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[Aquamarine]

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[Louis Cyphre]

USA physical sales of Detroit: Become Human are underperforming against Heavy Rain, but outperforming against Beyond: Two Souls.

Given that digital sales of Detroit: Become Human are larger than any of the PS3 iterations, I would say it's a decent success.

It's no God of War, but Quantic Dream has never reached large physical sell-through.

And Sony knows this which is why it's good to see that they are not putting undo pressure on everything to be a big hit (an example would be Square Enix and Sleeping Dogs).

 

[Humdinger]

USA physical sales of Detroit: Become Human are underperforming against Heavy Rain, but outperforming against Beyond: Two Souls.

Given that digital sales of Detroit: Become Human are larger than any of the PS3 iterations, I would say it's a decent success.

It's no God of War, but Quantic Dream has never reached large physical sell-through.

Another thing to consider is that Detroit's budget was much larger than their previous games, so Detroit would have to sell a lot more to break even. My sense, based on nothing other than what I read, is that Detroit has been financially successful for Quantic Dream, but it didn't generate huge profits. Certainly enough to keep them going and to justify another game, though.

p.s. Just read in GI biz that it's up to 1.5 million (player count).
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-08-03-over-1-5-million-have-played-detroit-become-human

 

[DeepEnigma]

PS4 Pro Stock Running Low in the United States

If you’re in the market for a PlayStation 4 Pro this summer, you may struggle to track one down in the United States right now. While consoles can be found, the system is definitely in short supply, with many online anecdotes indicating that stock is running dry around the country. We had a quick look online, and couldn’t find a console at Amazon, Walmart, or Best Buy – although some stores are still taking pre-orders for the limited edition Spider-Man unit.

 

[michaelius]

I wonder if people started preparing for Spider Man release or is it some kind of God of War after effect.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I wonder if people started preparing for Spider Man release or is it some kind of God of War after effect.

Probably a combination of the two.

 

[Azurro]

PS4 Pro outsold Xbox One X this month by more than 30K. It's an interesting phenomenon to see PS4 Pro having an overall stronger presence in the USA market, even if it appears to be less marketed and weaker.

That's interesting, thanks for the info! A follow up question, do you know how much of the monthly sales does the XBX and PS4 Pro represent? I was hoping when the Pro was released that it was going to be a big chunk of it, but IIRC at least in the japanese weekly sales, it's never more than ~25% or so.

 

[hecatomb]

Strange to see Mario Tennis Aces at the top.

Theres no way Mario Tennis outsold Overwatch.

 

[prinz_valium]

October 2016 was the last time Xbox One won a month. December 2017 was the last time Xbox One beat PS4.

Generally speaking Xbox is more competitive in the second half of the year and during the holiday months.
Do you think Ps4 will keep its momentum for the year or will Switch and/or Xbox One have a shot at taking a few months in H2?

 

[Humdinger]

That's interesting, thanks for the info! A follow up question, do you know how much of the monthly sales does the XBX and PS4 Pro represent? I was hoping when the Pro was released that it was going to be a big chunk of it, but IIRC at least in the japanese weekly sales, it's never more than ~25% or so.

I know you addressed Aqua, but I'll give my two cents (I'm in no way an insider). Sony announced early on that 1 out of every 5 PS4s they sold were Pros. So that's 20%. It was early in the Pro's lifecycle, so that may have changed, but it's the only actual number I'm aware of. I also heard from insiders that Xbox X was (again, early on) selling better than the Pro was, that it composed a larger fraction of total Xbox One sales than the 20% figure for the Pro. So take that fwiw. Things could have changed since then, I have no idea.

 

[iconmaster]

Theres no way Mario Tennis outsold Overwatch.

Spoiler

 

[hecatomb]

I'm guessing the thread is just about monthly sells. Not the whole sells of the game, I mean even GTV made around $95,000,000.

 

[iconmaster]

I'm guessing the thread is just about monthly sells. Not the whole sells of the game, I mean even GTV made around $95,000,000.

Oh… yeah, maybe I need a note in the OP about what NPD is. It’s a group that tracks game sales in North America and releases a report roughly every month. Some sales channels aren’t covered.

The chart is only for June in North America.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Oh… yeah, maybe I need a note in the OP about what NPD is. It’s a group that tracks game sales in North America and releases a report roughly every month. Some sales channels aren’t covered.

The chart is only for June in North America.

Also note it is revenue based and not total unit sales.

 

[Aquamarine]

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[hecatomb]

Have to remember also games that were cancelled like Dead island 2, Hellraid, Deepdown, also didnt help anything. Then games that are taking forever to come out like, last of us 2, kingdom hearts 3, Beyond good and evil 2, Res evil 2 remake, and Days gone got pushed back. At least Dragon quest 11 is coming out.

 

[EventHorizon]

It seems like arbitrary mental gymnastics when -- in reality -- they are competing with one another directly. When one console "sidesteps" it often leads to it being crushed, but on rare occasions it can surge ahead of the competition and become very successful. It doesn't make it any more or less of a console.

People acted like the underpowered Wii was anything new. Heck, that move wasn't even new for Nintendo: both the NES and Game Boy were very underpowered compared to the competition. Were the TurboGrafix-16 and the Genesis the only two "directly competing" consoles in the late 80s 'cause the NES don't count 'cause Nintendo was still stuck in 8-bit? Was the Game Boy not "directly competing" with the Game Gear, Lynx, and Neo Geo Pocket (r.i.p.) because it had a monochrome screen instead of a color one?

This sounds like a hoity-toity justification for 2008-era "filthy Wii-playing casuals" nonsense.

The point is that Wii sales did not take away from Xbox or PlayStation sales. Either the Wii sale was to someone who would never buy an Xbox or PlayStation(like grandma looking for some exercise), someone looking specifically to Play Nintendo games, or someone who bought the Wii as a second console. Nintendo's strategy was to go after a different market, so it is puzzling when I hear push back for pointing out the fact that they were successful at it.

PlayStation and Xbox have very similar games. In fact as far as third parties go they pretty much share the exact same games, and those third party games are their biggest sellers. If a mainstream person just wants to play Madden or Call of Duty, which is a whole lot of people, then they are choosing between a PlayStation and Xbox console. Meanwhile Nintendo consoles are primarily bought to play Nintendo exclusive games. Third party support is very lacking. Additionally third party games on the console are still typically exclusive to Nintendo, and are minor sellers compared to Nintendo's own games(with some exceptions). There is simply very little overlap between the games offered between Nintendo and PlayStation/Microsoft consoles. That is the definition of a seperate market.

The exact same argument applies to web based games versus console games. Yes both web games and console games are video games, but they are targeted towards entirely different markets. Just like with Nintendo, web games are not competing with PlayStation and Xbox. All of this is important because anything beyond the most general analysis that tried to lump every possible video game together would be inherently flawed. A great example of this was all the doom predictions for the video game industry because the Wii U was tanking. The reality was that whether the Wii U succeeded or failed, it meant absolutely nothing for PlayStation and Xbox sales.