outunderthestars
Banned
At what point does Sony walk away from the Vita to focus all of their resources towards the PS4 and mobile?
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NPD Sales Results for January 2014 [Up3: PS4/XB1 #1/#2 best selling; Poke/SM3DW/ALBW]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
ZSaberLink
Media Create Maven
Wait... is that Pokemon X/Y then at 125K
? Or are we considering X&Y as separate games?
Dr. Kitty Muffins
Member
The thing about the Wii is it let people into the market who would have have never been there in the first place if it weren't for the fad. Any "contraction" would really just be evidence of the market returning to normal.
njean777
Member
Or a repeat of the glorious ps1/2 era, which I would not be angry if that happened again. A contraction is not always a bad thing, it could actually be very good and lead for more innovation from smaller more focused teams.
Aquamarine
Member
DS is dead...completely and utterly dead. Say RIP to Nintendo DS everybody.
shinra-bansho
Member
With the numbers for everything else so low, I can't really see much more than 10K for Wii and PSV combined.
I think the NDS and PSP are so negligible they're being ignored now. So I'd ballpark something like 70-75K for 3DS.
If it doesn't the Vita and the Wii sold amazingly well. So yes, pretty sure?
DragonSworne
Banned
What were 3DS numbers?
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
I don't think you can look at it that way. Who's saying the ratio of certain users stays static with the drop-off? For all we know, they could still sell 4-5 million on an 80 million userbase, because the Tomb Raider base may still be present. It could even grow, so they could see more than 5 million even if the combined base between PS4/XBO contracts compared to PS360.
And this is the sort of thinking I've based my own thoughts on regarding the core market possibly being more stable than people seem to think, even if the casual/non-gamer market is very fickle and has dropped off a large deal. Just because you have 100 people in your community when the group size is 2 million doesn't mean you end up with 50 when it drops to 1 million...for all you know, everyone who left was from different communities.
But other than that, I agree about how industry downsizing could be a good thing in the end. What needs to happen as soon as possible, is the average cost of game development drastically getting cut down. Some sort of major system needs to be set up in that regard to enable that, and that's probably the one real area I can see a company like Microsoft investing into (as long as those channels don't become proprietary) to gain goodwill back with consumers and jaded developers/publishers, given all the money they have. Average costs come tumbling down and now developers can be more liberal with what goes into their games, and don't have to pull 10 million sales to break even. Take a page out of the indie film circuit, even; that seems to work pretty well for them.
Otherwise, without that occurring, any sizable reduction in market size is going to do what you and a lot of others are saying; fucking up developers and publishers catastrophically, which then comes back to bite the manufacturers on their ass, and it's a downward circle for everyone. Though that really depends on the severity of the downsizing; the AAA market getting knocked down a few pegs is no problem; those people can go on and make smaller mid-tier games. And I think, on average, core gamers are more accepting of a wider variety of games that aren't AAA (or I'd hope so, otherwise we're definitely part of the problem). A downsize that also guts what mid-tier scene (barely) exists today and the indie scene, however, would be devastating.
And now, I'm going to bed.
That is no doubt a humongous factor in some of the differences in contraction and sales.
theprodigy
Member
It doesn't have to be precisely equal, you know
there could be an 80k overhang on it or whatever
anexanhume
Member
I doubt PS3 can ever hit below $150. I recall reading that the different memory interfaces were complicating combining Cell and RSX into one chip like the 360 has become.
famousmortimer
Banned
Well, the truth is that the hardcore market isn't contracting at all. Software sales are still very high.
But publishers will plead poverty and then microtransaction us to death.
Next Gen console sales would be passable if there was still an active base buying older consoles. This would create competition and people at least indicate a general interest in dedicated gaming machines as a whole. As it stands the current sales performance of both consoles is not enough to support a healthy gaming industry and there's no indication people have an interest in buying consoles in droves at all. The PS4 is doing ok, but not enough to prop up the entire US market.
That's really hard to believe.
Dragonborn
Member
I don't think Sony can drop the price that low.
You realize your 30-40% range accommodates a 5M WW number, right? 40% doesn't quite put it there (if you ignore february, at least), but 30% does.
Those new people in the market still bought games from big publishers. There's going to be a lot of jobs lost this gen.
Parmenides
Banned
PS360 already outsold the PS2 by 30 million units in NA+EU+AU+JP and there is still room to cut prices.
NA+EU+AU+JP is the best leading indicator for emerging market sales.
I cannot believe people still think US = world
Code:
HW PS Home Consoles
Period Sell-in US Retail
---------------
(2007 - 2013) 131.5 36.5This is pretty funny
Code:
Media Create Week 6
YTD
2014 PS3 105,873
2008 PS2 94,565boredandlazy
Member
Not saying you're incorrect, but I'd be waiting on worldwide numbers before making those predictions.
vinnygambini
Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
I can't grasp my head around it either. Really hard to believe.
Petrae
Member
Easier said than done to cut hardware pricing. I don't think Sony has a real impetus to do so. PS4 is doing well, so just let PS3 burn out for awhile at current pricing. Heck, it's still outselling WiiU.
If this happens industry wide, its when I'll finally throw in the towel on this life long hobby of mine.
They already did that in the US.
theprodigy
Member
Hey Aquamarine, 3DS/Vita at post #2300?
I don't think the Vita is counted.
Not nessecarily. There was no indication they were equal or even close, just that PS3+PS4>Other Platforms. It could be 1k more or 200k more off that data. I just find that they'd probably have included PSVita in there if it also beat the 3DS? I dunno.
Suzushiiro
Banned
Given how much they've slowed down in sales I can see both companies dropping all PS360 SKUs by $100 this E3.
Cow Goes Moo
Member
scea don't even know what a vita is, so there's that
There will be some price drops just to clear stock out of retail. But they have about sold as much as they can. I think we will see price drops E3 for 1 final push to clear stock.
holy shit
unknownstranger
Member
We're never going to get a $99 PS3 and likely only a Kinectless 4gb 360 in a year or two. I think both will get a price drop at E3 though.
DoubleTake
Member
This.
UnObtainium17
Member
Wow ps3 outsold 360 last month??
*plays started from the bottom by drake*
I really feel bad for Nintendo.. no 3rd party and ps4 hype killed wiiu
*plays started from the bottom by drake*
I really feel bad for Nintendo.. no 3rd party and ps4 hype killed wiiu
pieatorium
Member
we know from cream that vita and wii are both below 25k from that comment on Ani's post
Hey Aquamarine, 3DS/Vita at post #2300?
Good idea.
Dr. Kitty Muffins
Member
Yes, they bought games but very few over the course of the gen. The truth is they left the market a long time ago but we still count those Wii s sold when tallying the gen. The Wii fad ended a few years ago. If there is a drop in software sales those lapsed gamers are too long gone to blame. This contraction is one part market correction and one part software development costs. The core gamers are still buying but they can't prop everyone up.
gundamkyoukai
Member
I like AAA games but companies need to get some sense of budgeting , management and be realistic .
It's like when Capcom reboot DMC thinking it would sell more and everyone and there mother knew it was not going to happen or EA wanted dead space to sell 5 million etc etc .
SwiftDeath
Member
I'm starting to think that Tearaway was Sony's swan song before they take the Vita out to the farm.
ChronotriggerJM
Member
Sony's still looking for ways to inject ps+ revenue, and now they've amassed an onslaught of quality titles they can push out for dirt cheap under free games. The incentive is definitely there still.
kinoki
Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.
Healthy market. 2014 will be an interesting year.
If this was what it took for Sony to get their act together I wish that Microsoft had entered the arena earlier. Perhaps it's wrong to count out Microsoft just yet but I'm more interested in their next console than the current one. The PS3 caused the PS4, I wonder what the Xbone will lead to.
If this was what it took for Sony to get their act together I wish that Microsoft had entered the arena earlier. Perhaps it's wrong to count out Microsoft just yet but I'm more interested in their next console than the current one. The PS3 caused the PS4, I wonder what the Xbone will lead to.
Lol from what I saw in the PAL threads recently it looks like the situation in the EU is even worse.
Oh yes, I was somewhat nervous about Pokemon X and Y, about whether they would be hits with children over the holidays (those new gamers who the Pokemon series would be new to) and that those children would, by word of mouth amongst each other, keep the 3DS sales in okay shape. That hasn't happened. Doesn't that chart in the OP mean that Lego Marvel Super Heroes sold least on 3DS and WiiU compared to 360, XBO, PS3 and PS4?