Thunder Monkey
Banned
I'm honestly just shocked that they barely increased at all from November.
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NPD December 2011 Sales Results [Up5: Star Wars: The Old Republic Sales]
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
I'm honestly just shocked that they barely increased at all from November.
outunderthestars
Banned
ThisWreckage
Banned
They were fucking foolish for not dropping it to 199 during their last price drop.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
The Dreamcast had two screen living room gaming.
And the PS2 also had a camera and so will Loop!
THE CONNECTIONS HAVE SEALED THEIR FATE!
Uno Venova
Banned
It's doing well worldwide isn't it? I don't think they'll rush to drop to two bucks.
sixteen-bit
Member
Nice to see Gears 3 break the top 10 for the year. I really enjoy it.
outunderthestars
Banned
I agree that the overall market has shrunk, and I really doubt it is going to return to ps2/xbox/gc era size again...
Sarcasm?
Current market is stronger than the PS2/Xbox/GC market ever was.
It's mostly the decline of the Wii from a record smasher to a more normal sales level that is declining the market.
Syphon Filter
Member
still wont do much especially with a price cut very close from Microsoft. NA just doesn't want ps3 like that.
Xenon
Member
Avatars. Say you will about what MS did to Rare, but putting them in charge of Avatars and Kinect Sports was the most marketable use of their talents. They were able to add more detail to avatars with HD without losing the cartoon charm of Miis. Combining them with the dash board and Live made everything look more accessible.
Kinect became Wii HD while Move ended up a gamer's accessory.
pharmboy044
Member
I distinctly remember at E3 Microsoft GUARANTEEING that they would be the number 1 selling console worldwide in 2011.
I'm guessing that did not happen as I don't see Major Nelson shouting it from the mountain tops.
I'm guessing that did not happen as I don't see Major Nelson shouting it from the mountain tops.
A Twisty Fluken
Member
I can't explain why it was considered a noteworthy/sharable stat, but it's easy to explain, MS released a new xbox/bluetooth headset at a high price in November.
All consoles go through a natural growth and decline cycle as they reach market saturation, their capabilities are tapped-out and releases become increasingly dominated by sequels. Once fresh hardware is released, customers jump back in as they're enticed by newer, better titles which can't be duplicated on the current generation's hardware - or smartphones for that matter.
Four_Chamber
Member
Ouch, PS3 sales worse this year despite a price cut. The software situation looks pretty pathetic too when you look at it from Sony's perspective.
Overall console sales are down but the Xbox had a much lower decline than the PS3 and Wii. Also, its funny that three Kinect titles were in the top 10. GAF's misreading of the tea leaves re: Kinect continues to ring true. Funny that JD3 outsold Dance Central 2 too though.
Anyway, I hope this generation goes on a bit longer. My backlog is too big right now and I'd like some time to get through it.
Overall console sales are down but the Xbox had a much lower decline than the PS3 and Wii. Also, its funny that three Kinect titles were in the top 10. GAF's misreading of the tea leaves re: Kinect continues to ring true. Funny that JD3 outsold Dance Central 2 too though.
Anyway, I hope this generation goes on a bit longer. My backlog is too big right now and I'd like some time to get through it.
I'm guessing you were lucky enough to not watch their CES conference where they declared they were number 1 for the year?
(which looks like it may have taken some over shipping to achieve, but we can't really know until we find out how many they ship this current quarter)
mugurumakensei
Member
only third party publisher with two individual skus*
walking fiend
Member
December lower than November must be a new phenomenon
bigtroyjon
Member
Thanks! I think they mentioned it just because it was one of the few areas that actually had growth.
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
THIS.
I don't buy the "Well, throw something new at them and they'll buy it" argument. The whole industry is fragmented right now because of smartphone gaming/tablets and the bad economy is making things worse.
Zoramon089
Banned
Except that isn't the case. As other people have said it's only down because this console cycle is coming to an end and the Wii isn't selling insane amounts...It's still a large market than it was last gen so all this talk about the traditional game industry dying is rubbish. People need to understand correlation =/= causation. Smartphones and tablets aren't eating into the traditional games market anymore than PCs ever were or are
open_mouth_
insert_foot_
MS needs to target June 2013 for their next console. Give the 360 + Kinect this year with a reduced price and maybe a smaller form factor to get out to an even wider market. Keep milking it to the last drop and tease the next system.
speculawyer
Member
I wonder if digital downloads are helping make up for these lower retail numbers.
So the only thing that counts is market share? I would think that it would be ok to sell less given a higher selling price. It would be stupid of Sony to cut margins just to get in a race for total units sold.
Yes, I just remember the headlines "Dozens of studios close as PS2 hits 100 million!"
See, Nintendo, this is what happens when you don't release anything of value for like 10 months.
Nintendo eventually fell to the same problem that third parties ran into on Wii. Failing to release worthwhile games for a long time causes core gamers, WHO WILL KEEP PLAYING GAMES WHETHER OR NOT YOU PUT THEM OUT, to abandon the platform for the places where the games are. Then when you DO release a great game, the audience has moved on and there's no one left to sell to.
This is why, if you have games that you can release and a large hole in the schedule, even if they're only traditionally for a niche audience, you need to release those games. There were essentially no Nintendo games of interest to the Nintendo core for A YEAR. Between Donkey Kong Returns and Skyward Sword, LITERALLY a year passed (in NA, at least.) November 21 to November 20. MAYBE you could count the Kirby game, but that only gives you an eleven month drought instead of a year. Meanwhile, they were sitting on games like Xenoblade, Last Story, or even things like Disaster or Regenleiv. Sure, it's likely none of those games set the world on fire, but you need something to keep gamers paying attention to your platform. Mindshare is 100% gone at this point, and it's poisoning the well for the WiiU.
Nintendo eventually fell to the same problem that third parties ran into on Wii. Failing to release worthwhile games for a long time causes core gamers, WHO WILL KEEP PLAYING GAMES WHETHER OR NOT YOU PUT THEM OUT, to abandon the platform for the places where the games are. Then when you DO release a great game, the audience has moved on and there's no one left to sell to.
This is why, if you have games that you can release and a large hole in the schedule, even if they're only traditionally for a niche audience, you need to release those games. There were essentially no Nintendo games of interest to the Nintendo core for A YEAR. Between Donkey Kong Returns and Skyward Sword, LITERALLY a year passed (in NA, at least.) November 21 to November 20. MAYBE you could count the Kirby game, but that only gives you an eleven month drought instead of a year. Meanwhile, they were sitting on games like Xenoblade, Last Story, or even things like Disaster or Regenleiv. Sure, it's likely none of those games set the world on fire, but you need something to keep gamers paying attention to your platform. Mindshare is 100% gone at this point, and it's poisoning the well for the WiiU.
Oh, wow. Bow down (and do a dance).
Can't explain that. I'm merely saying as far as revenue goes, the North American market is stronger now than it was then.
May have some to do with the money being less spread than it was in the past. The top games are certainly selling more than they were in 2005.
TheNatural
My Member!
They can't do it alone, that's the problem. They're supporting two platforms, so when they focus on pumping the 3DS up, that's stuff that doesn't go for the console, and vice versa.
I think this year it is clear that people are waiting for price drops for the consoles. Black Friday deals and sales this year are abnormal in comparison to others it seems, and most demand was burnt off in November instead of December which didn't see any rise in sales.
Very weird December. Clearly the exceptions are the handhelds which stayed relatively the same price from November to December.
Very weird December. Clearly the exceptions are the handhelds which stayed relatively the same price from November to December.
velvet_nitemare
Member
Bad PS3 numbers there. Understand why Wii fell off, no excuse for the triple.
mugurumakensei
Member
Revenue merely acts as fluff to sell to investors. Revenue means nothing if you're not taking in more than you put out.
The Faceless Master
Member
price was too high... everyone grabbed a console on black friday!
that goes for all 3 consoles.
I haven't bought anything in a while. I guess I'm not alone. We're at the weird part of a gen where almost no one is willing to try a radically new direction, yet there's a huge portfolio of already released games at budget prices. No matter what "safe" game devs make, there's 10 others in the same genre for $20 or $15 at Gamestop. This is why we need a new gen.
If Sony ships less than 7.5 million PS3s the holiday quarter then Microsoft will have been the #1 console world wide in 2011. Sony has not released numbers yet.
Except that didn't really help them in Europe and Japan either.
And I mean Epic Mickey would also be considered a major game, and I'm sure they expected Wii Play Motion to do better.
pieatorium
Member
Sega pulls out of Hardware business? It's not like there weren't studios going under last gen and add the fact there was a worldide financial collapse during this one It could have been alot worse.
It has to do with a lot of things. Spiraling budgets. Mismanagement of companies.
But the crux of it is that third parties cannot bank their company's survival on a Nintendo console, while the risk of releasing non-action games so the market gets crowded with a bunch of games. And as these over-budgeted games get lost in the shuffle, downsizing happens. Microsoft's resurgence is too late, and its early market share was too small. It couldn't help either.
The PS2 is in fact what killed these companies, because its model is what was supporting them for so many years.
You can't prop up an industry with a pillar and put a herd of elephants in its place.
bigtroyjon
Member
Revenue is all that matters in determining the size of a market. Profiting off that large market is a different issue than saying the market has shrunk.
Europe should be over 1 million then. With the 1mil+ in America and the 300k in Japan it should be at ~2.5mil in two months.
Nintendo probably shipped over 3mil, and it should have decent legs till the Wii completely dies or releases it for the Wii U.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
The financial issues of most publishers were all there before the recession. The recession just gave major publishers to go ahead with major layoffs.
Sega though made a smart business decision and was in a position where it stopped supporting Nintendo with its sports titles within a year or two.
No, it was not the same situation. No one can tell me that the three console platforms we have now are well suited for third party, non-indie studios to thrive.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
will we get the 3ds sales?
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
Apparently it sold pretty close to the 360.
mugurumakensei
Member
Not necessarily, revenue can increase in at least one way with no unit growth, and that's through inflation raising the average price of goods sold.
In real (inflation-adjusted) terms? Additionally, consumption investment in games and accessories don't have the same decision tree as the "investment" in a console.
The idea that a console generation must be of a certain arbitrary length is a fallacy. I want a new console, but my disposable income situation isn't exactly the norm for most games. I don't see how releasing a $400 machine that costs $375 to build is better for firms or customers that what's available now. Especially now that dedicated gaming machines are a woefully outdated notion.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sony and MS are just as eager to see the Wii U launch to determine if they want to introduce a new box or simply keep building up the services they're offering to the current ones.
bigtroyjon
Member
We are talking about people spending less money on games, revenue is all that matters to prove that statement false.