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NPD December 2011 Sales Results [Up5: Star Wars: The Old Republic Sales]

[Nintex]

Member
I want first party and others to stay on PS3 since I just got one. These consoles have a lot of life left in them, hopefully sales are good and Sony does PS4 in early 2014. That seems like a good compromise.

I don't see why everyone else should wait while late adopters have 6 years of gaming to catch up to.
 

Kusagari

Member
It says more about the demographic of buyers in December.

We never get a top 20 anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if the big Kinect games are bubbling in the 11-20 range all the time like DS games used to in years prior. Whenever we used to get a top 20, back before the NPD turned to shit, it would be filled with DS games.
 

fernoca

Member
I was under the impression that it is doing okay in the US and meh everywhere else. A Retro Zelda should do well in the West, but probably shitty in Japan(which wouldn't really matter I guess).
Skyward Sword is at 1+ million in the US, based on last week's Nintendo's PR.
That means is did around 400-500k in December, since in November it apparently did over 600k (Mario 3D did 625k last month and wasn't in the top 10; but there was conflicting info on if that number included hardware bundles or not).

We never get a top 20 anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if the big Kinect games are bubbling in the 11-20 range all the time like DS games used to in years prior. Whenever we used to get a top 20 back before the NPD turned to shit, it would be filled with DS games.

Same thing happened in 2010. Both Kinect Sports and Dance Central did 1 million each in 2 months; yet never made it to the Top 10.
 

Gadfly

While flying into a tree he exclaimed "Egad!"
I think this year December numbers (for everything) were hurt by a good November.

if we add Nov+Dec and compare Y2Y, the numbers will probably look healthier.
 
Because of the sales/shipment number they gave and the amount of sales it would require to get there. They either sold really, really well in the rest of the world or both Microsoft and retailers seriously over estimated the demand for the 360.

If they are that far off on demand then I think they will be re evaluating the pace of their next gen plans.

Nah that's not why, explained in previous post. Lots want them to rush next Xbox. Still not going to happen though before 2013.

As for the ship thing, it's not too crazy, it would leave them at combined NPD sales with rounding of 3.9-4.0m for the qaurter. So 8.4 is something over a 2 multiplier. High, but they've had over 2 multipliers NPD/Ship before. (Last December it was 1.77, somewhat lower, but it can vary a lot)

I do think they overshipped, could see a low first quarter number.
 

[Nintex]

Member
Skyward Sword is at 1+ million in the US, based on last week's Nintendo's PR.
That means is did around 400-500k in December, since in November it apparently did over 600k (Mario 3D did 625k last month and wasn't in the top 10; but there was conflicting info on if that number included hardware bundles or not)

Skyward Sword will never hit the 5/6 million Twilight Princess did worldwide anyway. It totally bombed in Europe and Japan.


Nah that's not why, explained in previous post. Lots want them to rush next Xbox. Still not going to happen though before 2013.
7 years is not rushing.
 

Haint

Member
Also Super Smash, and Kirby, and Donkey Kong.
Zelda was just a victim of mismanagement, mishandling and very bad timing.

Nah, it's simply that Zelda's console audience has always been dominated by the core gamer that has long since jumped (or never even boarded) the Wii ship. Mario appeals to a very wide demographic, Zelda and Metroid are dominated by core. There is no revelation here, this has been obvious for many many years. If SS were on PS360 it would have been well up in the top 10. If it had the art style of the Wii U demo, it probably could have been in the top 3.
 

Bigfoot

Member
During the month of December, Xbox 360 had seven of the top 10 console game titles including: “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3,” Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim,” “Battlefield 3,” “Assassin’s Creed: Revelations,” “Just Dance 3,” “Kinect Sports Season Two” and “Dance Central 2,” (Source: NPD Group, December 2011).

this is interesting.

So what else would make the individual console Top 10? Just Dance 3 Wii, MW3 PS3, and what else? Maybe another multi-plat PS3 game or maybe Uncharted 3?
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
360 Nov YTD: 5.5 million

+ "over 1.7 million"

= 7.2 ~ 7.3 million for 2011.


"More than 2.7 million ahead of 2nd place"

2nd place: 4.5~4.6 million

Nov PS3 3.6 million => at most 1 million for Dec
Nov Wii: 3.5 million => at most 1.1 million for Dec
Nov 3DS: 3.2 million => at most 1.4 million for Dec

Remember these are heavily rounded numbers.

The way it's written Microsoft's PR it doesn't include 3DS at the comparison.
 
[Nintex];34228327 said:
Skyward Sword will never hit the 5/6 million Twilight Princess did worldwide anyway. It totally bombed in Europe and Japan.
I think one of the reasons Twilight Princess did so well was the fact that it was a launch game for the wii. The Wii was selling so well during launch, and many who purchased also purchased a copy of Twilight Princess since there weren't a lot of games released at the time.
 
At least MS can be happy with Oct+Nov+Dec (quarter). That still looks OK. About 3.8m in 2011 vs 3.55m in 2010, that with no price drop.
 

fernoca

Member
[Nintex];34228327 said:
Skyward Sword will never hit the 5/6 million Twilight Princess did worldwide anyway. It totally bombed in Europe and Japan.
Yeah, but who says it had to reach that number? Majora's Mask didn't did Ocarina of Time's number, Spirit Tracks did less than Phantom Hourglass.

I discussed this in another thread just a few moments ago and even for some time; if anything it shows that people seem to only want one Zelda game per hardware (like Mario Kart or Smash) instead of 2.; since every time they release a second Zelda game on the same hardware, it sells less than the first one.

Even Mario falls into that, seeing how Galaxy 2 sold less than Galaxy 1, even after the New Super Mario Bros. boom and "new players".
 

kitzkozan

Member
Low numbers all around versus expectations, which is somewhat depressing. :| Probably the effect of the recession imo, so everyone jumped on the black friday to buy hardware and software ( think it was a record BF as well) .
 

Danny 117

Member
Lets just see if the 360 can keep the momentum going into 2012. I personally hope the bubble bursts so they can go back to giving us good first party exclusives and not Kinect shovelware.

Their CES conference 360 portion left a sour taste in my mouth.
 
Nah that's not why, explained in previous post. Lots want them to rush next Xbox. Still not going to happen though before 2013.

As for the ship thing, it's not too crazy, it would leave them at combined NPD sales with rounding of 3.9-4.0m for the qaurter. So 8.4 is something over a 2 multiplier. High, but they've had over 2 multipliers NPD/Ship before. (Last December it was 1.77, somewhat lower, but it can vary a lot)

I do think they overshipped, could see a low first quarter number.

I don't need you to tell me why I think these sales are disappointing. Has nothing to do with a new console for me personally.
 

TheOddOne

Member
Lets just see if the 360 can keep the momentum going into 2012. I personally hope the bubble bursts so they can go back to giving us good first party exclusives and not Kinect shovelware.

Their CES conference 360 portion left a sour taste in my mouth.
Mark Rein said during the tested.com podcast that games are not the focus of CES for all platform holders. E3 is where it is at.
 

jman2050

Member
Low numbers all around versus expectations, which is somewhat depressing. :| Probably the effect of the recession imo, so everyone jumped on the black friday to buy hardware and software ( think it was a record BF as well) .

They probably figured that they had attracted a good portion of frugal buyers for their Black Friday deals in addition to the expected holiday buyers for December. What they didn't figure was that those frugal buyers WERE the holiday buyers.
 

tzare

Member
Warehouses full of 360 and Kinects just
collecting dust so forum warriors can post big
numbers is Microsoft's strategy, if some people
on here are to be believed.
this is what happens when you overship an then use those numbers on PR stuff. that is what sales gaf taught me every time sony say their numbers. shipped not sold!!
 

nasos_333

Member
Lets just see if the 360 can keep the momentum going into 2012. I personally hope the bubble bursts so they can go back to giving us good first party exclusives and not Kinect shovelware.

Their CES conference 360 portion left a sour taste in my mouth.

I plan to buy all of the below games on xbox 360 in 2012 and dont consider them Kinect shovelware at all, more like AAA games i would never miss

Witcher 2
Mass Effect 3 KInect
Fable JOurney
Ryse
Project Draco
Dust Elysian Tale
Alan Wake American Nightmare
Haunt
Star Wars
Skyrim expansions
Bloodforge
Class 3 MMO
Battleblock Theater
Halo 4
FEZ

I think they are looking at double sales for 2011 with such software

My hope is that they actually use Kinect in all xbox 360 games, even as optional controls or for extra gameplay and interaction
 
Batman charting in the top ten in the biggest month of the year in its third month seems pretty terrific. Hopefully more superhero properties get high effort and budget games after the sales of Arkham City.
 
this is what happens when you overship an then use those numbers on PR stuff. that is what sales gaf taught me every time sony say their numbers. shipped not sold!!

You're terribly bitter about that.

They sold roughly 3.8 million 360s to US consumers alone for the quarter, that's record sales for the platform.
 
So is a 360 price cut in the works?

In 2012, surely. Knowing MS not till fall 2012 though. MS is so fall oriented. They probably dont see the sales the rest of the year as worth bothering with.

What we're missing is Nintendo PR. That always comes, then we combine that with the MS market share percent they always give us to get the PS3 numbers.

I'm wondering of Nintendo considers their recent PR their PR quota for the month.
 
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