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NPD Sales Results for April 2009
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Fuzzy said:
Or a redesign with a price drop. I think it's also at the point now where people maybe figuring there has to be a price drop soon. Too many signs pointing to it, and people aren't going to listen to Sony's PR against it for now. There are probably some people who are just holding off for now to see what becomes of all this.
They can't rely on their PS2 sales much longer, they're going to have to make a move to get the PS3 into homes, to start collecting game royalties and the sort. They have more than enough software to get people to buy it. Price is, and has been clearly barrier now for a long time.
Pretty interesting how basically everything fell of this past month.
Version 3.0
Member
PantherLotus said:
I think it's only gradually become a matter of publishers not believing they can reach specific demographics. Early on, there was every sign that those demographics were there and eager to buy. But publishers were already committed, or were afraid the Wii was a fad, or just didn't want to admit they were wrong, or whatever. And now, after the extremely slow industry reaction has finally turned things around somewhat, that demographic may have already died of starvation.
Shin Johnpv
Member
Leondexter said:
I think the problem is that the average gamer, probably doesn't trust the quality of some of these developers. I think your average gamer is the person who says ohh hey I have an extra 50 - 60 bucks this week I want a new game. They're not the people reading every article and word in all the gaming mags, or following gaming sites. They go to the store look around and buy something. If you were the average gamer with a Wii, you probably don't trust any game with the Ubi logo on it right now. I think developers fucked themselves by putting out half assed crap, or shitty ports and now the "average gamer" probably doesn't trust alot of what they put out. Its a self fulfilling prophecy. Developers say they can't compete with Nintendo and put out crap, average gamer learns to only trust games with the Nintendo logo on them.
Shin Johnpv said:
What the hell? Price is the biggest factor for the PS3 right now. It'll make a huge impact to get it down to a less insane price point. :lol
A price drop will come naturally as a result of cost reductions (PS3 slim), and expectations that increased hardware sales will increase software sales and make them more money, long term.
manueldelalas
Time Traveler
10 year plan... BELIEVEJoJo13 said:
Shin Johnpv
Member
JoJo13 said:
No its not its biggest problem. Dropping the PS3 to 300 isn't going to make them surge past the 360, or even come close to the Wii. It's just like last gen. No matter how many M rated games came out and did well, the GC was the purple kiddy lunch box. The PS3 is the expensive bluray player that has no games. They need to change the image people have of the system.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
No shit.Threi said:
You'd think they'd take topics from here at least.
yoopoo said:
:lol
I mean they just had to get the stacks in their.
Shin Johnpv said:
Dropping the PS3 down to $299 will definitely put them ahead (or roughly the same) relative to the 360 in terms of ongoing sales (assuming Microsoft doesn't counter with a price drop of their own). The last time the price disparity was that close, you saw the PS3 doing better than the 360 for most months, and about the same for others.
This gen isn't applicable to last gen because the GameCube was doing those poor numbers at a $150 price point. At least the PS3 has the price excuse for its situation, which most certainly is a gigantic factor.
If you think price isn't a factor, you're in for a rude awakening when you see the NPDs after the price drop hits.
Shin Johnpv
Member
JoJo13 said:
No I think it'll be the die hard Sony fans that are in for a rude awakening after a price drop. Price Drops never lead to sustained increase, its always a short jump, maybe a month or two difference.
And wasn't the better they did against the 360 so small, that come Christmas with how much the 360 outsold them then it whiped out the minimal difference.
Look the ship for second place in America has sailed, and the 360 was on it. The 360 is almost 8 million units ahead of the PS3. Look for the PS3 just to match that, be on equal footing with the 360 it would have to sell 333k more than the 360 for the next 24 months straight. Which is not going to happen.
So why drop the price and loose even more money, when you're so close to breaking even. To try and fight some war that you have NO HOPE of winning? It's absolutely retarded.
Shin Johnpv said:
explain the 360's price drop then. it keeps getting cheaper, and every year they sell more and more in the US.
the latest price drop wasn't a 'month or two difference'.
the only month they were down was in april when there wasn't a single big release and last year it was GTA4 month.
DJ Crimson
Banned
It's pretty obvious that Microsoft has the money which they are willing to lose if they gain more market share and its working well. As I recall, other branches of Sony haven't done so well the past two years. Less funds for their gaming branch.JoJo13 said:
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Yahoo said:
Stuff like this will only hurt PS3 sales in the short term.
Shin Johnpv
Member
JoJo13 said:
But it all plays into it. Sony doesn't have the cash to loose 140 bucks on every PS3, just to sell 50k more each month in the US.
speculawyer
Member
JoJo13 said:
Yeah temporarily. But as you point out, MS will obviously cut their price if they have to. It is more than price now . . . because honestly, the PS3 is a better bargain right now considering the Blu-Ray, hard-drive, free PSN, and built-in Wi-Fi. The 360 has the first mover advantage & networking effects. It has a bigger better game library and kids want to get the console that their friends have so they can play against them online & share games. The war is over . . . it is just a matter of how far back PS3 is now.
DJ Crimson said:
I'm not sure that's the case. The lowest-priced 360 has dropped in price $100 since its launch in 2005. The lowest-priced PS3 has dropped $100 since its launch in 2006.
It's not like Microsoft has gone on a price-slashing rampage here. In fact, I remember a lot of belly-aching around GAF before last year's price cuts that MS was waiting too long to cut the prices, and when they did, the cuts weren't substantial enough.
Shin Johnpv
Member
Do we have proof of the PS3slim. Cause I could have sworn those leaked pics were proven fake.
Shin Johnpv said:
omg.
you have 1,378 posts to go through, dude. get reading.
[edit] wait, I just realized this wasn't the PS3slim reveal thread. go read that one I have no idea why you posted this question in the NPD thread.
and that one has 1,800+ posts, but it shouldn't take more than a few hundred to answer your question.
speculawyer said:
I'm not sure how much more Microsoft can cut prices. They're already at a very mainstream and competitive price point of $199. I don't think Microsoft will knee-jerk into dropping the price yet again just because the PS3 has overtaken them in monthly sales when they release the new PS3 slim and cut the price.
PS3 is not a better bargain because consumers don't understand, or appreciate, the value that the PS3 represents.
They see that CoD:WaW, Guitar Hero, and Madden can be had at an entry price of $199 rather than $399, and that's all that matters; Blu-Ray, WiFi, free PSN -- those are for the very hardcore that appreciate such features. But for some teenager that has a limited budget, he'll go for the cheaper system and won't really care about those other bullet points.
It has a library that is largely the same as the PS3 (multiplatforms), though the PS3 has a better library of exclusive content (meaning a better overall library, arguably); Microsoft, however, markets their big budget titles better and has more brand recognition for a few key titles.
You're right - The war is over: MS won the US market for HD consoles, world wide they'll likely be in third when all is said and done, and the Wii won't be stopped.
Shin Johnpv said:
Nope. Proven 99% true at this point. Just waiting on the official confirmation and press release.
BishopLamont
Banned
Why would Sony cut the price if they're still losing $40 on each PS3? Isn't profitability their number one priority?
BishopLamont
Banned
If they could drop the price, they would have done it already. If the PS3slim does come soon, I don't see them dropping the price. It's one or the other, not both.Vinci said:
brain_stew
Member
Shin Johnpv said:
Whilst I agree with the general sentiment, the PS3 project is far from breaking even. They've got about $5 billion to go to manage that.
The last time that the PS3 was redesigned with the 40gb and launched with a lower pricepoint the market acted favourably and the PS3 over time did gain some ground, however this was merely a temporary effect and did not change the overall trend which is the PS3 is a 3rd place console.
I don't agree that a $299 PS3 slim is going to save the day, or turn around Sony's fortunes for the console to a significant degree. What it will do is give the console the ability to compete against the Wii and the 360 with a reasonable price point, something which should improve its competitiveness until they drop their price further.
I don't agree that a $299 PS3 slim is going to save the day, or turn around Sony's fortunes for the console to a significant degree. What it will do is give the console the ability to compete against the Wii and the 360 with a reasonable price point, something which should improve its competitiveness until they drop their price further.
Shin Johnpv
Member
brain_stew said:
I meant more on breaking even with each unit sold.
Grampa Simpson
Banned
A $299 PS3 Slim with a hard drive will at least meet the price of a 360 with a hard drive. If they could release a secondary version with 16gig of flash for $250, they may at least come close to competitive pricing with MS. I wish I had some clue as to how much Jaspers cost to put together, but I don't see MS doing more that a $50 price drop right now, if they felt the need to respond to Sony. I'd personally like to see MS consolidate down to 1 SKU and stock all hard drives as add-on packages. It would be good for reducing consumer confusion.Zhuk said:
I don't see Nintendo dropping price in the US until after the Holiday.
Sony really is stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
AdventureRacing
Member
JoJo13 said:
What does that mean? If MS is currently making more on each console sold and the division overall is performing better than Sony's what puts Sony in a better position than MS to cut the price?
Also why is the price of the 360 thrown around as $199. That is the lowest SKU not everyone sold. Even with the latest estimate the average price of a 360 sold is $270 (i think have to look it up).
I'm not saying Sony wont drop the price i think at some point in the not to distant future they will but surely MS is in a better position to do so.
brain_stew said:
We will never know just how much the PS3 lost as the profits made from the PS2 and to a lesser extent the PSP will mask a substantial amount of it.
Bad example. Factor 5 has worked on several Wii projects, their problem was they never could get a game to completion without publisher hiccups or money problems. I agree with your point in the end, though. Western developers look at Nintendo's share of profit off of games and see no room for themselves outside of mass-market games or B-developed "experiments." If nobody steps into the ring, there is no data to show Wii's sales potential one way or another. This year is getting a lot better though, and I expect Wii will have a few big Western developed games revealed or playable at E3.PantherLotus said:
NemesisPrime
Banned
JoJo13 said:
There is no cake.
JoshuaJSlone
Member
So Wii in April did 85K/week. I was curious, if it were to do that for a standard 52-week year with no bumps, how it would stack up.
yoopoo said:
And this is why they really need to do something:
The lower the monthly sales get, the more rumors of prices cuts are spread, the more people decide to hold off.
JoJo13 said:
Ding!
I've grown to appreciate my PS3 as my media hub over my 360, but even after showing all the features, my father and brother in laws each picked up a standalone BD player. They are not "gamers" and I just couldn't break past that perception of the PS3 being a gaming machine.
lowlylowlycook
Member
Karma said:
Maybe, normally the most important thing is snowballing developer support based on the install base. But circumstances have largely neutered that for the HD consoles so second order effects come to the fore.
speculawyer
Member
speculawyer
Member
You're doing it wrong.NemesisPrime said:
The cake is a lie!
Bending_Unit_22
Member
Spiegel said:
Fuzzy said:
Or a revision of their sales estimates.J-Rzez said: