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NPD Sales Results for March 2014 [Up4: FFX/X-2 HD]

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
Compared to the way MS was advertising the game as the 2nd coming of Jesus? Yeah, it didn't sell the way MS wanted it to.
Oh of course. But MS's old management was stupid if they thought they could actually manufacture the next COD out the gates. I'm disappointed so many gaffers fell for the party line, hook line and sinker.

But for Respawn, as a mid sized studio, only concerned with making a solid AA game, it was a great success. Including digital and worldwide, probably 2-3 million seller. Only new IP in recent memory to beat that in the same timeframe is TLoU, and people still won't shut up about how well received that game was.
 
So, still too early to say Microsoft lost this gen?

I don't see any possible way MS is going to win the gen, but I don't think winning the generation was ever their goal.

They made the XB1 a western system. They got deals that only appeals to basically America in an attempt to make people buy their system. They don't care about Europe, as evident to the fact that they have no power in Europe with the 360 and they are launching a year late everywhere else.

They were betting on the west, but that bet is backfiring. Seems like not even a half billion NFL deal or Titanfall exclusivity can move consoles. They were thinking too narrow when designing their system.

They could have had a chance if they didn't have a whole year of bad PR, but once that train left the station and numbers came in, the feedback loop initiated.
 

FiggyCal

Banned
I'm sure they will just show trailers of everything they've already teased and maybe 2 NEW games but I totally agree with you. I don't expect any "get up and go get an XB1 "RIGHT NOW" announcements."

Phil Spencer, God bless him. There's no way that the E3 announcements will match the hype he's asking for.
nHk6tzF.png


... Seems like not even a half billion NFL deal or Titanfall exclusivity can move consoles. ...

I agree with your comment except for this part. I see this posted a lot and it's worth pointing out that the NFL deal was not just for the Xbox One. It was for all Microsoft products, including Windows 8, Windows Surface, Bing and Windows phone.
 

PhatSaqs

Banned
I think the game sold well for the installed base but it did not move systems like MS hoped i bet. I am thinking MS doesn't even try to get the sequel exclusive.
MS expected it to actually move a significant amount of consoles.
It most definitely moved systems. Its sales alone speak to that. We have no idea what "MS hoped" or would consider "significant" tho so it's kinda pointless to try to argue this. Price is a bigger factor in this than TF "bombing". The game is far from a bomb. Even suggesting that is crazed speak.

Comparing it to CoD, it sold to a much larger percentage of the userbase (US) but really that comparison aint even half fair lol.
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
I don't see any possible way MS is going to win the gen, but I don't think winning the generation was ever their goal.

They made the XB1 a western system. They got deals that only appeals to basically America in an attempt to make people buy their system. They don't care about Europe, as evident to the fact that they have no power in Europe with the 360 and they are launching a year late everywhere else.

They were betting on the west, but that bet is backfiring. Seems like not even a half billion NFL deal or Titanfall exclusivity can move consoles. They were thinking too narrow when designing their system.

They could have had a chance if they didn't have a whole year of bad PR, but once that train left the station and numbers came in, the feedback loop initiated.

Based on the way they talk, it definitely was.
 
Understand...what?

Let's look at the last two months and examine the range of physical retail sales of BD, LR, and FFXHD:

160(BD) < 178 (LR) < 208 (FFX)

Let's convert these to dollars based upon their estimated pricing ($40 for BD and FFXHD and $60 for LR)

BD: You get 160k x $40 for $6.4million.
LR: You get ~180 x $60 for $10.8 million.
FFX: You get 208 x $40 for ~$8 million.

From this analysis, LR made more money than the two but I cannot say how profitable this was without knowing LR's budget. Given that title's lack of polish and reuse of more of FFXIII's assets, I strongly suspect the budget was not very large. BD was built from the ground up but whatever budget it had was augmented by the rather ingenious 'for the sequel' campaign. FFX is a successful HD remaster of two huge games but one marred by some lengthy development.

What SE can take away is that managing budgets carefully and not overspending on non mainline title FFs or DQ, they can make some nice oversea profits. I would be curious why only 210k returned for FFX when it is one of the most successful games in the franchise worldwide and the amount of content added for this new version is staggering.

First off, it's $27 X 180 for LR. So for SE, it's more like 4.86 million for SE.

Second, HD Rereleases are hardly brand new games. VII did about the same (100,000 first week PSN, I swear I read 500,000 on PC somewhere), Devil May Cry HD did about the same proportionally, etc.

Finally, Toth... all the areas of LR are built from the ground up as well (they've said this numerous times). All side missions are completely voiced (coming out to over 8 hours of cutscenes/scenes to do), the CG is top quality, they spent 18 months on full production, the marketing budget must have been decent with how much they did for it, they had a completely new 74 song soundtrack, if you look at the credits there was at least 200 people working on the game... they didn't make this for $5 million, Toth. The fact that you keep trying to say a 3DS game and HD rerelease cost more to make than LR is why people keep ridiculing you: Basic knowledge about budgets would tell you that is an insane idea.


And again, this is the context we are looking at:

XIII = 5.5 million first few weeks; ~7 million lifetime

XIII-2 = 1.2 to 1.5 million first few weeks; 3.1 million max (they vary on whether that was shipped or sold) lifetime.

LR = under 600,000 first few week. This game will be lucky to get to 1.5 million.


The very fact that it is being outsold by an HD remake and is in the ballpark of a niche 3DS game is why people are making a big deal.
 
How can you actually say that? It's weaker than the PS4, sure. But that doesn't make it "grossly underpowered". And of course it's too early.

it is when your competitor is the lead platform and devs also have to deal with vastly different libraries/APIs as well as more finicky architecture

devs will spend less time thinking/designing/optimizing for XBO
 

Loudninja

Member
I think one thing is clear MS put alot of effort and money into Titanfall and I don't think it got a favorable result for them.

One week bump in the UK, and no bump for March.
 
It most definitely moved systems. Its sales alone speak to that. We have no idea what "MS hoped" or would consider "significant" tho so it's kinda pointless to try to argue this. Price is a bigger factor in this than TF "bombing". The game is far from a bomb. Even suggesting that is crazed speak.

Comparing it to CoD, it sold to a much larger percentage of the userbase (US) but really that comparison aint even half fair lol.

It did not move systems. A system seller moves a real noticeable amount. If anything i think the stealth price cuts and deals with froza bundles helped more.
 
Oh my god.... You guys are ridiculous, calling TitanFall a flop and the One a failure. Jesus. Both consoles are doing pretty damn good so far, with the PS4 doing AMAZING while the XBO just doing pretty great. Comparisons of the Wii U and Xbox One? Really?
 
Numbers weren't quite as high as I expected, but still decent nonetheless. Xbox One numbers are a bit troubling given all the promotions and big releases for the month and it sold less on a weekly basis than February. That sort of tells me that a lot of February sales were in anticipation of Titanfall, and that the January sales may more accurately reflect the longer term trend. It'll be interesting to see how Xbox One does going forward.

I'm thinking we'll see a steep decline for Xbox One over the coming months moving into the fall, whereas PS4 will only see mild declines that approximate the seasonal trends we normally expect.

Watchdogs next month though, that's going to move some next gen consoles I think. Probably more PS4, but it could be good for both (oh! sorry WiiU! - still love you)
 

A Human Becoming

More than a Member
Dreamcast, March 2000:
60K

Dreamcast, March 2001:
123K


Wii U, March 2013:
68K

Wii U, March 2014:
70K





Dreamcast, January - March 2000:
198K

Dreamcast, January - March 2001:
398K


Wii U, January - March 2013:
191K

Wii U, January - March 2014:
201K





Dreamcast LTD (March 2001):
3.16 million

Wii U LTD (March 2014):
2.30 million
Thanks for this. I don't have any data for systems released before the PS2.

It's astounding the PSP was over 7 million by this time in it's life cycle, while the Vita is under 2 million. Even if the PSP had lackluster software sales, it at least had a better chance with more hardware.
Oh my god.... You guys are ridiculous, calling TitanFall a flop and the One a failure. Jesus. Both consoles are doing pretty damn good so far, with the PS4 doing AMAZING while the XBO just doing pretty great. Comparisons of the Wii U and Xbox One? Really?
Xbone is outselling the GBA and Wii at this point in it's life cycle. Those systems would go on to be huge successes. People are ridiculous.
 

Squalor

Junior Member
It really shouldn't be a surprise that an HD remaster of a top-three Final Fantasy outsold a very lackluster second sequel to a mid-tier Final Fantasy.
 

Jomjom

Banned
I think one thing is clear MS put alot of effort and money into Titanfall and I don't think it got a favorable result for them.

EA made out like a bandit though. Despite having the money to bankroll it, they didn't have to and now have an IP with a lot of potential. Sales could be huge when the sequel goes multiplat and adds a single player campaign.
 

MaulerX

Member
Call of duty at least has a single player mode...


That's the thing, people forget that Titanfall is an ONLINE ONLY game. So not only is it a new IP, but it also carries the load of being online only, regardless of how good it is.

So in that respect, how has it fared compared other online only console games?
 

Tsundere

Banned
It most definitely moved systems. Its sales alone speak to that. We have no idea what "MS hoped" or would consider "significant" tho so it's kinda pointless to try to argue this. Price is a bigger factor in this than TF "bombing". The game is far from a bomb. Even suggesting that is crazed speak.

Comparing it to CoD, it sold to a much larger percentage of the userbase (US) but really that comparison aint even half fair lol.

It certainly did not have the "CoD effect" that they expected, it was over-hyped and didn't allow them to outsell their direct competitor for the month. They both had "big hits" during the month, but TF hit way earlier in the month and had a lot more time to sell software and hardware than its competitor did for their big hit (inFamous).

Let's not talk too much about price either since for a good portion of the month the system was discounted at retail.

I'm sure Respawn is happy about their sales numbers, but they would have been way happier with another potential 2x what their numbers were had they not been held back by EA's stupidity.

Oh my god.... You guys are ridiculous, calling TitanFall a flop and the One a failure. Jesus. Both consoles are doing pretty damn good so far, with the PS4 doing AMAZING while the XBO just doing pretty great. Comparisons of the Wii U and Xbox One? Really?

It hasn't passed the WiiU yet so.. >_>
 

FiggyCal

Banned
But didn't you hear?! Due to the cursory knowledge of a small handful of hardcore gamers, NO ONE plays single player in shooters, let alone buys the game for it!

Yeah this is dumb. I'm really disappointed how people are still upset about Metal Gear Ground Zeroes which is being sold for $30 is only half a game and a total ripoff. But Titanfall which is being sold at full price, is half a game, but a godsend for the Xbox One and OMG buy an Xbox One to play it.
 

prag16

Banned
So MS expected it to sell to OVER 50% of the userbase? That's insanity.

This. No way they consider it to be a straight up flop with the reported sales. Disappointed it didn't move more consoles in March? Sure.

And it wasn't so much MS that directly said it was the second coming of Jesus, but rather the gaming press and their preview coverage. (depending on how much of that was moneyhatted, could be the same thing I guess)
 

Nzyme32

Member
Titanfall certainly isn't a flop.

Anyone saying it's a flop is delusional.

However, it did flop as a system seller.

I don't think I have ever understood why it was considered possible as a system seller. It was available on the 360 and PC, with practically the same content. There is barely any reason to feel a need to buy an xbox one for that game. Moreover, there are plenty of other games to keep those unable to get it or uninterested entertained. As with any game, it helped move some systems but not in significant enough way
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
It most definitely moved systems. Its sales alone speak to that. We have no idea what "MS hoped" or would consider "significant" tho so it's kinda pointless to try to argue this. Price is a bigger factor in this than TF "bombing". The game is far from a bomb. Even suggesting that is crazed speak.

Comparing it to CoD, it sold to a much larger percentage of the userbase (US) but really that comparison aint even half fair lol.

Yes, it moved systems.

No, it did not move systems the way Microsoft wanted. Otherwise, they wouldn't have needed to drop the price by $50 AND include their biggest title of the year ($60) packed in for free.

No one is calling the game a flop. It sold extremely well for a new IP, but had tremendous marketing help from MS in order to get there. It just sold largely to the existing 3M Xbox One users that already purchased the system, rather than convincing those on the sidelines to get an XB1 over a PS4.

Watchdogs next month though, that's going to move some next gen consoles I think. Probably more PS4, but it could be good for both (oh! sorry WiiU! - still love you)

Watch Dogs is going to do a lot more for PS4 sales than it will for Xbox One.
 

blakep267

Member
I think one thing is clear MS put alot of effort and money into Titanfall and I don't think it got a favorable result for them.

One week bump in the UK, and no bump for March.
While I don't think it moved consoles, it did sell a bunch in the xb1 and probably will sell a bunch on the 360 which in turn increases live subs. So it's not like they totally lost out. If a new ip sells 4 mill across 2 of your platforms is it really a loss if your initial goal wasn't reached?
 
I think one thing is clear MS put alot of effort and money into Titanfall and I don't think it got a favorable result for them.

One week bump in the UK, and no bump for March.

This is such a silly notion.
Imagine if they didn't have TitanFall.
Their exclusive title to go up against Second Son would be Plants vs Zombies...

You think they'd be anywhere near PS4's sales this month without TitanFall? No way
 

Into

Member
Titanfall certainly isn't a flop.

Anyone saying it's a flop is delusional.

However, it did flop as a system seller.


This

A new IP doing 1 million on a small userbase is well done. But neither games nor movies are judged on some scale that applies to all, once you factor in production costs, marketing budgets, bundles and overall push then there can be a monumental difference between whether something performed to expectations or not. We do not know the number of how much it cost to market Titanfall, but unless you lived on the moon for the past year, it was substantial. Very few games get these kinds of pushes, and once that do are your Call of Duty's and Grand Theft Auto's

Titanfall was billed, from the get go, as a system seller, as a competitor to CoD, as the next Halo. This was done by the people responsible for distributing the game, and it was also done by the fans, who bought into the hype and continued the machine, they set these goals, and guess what: they will be judged by them

Backpedaling on this game is not going to work, it was shoved down everyones throat, you can rest be assured that the backlash was there just waiting. Consumer in general, not just gamers, tend to quickly turn on products and services that are so overtly shoved onto to them.

Saying "wow they topped chart, see hype was justified!" are either ignorant, or desperately trying to spin away, what has been pushed heavily on everyone for the past 12 months.

This is such a silly notion.
Imagine if they didn't have TitanFall.
Their exclusive title to go up against Second Son would be Plants vs Zombies...

You think they'd be anywhere near PS4's sales this month without TitanFall? No way

This is precisely the kind of spin that i am talking about. We do not know how the Xbox One would have sold without Titanfall, you can convince yourself it would have sold 10k without it and proclaim TF as a system seller, but that is your own fantasy and your own little world.

The fact is that it did not substantially bump Xbox One sales, hence it is not a system seller.
 

A Human Becoming

More than a Member
I don't think I have ever understood why it was considered possible as a system seller. It was available on the 360 and PC, with practically the same content. There is barely any reason to feel a need to buy an xbox one for that game. Moreover, there are plenty of other games to keep those unable to get it or uninterested entertained
There are very few games in recent memory that showed to have a considerably boost in hardware sales the month it's released; MGS4 would be one of them.
 
This is such a silly notion.
Imagine if they didn't have TitanFall.
Their exclusive title to go up against Second Son would be Plants vs Zombies...

You think they'd be anywhere near PS4's sales this month without TitanFall? No way

You forgot they had bundles with forza and price cuts on the low.
 
This is such a silly notion.
Imagine if they didn't have TitanFall.
Their exclusive title to go up against Second Son would be Plants vs Zombies...

You think they'd be anywhere near PS4's sales this month without TitanFall? No way
so it just prevented them from being buried instead of making them the winner.
 

Majmun

Member
So the 1mln Titanfall number doesn't include the bundles?

That would be pretty impressive considering the 311k number is basically all Titanfall bundle.
 

Loudninja

Member
This is such a silly notion.
Imagine if they didn't have TitanFall.
Their exclusive title to go up against Second Son would be Plants vs Zombies...

You think they'd be anywhere near PS4's sales this month without TitanFall? No way
I am going on what I have in front of me.
 
Oh my god.... You guys are ridiculous, calling TitanFall a flop and the One a failure. Jesus. Both consoles are doing pretty damn good so far, with the PS4 doing AMAZING while the XBO just doing pretty great. Comparisons of the Wii U and Xbox One? Really?

It's not a flop, the game itself sold very well (but who doubted otherwise). The reason people are calling it a flop is because it failed to do what it was supposed to. MS was banking everything on it, they spent millions on advertisements, the press yapped on and on about it and X1, they even issued unofficial price cuts to go along with it and yet not only did it not beat the PS4 (which was a good amount ahead), it actually sold less per week than in Feb.

That's the very definition of failure, and there's no way MS is happy with it.

Turns out it's a good, but run of the mill FPS, and not the revolutionary, ground breaking game it was hyped up to be.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member

Cheers. Managed to source some other data too not included in those figures.

December Digital

05. [PSV] Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster: Twin Pack - 18.964

10. [PS3] Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster: Twin
Pack - 8.792

FFX SKU

12./00. [PSV] Final Fantasy X HD Remaster <RPG> (Square Enix) {2013.12.26} (¥3.990) - 25.443 / NEW <90,57%>

FFX-2 SKU

<10k

So much missing stuff tho like Jan digital figures and sales data after they stopped giving numbers. It still charted for several more weeks. Looking forward to S-E's report in 3 week!
 
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