• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

NPD Sales Results for April 2010

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
I would say April had terrible numbers because:

  • Very few new games were released in April — that people wanted, that is
  • Everyone was poor from March's insane number of high-quality releases
  • Everyone was saving up for all the big releases in May
  • April has historically been a slow month for the video game industry (look at the previous record holder for largest month-to-month percentage decline, April 2002)

So put your "THE END IS NIGH" signs away. Everything is fine.
 
John Harker said:
The problem with MHT is that they didn't release enough bundles!

I can't find one at any GS nearby. Hate GS, but I have credit I want to put toward it.
I agree with the bundle proposition! I was forced to pay the extra $10 to get Monster Hunter Tri and the Classic Controller Pro. It made me sad.

Anecdotally though, me and 3 friends just jumped on board this game.
 

markatisu

Member
John Harker said:
The problem with MHT is that they didn't release enough bundles!

I can't find one at any GS nearby. Hate GS, but I have credit I want to put toward it.

They did the same thing in Japan both times at launch (MH Tri and MHG), either these bundles are super expensive to produce (thus not returning much in terms of profits) or retailers just figure people will buy the game because Gamestop and Amazon both sold out of the bundles (Amazon sold out twice, GS never got restocked)
 

Mael

Member
Haunted said:
Damn, you guys are harsh. Poor PSP.

Seriously I have one and while I love Monster Hunter for which I bought it, there's really nothing on it I'd buy aside from Echoshift which I did day1, and seriously the lack of touch screen is galling as is the lack of some software I actually did buy on DS....
in short it's not my best purchase like Sony would claim in their hype

But hey who am I to complain I bought it for MHFU and I did get Echoshift I'd say I got more than I expected!
I know, lowered expectations and all that
 

Madman

Member
Chrange said:
It's ridiculous that there's no sense of perspective. The industry had year after year of record-setting growth, so why wouldn't it level off at some point? Expecting it to suddenly crash is just as absurd as expecting it to continue growing at a ridiculous pace.
Everyone has been trying to predict a crash ever since gaming started booming. People here do it all the time. I guess the logic is the market crashed once, so it will crash again.

The difference of course is that gaming was no where near as big then as it is now.
 
Doesn't sony make almost $100 on each psp sold? If so, then I can see why they aren't doing any marketing and ignoring the console so they can maximize profit. I think a price cut could sell more consoles, but maybe in the long run their strategy is better.

Strangely even as the psp hardware has slowed down, it has still consistently sold/shipped 50mill each fiscal year in software sales. It isn't great, but at least it is consistent. (You can find this info in their 2009 fiscal report.)

Overall, if sony doesn't pull out a psp2 at E3 and release it soon, then I don't know what they are thinking. It also has to be at E3. The west is their worst region and they need to focus on it next gen. If they announce/show the psp at TGS, it could be perceived that they are "ignoring" west and only focusing on Japan.
 

Barrett2

Member
Madman said:
Everyone has been trying to predict a crash ever since gaming started booming. People here do it all the time. I guess the logic is the market crashed once, so it will crash again.

The difference of course is that gaming was no where near as big then as it is now.

Dollar-wise, the gaming market was surprisingly big in the early 1980s. Although it is certainly bigger now in terms of sales, it's also a much broader market that sells to numerous demographics across various platforms and avenues of consumption that simply didn't exist in the late 70s, early 80s.

Back before the 83 crash, video gaming was essentially a single product line within the "toy business;" or at least it was about 10 different companies with nearly identical products vying for the same small slice within the toy business. A lot of the struggles and dynamics of the 83 crash have to be interpreted through the prism of gaming being just another toy line, like Pound Puppies & Barbies both competing for the attention of the same 7 year old girl in the toy shop. Now, it's not just a higher-dollar industry, but it is also much more integrated into different demographics, sales channels, mediums of access, etc. It's a totally different world than before the original crash; so for that reason, talking about another 83-esque crash is really inapplicable.
 
Danthrax said:
I would say April had terrible numbers because:

  • Very few new games were released in April — that people wanted, that is
  • Everyone was poor from March's insane number of high-quality releases
  • Everyone was saving up for all the big releases in May
  • April has historically been a slow month for the video game industry (look at the previous record holder for largest month-to-month percentage decline, April 2002)

So put your "THE END IS NIGH" signs away. Everything is fine.

On the flip side, tons of people got their tax returns. (I know I did.)
 
Chrange said:
It's ridiculous that there's no sense of perspective. The industry had year after year of record-setting growth, so why wouldn't it level off at some point? Expecting it to suddenly crash is just as absurd as expecting it to continue growing at a ridiculous pace.

Yeah, but the industry was looking to grow their way out of their problems with way to high fixed costs.
 

Neo C.

Member
MH3 doesn't have bad sales compared to the previous MHs, but I'm still disappointed that the Wii core audience doesn't give the title enough attention. MH3 is definitely GOTY material, it deserves much higher sales number.
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
Top 20 is up.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=28566

top-20-apr-2010%20%281%29.png
 

Gwanatu T

Junior Member
Chrange said:
It's ridiculous that there's no sense of perspective. The industry had year after year of record-setting growth, so why wouldn't it level off at some point? Expecting it to suddenly crash is just as absurd as expecting it to continue growing at a ridiculous pace.

It is quite unbelievable, but for some reason people have this mindset that everything can continue to grow and expand forever, unfortunately.
 

donny2112

Member
neutralgamer02 said:
Doesn't sony make almost $100 on each psp sold?

I think you're confusing the retailer margin on the PSPgo, which is purposefully high to compensate retailers for the lack of future UMD purchases, and how much Sony makes on the PSP. I strongly doubt it's anywhere near a $100 profit for Sony to sell a PSP to a retailer.

jvm said:

Gracias.

NSMB Wii > 360 MW2 + PS3 MW2
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
Man, we were this close from avoiding 10 pages of "Monster Hunter bombed" bullshit.
 

donny2112

Member
Dave Long said:
I'm sure it's been said, but Easter was in fiscal March this year. That has a big effect on the April sales.

NPD said it, too. They really like to use Easter to explain away bad months. They did it last year for March, too, and then April (with Easter) was worse.
 

Oxx

Member
schuelma said:
Man, we were this close from avoiding 10 pages of "Monster Hunter bombed" bullshit.

Now that NPD are cutting back on the 'official' numbers everything outside of the top 5 might be labelled a bomba.

...

Are the numbers released outside of the top 5 from publishers?
 

donny2112

Member
Oxx said:
Are the numbers released outside of the top 5 from publishers?

Yep. Microsoft and Nintendo's press releases, I believe. We also have 130K for Wii Fit Plus w/Balance Board, but jvm was on the ball there and didn't try to use that number for Wii Fit Plus in the chart (which would be a combined SKU). :)
 
No Mario Kart DS in the Top 20, Mario Kart Wii at #18. Even evergreens die at some point I suppose (at least until the holiday months).

Pretty good MHTri numbers, if only it had sold a few thousand more the unpleasentness in the first 10 pages could have been avoided.

donny2112 said:
NPD said it, too. They really like to use Easter to explain away bad months. They did it last year for March, too, and then April (with Easter) was worse.
At least they didn't try using the shocking fact that there was snow in the northern half of the US in February to explain the 15% decline that month from the year before.
 

Mael

Member
donny2112 said:
Gracias.

NSMB Wii > 360 MW2 + PS3 MW2

Hey looky here that's info you won't see reported anywhere else.
Anyway isn't the whole psp situation poisoning from Sony's own marketing?
I mean isn't the psp doing worse since the whole pspgo thingy?
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
donny2112 said:
NPD said it, too. They really like to use Easter to explain away bad months. They did it last year for March, too, and then April (with Easter) was worse.
Isn't April always the weakest NPD month though?
 
I had a strong feeling MH3 would actually be hiding at 11.

Its placement would've made me assume it was at around 130-140k, but 125-126k is still really good. :)
 

TunaLover

Member
Nintendo really drop the ball with CC pro bundles, I had to buy the controller and the game for separate. I waited for bundles restock but it never happened...
 

donny2112

Member
grandjedi6 said:
Isn't April always the weakest NPD month though?

Obviously depends on the software. I thought May had seen a decline from April (at least in hardware) lately. I was just commenting on NPD's repeated use of Easter to try to explain away lower than expected sales.
 

Struct09

Member
I didn't expect MH3 to even hit the top 20, pretty cool that it landed at 11

I say this as someone who has never played a MH game
 

donny2112

Member
cvxfreak said:
Is Mario Kart Wii suffering from a shortage?

Nintendo reported that it was a few months ago. This month's sales is likely a function of Wii being < 300K. Wii's sales have typically affected the evergreen sales, too.

RBH said:
LOL @ Final Fantasy XIII.

I don't see FFXIII in that list. What are you laughing abo- Oh....

AceBandage said:
Doesn't Reggie get some kind of prize?

It's not greater in LTD of the combined total. Just commenting that it's greater for this month. Reggie's thing was that it would be > than one of them (and it has been greater than PS3) with a Geoff butt-in about 360 with an indeterminate reply from Reggie on that. It should be close to outselling the 360 version by now, though.
 

DMeisterJ

Banned
Ah, MH3, Just missed the top 10. FAIL.

Jokes aside, it's a nice opening for a game that has never done well in the US. It's unfortunate it'll never be one of the big players in the West, but I think that it will at least keep getting localized (the lack of actual voice really helps that), so that's all that's really important here.

Anyways, FFXIII bomba-d second month. First month of 800k on PS3, second month of less than 100k? Jesus christ.
 

Leezard

Member
Nice sales for MH3! The game deserved more, but this should be the highest opening in the west for the series, right?
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
DMeisterJ said:
Anyways, FFXIII bomba-d second month. First month of 800k on PS3, second month of less than 100k? Jesus christ.

Not surprised, it seemed to have done similarly in Japan. Word of mouth probably isn't helping it much either.
 

starok

Banned
Leezard said:
Nice sales for MH3! The game deserved more, but this should be the highest opening in the west for the series, right?

Yeah it did better than on psp, the system with horrible software sales, but apparently it's enough to call it a success.
 
starok said:
Yeah it did better than on psp, the system with horrible software sales, but apparently it's enough to call it a success.


A series that has basically no appeal in the West selling over 100K in 10 days is certainly a success.
 
Top Bottom