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

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
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.
I don't like the term flop. The Vita was a flop, the WiiU is a flop. Titanfall is not a flop.

I think we should stay level headed here and call Titanfall not matching expectations.
 

Tsundere

Banned
While we're doing bad comparisons, none of the consoles have passed PC HW sales either.

Eh, not bad at all. PS4 is almost 2:1 on Xbox One. I truly believe Xbox One hasn't broken 4M sold through yet, and with PS4 selling close to a Million per month, we can assume that it's overing around 7.5-7.6 right now.

For the amount of advertising MS is pushing for Xbox One, I'd say the sales are disappointing. I see Xbox One advertised everywhere; it was even printed on my EB Games bag... I've rarely seen any PS4 adverts.
 
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.

yep. ea and respawn actually come out of the deal far better than ms. ms funded the game, marketed it, bundled it and help establish the new ip because they were banking on this game big time. now with the money ea/respawn have made from sales they dont need ms any more

titanfall has sold great so the projections for the sequel would be off the chain, trying to secure exclusivity for it would be like ms trying to keeping cod/bf off ps4, its not going to happen. the sequel will most definitely release for ps4
 

Loudninja

Member
I don't like the term flop. The Vita was a flop, the WiiU is a flop. Titanfall is not a flop.

I think we should stay level headed here and call Titanfall not matching expectations.
Yeah the term flop does not work here.

The game sold very well,it didn't achieved the goal of pushing the system though.
 
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 in the US that already purchased the system, rather than convincing those on the sidelines to get an XB1 over a PS4.

Microsoft managed to offer Titanfall bundles for $499 and not $559 because Titanfall sales were not that great? I think Microsoft already had that price point set before Titanfall shipped and that was likely due to a slowdown of hardware sales since launch.

Going to be worst next month, since Sony will have mlb 14 that will move some system

Excellent franchise but what impact of hardware sales did we see previously each year?
 
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This is the type of bullshit the internet was littered with for the past few months. It failed on its promise of being the next big thing. Thank god its finally out and forgotten.


"Forgotten"?
I know plenty of people that are still enjoying this. I'm not one as I'm PS4 only.
Perhaps you are just talking about the media hype. That really happens with every game though. On to the next "amazing title".
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
yuhl1jdy.png


This is the type of bullshit the internet was littered with for the past few months. It failed on its promise of being the next big thing. Thank god its finally out and forgotten.
Yea I addressed this on the last page. In terms of MS and the money they poured into marketing. Yeah, it probably flopped. But as a game with a AA budget and small team by Respawn it was a massive success. Remember, my comment is responding to someone who said all software sales for the month were terrible because of a 1 million seller, which makes sense on no levels.
 

MechaX

Member
yep. ea and respawn actually come out of the deal far better than ms. ms funded the game, marketed it, bundled it and help establish the new ip because they were banking on this game big time. now with the money ea/respawn have made from sales they dont need ms any more

titanfall has sold great so the projections for the sequel would be off the chain, trying to secure exclusivity for it would be like ms trying to keeping cod/bf off ps4, its not going to happen. the sequel will most definitely release for ps4

That's partially how I was looking at things as well. Yeah, Titanfall wasn't the system selling savior that MS was hoping for, but it at least got Titanfall in the minds and mouthes of gamers across all current gen consoles. Only Respawn and EA gains to benefit the most out of that at this point. That's more than what most other games can hope for. Even if a possible Titanfall 2 is XB1 exclusive for a bit, I see another repeat of the Mass Effect situation.
 

Rolf NB

Member
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)
Could just be the verbatim language used by the publisher staff at some preview event, regurgitated by the reviewer. Why pay when you can get it done for free.
 

Toth

Member
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.

Crimson, I am not saying LR cost more than FFX because I don't know. My original line was that based on the development delays of FFX and the the remaster of two large games for a portable and console version, that the budget may have been high. LR's quality is just too suspect for a large budgeted project.

Why is LR at $27? The game sold for $59.99. If you mean the amount SE actually gets for each title, apply it to the other two.

Finally, this is just the US sales we are talking about. At this point, FFXHD and LR sales are probably pure profit.
 

Scrawnton

Member
"Forgotten"?
I know plenty of people that are still enjoying this. I'm not one as I'm PS4 only.
Perhaps you are just talking about the media hype. That really happens with every game though. On to the next "amazing title".

I know five people that bought it launch day and never touched it since.

Hell, one of my fiends hasn't even turned his xbone one sice merc kings on ps4 came out.
 
LoL 'Shipped to Store' is not real sales, no matter how one spins it. The fact that a company decides to tout its 'shipped' numbers instead of its actual sold to consumers (which it also undoubtedly has) means it is trying to hide something.
In this case this this was MS only option to counter the 7 million true sales of the PS4.

LOL. It IS real sales to Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't just flood the market with Xbox Ones on the hopes that consumers will purchase them. A retailer actually has to order the consoles. And when they order consoles they pay Microsoft. From your perspective, I see what you're saying, but think of it from Microsoft's perspective. They got paid. That is a fact. No spin.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
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)
Well, Microsoft used quote mining in their press releases of what enthusiast press said to make the statements made by the enthusiast press even more ridiculous than it already is on its own.

Turning "could be the most important game ever" into 'described as "the most important game ever"'
 

noobasuar

Banned
I doubt were ever going to get "the next big thing."

When there's 80 million people playing candy crush every month it seems like insanity to invest money into a AAA game when the odds of success are like 2%.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
Microsoft managed to offer Titanfall bundles for $499 and not $559 because Titanfall sales were not that great? I think Microsoft already had that price point set before Titanfall shipped and that was likely due to a slowdown of hardware sales since launch.

When Sony had their big game release for the PS3 last gen, that was similarly titled as a "system savior" (MGS4), the bundle was MORE expensive than the base system available on the market at that time, even during a slower month of June.

The fact that Microsoft included a game at no additional cost, and added in an extra $50, is effectively a stealth $110 price drop.

If XB1 sales had not collapsed as much as they did, in early 2014, they would not have instituted these deals. And I'm fairly confident that they made these deals to retailers and consumers so they could ship them more product and meet their "5 million shipped" goal that they had set for the shareholders since launch...and they were at great risk of not meeting that shipment target without these measures.
 

kitch9

Banned
Titanfall certainly isn't a flop.

Anyone saying it's a flop is delusional.

However, it did flop as a system seller.

Then it flopped as far as the suits at MS who don't play games are concerned. Bet they are still trying to figure out why the next game from the COD guys isn't selling like COD.
 

MechaX

Member
Crimson, I am not saying LR cost more than FFX because I don't know.

Look, you can't try to extrapolate things in an effort to justify or rationalize LR's sales, and then when someone takes the analysis to its next logical step (ie, how much did it actually cost to make and how much did the company actually earn), you suddenly retreat with "I don't know." It makes this entire line of discussion incomplete and exactly pointless.
 
Is 208k good for a remaster? I was hoping it would sell a bit more than that.

I am curious what the reaction is too. It was done by a Chinese team, not even a Square Enix team.

I doubt were ever going to get "the next big thing."

When there's 80 million people playing candy crush every month it seems like insanity to invest money into a AAA game when the odds of success are like 2%.

Yes, no one should try to make the next CoD, WoW, Skyrim or GTA because lots of people play candy crush on their phones.
 

SeanR1221

Member
The Titanfall hype is something that will be talked about for a long time. I've never seen a game so hyped by every corner of the media before. I thought something was up when it came out and then it was pretty much silence.

I don't doubt it's a great game, but you can't force the next big thing on consumers. It's just a natural change.
 

Biker19

Banned
MGSV: GZ =278k, PS4 ~ 54%, XBO ~ 20% (both combined 204k), PS3 ~ 19%

This result throws into question the release of FFXV on the Bone. FF skews even more heavily to PlayStation and on 6m sales with 2m in Japan, the best result for Xbox will be 500-700k sales for FFXV. I don't see that giving SE a decent ROI. If Japanese/PlayStation oriented franchises don't see an improvement on the Bone I could see the ports being cancelled unless MS waive their platform fee and tweak the ROI figure for SE.

Hopefully it also means that Konami will can the last gen versions of TPP and go all in for next gen. By the time it releases the ~26% of last gen purchases will be significantly lower. Full fat next gen please KojiPro!

Honestly I expect one of the XV and KHIII Bone ports to be cancelled depending on how much the first port sells on the system.

Sony should just lock up exclusivity at this point. I doubt it would result in any meaningful up tick in FFXV sales on PS4, but it would make the exclusive line up even more appealing.

These. Why even bother putting these games on Xbox One when the PS4 versions of those games will most likely sell very well?

It's just a waste of time & money.

Kingdom Hearts is on the Bone because KH sells BIG in NA and before the consoles released it was expected Xbox would dominate in that region.

But the series has always been popular on Nintendo's handhelds & on Playstation platforms.
 
I know five people that bought it launch day and never touched it since.

Hell, one of my fiends hasn't even turned his xbone one sice merc kings on ps4 came out.

Then we are even. I lost 5 PS4 friends to Titanfall and their not looking back. Also I gave Merc Kings 30 minutes of my time and it will never be played again so it's a flop.
 

Viruz

Member
There is a new xbone bundle coming to France: link

05/07/14 xbone + PSG shirt signed by players + some crap = 580€

wow! Bonne chance.
 

TheHater

Member
I doubt were ever going to get "the next big thing."

When there's 80 million people playing candy crush every month it seems like insanity to invest money into a AAA game when the odds of success are like 2%.

Hard to get the next big AAA game when you are limiting the number of console it's released on.

TitanFall is ignoring the 80+ million PS3 and the 7+ million PS4 market share.
 
It's over, period. Microsoft lost their last ace, and that's the end of their Xbox One hopes and dreams.

It's not hyperbole, it's not fanboy drivel. It is LITERALLY it for Xbox One. Microsoft has nothing left, nothing they can reveal tomorrow would fix the hole now created. There is no reason left for any one, hardcore or casual, to substantively invest in a Xbox One. Except if they want to play Titanfall. Which will also come to PS4 at some point.

Sony took the last reason away that anyone would NEED to own a Xbox One over a PS4 (except TV SPORTS KINECT LOL GAMING), and the cavalcade of tiny titles that will be nice but won't stir up any sales is not going to salvage the bloated, overdesigned behemoth that was Xbox One.

There may be some hardcore gamer's that stick around. Some did it for Gamecube. But the last bell tolled. Maybe next decade.

The age of Microsoft is done.

LOL, melodramatic much?

Worldwide sales are apparently (based on the latest numbers) roughly 7 million for PS4 and 5 million for Xbox One.

I'm sure MS would have liked to see a bigger bump from Titan Fall, but it's not like the console is putting up Wii U numbers.
 
Titanfall is a hit, just not on the level MS had hoped it would be.

I have high hopes for a future, much improved Titanfall 2, which will no doubt be multiplatform. EA won't turn away the now massive ps4 fanbase next time around, nor do I think MS could afford to buy exclusivity, beyond some map packs hitting xbox first.

As for the Xb1, yes, its a hit. No doubt there, it's just not as big a hit as the ps4 is.
 

Ryuuga

Banned
Going forward I don't think Titanfall will have the XBOX brand association that MS hoped it would. I think the sequel will paint a more interesting picture on that note.
 
Wait you really don't get why it's a meaningless number? MS loses money on each console sold to retail. (Hint: best buy is not giving MS $499 per console) not getting in the hands of consumers means it doesn't provide software sales, digital downloads, or gold subscriptions. MS didn't get into this business because it wanted to lose money.

Nope, you're wrong. Microsoft has said they will at worst case break even. That's worst case. So they are likely making a very slight profit, not losing money on every console told. No idea where you're pulling this misinformation from.

And you need to forget profit and loss. We're talking REVENUE, not profit. Do you know the difference?
 

Majmun

Member
LOL, melodramatic much?

Worldwide sales are apparently (based on the latest numbers) roughly 7 million for PS4 and 5 million for Xbox One.

I'm sure MS would have liked to see a bigger bump from Titan Fall, but it's not like the console is putting up Wii U numbers.

He posted a meme.

And 7mln sold is different than 5mln shipped

Who knows how many Xbox One consoles MS actually sold.
 

Riky

$MSFT
Titanfall on its own is a very good game, it isn't "gone and forgotten" at all, every time I play I see new players in the game. It's a new IP that now is a million selling franchise already, it has just doubled the sales of an established franchise on a smaller installed base, I think NPD for Halo 3 was only something like 500k hardware sales. Point is the game will have a longer lasting impact. Looking at the UK charts it is still selling well.
 

Biker19

Banned
LOL, melodramatic much?

Worldwide sales are apparently (based on the latest numbers) roughly 7 million for PS4 and 5 million for Xbox One.

I'm sure MS would have liked to see a bigger bump from Titan Fall, but it's not like the console is putting up Wii U numbers.

5 million Xbox One consoles sold to retailers, not to consumers.
 
LOL, melodramatic much?

Worldwide sales are apparently (based on the latest numbers) roughly 7 million for PS4 and 5 million for Xbox One.

I'm sure MS would have liked to see a bigger bump from Titan Fall, but it's not like the console is putting up Wii U numbers.

The 5 million is shipped, it's around 4.2 or maybe even 3.9 to consumers. And that is with the stealth price cuts. Clearly there is an issue there and they need to address it.
 
These. Why even bother putting these games on Xbox One when the PS4 versions of those games will most likely sell very well?

It's just a waste of time & money.



But the series has always been popular on Nintendo's handhelds & on Playstation platforms.

You're kidding right? That's like claiming Activision was stupid for putting MW2 on the PS3 given how skewed the sales for COD4 were towards the Xbox 360.

All they have to do is crank down the resolution and put the port out the door. It's well worth the return on investment for Square.
 

el_jefe

Neo Member
LOL. It IS real sales to Microsoft. Microsoft doesn't just flood the market with Xbox Ones on the hopes that consumers will purchase them. A retailer actually has to order the consoles. And when they order consoles they pay Microsoft. From your perspective, I see what you're saying, but think of it from Microsoft's perspective. They got paid. That is a fact. No spin.

Sure, it may be sales for MS, but the fact is they can't move more units until units at retailers are sold to actual consumers. So they have a problem with inventory piling up in warehouses that retailers don't want because they already have units sitting on the shelf AND/OR they have to slow down manufacturing until units start moving again.
 
When Sony had their big game release for the PS3 last gen, that was similarly titled as a "system savior" (MGS4), the bundle was MORE expensive than the base system available on the market at that time, even during a slower month of June.

The fact that Microsoft included a game at no additional cost, and added in an extra $50, is effectively a stealth $110 price drop.

If XB1 sales had not collapsed as much as they did, in early 2014, they would not have instituted these deals. And I'm fairly confident that they made these deals to retailers and consumers so they could ship them more product and meet their "5 million shipped" goal that they had set for the shareholders since launch...and they were at great risk of not meeting that shipment target without these measures.

Again I think you are confusing XBox One hardware sales slowing down since launch to how well Titanfall sold. At least that's the way I'm reading it. Sony's PS3 sold just as well as the XBox 360, if not more on a year to year basis so I'm not sure how the two are related. Microsoft clearly knows they are being beaten by Sony this round which explains the aggressive nature they are taking.
 
RyanMcCaffrey just posted this TIME article on twitter.
http://time.com/67954/5-reasons-the...les-figures-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do/

isaNKyF.png


Imma go with Colin on this one.

1. Regions
Microsoft launched in every significant region they're siginificant in.
I doubt that more regions would change anything for MS. Those 60(or so) missing regions compared to the PS4 would give them maybe 100.000 sales more in total at most.

2. Price
Of course price is a huge deal, but wasn't the Titanfall bundle sold at 450$ almost everywhere? 450$ with a games is Ps4 price region.

3. Supply Constraints
Well the XboxOne sure as hell ain't supply constrained, otherwise MS wouldn't have given us "shipped to retailers" numbers.
I don't know how the Ps4 situation is in the US, but in the EU its definitely heavly supply constrained. You can't go out and buy a Ps4 here.

4. Numbers are good compared to previous consoles
Yes.

5. Titanfall wasn't supposed to change anything.
Yes it was. Its a strawman to say it was supposed to close the 2mil sales gap, but it was supposed to at least close the gap in the US a bit.
It didn't do that, in fact the gap widened in march by 60k.
 
Sure, it may be sales for MS, but the fact is they can't move more units until units at retailers are sold to actual consumers. So they have a problem with inventory piling up in warehouses that retailers don't want because they already have units sitting on the shelf AND/OR they have to slow down manufacturing until units start moving again.

Yeah, I know. I already made that statement several pages ago. I never disagreed with that.
 
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