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NPD Sales Results for May 2010

Trurl said:
Yeah, I was joking.

Do people not like the idea of having a kid be a spokesperson in general? For me the commercials seem to be about as good as the Kevin Butler ones, and since he's a kid it's kind of like he's the Lil' Playstation.

Then again, I've defended Justin Bieber so I might just be crazy.


If he wasn't a loud mouth kid in commercials that have poorly written scripts and horrible supporting actors, it might be decent.
As it is, it just screams last minute desperation to try and grab the Kevin Butler fans.
 
TruePrime said:
Joke?

If not, well I don't know what to so say other then I would have wanted to kick the fucker in the face no matter what his skin color when I heard the shit that came out of his mouth, it was retarded and it made me feel like a douche for supporting the PSP.

While it was obvious troll bait, it would make more sense if he would have said the opposite due to Marcus being a cardboard cutout stereotypical character.

Which even then it wouldn't have made much sense.
 

Boney

Banned
AceBandage said:
Well, they've only had a few months with the 3DS kits, so they are trying to get on board with big names, even if some of them are ports (though, RE and maybe even MGS aren't ports).
Japanese pubs are on board, no doubt about it. Westerns are just dipping their toes. It'll probably have great support by launch, but gaming ghetto yo!
 
Boney said:
Japanese pubs are on board, no doubt about it. Westerns are just dipping their toes. It'll probably have great support by launch, but gaming ghetto yo!


Eh, I doubt Western devs will give handhelds full support.
At least, not any time soon.
It's weird, as much as people blast Japanese devs for sticking to tradition, they're always the first to try and support something new.
 

Chozo

Member
Trurl said:
Yeah, I was joking.

Do people not like the idea of having a kid be a spokesperson in general? For me the commercials seem to be about as good as the Kevin Butler ones, and since he's a kid it's kind of like he's the Lil' Playstation.

Then again, I've defended Justin Bieber so I might just be crazy.

The Kevin Butler ads are charming in their own self-effacing way.

Marcus (who comes off as the kid who screams racial obscenities at you over voice chat) only serves to remind us how much Kevin Butler coming out of SCE's marketing was a massive fluke.
 

Zen

Banned
Valkyr Junkie said:
Well in May for most of the month on Amazon PS3s were sold out and being sold by that one company at a $70 markup. Even saw that occasionally in June as well. That all is purely anecdotal though.

On the company's quarterly results call to investors, chief operating officer Paul Raines said that in its stores, PS3s have been out of stock a surprising 80 percent of the time during the company's February-April quarter

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28636/GameStop_PS3_Out_Of_Stock_80_Percent_Of_The_Time.php

This doesn't cover May, but with Sony releasing statements saying that they're 'focusing on getting production to meet demand' in the near future, I'd imagine shortages are still an issue.
 

Curufinwe

Member
Hawk269 said:
I know this is Gaf and I know what is going to be said about what I am about to post, but here it goes anyways....

I work for a major retailer and the Xbox360s has outsold the PS3 on average 4 to 1. This is considering freight restraints and limited amount of the new units. This is for the last 2 weeks or when the 360s released. In one of the biggest markets/regions, the 360s outsold the PS3 in the same market 5 to 1, again this is with ample supply of Ps3 and a lack of supply of the new 360s. Further more, this 4 to 1 outselling DOES NOT incllude the old 360's, just the new S model. Add in the old systems and it is more like 7 to 1 ratio.

Anyways, I am sure the typical gaf'rs will reply with sarcasm and other typical Gaf type stuff, but I have no reason to make that stuff up and when the June NPD numbers comes out you will see that the 360s is really moving...I am not saying it will be 4 to 1 across the industry, but I would not be shocked if where I work is typical for most places.

If it's 3:1 or higher then you can definitely say you told us so.
 
Trurl said:
Yeah, I was joking.

Do people not like the idea of having a kid be a spokesperson in general? For me the commercials seem to be about as good as the Kevin Butler ones, and since he's a kid it's kind of like he's the Lil' Playstation.

Then again, I've defended Justin Bieber so I might just be crazy.

- Because it's stupid

- It's milking dry SONY's only decent marketing campaign in years

- As I said up above Marcus is a boring stereotypical character we've seen a thousand times before. The wisecrackin'-street smart-black-male-child archetype is old as hell and way over done.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
Trurl said:
Yeah, I was joking.

Do people not like the idea of having a kid be a spokesperson in general? For me the commercials seem to be about as good as the Kevin Butler ones, and since he's a kid it's kind of like he's the Lil' Playstation.

Then again, I've defended Justin Bieber so I might just be crazy.

I don't have nothing against a teenager doing the marketing, what I have a problem with is a teenager who is made to say shit that makes him look like a god damn tool that has no brain and is saying really dumb shit that no one outside of hardcore fanboys would say.

That and I am sure that kid is intellegent and everything, please for the love of god let him show it instead of this hip shit. It isn't hip, it is fucking stupid.
 

V_Ben

Banned
Zen said:
On the company's quarterly results call to investors, chief operating officer Paul Raines said that in its stores, PS3s have been out of stock a surprising 80 percent of the time during the company's February-April quarter

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28636/GameStop_PS3_Out_Of_Stock_80_Percent_Of_The_Time.php

This doesn't cover May, but with Sony releasing statements saying that they're 'focusing on getting production to meet demand' in the near future, I'd imagine shortages are still an issue.

they recently passed a new SKU through the FCC, so i reckon that the slim was constrained due to internals. The new model may be a way of ramping production back up, and getting the console moving again.
 

Mrbob

Member
Didn't Activision say Blur would be the Modern Warfare 2 of racing games?

I guess Bizarre will be cranking out annual Geometry Wars games from now on.
 

Boney

Banned
TruePrime said:
I don't have nothing against a teenager doing the marketing, what I have a problem with is a teenager who is made to say shit that makes him look like a god damn tool that has no brain and is saying really dumb shit that no one outside of hardcore fanboys would say.

That and I am sure that kid is intellegent and everything, please for the love of god let him show it instead of this hip shit. It isn't hip, it is fucking stupid.
Easy there.. white chocolate

Disclaimer: Every time I say easy there, I remember that movie
I'm racist
 
Draft said:
Blur and Split/Second both bombed because they're 30fps racers. Those are crimes against gaming, and I am glad to see both developers sacrificed so that others may learn from their mistakes.
Not on the glorious master race PCs they aren't!

I have no idea if they can run at 60fps on a decent rig, and probably won't until I can buy them for $5 on Steam during this years holiday sale.
 

Zen

Banned
AceBandage said:

Some context from the article

"I actually thought the ModNation number was respectable, since the game came out only on May 25, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pacther told IGN. "Blur came out the same day, so also not much time, but a lot more hype and advertising, so the numbers are pretty disappointing."

"Split/Second came out a week earlier, and sold around the same as ModNation on two platforms, so that's pretty sad," he added.
 
AceBandage said:
If he wasn't a loud mouth kid in commercials that have poorly written scripts and horrible supporting actors, it might be decent.
As it is, it just screams last minute desperation to try and grab the Kevin Butler fans.

Aren't we learning that while massively popular among the already existing fanbase of hardcore gamers, the Kevin Butler ads actually aren't that effective? PS3 sales have not shown any signs of their effect, unless shortages are still a factor.
 
So what have we learned?

As I said last month (or whenever the last NPD thread was) UFC isn't like Madden where incremental additions and changes will sell. I'd stop the yearly releases if I were them.

Also, SURPRISE! Racers are dead. There can only be so many realistic racers before the cream of the crop start eating the contenders. Blur's commercial was cute, but it had no chance; no one wants to shoot fireballs from an Audi TT.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Aren't we learning that while massively popular among the already existing fanbase of hardcore gamers, the Kevin Butler ads actually aren't that effective? PS3 sales have not shown any signs of their effect, unless shortages are still a factor.


That's probably a fair point.
But, if they're going to be ineffective (which all Sony ads have been this gen so far), they should at least be fun to watch.
 
Averon said:
Should EA be concerned with Madden's futures sales? Going by Undisputed's massive drop, it doesn't seem like yearly updates for $60 a piece is acceptable anymore.
I hope it has more to do with these retarded ass backwards online passes. Hey THQ, you hurt the used games market. There isn't enough new inventory to trade in. :D
 

WillyFive

Member
1423365-untitled_1_copy.jpg


SMG2 all the way, losers.
 
AceBandage said:
That's probably a fair point.
But, if they're going to be ineffective (which all Sony ads have been this gen so far), they should at least be fun to watch.


Commercials only go so far. He's talking about the games, and he's memorable. That's what people often forget about advertising - the goal is to get you to remember their products.

HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!
HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!
HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!
HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!
HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!
HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!
HEADON! Apply directly to the forehead!
 

Bizzyb

Banned
I'm sure with Marcus on the Job those PSP sales will shoot up any month now.

Oh and HELL YEAHS for RDR and Mario Galaxy 2! The only two games I've bought in months and their were WELL worth it. If you don't have RDR or SMG2 yet, then WTF are you waiting for??

:
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Dear gaming industry:

Lower software prices. Thanks--Plinko
 

dionysus

Yaldog
Y2Kev said:
People said that about Quantum of Solace...

I basically think there are TOO MANY games and not enough money to go around. Seems like publishers need to pull back...

I agree with you, after the record growth in 2007-09 publishers got too big and were able to secure too much financing to expand. The market can only support so many blockbusters, this month it was RDR and yet there were what, 7 games trying to compete to be that blockbuster with good sized budgets.

I invest in several gaming companies and I think I am pulling out entirely in the near term. Too much competition for them to deliver any profit margins.
 

Beth Cyra

Member
Rated-Rsuperstar said:
Activision will probably blame the failure of Blur on the fact that it didn't have the COD license attached to it.

I don't care what they blame it on, I just hope Bizarre makes it out, seen enough guys go down already.

Though I would actually love it if they could some how spin it so it was the Wii's fault.
 

Trurl

Banned
Bizzyb said:
I'm sure with Marcus on the Job those PSP sales will shoot up any month now.
Thank you!

Come to think of it, the real reason I like Marcus might be because he gives me fond memories of a kid I knew from Anchorage, Alaska. Also, I'm a Nintendo fan with no real interest in the success of the PSP. I'm not going to hate on some kid because he's not doing what's probably impossible. :lol
 

seady

Member
Mario selling well is a given, but I am so happy RDR sold that well also. I love that game so much.

Alan Wake making into top 10 is impressive already. I never believed it would make it. It didn't make much noise since release. I also beat it and find it to be just an okay game.
 
TruePrime said:
I don't care what they blame it on, I just hope Bizarre makes it out, seen enough guys go down already.

Though I would actually love it if they could some how spin it so it was the Wii's fault.


"Obviously, out target audience for Blur bought Super Mario Galaxy 2, instead. We are going to, therefore, ramp up production on all PS3/360 games and make less games for the Wii."
 
Plinko said:
Dear gaming industry:

Lower software prices. Thanks--Plinko
Dear Plinko:

How about we charge you to play online. We are working on an exciting new subscription model. It's only 180 per year.

Yours Truly

Bobby K

:D
 

Dalthien

Member
Anyone else starting to think that the industry has backed itself into a really nasty corner? The 360 is in its 5th year, the PS3 in its 4th. This is typically the period when things start ramping up for the next generation. The 'core' gaming community starts winding down at this point in the cycle, because they are getting bored with the rehashes of the same stuff that they've already been playing for a few years now, and they are getting antsy for some new experiences on new and improved hardware.

But the industry is in no position whatsoever to stick with the traditional cycle. MS and Sony have no interest at all in taking on billions of losses upfront again to try to bring bleeding-edge tech to the masses. And even if they scaled back their ambitions and went with a more typical upgrade path, the publishers don't have a chance in hell of taking on even bigger budgets than the ones they are already losing fortunes trying to maintain.

Which leaves the status-quo for several more years. But which runs the real risk of more and more gamers sitting on the sidelines in boredom until the next gen finally does come around. There will certainly still be many very successful titles released. The Halos, Call of Dutys, Gran Turismos, should all be fine. But with the status-quo, we will see A WHOLE LOT of lesser titles struggle mightily.

Kinect and Move are the temporary solutions that MS and Sony have come up with to try to alleviate the problem. Those products may or may not find their own success, but they certainly won't do much of anything to help boost the traditional 'core' portion of the industry.

DMczaf said:
UFC 2009 First month
4. UFC Undisputed (360) – 679.6K
5. UFC Undisputed (PS3) – 334.4K

UFC 2010 First month
4. UFC 2010 Undisputed (360) – 221.1K
5. UFC 2010 Undisputed (PS3) – 192.3K

goddam

THQ doesn't have a big stable of blockbusters. This is going to sting!


And Capcom is thanking their lucky stars that they have MHP3 coming this year to save their asses. They have been churning out one high-budget mega-flop after another lately. Bionic Commando and Dark Void. Now Lost Planet 2, which was initially expected to sell 3.7 million units, and was likely budgeted with those expectations in mind. And they still have Dead Rising coming as well. Ugly.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
AceBandage said:
And by September, it'll be 1.5 million vs 3 million.

Please. GTA games may be front loaded, but they still have a long tail and RDR hasnt had the backlash that IV got.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Aren't we learning that while massively popular among the already existing fanbase of hardcore gamers, the Kevin Butler ads actually aren't that effective? PS3 sales have not shown any signs of their effect, unless shortages are still a factor.

Well PS3 sales are still up YoY.

The slim, price drop, rebranding, and new marketing push created a surge of good will for the console and helped Sony to one of their better fiscal quarters in a while, iirc. Removing any one part of that equation and you'd probably dull the sales from Sept 09 on, they needed every bit of it. The Butler ads represent the "new" PS3 which is fun and hip and actually sells first party games.

That being said, the PS3 obviously isn't going to outsell the 360 in North America, for any significant amount of time, barring Move being a Wii-like success. They've achieved price parity and it gave them temporary sales parity - now that MS is spit-shining the 360, they've lost that until at least the holiday season. Even if Kinect falls flat on its face they're going to have a hard time overcoming the Halo/Gears/CoD trio that will arguably be the biggest console movers on the HD side this Christmas.

If shortages have been a huge factor in PS3 sales the first half of the f'n year as Sony tells it, they've missed a hell of an opportunity to capitalize on their newly found good will, at least in North America. I'm actually pretty surprised that the sales ratio for RDR is almost the same as it was for GTAIV two years ago.

HK-47 said:
Please. GTA games may be front loaded, but they still have a long tail and RDR hasnt had the backlash that IV got.

The front-loaded nature of GTAIV is overstated, it sold 6 million at launch and has moved an additional 11 million copies since then, even with a supposedly toxic word of mouth.

RDR is holding strong at the top of the Euro charts with almost nothing to challenge it for months.
 

pixelbox

Member
Flying_Phoenix said:
- Because it's stupid

- It's milking dry SONY's only decent marketing campaign in years

- As I said up above Marcus is a boring stereotypical character we've seen a thousand times before. The wisecrackin'-street smart-black-male-child archetype is old as hell and way over done.
I hope you're fucking joking. People here are complete asswipes...
 
Curufinwe said:
"Split/Second came out a week earlier, and sold around the same as Mod Nation on two platforms, so that's pretty sad," he added.

Pachter also noted that low review scores of these titles have likely caused racing fans to hold off until this fall when two big-times from EA and Sony are expected to hit.

"None of these games were rated higher than 80, so I think people are waiting for Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit this fall.



Split/Second actually has an average score of 82 on the 360 and 84 on the PS3 while Blur's average score is 82 on both platforms, so he's wrong, and I really don't think review scores are the reason for the poor sales of either of these racing games.


"Split/Second was published by Disney Interactive Studios for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360."

"Blur: Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3"

"ModNation Racers is an kart racing game developed by United Front Games for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable"


What does Mario Kart have that these games dont? I cant quite put my finger on it.....


Hint: N64 had much better success with arcade racers than the Playstation did. By a long shot. GC had like 3 racers, total.
 

fernoca

Member
Nice to see Alan Wake in the Top 10..at least.

Thought Super Mario Galaxy 2 was going to be with a higher number; the first Galaxy did twice that amount (1.1 million) though it was on November; then did 1.4 million the following month (December)...but Mario games has grazy legs; so guess Galaxy 2 will be in the Top 10 for a long time.
 
Plinko said:
Dear gaming industry:

Lower software prices. Thanks--Plinko

Fair point. By this point in their respective lifetimes, all first party sony games were 39.99 on PS2 (vs 49 at launch) and 29.99 on PSX (versus 39.99 at launch).
 
jamesinclair said:
"Split/Second was published by Disney Interactive Studios for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360."

"Blur: Platform(s) Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3"

"ModNation Racers is an kart racing game developed by United Front Games for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable"


What does Mario Kart have that these games dont? I cant quite put my finger on it.....


Hint: N64 had much better success with arcade racers than the Playstation did. By a long shot. GC had like 3 racers, total.


Two things.

1. Brand. Both in Mario himself and in Mario Kart (a long standing franchise known for quality).

2. Brilliant marketing that makes the games appeal to a huge variety of gamers (something that Modnation almost got, but that S/S and Blur actually shunned).
 

Opiate

Member
Dalthien said:
Anyone else starting to think that the industry has backed itself into a really nasty corner? The 360 is in its 5th year, the PS3 in its 4th. This is typically the period when things start ramping up for the next generation. The 'core' gaming community starts winding down at this point in the cycle, because they are getting bored with the rehashes of the same stuff that they've already been playing for a few years now, and they are getting antsy for some new experiences on new and improved hardware.

But the industry is in no position whatsoever to stick with the traditional cycle. MS and Sony have no interest at all in taking on billions of losses upfront again to try to bring bleeding-edge tech to the masses. And even if they scaled back their ambitions and went with a more typical upgrade path, the publishers don't have a chance in hell of taking on even bigger budgets than the ones they are already losing fortunes trying to maintain.

Which leaves the status-quo for several more years. But which runs the real risk of more and more gamers sitting on the sidelines in boredom until the next gen finally does come around. There will certainly still be many very successful titles released. The Halos, Call of Dutys, Gran Turismos, should all be fine. But with the status-quo, we will see A WHOLE LOT of lesser titles struggle mightily.

Sure, if sales start to slow down. That's the assumption your analysis is predicated upon, is it not? Except neither the PS3 or 360 seem to be slowing down very significantly. Software is still doing quite well, and both the PS3 and 360 sold more hardware this May than they did last may, without price drops.

That bodes very well for both of them (particularly the PS3, as its also up worldwide, not just in the US).

Now, if these systems actually do start slowing down (in hardware, and particularly in software), then all of this may change. I just don't see significant evidence of that yet -- again, the 360 is now the top revenue earner in the US this year, indicating that the Wii has slowed down while the 360 (a system one year older than the Wii, mind you) largely has not. If the evidence starts showing up -- sure, that's a bind.
 
pixelbox said:
I hope you're fucking joking. People here are complete asswipes...

It's true though. Along with "You da squirrel!" and "White is coming", Sony's PSP advertisements continually scrape the bottom of the barrel. Marcus is appallingly bad, he's a pint sized Chad Warden.
 
Sho_Nuff82 said:
Well PS3 sales are still up YoY.

The slim, price drop, rebranding, and new marketing push created a surge of good will for the console and helped Sony to one of their better fiscal quarters in a while, iirc. Removing any one part of that equation and you'd probably dull the sales from Sept 09 on, they needed every bit of it. The Butler ads represent the "new" PS3 which is fun and hip and actually sells first party games.

That being said, the PS3 obviously isn't going to outsell the 360 in North America, for any significant amount of time, barring Move being a Wii-like success. They've achieved price parity and it gave them temporary sales parity - now that MS is spit-shining the 360, they've lost that until at least the holiday season. Even if Kinect falls flat on its face they're going to have a hard time overcoming the Halo/Gears/CoD trio that will arguably be the biggest console movers on the HD side this Christmas.

If shortages have been a huge factor in PS3 sales the first half of the f'n year as Sony tells it, they've missed a hell of an opportunity to capitalize on their newly found good will, at least in North America. I'm actually pretty surprised that the sales ratio for RDR is almost the same as it was for GTAIV two years ago.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but PS3 sales were so abysmal prior to the Slim that they had no place to go but up. All these 25%+ YOY sales only really tell you how far in the gutter the PS3 was last year. Once we get past the Slims birthday, PS3 sales won't have quite the luster.
 

Busaiku

Member
Opiate said:
Sure, if sales start to slow down. That's the assumption your analysis is predicated upon, is it not? Except neither the PS3 or 360 seem to be slowing down very significantly. Software is still doing quite well, and both the PS3 and 360 sold more hardware this May than they did last may, without price drops.
PS3 had a price drop.
 
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