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NPD Sales Results for November 2014 [Up3: NPD Data Error, AC:U #5]

vin-buc

Member
I'm just trying to get this shit out of people's heads that, "Don't worry, Microsoft's not going to let the Xbox brand suffer, they have tons of money that they can rely on from Windows, Office, & Servers! They'll flush it all down the toilet just to keep a sinking ship afloat, LOL."

A sane company of any kind doesn't just keep throwing money down on something that's like a sinking ship profitability wise.

Xbox is here to stay for this gen and clearly MSFT are backing it up (with a keen eye I'm sure). They have bigger plans with windows 10 client side and xbox is part of that equation.
 

Popnbake

Member
They've stumbled before, but have a habit of doing something crazy and coming back stronger than ever.

Motion controls with the Wii remote was one thing but now it seems that Microsoft and Sony (along with other companies) are already taking the initiative with the next immersive gaming experience of AR/VR next year.

I don't know what other crazy attraction they can pull next time to make that strong come back.
 

Amir0x

Banned
When do you think Sony will drop the price of the PS4? Do you think they will do it with a major exclusive release like Uncharted 4?

I think it is heavily dependent on

a.) Just how well Xbox One does in December NPD (I'm guessing 250k gap in MS's favor)
b.) What MS will decide regarding the return of XBO to $399.99 (I'm guessing it stays at $349.99 minus a game pack-in)
c.) And what the week-to-week average becomes for both PS4 and XBO during the off-holiday months.

I think by March they'll have a pretty good idea internally when they plan their price cut. If Microsoft seems to be catching up especially fast to their LTD in US, I think they'll announce one either in July or by September. I think given how Sony has traditionally been, they will want to connect the price drop to a big release. I don't know what "Unchartuardy" is, but if it does make 2015 it depends how late in the year it will be. Sony might not want to wait to price drop the system if Uncharted 4 looks unlikely to make it before late November, if things got really close between MS and Sony.

If maybe Sony does better than anticipated due to its really stacked 2015 game releases, then maybe Sony doesn't care how late they price drop and will use Uncharted 4.

That and it lost alot of it's uniqueness being that you can do similar things with PS4/Vita and to some degree Smartglass with it's second screen with some games.

Yeah. There's nothing wrong with it, ya know? The gamepad, I mean. Wii U plays good games. One or two gamepad concepts had decent ideas in it. Um, and Nintendo games in their traditional genres continue to be really fun and engaging gameplay experiences, only this time they are also frequently gorgeous as well. But it wasn't going to move this market in the face of the battle raging between XBO and PS4. PS4 especially at first just nailed so many right notes in the face of XBO's scandal that many had no problem waiting it out for Sony.
 

Dlacy13g

Member
This NPD turned out to be quite fun to on GAF. Everyone running around early claiming 7-10k difference was fact and in soap opera fashion had the truth dropped on the thread and suddenly it got real salty.
 

Beefy

Member
MS tossed billions to keep the Surface brand afloat.

They'll continue to do the same thing to keep their only significant living-room product competitive.

Money is not an issue with the Xbox division.

What we should be thinking abut instead is what the next major 3rd party game will be exclusive to the system in 2015. MS has the cash and desperation to get shit done.

Imagine if MS actually just pumped huge amounts of cash into making more studios. They could probably rival ND. Instead of just buying up games etc.
 

FourMyle

Member
The Uncharted hype will be bigger. Lots of 360 owners who jumped on PS4 will increase the base for the game. Halo is dwindling due to Bungie not working on the title.

And how dare u forget Bloodborne. Sheesh. That game will sell a lot. Especially with The Witcher 3 being pushed back.

I seriously doubt it. It really doesn't seem to have anywhere near the hype that DaS or DaS2 had.

I am expecting 150k-200k opening for Bloodborne.
 
Zelda doesn't traditionally move hardware that much, this year we had Mario Kart/Smash which are generally bigger sellers. Also, this was supposed to be THE month for the Wii U and it still sold an abysmal <270k. It's never going to even get close to Gamecube numbers, whereas some were hoping that Smash would turn it around and bring it somewhere close to that point, or at least give it a temporary boost like Mario Kart.

In Gamecube's 3rd holiday season it was selling for $99 with Mario Kart Double Dash releasing around the same time. Big difference with Wii U selling for $299 with not much advertising push from Nintendo. Nintendo is trying to make a profit on Wii U consoles sold per unit, so that might be why they didn't pull a Microsoft $70-100 dollar price cut for the holidays (some XB1's were being sold for $299 on Black Friday- same price as the Wii U in a lot of places).

Nintendo most likely understands now that the Wii U hardware itself is simply not appealing to the causal gamers or many core gamers, they don't understand it, don't know why they need one etc etc..... Very slowly though the Wii U sales are increasing month after month due to the quality of the games alone, then probably next year Nintendo will have a price drop when they can lower their own cost of making the system substantially enough.

Nintendo is trying to do the slow burn with the Wii U, making it profitable to them without spending too much money on marketing a gimmicky idea that is too late to sell the hardware.
 
Hope Cboat is perma banned. Sick of that fucks wrong info the last year.

If that fuckoff would actually do something other than troll now days the thread wouldn't have spiraled to shit in 5 seconds flat. He was the only source with nobody saying otherwise, MS was acting weird on Twitter and PR statements. Honestly am happy MS managed to pull ahead with all the shit they gave for free because if it were true about the 10k difference, the only logical step would be even more price cuts.

Cboat has literally gone from a logical insider to more worthless than a magic 8 ball.

Your behavior is pretty gross
 

psn

Member
I'm not sure what's going at SCEA, but they need a wake up call and I'm hoping this NPD and LIKELY next months as well, changes their poor decisions.

While I agree that there is still room for improvement, they have a comfortable lead worldwide.

Afaik outside of UK - I think people think it's bigger than it is, so here is a comparison of the markets:
screen_shot_2013_05_28_at_12.52.10-pm.png


and the US, it is not really competitive.

The last numbers we had showed a 3:1 lead in germany. In spain it was 7:1.

There is no need to overreact.
 
Motion controls with the Wii remote was one thing but now it seems that Microsoft and Sony (along with other companies) are already taking the initiative with the next immersive gaming experience of AR/VR next year.

I don't know what other crazy attraction they can pull next time to make that strong come back.
Unified software line. With two pieces of hardware. One designed for on the go play, and the other for home play.

That's all I can think of that would allow them to have vibrant software support for both, but that also means a consolidation of both play styles, and Visual output. So, not likely to have a 3D screen, and touch seems less likely as well.
 
I seriously doubt it. There really doesn't seem to be anywhere near the hype that DaS or DaS2 had.

I am expecting 150k-200k opening for Bloodborne.

Agree. Maybe 300k max. It's a very niche and hardcore title. It's more a console mover for those who already wanted one anyway.
 
Xbox is here to stay for this gen and clearly MSFT are backing it up (with a keen eye I'm sure). They have bigger plans with windows 10 client side and xbox is part of that equation.

A lot of people say this, but what does this even mean? There was a lot of speculation before launch that MS was going to allow cross-platform development for apps on the Windows store, and that never became a thing. Aside from allowing a version of Windows to run through the Xbox, I don't see how Windows 10 integration really helps.
 
Are there historical examples of unappealing products actually having meaningful turn-arounds as a result of lowering the price without fundamentally altering the rest of the proposition in some manner to better align with consumer needs?
 

vin-buc

Member
Imagine if MS actually just pumped huge amounts of cash into making more studios. They could probably rival ND. Instead of just buying up games etc.

That's risky though. They can spend a lot of capital, man power/headaches up front and have the product flop or they can buy an established game or a new game from an established developer. What do you think they would choose?
 

Faustek

Member
I can't believe dragon age didn't chart.

Really?
Consider their latest games.

Dragon Age 2...some liked it but man the hatred that game received. Only good thing that came out of it was a friends gay joke.
No Worries he is gay so he can tell those as I'm brown so I can tell racist jokes.

Mass Effect 3. Do we really need to point out the shit storm?

Origin: It's getting better. Still worrisome.
 
I like the Amiibo strategy, I just wish they would have thought of it before Skylanders and Disney jumped in head first to that market. I think it has a potential to lay the path to better things in the future.

That actually brings up the point that activision came to Nintendo offering some type of deal to have skylanders exclusively on their consoles and Nintendo turned them down which considering how well skylanders used to do was a terrible move in hindsight.

I expect Nintendo's next dedicated hardware to be cheap and with good profit margins built in. Readily accessible by children for example.
 

GamerJM

Banned
Zelda will be the last hurrah I imagine, as a new home system needs to come in 2016.

The problem is that's probably the same time they need to launch a new handheld system.

From a practicality standpoint I don't really know if they can do so.
Vita number was like cream's first post in the thread. EDIT: Oh my bad that was Vita TV.

They could be working on a hybrid system, like Vita/PlayStation TV except without all of the compatibility issues of the PSTV.
 
I think they'll announce one either in July or by September. I think given how Sony has traditionally been, they will want to connect the price drop to a big release.

Sony's $299 price drop was announced and happened the same day.

My guess would be "E3, *price dropped pricing*, tomorrow."
 

NolbertoS

Member
MS tossed billions to keep the Surface brand afloat.

They'll continue to do the same thing to keep their only significant living-room product competitive.

Money is not an issue with the Xbox division.

What we should be thinking abut instead is what the next major 3rd party game will be exclusive to the system in 2015. MS has the cash and desperation to get shit done.

Problem with that analogy is that any company is willing to burn money if the returns are great. Nadella can only throw money so far until there's a mutiny in his hands and certain divisions get downsized. Nothing financially and number crunching assumptions makes me believe MS will make a profit within thr year and next. There hemorraghin money, faster than they can make big profits. Soon MS will pass out.
 

Beefy

Member
That's risky though. They can spend a lot of capital, man power/headaches up front and have the product flop or they can buy an established game or a new game from an established developer. What do you think they would choose?

I never said I don't get it. I was just thinking it would be great for more exclusive games being made from MS own studios.
 

Biker19

Banned
Imagine if MS actually just pumped huge amounts of cash into making more studios. They could probably rival ND. Instead of just buying up games etc.

Exactly. Why don't they do that, if they can just keep on freely spend money on the brand in general? I'd like to know the answer to that.
 

vin-buc

Member
Are there historical examples of unappealing products actually having meaningful turn-arounds as a result of lowering the price without fundamentally altering the rest of the proposition in some manner to better align with consumer needs?

Judging by November sales - it seems that the price was the only unappealing aspect. This is not a knock to the system - but if its alot cheaper than the competition and has "samey" feature set its going to sell. Some of the deals truly seemed like a steal. Money talks.
 

prag16

Banned
Wii U's 2015 numbers at this rate are going to be profoundly bleak. I am not looking forward to seeing those results month after month. This is going to be one slow Titanic sinking :(
It's up year over year and the company just returned to profitability. Just now referring to Nintendo as the Titanic is strange. 3DS down YoY is bad, sure, but did people expect it to be up? I didn't. Things looked worse at various points in the past than they do now.
 

Hawk269

Member
Oh shit. I just remembered something. Morpheus. That's definitely going to launch next year right? They were 85% done in September.

If they handle this correctly, this would give them a maaaaaaaajor advantage that would definitely swing things their way.

I don't see that at all. From the rumors, Morpheus is not going to be cheap, so the cost of entry of a PS4 & Morpheus headset and a game is going to be costly. It all depends on how much the device cost. If it is too expensive, it will be more of a niche thing for many. I just don't see it being priced low enough to make many current PS4 owners and new PS4 owners to buy it.
 

vpance

Member
Oh shit. I just remembered something. Morpheus. That's definitely going to launch next year right? They were 85% done in September.

If they handle this correctly, this would give them a maaaaaaaajor advantage that would definitely swing things their way.

Yeah, I've suggested the same thing. It's in their best interests to find a different differentiator to Xbone than just their current power advantage, since price ultimately sways the consumer the most, at least in the US, and they don't enjoy that advantage anymore. VR has the potential to capture the attn of the mainstream if it's presented right.
 

John Harker

Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
You understand that MS sits on a mountain of cash that they could just keep throwing at this right? Sony not so much, plus why would they lower the price when they are the world leader?

Inquisition low sales is discouraging ; (

Naw, DAI had the best debut in the franchise ever, that's great considering the bad rep of da2 and how every other franchise is like down this month. Another down 25% for cod? Ouch
 

vinnygambini

Why are strippers at the U.N. bad when they're great at strip clubs???
Zelda will be the last hurrah I imagine, as a new home system needs to come in 2016.

The problem is that's probably the same time they need to launch a new handheld system.

Pretty much. By the time Zelda launches
and Super Mario Galaxy HD Collection
, Nintendo's main teams will be developing for it's new console - but the Wii U library will not be in vein, like Iwata mentioned, they are developing a NintendOS and are commencing by absorbing it's library. I think both handheld & console offerings will release in Holiday 2016, sharing the same library.

They will both launch with a 3D Mario Game

2015 will be QOL year (I seriously think it's still a Japan-only device), China launch, and strengthening their financials.
 
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