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NPD Sales Results for April 2010

gillty

Banned
Stumpokapow said:
PC (7)
The Sims, The Sims 2, Myst, WoW, Starcraft, Half-Life, Half-Life 2 -- I'm certain I'm missing a few Korean / Chinese games here, and maybe Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3?
add:
Diablo 2
The Sims 3
Warcraft 3
Doom
SimCity 3000


Possible
CounterStrike (4.2m in 08)
SimCity 4
Battlefield 1942 (4.4 in 06)
Civilization IV (Over 3 Million in 2008)
 

DR2K

Banned
Darthdevidem01 said:
Oh please spare me this.

FF8 was the "worst FF eva" when it releases, FF9 & 10 did 5 Million +

FFX-2 was the "worst FF eva" FF12 did 5 Million +

FF12 was the "worst FF eva" FF13 will do 5 Million +

I see a patter there, hope all you want to, don't complain when FF15 breaks 5 Million pretty easily.

I loved 8 and X-2, hated 12, but FF13 was so bad that it made me miss 12.
 

Zen

Banned
RBH said:
This may be the most pathetic example of damage control that I've ever seen on GAF. :lol

From a financial standpoint he's right now. The PSP hardware makes Sony money, so why should they kill it off prematurely when they can still rid some meager money from it until PSP2?
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Besides, the strongest system this year in Japan now is the PSP I believe (according to Media Create/Famitsu's YTD articles). :lol
 

ZZMitch

Member
jay said:
Oh really, how much did your product sell last month?
Well you see, my friend, the poster you are quoting is one person, while SONY is a corporation with thousands of people.

So to one person 66K sales may seem like a lot, but to a huge corporation, it is next to nothing.
 
ULTROS! said:
Besides, the strongest system this year in Japan now is the PSP I believe (according to Media Create/Famitsu's YTD articles). :lol
That's the good news for Sony; the bad news is that if the 3DS launches in Japan this year all that will change in a few hours.
 

Zen

Banned
I wonder if Sony will push ahead with PSP2 this year or wait a year to make sure that they feature match the 3DS. I don't really think that these pig PSP games coming up are an indication that they won't be launching a PSP2 sooner rather than later, since the PSP2 will most likely play all PSP games. Although the PSP might have another year left in it if they price drop at E3.
 

Baki

Member
Zen said:
I wonder if Sony will push ahead with PSP2 this year or wait a year to make sure that they feature match the 3DS. I don't really think that these pig PSP games coming up are an indication that they won't be launching a PSP2 sooner rather than later, since the PSP2 will most likely play all PSP games. Although the PSP might have another year left in it if they price drop at E3.

Its not about how much time is left in a system, but how can you one-up the competition. And I can assure you, supporting a dead system is not how you do it.
 

donny2112

Member
ULTROS! said:
Besides, the strongest system this year in Japan now is the PSP I believe (according to Media Create/Famitsu's YTD articles). :lol

The PSP is doing the same so far this year in Japan that it has every year except for 2008 (i.e. after the Slim launch). It's only marginally ahead of the DS this year, because DS has slowed down so much.

In the U.S., it's down 36% YOY, and 2009 was hardly a stellar year for the system. 2009 was down ~30% YOY from 2008 through April. Japan is "okay," but that's hardly reason to be ecstatic.
 
It still seems so crazy to me to describe the 3rd best seeling system this gen (and the 2nd best in Japan) as a "dead" system. I really hope Sony takes a close look at what went so wrong with the software sales and tries to address it before they launch a PSP2.

Personally, I always felt that their biggest mistake was launching the PSP as sort of a companion to the PS2 when really it should have been its replacement. If Sony had trasitioned from the PS2 fat then the PS2 slim and then the PSP I think we'd be looking at a completely different story here. Can being born too soon in this case be fatal?
 
Zen said:
From a financial standpoint he's right now. The PSP hardware makes Sony money, so why should they kill it off prematurely when they can still rid some meager money from it until PSP2?

Has anyone in this thread ever heard the phrase "opportunity costs" before?

Darthdevidem01 said:
I see a patter there

Yes, there's a quite obvious pattern which we've all been discussing already in this thread: the pattern where in the last twelve years, main-series Final Fantasy titles have declined from a high of 8+ million worldwide sales to around half that.

Darthdevidem01 said:
{suicides}

ffx2df-therealthing.png


Suck it
 

Mooreberg

is sharpening a shovel and digging a ditch
Saint Gregory said:
It still seems so crazy to me to describe the 3rd best seeling system this gen (and the 2nd best in Japan) as a "dead" system. I really hope Sony takes a close look at what went so wrong with the software sales and tries to address it before they launch a PSP2.

We've learned this generation that install base doesn't matter to a publisher if people are not buying their products. Whether it is piracy (PSP) or indifference (a lot of third party games that get released on Wii).

I'm not even sure what Sony would do with a PSP2 that would make third parties want to get involved. The only long term solution to piracy would be requiring a PSN sign in to play a la Steam, but that wouldn't really work. We've seen the headaches caused by single player PC games that use this scheme, and a 14 year old that wants to play Madden 2012 on the go probably isn't going to have a 3G connection.

The only sure thing is that PSP Go was one of the most ill conceived product refreshes ever. Can't say I'm sad to see the result. Releasing a system that didn't work with all the games people had legitimately purchased over a four year span was just flat out stupid.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
vazel said:
X-2 actually has an awesome job system. If you can suffer through all the saccharine crap with the rest of the game.
I loved that too. No sappy save the world story. Was more of an up tempo side adventure.

Problem with the FF series is that budget is increasing, sales aren't. And with a horrible ran company like Squeenix. Not a good sign at all.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Saint Gregory said:
It still seems so crazy to me to describe the 3rd best seeling system this gen (and the 2nd best in Japan) as a "dead" system. I really hope Sony takes a close look at what went so wrong with the software sales and tries to address it before they launch a PSP2.

NPD thread. It's super dead in the west. God of War will do ok, as will Peace Walker, the higher profile SE RPGs will also be fine. Everything else? Not worth publishing unless you make it a very modest print run.
 

Zen

Banned
charlequin said:
Has anyone in this thread ever heard the phrase "opportunity costs" before?

When you give up whatever your next best choice is because you chose the better option. The lost value is your trade off, or opportunity cost.

Baki said:
Its not about how much time is left in a system, but how can you one-up the competition. And I can assure you, supporting a dead system is not how you do it.

Fair enough. I think PSP2 will come when it's ready, not when Sony feels that they've wrung everything they can from the stone that is the PSP. If Sony wasn't so hamstrung by the PS3 costs I think we could have seen the PSP do slightly better than emancipate for three years since the last price drop.

It just makes not much sense to kill the PSP between then and now.
 
Talamius said:
If profound reinvention means a retro reboot back to the SNES style, I'm all for it. More gameplay, less interactive movie.

The funny thing is, it's not even interactive storytelling anymore. All story sequences are literally just movies, whether it's in game or fmv. The only time the player is involved is during battles.
 

Zen

Banned
H_Prestige said:
The funny thing is, it's not even interactive storytelling anymore. All story sequences are literally just movies, whether it's in game or fmv. The only time the player is involved is during battles.

That's pretty much how it has always been. Pressing a button to go to the next line in some of the SNES FF games is about as 'interactive' as turning a page on the book you're reading.
 
Man God said:
NPD thread. It's super dead in the west. God of War will do ok, as will Peace Walker, the higher profile SE RPGs will also be fine. Everything else? Not worth publishing unless you make it a very modest print run.
My memory is a little fuzzy but it seemed like for a time (before Go) the PSP was doing pretty decent hardware #s in the US. Not DS numbers but it seemed like it was keeping pace with the PS360 but rarely did anything show up for it in the Top 10 NPD.

I have a hard time believing piracy had that kind of impact of software sales since it seems much worse in DS circles so what went wrong? Were people really just buying them to wear around their necks like medallions ala the early PSP marketing?
 

obaidr

Banned
I would like to know why still some high profile PSP games come out like the new Prince of Persia. I guess the PSN sales are not that bad after all. But PSP is doing very poor anyway. But did we see any non Nintendo brands NDS games in the top 20 in the last couple of months?
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
obaidr said:
I would like to know why still some high profile PSP games come out like the new Prince of Persia. I guess the PSN sales are not that bad after all. But PSP is doing very poor anyway. But did we see any non Nintendo brands NDS games in the top 20 in the last couple of months?

the most baffling thing is why PSP gets ports of AC and Dantes inferno and wii gets shafted :p

publishers should at least be consistent... :p
 

Baki

Member
Zen said:
When you give up whatever your next best choice is because you chose the better option. The lost value is your trade off, or opportunity cost.



Fair enough. I think PSP2 will come when it's ready, not when Sony feels that they've wrung everything they can from the stone that is the PSP. If Sony wasn't so hamstrung by the PS3 costs I think we could have seen the PSP do slightly better than emancipate for three years since the last price drop.

It just makes not much sense to kill the PSP between then and now.

It makes wayy too much sense to kill the PSP now (but who are we kidding the thing is already dead :lol :lol). I mean, sure keep producing it but a successor is waaaay overdue. The wrung everything they can from the PSP and then some. Now what they need to do is build upon what they've learnt with the PSP and release a PSP 2. If they do it right, they might have a shot at giving Nintendo a good marketshare battle worldwide (well, definitely in Japan).

I mean look at Ninty, the DS is still trucking (much, much better than the PSP) and they're more than willing to send out a successor. And hey, they haven't made a bad business decision so far which means it might not be a bad idea to release a successor for the PSP.

I think the most surprising thing is that people are still debating whether this is neccessary or not. I'm not asking SCE to put out a half baked product but I am suggesting they step on things and stop resting on their laurels.
 
Saint Gregory said:
My memory is a little fuzzy but it seemed like for a time (before Go) the PSP was doing pretty decent hardware #s in the US. Not DS numbers but it seemed like it was keeping pace with the PS360 but rarely did anything show up for it in the Top 10 NPD.
I think that is the case. People have been calling even the hardware sales of PSP dead for years, but last year was the first year the PS3 beat out the PSP in the U.S.

I'm not sure about worldwide sales, but I doubt the gap between the PSP and the PS3/360 are all that big. Looking at the U.S. and Japan combined sales, it should have outsold the 360 and PS3 until last year.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
The more I think about it, the more 3DS being pushed out because Nintendo is finally sick of rampant DS piracy makes sense.

Unidentified said:
I think that is the case. People have been calling even the hardware sales of PSP dead for years, but last year was the first year the PS3 beat out the PSP in the U.S.

I'm not sure about worldwide sales, but I doubt the gap between the PSP and the PS3/360 are all that big. Looking at the U.S. and Japan combined sales, it should have outsold the 360 and PS3 until last year.

Hardware numbers are great. Software numbers are terrible. It's probably the worst Software seller of any non failure system.
 
amtentori said:
the most baffling thing is why PSP gets ports of AC and Dantes inferno and wii gets shafted :p

publishers should at least be consistent... :p

Probably because they either sell decently enough to make profit for the cost of getting the game to the PSP (or maybe SONY is giving them extra behind the scenes incentives), or it is just less pricey to make a PSP port than a Wii game.

Maybe software sales on the PSP are just well enough to turn a profit, longstanding, though it seems like PSP has never charted on NPD Software charts here.
 

Talon

Member
seady said:
I wonder if the multiplatform strategy hurts FFXIII sale or improves it.

For some reason, when games that cater to one single platform go multiplat, it will not received well in the public's eyes, as if it is some kind of betrayal or something and loses its specialness - thus getting bad reviews.

It may sound unrelated and ridiculous, but there are a lot of precedents to this.
Is this GameFAQs? Seriously, man, at least think about what you're going to post.
 

mbnmac

Neo Member
Baki said:
Its not about how much time is left in a system, but how can you one-up the competition. And I can assure you, supporting a dead system is not how you do it.
PS2 says... oh wait
 

Baki

Member
mbnmac said:
PS2 says... oh wait

PS2 says "I've had a successor for 4 years". Not to mention PS2 is selling comparable to the PSP on a WW basis.

Unidentified said:
I think that is the case. People have been calling even the hardware sales of PSP dead for years, but last year was the first year the PS3 beat out the PSP in the U.S.

I'm not sure about worldwide sales, but I doubt the gap between the PSP and the PS3/360 are all that big. Looking at the U.S. and Japan combined sales, it should have outsold the 360 and PS3 until last year.

Hardware sales only died a year ago. Even then its still trucking along in Japan.
 

Kuramu

Member
seady said:
I wonder if the multiplatform strategy hurts FFXIII sale or improves it.

For some reason, when games that cater to one single platform go multiplat, it will not received well in the public's eyes, as if it is some kind of betrayal or something and loses its specialness - thus getting bad reviews.

It may sound unrelated and ridiculous, but there are a lot of precedents to this.

Are you trying to say that they shot themselves in the foot? (I'm no expert)
 
Baki said:
PS2 says "I've had a successor for 4 years". Not to mention PS2 is selling comparable to the PSP on a WW basis.

The fact that the system is still selling millions a year at 99$ thrwats any negative comments people can make. lol. It will probably still be selling even next year and the year thereafter.
 
TruePrime said:
1. What the hell does this even mean? One Kuja outside having Silver hair wasn't anything like either Sephiroth or Ultimecia. Plus his female-like body and thong is nothing compared to the fact that Cecil always looked like a female in Amuno's work. So it wasn't only with the DS or Dissidia.

2. Kuja is awesome, outside of Vivi he is the only good part of FF IX.

3. This is bullshit, people like to think that FF 1-VI are so damn great (well I agree with V) but they also ignore that those games sold like crap compared to VII and VIII so they wheren't exactly the biggest in the series so even if they went back and did what you are asking they would not be doing any better then what XIII is doing sale's wise.

4. 4 Warriors of Light is a throw back, probably even more so then IX and it fucking tanked in Japan on DS where DQ IX sold over 4 million units so just one more peice of proof that all the people whinning for a throw back are doing it simply because they want it and not because it would actually do any better then XII or XIII was able to.

Kuja's bikini was lame. I didn't even comment on his hair....my god you love Kuja?! Oh the humanity.

All other FF's sold "like crap" compared to FF7 & FF8. Not surprising since those two were plastered all over every fucking channel, mag and god knows what else I'm forgetting here, before and after they released.

lol @ bringing up DQ9 because that is one oldschool as fuck series...and guess what? It has not seen a decline in sales all these years! Imagine that! Take THAT oldschool fanboys/girls! lulz DQ9 even took a step back in graphics!

Darthdevidem01 said:
Oh please spare me this.

FF8 was the "worst FF eva" when it releases, FF9 & 10 did 5 Million +

FFX-2 was the "worst FF eva" FF12 did 5 Million +

FF12 was the "worst FF eva" FF13 will do 5 Million +

I see a patter there, hope all you want to, don't complain when FF15 breaks 5 Million pretty easily.

The reality is FF8 had the first real backlash to the series (used copies flooded stores much like FF13 has), and the sales stopped growing and dropped pretty hard until it is now hovering at around 2 million or less, in JAPAN, where it matters most (if the series dies there, it dies everywhere. ). WW sales for FF7 & FF8 were also much higher than all the FF's that followed. No wonder you capped at "5 million +" :p

I don't think anybody really counts FFX-2 as a main entry...FF11 sure wasn't. FF12 got hate from people who loved FF10, and love from people who never gave a shit about FF until it "copied" WRPGs and people who hated FF10's guts. Just like FF10 got hate for its corridor shit, no airships, no worldwap and Tidus, while FF9 got hate for not looking "omgzsobadass" like FF7 & FF8. But none of those compared to the FF8 backlash. And that was before we had the "omg I hate JRPGs!!!1!1" crowd.

Another thing is FF8 had FF7's hype to help sell it , which FF13 did not have from FF12, nor did FF12 have it from FFX, X-2 or FF11. The series has remained stagnant and survived off the combination of the goodwill from fans who can't let go or don't want the series to die or hope the next one will get better or all of the above. On top of that you have all the (mostly young) newbies who join with each new installment to mask the decline that would show from those who DO give up and stop buying.

Just look at DQ and how healthy the series still is. It hasn't been thrown across the room several times like FF, and because of that DQ's fanbase isn't fractured to hell and full of fans demanding completely different things from DQ. Trying to expand is one thing, but doing stupid shit like Square did to FF only leads to an impossible to please fanbase and stagnant or declining sales. Just like what happened to Zelda.

Oh and dear god @ 4WOL. It's like it was made by (or tampered with) people who didn't want oldschool FF to ever get a second chance. Just wow. Mystic Quest has finally been dethroned!
 

Opiate

Member
Zen said:
From a financial standpoint he's right now. The PSP hardware makes Sony money, so why should they kill it off prematurely when they can still rid some meager money from it until PSP2?

Opportunity cost. Which is better: 1) soaking up some profits to make up for Sony's disastrous losses the last couple of years, while giving the 3DS ample room to establish itself and making it increasingly difficult to penetrate the market when the 3DS already has a 10M, 20M or 30M unit advantage, or 2) Sacrifice those profits (or rather, loss reductions) to try and compete with Nintendo on more even footing?

Sony doesn't really have any good choices -- but you are correct that it's not obvious which choice they should pick. Sony essentially must pick the least-bad option, as there aren't any good ones.

Edit: Charlequin said essentially the same thing.
 

Zen

Banned
Opiate said:
Opportunity cost. Which is better: 1) soaking up some profits to make up for Sony's disastrous losses the last couple of years, while giving the 3DS ample room to establish itself and making it increasingly difficult to penetrate the market when the 3DS already has a 10M, 20M or 30M unit advantage, or 2) Sacrifice those profits (or rather, loss reductions) to try and compete with Nintendo on more even footing?

Sony doesn't really have any good choices -- but you are correct that it's not obvious which choice they should pick. Sony essentially must pick the least-bad option, as there aren't any good ones.

Edit: Charlequin said essentially the same thing.

I'm thinking that they'd be worse off if the 3DS has some key feature they don't, look at how the stylus took off and made the original PSP seem so outdated in comparison. It's certainly not a good position for Sony.

EDIT: All I meant before was that Sony shouldn't 'kill' the PSP.
 

Baki

Member
Zen said:
That wasn't what I was saying though. I was responding to people saying they should 'kill' the PSP. You're assuming that I meant they should delay the PSP2 in favor of of the PSP which is insane.

What I'm saying is release the PSP 2 this year, keep selling PSP's.
 

deepbrown

Member
RBH said:
This may be the most pathetic example of damage control that I've ever seen on GAF. :lol
Me, trying to damage control? I don't own a PSP, I'm not interested in buying one. I don't give a monkeys.

I was just saying - I'd like my product to sell that much. And if they're making a profit on each one sold...there's no need to "pack the whole thing in" - it's just not going to be a huge success in the rejoins of the DS.
 
deepbrown said:
Me, trying to damage control? I don't own a PSP, I'm not interested in buying one. I don't give a monkeys.

I was just saying - I'd like my product to sell that much. And if they're making a profit on each one sold...there's no need to "pack the whole thing in" - it's just not going to be a huge success in the rejoins of the DS.
65k for a product that used to do MUCH MUCH more than that is pathetic. That's why people are saying that. Let's say you're used to your product selling 400-500k per month and then it starts selling only 65k per month. Go ahead and tell me you'd be happy about that.
 
thewesker said:
65k for a product that used to do MUCH MUCH more than that is pathetic. That's why people are saying that. Let's say you're used to your product selling 400-500k per month and then it starts selling only 65k per month. Go ahead and tell me you'd be happy about that.

I would. Isn't the point of any product to make a profit? Even if the PSP only net one dollar for Sony, that's still 65000 dollars in ONE month, far greater than even the YEARLY average personal income of citizens of the USA, the most prosperous and wasteful state in the history of the world.
 

Aeris130

Member
Quadrangulum said:
I would. Isn't the point of any product to make a profit? Even if the PSP only net one dollar for Sony, that's still 65000 dollars in ONE month, far greater than even the YEARLY average personal income of citizens of the USA, the most prosperous and wasteful state in the history of the world.

Every dollar spent on psp could've been spent on another product, with better returns. Sony doesn't have unlimited funds that they can spend on everything that ends up being profitable. Turning a profit is not something any companies aspires to do in itself, it is a baseline minimum requirement to run a buisness. They're concerned with how to maximize profit, and spending their funds on psp probably isn't it from here on out.
 

Zen

Banned
With PSP2 so close they're hardly spending that much on the PSP project at this point. If they 'wrap up' the PSP they'll just have idle capacity because all the infrastructure is already in place and running. Obviously they'll wind down the PSP when the PSP2 comes about. Heck the PSP2 might be coming this year or next march. Killing the PSP is the height of making a bad business decision.

Doo you want to guess how much money Sony would have lost on the PS3 if they'd killed the PS2? The sales of the PSP is likewise helping their bottom line.

thewesker said:
65k for a product that used to do MUCH MUCH more than that is pathetic. That's why people are saying that. Let's say you're used to your product selling 400-500k per month and then it starts selling only 65k per month. Go ahead and tell me you'd be happy about that.

That doesn't even address his point. Sure Sony isn't happy, but that's neither here nor there. He made a factual statement related to business and economics and you retort with 'oh yeah? But are they happy about it?'. Talk about missing the point.

It will probably be back up to its 100k a month range next month or whenever, which is still pretty bad, but why should they throw away money for no reason? The PSP2 will come when it's ready.
 

daycru

Member
Quadrangulum said:
I would. Isn't the point of any product to make a profit? Even if the PSP only net one dollar for Sony, that's still 65000 dollars in ONE month, far greater than even the YEARLY average personal income of citizens of the USA, the most prosperous and wasteful state in the history of the world.
This is one for the ages.
 
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