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NPD Sales Results for May 2015

Welfare

Welfare

Member
ZhugeEX said:
NO NO NO.

They mean all hardware sales, not just gen 8.

Learn to read.

The total number of hardware units sold will be over 4 million across PS4/PS3//PSV/One/360/Wii/WiU/3DS & others between January and May 2015.
Click to expand...

Calm down Kamiya. :p
 
D

damisa

Member
Should have read more carefully. Assuming stable means exactly the same.

XB1+PS4+Wiiu first 5 months last year
2521500
XB1+PS4+Wiiu first 4 months this year + 139K for XB1
2318200

Means PS4 + Wiiu = 203K
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
Sakura said:
Splatoon 5th. But I wonder what that actually means in sales numbers. Can't imagine the games it beat are still selling high numbers every month.



The USA has about 2.5 times the population of Japan. The Wii U has sold 2.3 million units in Japan. If the Wii U in the US had equal sales per capita as Japan, that would mean it would be at 5.75 million units in the USA, which I doubt it has. And you are saying the Wii U is a lot healthier in the US than Japan, not even just equal? I don't buy that.
Click to expand...

I'm not only referring to hardware sales. I said NA was "by far" the healthiest market, which was a bit of a stretch admittedly but it's still Wii U's strongest region.

My whole point to the poster I was responding to is that Japan is not a stronger market for Nintendo's console than NA. It's only been in the past two weeks that Wii U has shown any signs of life in that country.
 
M

mclem

Member
jayu26 said:
Okay people stop. Slaptoon is only on Wii U and only two days of sales counted.
Click to expand...

9iL0Nx2.jpg
Click to expand...
.
 
C

CosmicQueso

Member
MrNyarlathotep said:
If true, this means that consoles are no longer mass market gaming devices, they're luxury goods that people don't buy for themselves any longer but get gifted at holidays.
It also means they're not competing for general entertainment product dollars anymore, they're competing with whatever shows up on "Hot gifts for Him" lists annually.
Click to expand...

Impossible to have a real conversation at this point in the NPD thread life... but I'd agree with the lean of what you're saying.

I just wouldn't classify it as necessarily a bad thing.

HW prices are higher now than in the past. And while all other forms of entertainment are getting less expensive, Console videogames are getting more expensive.

The high purchase frequency gaming enthusiast is a highly profitable customer. The mass market consumer... not as much.

It would be easy for the 1st parties to drop the old boxes to $99 SRP, throw a $50 cut each on the new boxes, drop the prices of games by $10, and appeal to far more people.

But the math says that the uptick is sales from these customers would no longer offset the fall in average sales per high end customer that would be incurred due to the lower prices. At least it's a theory.

In general, there needs to be a reset of expectations. Comparing Consoles today to last generation isn't providing much insight anymore. A segment of the market is gone to iPhones or League of Legends or free to play browser stuff or whatever.

So the question isn't "is the console market growing" versus last gen. Because no, of course it isn't. The question should become "is the market showing positive or negative momentum from where it's been recently. Tougher analysis to do.

Anyways, you're right though. Console gaming is becoming more niche with fewer, but more profitable, customers.
 
M

Man-is-Obsolete

Member
Captain Smoker said:
Just to add something to the "Nintendo underperforming" discussion.

SCE just had their worst hardware year since 1997.



Worldwide hardware shipments (doesn't include Game & Watch):



Only consoles:
Click to expand...

Kysen said:
Each month i see NPD this looks less and less likely. With Nintendo out of the picture I can see 100mil being the ceiling for both combined.
Click to expand...

Price drop is way over due and MS's race to the bottom has stifled the market as people wait for Sony's reaction. MS probably expected those moves to really propel them in the west, and sure it helped them not to completely tailspin out of the race. However, I think more people are instead just sitting on their hands thinking Sony will surely follow suit, and then they will make their decision.
 
M

Magic Mushroom

Member
Obliterator said:
I actually think its starting to impact overall console market share
Click to expand...

It could be, though sales will no doubt pick up when the library grows (next-gen only Rockstar etc.) and prices drop. May is a slow month and I can see quite a few people interested in a PS4 wait for Arkham. Next month will tell more.
 
G

Griss

Member
TheGreatMightyPoo said:
Or one's a pick-up-and-play multiplayer online shooter and one's a realtime strategy game.
Click to expand...

Fire Emblem was a series in the strategy genre by the same dev house as Steam that was dying on its feet, they put a fresh lick of paint on it and suddenly it was reaching an expanded audience. I don't know, I think there's something to it, but there's no way I can prove or disprove it.
 
Z

ZhugeEX

Banned
CosmicQueso said:
Impossible to have a real conversation at this point in the NPD thread life... but I'd agree with the lean of what you're saying.

I just wouldn't classify it as necessarily a bad thing.

HW prices are higher now than in the past. And while all other forms of entertainment are getting less expensive, Console videogames are getting more expensive.

The high purchase frequency gaming enthusiast is a highly profitable customer. The mass market consumer... not as much.

It would be easy for the 1st parties to drop the old boxes to $99 SRP, throw a $50 cut each on the new boxes, drop the prices of games by $10, and appeal to far more people.

But the math says that the uptick is sales from these customers would no longer offset the fall in average sales per high end customer that would be incurred due to the lower prices. At least it's a theory.

In general, there needs to be a reset of expectations. Comparing Consoles today to last generation isn't providing much insight anymore. A segment of the market is gone to iPhones or League of Legends or free to play browser stuff or whatever.

So the question isn't "is the console market growing" versus last gen. Because no, of course it isn't. The question should become "is the market showing positive or negative momentum from where it's been recently. Tougher analysis to do.

Anyways, you're right though. Console gaming is becoming more niche with fewer, but more profitable, customers.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

The console market, in my opinion at least isn't showing any signs of long term stability and whilst right now it seems to be doing somewhat ok, I don't see sales increasing YOY from after 2016 and onwards. (To clarify i'm just talking about PS4/X1 and Wii U, not including any new entrant).

With the lower install base that means that number of software titles being released will continue declining, I do see AAA games selling more on average though to keep the big players in business but overall I see hardware and software revenue decreasing.
 
K

Kathian

Banned
CosmicQueso said:
Anyways, you're right though. Console gaming is becoming more niche with fewer, but more profitable, customers.
Click to expand...

Are those high profit customers getting more profitable than before or is it just the industry can survive the opportunity loss of mass market due to core sales who have always been willing to spend this.
 
T

TreasureHunterG

Banned
Splatoon is charting everywhere. It was a wise decision from Nintendo to expand their IPs and invest into new genres, something Nintendo fans were hungry for, as much as they try to deny.
 
E

-Eddman-

Member
Hopefully good sales of Splatoon combined with the fact that a lot of people still think this is their first new IP since Pikmin will encourage Nintendo to spend money on marketing for new franchises. Good marketing works, even if Japan thinks a good game is enough to move consoles and create a community.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
It's the drops with Sony having a BIG jump all over those multiplats (which the One used to have a good hand in during many previous months) that get my interest.
 
P

Poimandres

Member
Looks like Splatoon is doing quite well, but without numbers the chart placement doesn't mean much. I wanna see the receipts!

Still, I'm happy for Nintendo and it's safe to say the game has performed better than I thought it would. Which is a great thing... it means more new IP's and the online population should stay healthy for some time to come!
 
Å

Ōkami

Member
Xbox One's YTD should be somewhere around 990k right?

Also, 3DS should be around 70k given that Nintendo PR earlier today, right?
 
Sakura

Sakura

Member
OrbitalBeard said:
I'm not only referring to hardware sales. I said NA was "by far" the healthiest market, which was a bit of a stretch admittedly but it's still Wii U's strongest region.
Click to expand...

Then what else are you referring to? I haven't seen anything to suggest the software attach rate is better in NA than in Japan.
I'm fairly confident in saying the Wii U is at the very least as healthy in Japan as the US, if not healthier.
In Wii U terms of course.
 
O

Obliterator

Member
Magic Mushroom said:
It could be, though sales will no doubt pick up when the library grows (next-gen only Rockstar etc.) and prices drop. May is a slow month and I can see quite a few people interested in a PS4 wait for Arkham. Next month will tell more.
Click to expand...

No doubt and in general the console space is still pretty healthy by no means "doomed" but people often attribute the decline to Mobile, and while that is a factor I think PC is a growing reason as well. All you have to do is look at the number of people playing DOTA, LoL, CS, etc daily to see its a massive market.

I also think there's a reason MS is talking a lot about PC gaming lately. I think they also see its growth
 
T

Ty4on

Member
Ōkami;167428077 said:
Also, 3DS should be around 70k given that Nintendo PR earlier today, right?
Click to expand...

For Nintendo's sake hopefully more than that. So far the 3DS' worst month was 91k.

Edit: Wow, what a slow month. You being able to read my slow edit says it all...
 
Sakura

Sakura

Member
OrbitalBeard said:
My whole point to the poster I was responding to is that Japan is not a stronger market for Nintendo's console than NA. It's only been in the past two weeks that Wii U has shown any signs of life in that country.
Click to expand...

Er, ok. But it's not like the Wii U has been showing signs of life in NA, so I don't see how that poster is wrong.
Wii U year to date sales in Japan Jan-May were 210k.
If the USA were seeing equivalent sales per capita as Japan, that would be 525k, or just over an average of 100k per month, which it most certainly has not been doing. So I don't think saying the Wii U is stronger in Japan is incorrect.
 
Z

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Doctor Professional said:
No it's not. Population wise is the only reason Wii u sometimes is higher HW sales wise, the equality has Japan ahead, and Software is atrocious in NA/.

Also your first sentence is completely dumb because I said it was doing well in japan so how can you make a statement of "Some people can't accept the fact?" Especially since not only I said it did well in a country outside this one, but also you have no numbers/
Click to expand...

Hm? Software sales have actually been half-decent (relatively) for Wii U titles since Mario Kart 8. Smash Wii U = outsold all SKUs except the main 3 CoD SKUs last December (over 1M+ for the year), Hyrule Warriors did very well for a Warriors title (debuted at like 190K iirc), Toad had a 250K debut (yeh this was crazy), and Mario Party 10 did about 290K just in March. Wii U software sales in the US is far more alive than it is in Japan imo...
 
C

CosmicQueso

Member
Kathian said:
Are those high profit customers getting more profitable than before
Click to expand...

Yes. They are buying ungodly amounts of DLC, Digital and Consumables. Many on GAF take it as a point of pride that they wait for GOTY editions or never buy DLC. They are the miniscule minority of the enthusiast customer base.

Kathian said:
or is it just the industry can survive the opportunity loss of mass market due to core sales who have always been willing to spend this.
Click to expand...

Lot of layers in this question.

Does the industry even want to survive with Consoles as they are in their current state? Don't think the answer to that is definitively yes.

Secondly, what industry is left to survive? ATVI, EA, WB, Take 2, Ubi. The first parties. Basically, that's it, right? Everyone else is gone or leaving (Deep Silver and Nordic could get bigger). But each has ambitions in Mobile, PC F2P and other expansions of opportunity.

Console development as we know it today is very high risk, high commitment of capital, with no guarantee of return, and you don't even know what product you really have until the day it launches.

The LAST business a smart person would open now is a AAA type development studio. Throw a big bonfire and burn the money for warmth instead. Higher chance of a positive outcome.

My take is that those left are trying to figure out what's next. Is it VR, is it F2P in China, is it Mobile, is it Set top streaming, is it PC in the living room? What it isn't in the long-term for the mass market, however, is a dedicated gaming box which sits under the TV.

That enthusiast market will remain profitable for some company or two for a few decades more potentially. But the idea that in 30 years a dedicated gaming device will even be technologically required to play videogames is a bit ludicrous.

What do you think?
 
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