Petrae
Member
Activision seems to be pinning a lot of hope on the Skylanders IP, which they're projecting to eventually become a $1 billion franchise.
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NPD January 2012 Sales Results [Up2: MW3 Sales, (Down ~50% Over BLOPS, But Still #1)]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Activision seems to be pinning a lot of hope on the Skylanders IP, which they're projecting to eventually become a $1 billion franchise.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
As long as Activision only iterate every year they will have a hard time moving on players who have spent hundreds of hours in one of the games. 4 games in the Live top 20 says it all.
What they need to do is follow EAs lead.
Due to EA shutting down their servers you cannot play a FIFA game online that is more than 2 years old. Players therefore have to buy the latest game if they want to continue playing.
What they need to do is follow EAs lead.
Due to EA shutting down their servers you cannot play a FIFA game online that is more than 2 years old. Players therefore have to buy the latest game if they want to continue playing.
A bit too soon to doom and gloom Activision guys lol. They just launched Skylanders which is apparently selling quite well. Blizzard have a WoW expansion, an SC2 expansion and Diablo 3 in this year or next. CoD declined but it's still a sales monster and still number 1. Doesn't look like an awful position to me.
For people predicting the end of the popularity of the FPS genre, what on earth do you think is going to take it's place? The racing genre is dead, outside of Assassin's Creed (and maybe God of War) action games don't do particularly well, WRPG's are the only thing I can think of that even come close to the popularity of the FPS genre (and these also take a lot longer to develop than shooters)
bigtroyjon
Member
The sales of new shooters aren't declining, BF3 has sold 10 million.
Comparing a percentage like that is just awful analysis.
I don't think we're at that point yet. Activision killed GH because after the success of the third game, they started to make too many spin-off games along with main titles. In 2008, there was GH Aerosmith and GH 4, then in 2009 there was four GH games. So by the time GH 6 came out, everyone was good and sick of the series.
The industry has shown time and again, that genres come and go.
Something will come along to move away from FPS... it could even be TPS
But all it takes is one major, break-out title to get the ball rolling.
At the same time, while decline in sales may be seen by some as "OMG gaming is dying", there's still the fact that Modern Warfare 3 sold around 9 million copies in less than a month.
There's also how, while COD games attracted an audience that otherwise wouldn't buy games at all, that same audience has been moving on to other games; as seen by the bigger sales of games like Battlefield, Batman and heck, even Skyrim on consoles. As "hardcore" that many like to see a game like Skyrim been, lets not forget the fact that this same game debuted at at the VGA Awards; so while many like to blame the big sales of COD and Just Dance to "those darn casuals", those same casuals are the ones supporting the "hardcore games" like Skyrim.
Plus what killed Guitar Hero was not the yearly releases, but the multiple games in the same year. At least Call of Duty is still a one game per year affair, with downloadable content between releases. Pretty much like Assassin's Creed, it has become more of a yearly tradition to many.
There's also the recent way of reducing prices and the constant sales, many more people tend to wait for reductions than the year before. Anecdotal evidence, but there's a friend of mine who has bought every Call of Duty game on day one before the hype of MW, back to the PC days; and he's still waiting for a sale to get MW3. On the meantime, he bought a few games on Steam through sales and deals, and other Xbox 360 games like every Assassins' Creed game from II through Revelations because of sales.
Part of that could also be attributed to the the whole less money aspect too. 1 million games games selling at $60 is $60 million, 1 million games at $20 is $20 million. $60 million is obviously more than $20 million, but doesn't change that both games sold 1 million copies. Yet, when it comes to sales and money; $20 million is seen as a lower number obviously even when it's the same amount of units.
If anything ,it would interesting if NPD disclosed not only total money, but total amounts of software sold. Or maybe they do, and I missed it. So would be cool if someone could. Maybe this January, while low; more games were sold than last January. Don't know, just asking if said numbers are available or at least tracked by NPD.
There's also how, while COD games attracted an audience that otherwise wouldn't buy games at all, that same audience has been moving on to other games; as seen by the bigger sales of games like Battlefield, Batman and heck, even Skyrim on consoles. As "hardcore" that many like to see a game like Skyrim been, lets not forget the fact that this same game debuted at at the VGA Awards; so while many like to blame the big sales of COD and Just Dance to "those darn casuals", those same casuals are the ones supporting the "hardcore games" like Skyrim.
Plus what killed Guitar Hero was not the yearly releases, but the multiple games in the same year. At least Call of Duty is still a one game per year affair, with downloadable content between releases. Pretty much like Assassin's Creed, it has become more of a yearly tradition to many.
There's also the recent way of reducing prices and the constant sales, many more people tend to wait for reductions than the year before. Anecdotal evidence, but there's a friend of mine who has bought every Call of Duty game on day one before the hype of MW, back to the PC days; and he's still waiting for a sale to get MW3. On the meantime, he bought a few games on Steam through sales and deals, and other Xbox 360 games like every Assassins' Creed game from II through Revelations because of sales.
Part of that could also be attributed to the the whole less money aspect too. 1 million games games selling at $60 is $60 million, 1 million games at $20 is $20 million. $60 million is obviously more than $20 million, but doesn't change that both games sold 1 million copies. Yet, when it comes to sales and money; $20 million is seen as a lower number obviously even when it's the same amount of units.
If anything ,it would interesting if NPD disclosed not only total money, but total amounts of software sold. Or maybe they do, and I missed it. So would be cool if someone could. Maybe this January, while low; more games were sold than last January. Don't know, just asking if said numbers are available or at least tracked by NPD.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
That looks like it will be even more short lived than COD and GH. Keeping the attention of the 4-10 year old demographic is notoriously hard, few companies have succeeded and there is no single magic formula to make it happen.
Skylanders looks like a massive cash in type game where they are trying to nickel and dime parents into buying 30 different $10 toys and a $60 game.
Honestly, I can see parents shelling out the first time and maybe even the second time, but no way are they going to buy third fourth and fifth iterations of the same game along with 30 different toy characters. Activision are trying to tap into the "gotta catch em all!" market, but the key about Pokémon is that parents buy one game for the kid and then the kid catches the different Pokémon for free. Two years later another $40 will have 100 more hours of entertainment. Skylanders has none of that, it looks like a serious investment for parents that kids will forget about in a couple of months.
I seriously fear for the future of Activision if they are pinning the future of the company on the 4-10 year olds demographic with a cash in game that parents are going to hate.
Petrae
Member
NPD does track both unit sales and dollar sales in their reports.
Oh, good to know. Would be cool if some light was shed into that. Because maybe, just maybe
p) total money/value could be down, but games still selling in great amounts.BishopLamont
Banned
Decline of COD is partially linked to the drop in console sales, not just franchise stagnation. Nextgen COD will still be a beast, similiar to how GTA series is reining supreme.
OG_Original Gamer
Member
Shooters aren't going any where, as long as we have advancents we'll have shooters. Physics will make sure of that. Also, BF3 is obviously eating up some of the market space once dominated by COD.
a Master Ninja
Member
This week the price of the individual figures WENT UP across all US retailers, from $8 to $9.
Hopefully the folks who really care will see this.
I have been told by NPD that they follow the National Retail Federation calendar. So January 2013 will be a 5-week month.
I believe this is what you see in the 2011-2013 calendar on this page:
http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=Pages&sp_id=391
Just so we all know. That's all.
Edit: Column up tomorrow, I hope.
I have been told by NPD that they follow the National Retail Federation calendar. So January 2013 will be a 5-week month.
I believe this is what you see in the 2011-2013 calendar on this page:
http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=Pages&sp_id=391
Just so we all know. That's all.
Edit: Column up tomorrow, I hope.
If it's old/known news sorry.
We have detailed estimated datas coming from an anlyse firm regarding digital 3DS US sales >
More here > http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/82946/Zelda_Tops_3DS_Downloadable_Titles_in_2011.php
We have detailed estimated datas coming from an anlyse firm regarding digital 3DS US sales >
More here > http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/82946/Zelda_Tops_3DS_Downloadable_Titles_in_2011.php
zomgbbqftw
Banned
FADE LLC is part of CHARTZZZZ...
CadetMahoney
Member
bigtroyjon
Member
For everyone who thinks the economy has something to do with last month's sales
Not a MW title.
Column up Wednesday now. Sorry.
I don't have public hardware numbers to give, sorry. My column doesn't address it directly, but I think there are some clues.
Except for the FPS genre. Not only has the FPS genre been popular for a long time, its popularity has only grown.
Anybody with any sense knew from the start it was the better of the two
plagiarize
Banned
i'm not surprised to see COD games losing their tails. it only makes sense. the mp game design makes it very unappealing to join in later on. as more people know about the franchise, the more front loaded they are going to become.
at this point, a few months late, i think people who weren't able to pick up MW3 yet but wanted to start to think 'I may as well just keep playing Blops and wait for this years instead'.
i don't like the persistant levelling stuff being shoved into every online game these days, so i am a bit biased against it, but it's only logical that it leads to the games becoming more and more front loaded.
for those people that can't be there in the first month or two... well, they're not going to be there when and if the game drops in price later on, because people are starting to understand that coming to the COD party late is not a fun experience. on one hand it's good to sell to more people at $60, and it maens you're more likely to sell more DLC, but on the other hand... sustained earnings year round are nice.
at this point, a few months late, i think people who weren't able to pick up MW3 yet but wanted to start to think 'I may as well just keep playing Blops and wait for this years instead'.
i don't like the persistant levelling stuff being shoved into every online game these days, so i am a bit biased against it, but it's only logical that it leads to the games becoming more and more front loaded.
for those people that can't be there in the first month or two... well, they're not going to be there when and if the game drops in price later on, because people are starting to understand that coming to the COD party late is not a fun experience. on one hand it's good to sell to more people at $60, and it maens you're more likely to sell more DLC, but on the other hand... sustained earnings year round are nice.
I hate the BLOPS campaign. Call of Duty 3 is still my favourite CoD single-player experience. But that was made by Treyarch also, so I guess it's a bit of a moot point as far as who is the better CoD developer.
Regarding on-line, BLOPS comes out a mile ahead of everything else Call of Duty-related (in my opinion). I love the game and have spent countless hours on it. Wii version FTW, by the way. It fixes everything that is wrong with the HD versions and adds the greatest ever FPS control system to boot. I can seriously see myself still playing it long after next gen is out. (Let's hope Nintendo change their minds on allowing upscaling of Wii games on Wii U though, eh?)
Thanks. Last I saw, it was slated for noon U.S. Eastern Time.
I know we're not very comfortable with them, but the latest Rentrak sales charts are out:
Rentrak Video Game Sales Chart, 29 January 2012 - 4 February 2012
Source: http://rentrak.com/section/corporat...op_10_charts.html?ga=videogame#videogame-head
Historical data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtXhc02VTSWzdEpqZ24teUl0ZzFwYmZuSlF4dEN0Qnc
Rentrak Video Game Sales Chart, 29 January 2012 - 4 February 2012
- PS3 - Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Square Enix)
- X360 - Final Fantasy XIII-2 (Square Enix)
- X360 - SoulCalibur V (Bandai)
- PS3 - SoulCalibur V (Bandai)
- WII - Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)
- X360 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision)
- WII - Zumba Fitness (Majesco)
- 3DS - Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo)
- X360 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)
- X360 - NBA 2K12 (2K Games)
Source: http://rentrak.com/section/corporat...op_10_charts.html?ga=videogame#videogame-head
Historical data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtXhc02VTSWzdEpqZ24teUl0ZzFwYmZuSlF4dEN0Qnc
RukusProvider
Banned
Looking forward to the day when NPD just gives up retail spending figures and leavees it at that.
Column is up, in case anyone is still interested.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ree_theories_behind_Januarys_sales_downer.php
The hardware ASPs this past month: Xbox 360 = $299, PS3 = $272, Wii = $147, and NDS+3DS = $166. (Yes, I asked for separate for the two handhelds. I work with what I have.)
If we make the estimate that the NDS was about 40% of the sales of the 3DS (look at November and December for why this isn't unreasonable), use historical values for other ASPs, then I would come up with these estimates based on these ASPs and my own intuition: PS3 = 180-200K, Wii = 140-160K, NDS under 100K, and 3DS around the 175K that we discussed here. Based on what we know about the previous months, I'm guessing PSP and PS2 were basically inconsequential, but I can't prove that on the public data, of course.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ree_theories_behind_Januarys_sales_downer.php
The hardware ASPs this past month: Xbox 360 = $299, PS3 = $272, Wii = $147, and NDS+3DS = $166. (Yes, I asked for separate for the two handhelds. I work with what I have.)
If we make the estimate that the NDS was about 40% of the sales of the 3DS (look at November and December for why this isn't unreasonable), use historical values for other ASPs, then I would come up with these estimates based on these ASPs and my own intuition: PS3 = 180-200K, Wii = 140-160K, NDS under 100K, and 3DS around the 175K that we discussed here. Based on what we know about the previous months, I'm guessing PSP and PS2 were basically inconsequential, but I can't prove that on the public data, of course.
Psychotext
Member
2008 was brainsick...
I think will be Final Fantasy XIII-2.
pieatorium
Member
More resonable level is still over 1.5 times the height of last gen which is pretty crazy imo.
Bound to be a decent brawl.
Lagspike_exe
Member
Skylander can become a big franchise if handled well. It has a ton of potential and Activision successfuly exploited their big IPs in the past so there's no reason to expect otherwise with Skylanders. It has a unique concept and it seems that toys are selling extremely well, so I think it has a bright future. I doubt it will do Call of Duty numbers but it can become really big.
Rush2thestart
Member
Did 3DS really do 175k? Thats a little alarming.
No, it's not.
bigtroyjon
Member
It wasn't just the Wii. This is worldwide but the Americas have followed the general trend.
Nintendo handheld(GBA, DS, 3DS) hardware, software by year: (shipments, in millions)
2004- 19.16, 90.98
2005- 20.11, 104.33
2006- 25.78, 151.03
2007- 28.77, 189.99
2008- 31.25, 203.19
2009- 28.94, 154.94
2010- 19.46, 129.20
2011- 21.50, 110.66
Despite the hardware uptick with the 3DS last year, software still dropped by a good amount.
With population growth and inflation it's not really that crazy.
Still, that graph is very interesting. The succes of the Wii, Call of Duty and Guitar Hero hitting around the same time really made for some golden years. It's back to normalcy.