annoying - I just didn't get my money's worth. I could afford it, but I begrudged paying it.
and it has games I like playing.
Simple really.
I will admit that I'm not sure those reasons are worth the difference in price, but I'm pretty happy with the choice
Mantorok
Member
lowrider007 said:
But why? If you ask me 1 power-house console and 1 family-friendly console is a fucking dream come true personally.
I fucking hate that there are 3 horses in this race, especially when 2 of them are producing almost identical fucking products - that's madness!
It's called competition. If there were only 2 consoles on the market, Wii and one of the HD consoles, things would really suck. Hardware, software, services, prices, etc. It would be horrible if the market had only 2 players. 3 players is badly needed to keep the other two on their toes at all times, serving us, the gamer.
lowrider007
Licorice-flavoured booze?
Mantorok said:
Dude it's never healthy having one company dominate over one sector (hardcore gaming), not having any good competition stifles innovation, part of the reason why the 360 is as successful as it is is because it's trying to be better than it's rivals, take that incentive away and the industry starts to stagnate.
Mantorok
Member
Trevor360 said:
Wrong. As long as there is at least 1 other competitor, even if it is Nintendo, the other company will always strive to capture the 'entire' market. I'm also pretty sure that Wii HD will become a suitable device for hardcore gamers as well.
It wouldn't be as grim as you might think.
Mantorok
Member
Is the Wii to the PS3 like the PS was to the N64?
It just shocks me how Sony have done a 'Nintendo' even after being responsible for Nintendo's downhill slide, and witnessing Nintendo dropping the ball in '95. You'd think they would ensure that they didn't do the same - wouldn't you?
It just shocks me how Sony have done a 'Nintendo' even after being responsible for Nintendo's downhill slide, and witnessing Nintendo dropping the ball in '95. You'd think they would ensure that they didn't do the same - wouldn't you?
oldergamer
Member
I've gone through three quarters of this thread. Why haven't we seen any sales numbers for Little Big Planet?
Opus Angelorum
Member
oldergamer said:
Not provided.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
mrklaw said:
I don't think anyone was saying "The PS3 is not worth it". Obviously it is, to a large number of people. What they were saying was "It's not worth it in comparison to the other stuff on the market".
You mention a blu-ray player, free online, and games you like playing. Right now, it's possible to buy an arcade 360 bundle (which comes with one decent game and a family junk game), a low-end blu-ray player, and a Live membership for around the same price as a $399 PS3. If you bumped that up to a decent, profile 2.0 high-quality Blu-Ray player, you could do 360+Blu-Ray within the same ballpark as the PS3. The numbers fudge up or down on both sides if you get deals on any one product. If a consumer opts out of Blu-Ray, it's not even close.
It's true that the PS3 has some fantastic exclusives. No one is going to doubt that. It might also be true that those exclusives appeal to you more than 360 exclusives. Even then, though, the exclusive on both systems hit a lot of the same genres--for example, both the 360 and the PS3 have high quality exclusive FPS games. Both the 360 and the PS3 have high quality exclusive TPS games (even if, say, Uncharted probably targets a different audience than GoW). Both have high quality exclusive racing games. Both have exclusive singing games and exclusive trivia games.
I would say that there are differences too. The 360 clearly has a lineup of JRPGs not present on the PS3, and the PS3 has software like Little Big Planet and even Heavenly Sword that do not have competing products on the 360, but I think on the whole there aren't many demographics who are tickled only by the PS3's exclusives and not the 360's (or even vice versa, really). I can't imagine individual franchise loyalties (to MGS or Resistance or Halo or whatever) come into play at this point, since pretty much everyone who really cared about a franchise enough to make a purchasing decision probably already did in the first 2/3 years of both systems.
By and large, though, both systems share >80% of their library, and so exclusives are going to be in the back of the mind of most consumers in the sense that whether they are getting a PS3 or a 360, they are getting mostly the same games.
It's not that people are saying that the PS3 is a bad value--they're saying that the way prices are right now, the 360 is seen by most consumers as being a BETTER value. That's no attempt at trolling, it's an attempt at explaining the sales numbers you're seeing in a pretty obvious way. If the PS3 had a superior value proposition to the 360 right now, you wouldn't be seeing a large disparity in hardware sales.
UraMallas said:
~190k, lifetime total of a hair under a million.
Kyo
Member
Chrange said:
That was half a year ago. Of course it did result in a spike in PS3 hardware sales, but where was a comparably important title in the second half of the year?
Also, none of those titles were by Sony themselves. I'll keep saying it, one of the main reasons for the PS3's disappointing sales is Sony's failure to provide enough great exclusives. Some of the new franchises were not nearly as good as they should've been given the time and money spent on creating them and some of the old ones still haven't made it to the PS3.
So.. the 360 still has excellent titles, and the Wii can't sell games aside from tech demos like Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Wii Music. Ugh... Why would third parties want to develop for a system that only first party titles sell well? For instance, how come Wii COD5 isn't on the list? It's been well advertised all over TV channels like ESPN and other places.
Sucks how Sony PS3 is taking a beating...
Call of Duty still has a franchise even though it was developed by Treyarch. Wow.
Sucks how Sony PS3 is taking a beating...
Call of Duty still has a franchise even though it was developed by Treyarch. Wow.
As a PS3 owner, I am a little frustrated with its direction. The PS3 was a good system, but marketed badly, especially in this very bad economy. They could have tried to push themselves as a value, like a swiss-army knife of systems - with BluRay, built-in wifi, free PSN service and easy to upgrade Hard-drive. They probably could have even tied LBP as a family game and deals where you get $150 credit for opening a Sony Credit Card.
But they continually cut features (no BC, no flash card) and maintain a price that is higher than its competitors without doing a good job marketing its advantages. I understand cost-cutting measures, but what is the cost benefit ratio of having PS2 BC, especially with PS2 sales petering out? Walk in any Gamestop and nearly a third of total shelf space is dedicated to used Ps2 games, hundreds of games less than 30 bucks. People still with a PS2 because they still have an enormous backlog ...like me
. That is a HUGE advantage not capitalized on. (Do chips cost that much more to make and install? Its almost 9 year old technology. How about software emulation? Is it difficult? Correct me if I'm wrong)
Also it is ironic considering that part of the reason Sony won against the Sega Saturn was because it was released at a much lower pricing.
The games are good to great, the hardware is good. I still think it remains a viable platform for games, but it seems like it will get second dibs next to the 360 this generation in terms of development and in some cases release scheduling (like BioShock). It still has some great first party properties like God of War, GT, Resistance, LBP. Metal gear solid 4 was a good demonstration of that advantage in hardware. It is still a marketable brand name. It just has a huge uphill battle for next generation, especially in a bad economy.
(Although reports of firmware updates bricking systems are a little unsettling. Its not as bad as RRoD, but still sucks because if it is the firmware that is Sony's fault and customers should pay for it.)
They continue to spend resources on things like Playstation Home. Sure it is nice its free. I checked it out, and while it is a fun diversion chatting with random people and bowling, how much more function can it get? Do people really need another Facebook type service? How much money is virtual furniture and Diesel clothing going to earn? It just seems a bit cynical. Consumers are constantly looking for 1) games and 2) increased functionality at the best price
In the meantime 360 gets a Netflix service with NXE. I thought PS3 was the media hub? Sony owns tons of movie and music property and couldn't unite their divisions and tie these in?
Facts are the facts and the Wii is clearly the success of this generation, and its influence will be longterm. How they manage the next generation will be interesting and remains to be seen. When Nintendo is successful, they tend to play it more safe. Things may change with Iwata at the helm; I want to see how he manages a lead into the next generation. MS, while not winning the contest of most systems sold, did succeed in leapfrogging over Sony and are in a good position for next generation especially as HDTV becomes more and more mainstream. Sony needs to come up with a gameplan - they have to finish solid and prevent the brand from losing more luster.
Last point is that PS3 is not the GCN. The GCN was going toe to toe in terms of sales with Xbox until a decent chunk into its lifespan, fighting for #2 while PS2 was clearly the dominant system. It just didn't get a lot of the multiplat games and I guess that made it seem like it was a distant third. The PS3 was a clear third from the get go as the 360 had a year headstart and the Wii absolutely succeeded most predictions. Not worse than GCN, just totaly different scenario, different target market.
But they continually cut features (no BC, no flash card) and maintain a price that is higher than its competitors without doing a good job marketing its advantages. I understand cost-cutting measures, but what is the cost benefit ratio of having PS2 BC, especially with PS2 sales petering out? Walk in any Gamestop and nearly a third of total shelf space is dedicated to used Ps2 games, hundreds of games less than 30 bucks. People still with a PS2 because they still have an enormous backlog ...like me
. That is a HUGE advantage not capitalized on. (Do chips cost that much more to make and install? Its almost 9 year old technology. How about software emulation? Is it difficult? Correct me if I'm wrong) Also it is ironic considering that part of the reason Sony won against the Sega Saturn was because it was released at a much lower pricing.
The games are good to great, the hardware is good. I still think it remains a viable platform for games, but it seems like it will get second dibs next to the 360 this generation in terms of development and in some cases release scheduling (like BioShock). It still has some great first party properties like God of War, GT, Resistance, LBP. Metal gear solid 4 was a good demonstration of that advantage in hardware. It is still a marketable brand name. It just has a huge uphill battle for next generation, especially in a bad economy.
(Although reports of firmware updates bricking systems are a little unsettling. Its not as bad as RRoD, but still sucks because if it is the firmware that is Sony's fault and customers should pay for it.)
They continue to spend resources on things like Playstation Home. Sure it is nice its free. I checked it out, and while it is a fun diversion chatting with random people and bowling, how much more function can it get? Do people really need another Facebook type service? How much money is virtual furniture and Diesel clothing going to earn? It just seems a bit cynical. Consumers are constantly looking for 1) games and 2) increased functionality at the best price
In the meantime 360 gets a Netflix service with NXE. I thought PS3 was the media hub? Sony owns tons of movie and music property and couldn't unite their divisions and tie these in?
Facts are the facts and the Wii is clearly the success of this generation, and its influence will be longterm. How they manage the next generation will be interesting and remains to be seen. When Nintendo is successful, they tend to play it more safe. Things may change with Iwata at the helm; I want to see how he manages a lead into the next generation. MS, while not winning the contest of most systems sold, did succeed in leapfrogging over Sony and are in a good position for next generation especially as HDTV becomes more and more mainstream. Sony needs to come up with a gameplan - they have to finish solid and prevent the brand from losing more luster.
Last point is that PS3 is not the GCN. The GCN was going toe to toe in terms of sales with Xbox until a decent chunk into its lifespan, fighting for #2 while PS2 was clearly the dominant system. It just didn't get a lot of the multiplat games and I guess that made it seem like it was a distant third. The PS3 was a clear third from the get go as the 360 had a year headstart and the Wii absolutely succeeded most predictions. Not worse than GCN, just totaly different scenario, different target market.
Lince said:
Boom Blox, Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii are definite worthwhile purchases, though at the moment it seems the last of those three are contributing to the insane Wii sales.
No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki and the House of the Dead games are also worth your time though they're more acquired tastes.
Oh, and Excite Truck bitch. Love it.
EDIT: They really really need to push Boom Blox more. In my sister's household that has had almost as much playtime as Wii Sports has. EA should just do a Nintendo and advertise it continuously, or at least promote more word-of-mouth on it.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
claviertekky said:
how many units do you think game #11 sold?
what about game #21?
#31?
#41?
#51?
#61?
#71?
#81?
#91?
#201?
... what software do you think occupies those slots?
Do you think the top 10 represents software sales in any meaningful way?
Of course it does. Fine, let's do a NPD where we just list the #s starting from 11.Stumpokapow said:
Never mention the top 10.
1. I still haven't beaten MM9 on my 360. It just gets too frustrating towards the end. Haven' touched the game since.AniHawk said:
2. Lost Winds, although the music is very reminiscent to Japanese culture, the game didn't really click for me. Wish there was a demo before I had it...
AniHawk said:
So damn true. It's probably the best thing to have happened this generation. I want every company to release at least one 8-bit sequel of their major franchise per generation now.
Konami and Sega, I'm looking at you! And to be fair I would like if Nintendo had the balls to do a new Super Mario Bros. with 8-bit sprites rather than the 3D used in NSMB. And I want all of them to have ludicrous challenges and endless modes.
claviertekky said:
The #10 game this month sold just under 300k. Plenty of games could have had great second/third month sales (e.g. guitar hero 360/ps2, LBP, Fallout 3, etc) but we'll never know since the top ten sales are so high. It doesn't help that COD ate up two spots this month, and that Wii Play, Wii Fit and Mario Kart take another 3 spots every month.
A game doesn't have to sell 500-750k in one month to be a hit. A smaller title could consistantly sell 50-100k a month, eventually getting to the 500k-1M range, and we'd never know about it outside of a press release
You forgot to mention Guitar hero in that list of tech demos or w/e. Anyway you do realize that the top 10 software sales only includes the 10 most sold SKUs as there are only 10 items on the list and it's also implied in the name "top 10". Is english your second or third language?claviertekky said:
It might come to a shock to you that there are more than 10 games being sold each month but it's the truth.
What? How many different SKUs do you think go through retail each month? top 10 probably doesn't come close to the tip of the iceberg.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
I think it's positives outweigh those negatives though.Yes Boss! said:
IcebergSlim3000
Member
I'm predicting lots of new meat in COD4. Can't wait.
claviertekky said:
I stocked up on a LOT of energy tanks before going up against Wily. Took me several tries. Once I got there, I made short work of him. Was kinda surprised other people were having trouble since I consider myself somewhat weaksauce when it comes to difficult games these days. Glad I stuck with it though.
LostWinds... That's a game I have a hard time recommending. I know it's not for everyone, but I thought it was great, so I do it anyway.
In the grandscheme of things they certainly don't. Only for fanboy wars. Also what do you mean by "so why don't we mention them". Do you seriously not know? It's because we get the top 10 for free from the generous NPD group and that's all we get! We don't get more than those, doesn't mean the rest isn't significant. It would probably be illegal to release more numbers if you had em (even if you payed big bugs for them). The only times we get more data is through PR stuff or something and even then it's usually graphs of totals (total 3rd party software for instance) and rarely specific games if we're lucky.claviertekky said: