Xbox One is finally going to be available in most other countries (defined Tier 2 by Microsoft) this September. I thought it would be interesting to hear how the Xbox One stacks up now 10 months after the official release. I work in a big retail store in one of the Tier 2 countries (Netherlands) and Id love to share how the Xbox One is going to sell, what the ratio between Kinect-less and Kinect SKUs will be and what the most popular games are nowadays. Some comparison with the PS4 will also be interesting, though that will probably be a little unfair since there were no aligned launches. First, lets start off with the list of countries and dates Xbox One will be rolled out to this month.
Now September, 10 months since release, Xbox One is finally coming out in The Netherlands. Microsoft announced a pretty good bundle to counter the demand for PS4, with a 399 Kinectless SKU with Forza Motorsport 5 and FIFA 15 and a 499 Kinect SKU with the two same games, plus Dance Central Spotlight.
Our store has been selling Xbox One games since November, even though we didnt have the console yet. The most popular game has been Battlefield 4 up to now, which we sold about 35 copies from, followed by Call of Duty Ghosts and Forza Motorsport 5 with about 30 copies. Dead Rising 3 followes with 25 copies and Ryse iirc 22 copies. We managed to start selling imported Xbox One consoles since April, including the Titanfall bundle. We sold about 80 Xbox Ones, even though we priced the consoles a bit higher then the SRP due to import fees and stuff. There is still definitly a market for the Xbox One, its just never going to sell like PS4. Same was the case with PS3 and Xbox 360.
So our store is getting about 40 Kinectless Bundles and 30 Kinect Bundles. Thusfar we have 6 pre-orders for each console, so the 399 bundle is not really doing any better then the 499 SKU, which is interesting. As for games, I cant really tell how they wil perform considering you could get most (new) games all year through most stores even though the console wasnt out. First party titles Forza 5, Ryse and Dead Rising are all re-released with a 49,99 price (usually games cost 69,99 SRP) all in the GOTY form with all DLC included, so that is a smart decision by Microsoft.
Im interested to see how the Xbox One hype is in other Tier 2 countries, and I bet there are more fellow Gaffers that work in retail who can share stories. I will post again to share stats about the launch on Friday.
So let me share my story this far. Microsoft last year announced a few months before release the Xbox One would be delayed in some countries including the Netherlands. I for one was bummed out, because I wanted one from the start. Fortunately I imported one pretty easily through Amazon Germany, so in the end it wasnt a big deal for me. After the horrible Xbox One reveal and following E3 in 2013 there was little to no hype anyway for the Xbox One in the Netherlands. The PS4 was the big new console, and Netherlands has always been a Sony country, and it became even more clear now. PS4 launch was amazing we have sold about 600 PS4s since launch, which is a damn high number, considering the console was severly supply constrained up until June/July.9/2: Chile and Colombia
9/4: Japan
9/5: Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates
9/15: Israel
9/23: Hong Kong, India, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan
9/23: China
9/26: Russia
Now September, 10 months since release, Xbox One is finally coming out in The Netherlands. Microsoft announced a pretty good bundle to counter the demand for PS4, with a 399 Kinectless SKU with Forza Motorsport 5 and FIFA 15 and a 499 Kinect SKU with the two same games, plus Dance Central Spotlight.
Our store has been selling Xbox One games since November, even though we didnt have the console yet. The most popular game has been Battlefield 4 up to now, which we sold about 35 copies from, followed by Call of Duty Ghosts and Forza Motorsport 5 with about 30 copies. Dead Rising 3 followes with 25 copies and Ryse iirc 22 copies. We managed to start selling imported Xbox One consoles since April, including the Titanfall bundle. We sold about 80 Xbox Ones, even though we priced the consoles a bit higher then the SRP due to import fees and stuff. There is still definitly a market for the Xbox One, its just never going to sell like PS4. Same was the case with PS3 and Xbox 360.
So our store is getting about 40 Kinectless Bundles and 30 Kinect Bundles. Thusfar we have 6 pre-orders for each console, so the 399 bundle is not really doing any better then the 499 SKU, which is interesting. As for games, I cant really tell how they wil perform considering you could get most (new) games all year through most stores even though the console wasnt out. First party titles Forza 5, Ryse and Dead Rising are all re-released with a 49,99 price (usually games cost 69,99 SRP) all in the GOTY form with all DLC included, so that is a smart decision by Microsoft.
Im interested to see how the Xbox One hype is in other Tier 2 countries, and I bet there are more fellow Gaffers that work in retail who can share stories. I will post again to share stats about the launch on Friday.