• 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 February 2013 [Up5: Dead Space 3, Crysis 3, Official PS3/WiiU]

Here's the point I was trying to make last month:

January and February are the slowest retail months of the year. There were people willing to predict the eminent doom of the Wii U (and Nintendo as a company) based on ONE month of sales. People were honestly expecting February to be worse, and in fact, it was slightly better.

Point being (if I hadn't made it clear enough), no one has enough data to conclude the Nintendo ecosystem is in any trouble. There's simply not enough data to draw that conclusion.

What I don't understand is how, Nintendo is:

1) Managing a handheld (3DS) which is doing great.

2) Possessing a console (The Wii U) which had a successful launch that sold slightly over 3 million world wide during the holiday season; more than both the X360 and the PS3 did in their respective launches.

3) Hiring more developers in not only Japan, but the US as well. This includes developers from studios such as Naughty Dog and Vigil Games to name a few

4) Nintendo building brand new corporate buildings to host entirely brand new development studios

5) Majority of 3rd party developers saying nothing but good things about the Wii U.


...Yet, Nintendo is doomed - but, somehow, Sony, who is:

1) Losing investors immediately after the PS4 unveiling.

2) Selling off corporate assets such as separate smaller companies under their umbrella and whole corporate buildings.

3) Laying off workers.

4) Shutting down development studios

5) Reporting billion dollar loses year after year (for 5 years in a row)

6) Losing relevancy in their stock

7) Undergoing severe restructuring

Somehow, Sony is doing great! They don't show any signs of going 3rd party or even disappearing off the face of the map. Does this make any sense to you? It doesn't make any sense to me!


I don't know what version of neogaf you go to where people don't talk about sony being doomed, but it's not the same one I do. Stop being sensitive about the system that you like and realize that there are major detractors for all three systems here. Nintendo = doomed. Sony = doomed. Microsoft = kinect and movies lololol. There isn't anyone that escapes scrutiny, both well thought out and meme-ish on this forum.
 
Which makes sense with no new releases.
PS360 got Dead Space and Aliens and other stuff to cause a bump, WiiU gots nothing.

I don't understand that logic that is continuously perpetuated in NPD threads. Do you really think people purchased $250+ systems to play Dead Space 3 or Aliens? Or is it more likely that they purchased systems for the 7-8 years of cheap content?

I doubt that many people would consider either of those games "system sellers" at this point.
 
Maybe underperformed, but not really bombed - this game had only 12 days. Still, it's most likely less than Crysis 2's debut.

Nah, 260k for Crysis 3 is a bomb, no question about it. Game cost over 50 million to develop/market. Mega bomb. 12 days is plenty of time, by the way. Most first month sales are front-loaded so getting almost half a month is ample time. Sad to see, one of my favorite franchises.
 

x-Lundz-x

Member
Nah, 260k for Crysis 3 is a bomb, no question about it. Game cost over 50 million to develop/market. Mega bomb. 12 days is plenty of time, by the way. Most first month sales are front-loaded so getting almost half a month is ample time. Sad to see, one of my favorite franchises.

I agree, I really liked Crysis 2 and 3 but I'm not surprised by the lack of sales with what they did to the franchise.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Crysis 3 deserves to bomb, it's a shit game.

BTW is Dead Space 3 a good game? I wasn't following it at all, but I liked Dead Space 1 & 2

It's definitely a lot less survival horror in comparison to the first two games (which weren't very survival horror in the first place), but most people I've talked to have said they still liked it.

it was 210k according to john harker or >190k according to creamsugar (both in this thread)

I still say 210k for a niche-genre game like Revengeance isn't bad considering how packed February was. It's still better than DmC's laughable numbers in a month it had all to itself. It also sold a lot better than Bayonetta.

What really hurt MGR's sales was the misinformation about the games length. A lot of reviewers said it was a 4 or 5 hour game, your first time through the game will definitely be more along the 8+ hour area.
 
If at least one of the two upcoming consoles doesn't underperform significantly within a few months of launch, I'll be pretty surprised.

Not to Wii U levels, though. That would require a perfect storm of third-party indifference and first-party ineptitude, and it's safe to say that that's not going to happen in either PS4's or Durango's case.
 
Someone ran the YoY and YTD numbers for dedicated handhelds earlier in the thread and it wasn't pretty at all.

Lots of gaffers like to turn a blind eye, but the truth is smartphones and tablets are the mobile gaming market in the west today. It has greatly affected Sony somehow affected Nintendo. 5-8 years from now smartphones and tablets will be even more ubiquitous. Nintendo has made it clear that they won't release a tablet/smartphone as their next mobile device and will stay in the handheld market. I wish them luck with that. Sony should have had a vita tablet and phone since launch (not that that's the only problem with the vita), the vita as is is just not an attractive product to the market.

What I don't understand is how, Nintendo is:

1) Managing a handheld (3DS) which is doing great. In Japan, yes. I would say it's doing acceptable in the west

2) Possessing a console (The Wii U) which had a successful launch that sold slightly over 3 million world wide during the holiday season; more than both the X360 and the PS3 did in their respective launches. So you don't think the WiiU sales are horrible? Not saying they can't turn it around, but right now sales are horrible.

3) Hiring more developers in not only Japan, but the US as well. This includes developers from studios such as Naughty Dog and Vigil Games to name a few Development companies hires developers. News at 11

4) Nintendo building brand new corporate buildings to host entirely brand new development studios If true, this is good

5) Majority of 3rd party developers saying nothing but good things about the Wii U. And yet we see nothing from them. The games aren't there and more often than not multiplat games run better on 360/PS3.


...Yet, Nintendo is doomed - but, somehow, Sony, who is:

1) Losing investors immediately after the PS4 unveiling. Not sure what you mean by losing investors, I think you mean the backlash after the February event. Investors want to see more. An ecosystem like itunes and google play and tablets. No console either makes investors nervous.

2) Selling off corporate assets such as separate smaller companies under their umbrella and whole corporate buildings.Yep, they need the cash now and those buildings were too big for them at this point.

3) Laying off workers.Yep, need to save some money, they were bleeding. Trim the fat.

4) Shutting down development studios Shutting down some studios while others expand. ND is constantly hiring as is SP. Cambridge got merged with GG. Most of Liverpool's folks went to Evolution.

5) Reporting billion dollar loses year after year (for 5 years in a row) Yep, pretty bad, some of it has more to do with taxes rather than just poor performance, but still pretty bad.

6) Losing relevancy in their stock Sony's ADR is up 55% YTD, some analyst companies have upgraded SNE from SELL to HOLD and others have gone from NEUTRAL to BUY

7) Undergoing severe restructuring They are in deep shit like you said in your other points, how is this not necessary

Somehow, Sony is doing great! They don't show any signs of going 3rd party or even disappearing off the face of the map. Does this make any sense to you? It doesn't make any sense to me!

And who says Sony is doing great? We have been hearing for the past 2 years how Sony is gonna go bankrupt, how Apple is gonna buy them, how SPE is being sold, how SME is being sold, how they'll be out of the gaming division come next generation, etc etc etc
 

x-Lundz-x

Member
If at least one of the two upcoming consoles doesn't underperform significantly within a few months of launch, I'll be pretty surprised.

Not to Wii U levels, though. That would require a perfect storm of third-party indifference and first-party ineptitude, and it's safe to say that that's not going to happen in either PS4's or Durango's case.

3rd party is what butters MS and Sony's bread. Will be no different in the next gen. I mean who are 3rd parties going to make games for if not for MS and Sony? Android and iOS?

INB4 PC duh!
 

UberTag

Member
Wow, I'm genuinely surprised by those Dead Space 3 numbers. It moved more units than DS2 in its launch month (albeit over a greater number of weeks).
 
I still say 210k for a niche-genre game like Revengeance isn't bad considering how packed February was. It's still better than DmC's laughable numbers in a month it had all to itself. It also sold a lot better than Bayonetta.

What really hurt MGR's sales was the misinformation about the games length. A lot of reviewers said it was a 4 or 5 hour game, your first time through the game will definitely be more along the 8+ hour area.

True, it has a lot of replay value as well. But many reviews are a joke, unfortunately.
Still, it's not a bad performance when you add the European sales and excellent Japanese sales. Probably the most succesful game of its type in a long time, if you don't count the (far more shallow) GoW series. I wish it sold ten million though. In a perfect world, Platinum would be the most successful dev of them all.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
Ok big topic so not going through all of it but:

I'm surprised at DS3's success over everything tbh, I really am. In a soft and fatigued market I didn't think it'd do that well; even if it is lower than DS2.

Crysis 3 and Metal Gear Rising bombas! Unfortunate for Rising, thought it'd do better.

So WiiU is around what 66k? Expected.

Is there any indication of how Blops2 is selling relative to mw3 this time last year?
 

Saty

Member
For comparison, UK February Top 10:

1. Aliens: Colonial Marines – Sega
2. Dead Space 3 – EA
3. FIFA 13 – EA
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision
5. Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft
6. Crysis 3 – EA
7. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – Konami
8. Assassin’s Creed III – Ubisoft
9. Need for Speed: Most Wanted – EA
10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Namco Bandai
 
For comparison, UK February Top 10:

1. Aliens: Colonial Marines – Sega
2. Dead Space 3 – EA
3. FIFA 13 – EA
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision
5. Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft
6. Crysis 3 – EA
7. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – Konami
8. Assassin’s Creed III – Ubisoft
9. Need for Speed: Most Wanted – EA
10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Namco Bandai

tv019_absolutely_disgusting.jpg
 

REV 09

Member
Well Crysis bombed.

That's not terrible for Dead Space 3 though.

I suspect the former will continue and the latter may become an f2p series faster than Crytek expected unless it really performs well in Europe/on PC.

i would expect Crysis 3 to have done well digitally on pc. maybe even doubling it's numbers.
 

Calamari41

41 > 38
I'd love to hear some opinions on what would keep Nintendo from partnering up with someone and releasing a Gameboy Phone. If Samsung can break through with the Galaxy in a big way, why not Nintendo? To me, this seems like the answer to everybody who keeps calling on them to make phone games. Imagine a Galaxy with a gamepad/button setup that flips or slides out. Wouldn't a phone with exclusive Pokemon and Mario sell like gangbusters? It would be the go-to phone for kids at the very least. The only reason I can think of is "because Nintendo is managed by a bunch of old recluses."
 

Kusagari

Member
For comparison, UK February Top 10:

1. Aliens: Colonial Marines – Sega
2. Dead Space 3 – EA
3. FIFA 13 – EA
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Activision
5. Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft
6. Crysis 3 – EA
7. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – Konami
8. Assassin’s Creed III – Ubisoft
9. Need for Speed: Most Wanted – EA
10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Namco Bandai

But remember guys. It's us Americans that have bad taste!
 

Jburton

Banned
Here's the point I was trying to make last month:

January and February are the slowest retail months of the year. There were people willing to predict the eminent doom of the Wii U (and Nintendo as a company) based on ONE month of sales. People were honestly expecting February to be worse, and in fact, it was slightly better.

Point being (if I hadn't made it clear enough), no one has enough data to conclude the Nintendo ecosystem is in any trouble. There's simply not enough data to draw that conclusion.

What I don't understand is how, Nintendo is:

1) Managing a handheld (3DS) which is doing great.

2) Possessing a console (The Wii U) which had a successful launch that sold slightly over 3 million world wide during the holiday season; more than both the X360 and the PS3 did in their respective launches.

3) Hiring more developers in not only Japan, but the US as well. This includes developers from studios such as Naughty Dog and Vigil Games to name a few

4) Nintendo building brand new corporate buildings to host entirely brand new development studios

5) Majority of 3rd party developers saying nothing but good things about the Wii U.


...Yet, Nintendo is doomed - but, somehow, Sony, who is:

1) Losing investors immediately after the PS4 unveiling.

2) Selling off corporate assets such as separate smaller companies under their umbrella and whole corporate buildings.

3) Laying off workers.

4) Shutting down development studios

5) Reporting billion dollar loses year after year (for 5 years in a row)

6) Losing relevancy in their stock

7) Undergoing severe restructuring

Somehow, Sony is doing great! They don't show any signs of going 3rd party or even disappearing off the face of the map. Does this make any sense to you? It doesn't make any sense to me!


If you think that there have not been Sony threads in regards to their demise / people wishing for their demise then you are only seeing what you want to see.

There has been a million and one of those threads since the PS3 came out.
 
Seems to me Rising suffered from the same issue DmC did, really.

It's too late in the generation to take a well-known series and slap something different on it. For a game to sell on the name, the product has to meet what people expect from that name.

Konami needs to look at this as the first somewhat awkward step in diversifying the Metal Gear name to mean more than Metal Gear Solid on consoles. With Japan's sales, hopefully they decide it's worth it to pursue another game in this series and give it a longer development schedule.

Though, to be fair, I'm also not discounting the rather crazy amount of untrue FUD that was spread about this game before release. That results screen probably turned a number of people off.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Seems to me Rising suffered from the same issue DmC did, really.

It's too late in the generation to take a well-known series and slap something different on it. For a game to sell on the name, the product has to meet what people expect from that name.

Konami needs to look at this as the first somewhat awkward step in diversifying the Metal Gear name to mean more than Metal Gear Solid on consoles. With Japan's sales, hopefully they decide it's worth it to pursue another game in this series and give it a longer development schedule.

Though, to be fair, I'm also not discounting the rather crazy amount of untrue FUD that was spread about this game before release. That results screen probably turned a number of people off.

For the two bolded areas. I think a Revengeance 2 is guaranteed. Kojima is already happy with the sales and has raved about working with Platinum.

The second point, as I've stated before, I think that was a big factor. The misinformation about the games length must have turned off people.
 
Crysis 2 bombed, the series never pulled great numbers even when it was PC exclusive.





yea it does. sub 720p resolution, sub 30 fps frame rate, bad iq...it looks terrible on consoles

That's pretty much the standard for most console fps and it does not mean the game looks terrible.

And neither does MGR which is bomba #2
 
3rd party is what butters MS and Sony's bread. Will be no different in the next gen. I mean who are 3rd parties going to make games for if not for MS and Sony? Android and iOS?

INB4 PC duh!

The answer is the 360 and PS3, if devs are afraid to make their games next gen exclusive and continue to release down port versions to 360/ps3 it may stall the mass market adoption rate of the next gen consoles making a vicious cycle of "if I want my game to be profitable I need to release 360/ps3 versions" and users going "well if all the games I want are on 360/ps3 ill just wait to upgrade".
 
That's pretty much the standard for most console fps and it does not mean the game looks terrible.

It looks terrible compared to Killzone 3 or Halo 4 or even Call of Duty which maintains 60 FPS most of the time. When you present a shitty looking sub HD shooter that's running at sub 30 FPS frame rate, of course it's going to bomb. The game itself isn't any good anyway.

The series never took off...not when it was PC exclusive, not even when it went multiplatform.


But it seems you have an anti next gen agenda so carry on
 

Taurus

Member
I think the biggest threat to nex gen is not hardware prices but software prices. 70 dollar games will hurt the industry a lot.
Once people see teh awesome grafix, they will pay $599 and $69 for sure! I mean can't you see how terribly Wii U sells? It's all about grafix man.
 

Tagg9

Member
Crysis 3 is incredibly polished, but there's just nothing exciting about it. Quarter of a million is really quite awful, though. They'll do well if they recoup even half the dev costs.
 

Saty

Member
It looks terrible compared to Killzone 3 or Halo 4 or even Call of Duty which maintains 60 FPS most of the time. When you present a shitty looking sub HD shooter that's running at sub 30 FPS frame rate, of course it's going to bomb. The game itself isn't any good anyway.

The series never took off...not when it was PC exclusive, not even when it went multiplatform.


But it seems you have an anti next gen agenda so carry on

Crysis 1 selling one million copies in a month and a half after after launch isn't 'taking off'?
 
Crysis 3 is incredibly polished, but there's just nothing exciting about it. Quarter of a million is really quite awful, though. They'll do well if they recoup even half the dev costs.

Crytek will be fine, remember this is just one territory. Crysis games usually sell on PC, they must have done well with digital sales and in Europe.

Crysis 1 selling one million copies in a month and a half after after launch isn't 'taking off'?

No, the only reason why this series went multiplatform was because of the poor performance and high piracy rate on PC.
 
Top Bottom