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[ShockingAlberto]

I really, really hope Square-Enix looks at these BD numbers and feels bad.

 

[slapnuts]

Didn't they send something like 330,000 to Japan for the Launch? Those numbers come right out of the stock for the other regions. Also, if Amazon gives any hint, March has had the PS4 on sale more times, and longer periods, than any other month previous from my observations.


I think Sony will have lots of stock in the supply chain this month. Japan launch is over, they know Microsoft is banking on Titanfall, and Sony wants to give as many people a chance to get that PS4 in March, especially in North America to battle Microsoft. Throw in Infamous, and I think Sony may have a nice little blueprint for March.

indeed

 

[Faustek]

So can it be said that every platform holder did pretty well last month? Because I think that's a reason for celebration.

People are going to assign some epic Microsoft vs. Sony battle in March NPDs what with Titanfall and Infamous dropping, but the better takeaway is that it should be another consecutive month of good sales after this one.

Everyone did well and we are happy. But Honestly, if you had a chance to see Lewis and Foreman slug it out wouldn't you take the chance?

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Good sales for everyone, so everyone is happy... right?

Are they fuck

It's all about supply issues, the TitanFalls and the worldwides

 

[Unknown One]

6M vs 3.6M

That's going to grow and get bigger too. As long as the PS4 beats or equal the sales to the Xbone in the US the gap will grow. The EU+JPN effect.

 

[badb0y]

Xbox One will take March NPD, Titanfall is just a more marketable game especially in the US.

 

[Hanmik]

titanfall is such a strange thing. this must be the first time a console maker is banking on a third party game to sell consoles, like that. the pr piece reads like an ad for the game.

 

[Chuck Norris]

Isnt the difference roughly 6 and 4 million. That's not almost double.

When did MS announce 4 million?

 

[Syphon Filter]

Well, if you mean TitanFall XBO vs. InFamous PS4, I agree. I have no doubt InFamous will sell more in that case. But TitanFall's also on two other platforms. I think by that virtue alone it'll outsell InFamous when taking all 3 platforms into account.

But if it doesn't actually happen like that, it'll probably be a day of reckoning.

I doubt figgy meant all versions of titanfall. The xbox one version is going to outsell infamous.

 

[Mr.Marston]

looking back everyone who expected the ps4 to have big lead in the next gen sales race look silly now

xbone isn't that far behind and its being sold at a higher price. kind of a win actually

Hahaha

Fuck

Its not a win

Its not a win at all

 

[Ryaaan14]

God daaaaamn. Reading GAF every day I would have honestly expected half of that number from Microsoft.

 

[MercuryLS]

I'm seriously impressed at the XB1 numbers, those deals in Feb must have hoped tremendously.

 

[xxracerxx]

if it was 2007 it would have been 300 to 125 .. these are actually close numbers.

But the $200 more machine that came out a year later is almost at half what the year long lead console did. I would almost say that was a win.


Just saying, it was good spin....like above.

 

[Kagari]

I really, really hope Square-Enix looks at these BD numbers and feels bad.

lol, serious.

 

[Tripon]

True. I don't remember what the last major January release was.

DmC in Jan. 2013? Even that broke Capcom to the point where they don't try Jan. releases anymore.

 

[Usobuko]

Fable Anniversary
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Toukiden: The Age of Demons
One Piece: Romance Dawn
Earth Defense Force 2025
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
Inazuma Eleven

Creamsugar? Help please.

 

[Curufinwe]

looking back everyone who expected the ps4 to have big lead in the next gen sales race look silly now

xbone isn't that far behind and its being sold at a higher price. kind of a win actually

The PS4 is well on its way to a 2:1 global sales advantage.

 

[Uno Venova]

when you look closely at these numbers ps4 actually lost the npd

congrats microsoft

 

[Riki]

I really, really hope Square-Enix looks at these BD numbers and feels bad.

That would require SE to actually think about what they're doing rather than just shoving Final Fantasy on the name and then giving everything more Lightening.

 

[BruiserBear]

Xbox and Ps4 close. Didn't expect that

Same. I can't help but think Titanfall had something to do with that. Should be interesting to see what happens next month.

 

[FiggyCal]

Well, if you mean TitanFall XBO vs. InFamous PS4, I agree. I have no doubt InFamous will sell more in that case. But TitanFall's also on two other platforms. I think by that virtue alone it'll outsell InFamous when taking all 3 platforms into account.

But if it doesn't actually happen like that, it'll probably be a day of reckoning.

Of course.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

titanfall is such a strange thing. this must be the first time a console maker is banking on a third party game to sell consoles, like that. the pr piece reads like an ad for the game.

Certainly not the first time. Sony pushed a lot of Square games in to the stratosphere with their marketing, Nintendo made a huge deal about Monster Hunter, if Sony had realized they were still producing PSPs they would have also made a huge deal about Monster Hunter.

 

[Canis lupus]

Xbone sales are surprising, why is it up nearly 100pct? Special promotions I missed?

 

[LilZippa]

if it was 2007 it would have been 300 to 125 .. these are actually close numbers.

Woosh. Look up something passed over you

 

[Louis Cyphre]

Looks to me like the PS4 will continue to do well and the XBox once again has its strong markets but I see no turnaround for Microsoft outside of those key areas. The question is do they really care all that much about those regions in the first place? The Wii U continues to suffer and I also expect the Vita to suffer as well outside of Japan.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I guess all of those free games and gift cards really helped the Xbox One.

 

[BigSpleenAttack]

I think the X1 got a titanfall bump in jan from the beta, do not expect a big jump for x1 in march, could see sony winning march with rumours of bigger shipments in.

 

[Nirolak]

Hmm I agree that they will definitely want growth but I'm not sure how stuff like microtransactions and For The Sequels style updates figure into that.

I wonder if they expect Bravely Second to grow as much from Flying Fairy as Flying Fairy did from 4 Heroes of Light. I would guess a 30% growth would be respectable but that may be too low for modern SE.

I guess my overall perspective on the series would be this:

-As a whole, Square Enix only greenlights hit (or attempted hit) games for retail.
-Asano's comments implied that they were never expecting to release this game in the West at first, which is not inconceivable given their behavior with things like Dragon Quest.
-BD was notably originally FF:4HoL2, and they haven't put another FF on handhelds after the rebrand, so I suspect it's conceptually (from a financial and audience perspective) trying to take FF's handheld spot.
-Asano wants to release a BD game every year, and was noting that they weren't intending to do something like For The Sequel again, so I suspect they're intending to do mainline entries every two years with a spin-off (maybe a mobile title, browser title, etc) in the in-between years. This also fits with Wada's old and Matsuda's new "faster sequels, ideally every 2 years" schedule. BD sequels will presumably have a much more consistent gameplay system/vision than something like FF mainline as well to help facilitate this.
-That kind of annual release schedule is kind of odd if you don't want the brand to become large enough to support that, as it's something usually reserved for FF/KH/DQ level series these days, at least for Square Enix.
-BD sold ~300K in Japan, so getting 200K in the US + whatever it's done in Europe in its first month is good. However, that profit in diluted given that Europe and the US generally pay less for handheld games than Japan and Nintendo is publishing it, but they do get to write off marketing costs.
-Generally the pattern for making a sequel sell more is to raise the budget, which I suspect they've done for BD. New IPs are also usually looked at more forgivingly in terms of sales as they have to build an audience which often happens through used copy circulation, so even if you don't make a lot of money, you might greenlight a sequel in hopes for more. Similarly, this is why I suspect Thief will get a sequel despite it likely being a large loss for Square Enix.
-I think being an outsourced game (including directorial duties) helps the series keep going since they don't get run through the same internal resources profitability matrix and sucked up into mainline games like KH portable's and Type-0's teams did.
-As a whole, I think they basically want something that will contribute well to profit and be seen as "worth putting resources into" in order for it to continue, and selling well in the West when the series was originally greenlight without that idea is helpful.
-I guess my outlook on the series odds of continuing past entry 2 are cautiously optimistic instead of neutral now, with my main concern being the cost jump required to be a notable Square Enix level title on the 4DS (presumably either with BD3 or BD4) versus the cost on the 3DS. Generation transitions are generally the hardest on things that aren't super top shelf or super bottom shelf.

 

[netBuff]

God daaaaamn. Reading GAF every day I would have honestly expected half of that number from Microsoft.

Consider that GAF has a global audience, while these are US numbers only. Xbone really isn't doing too hot worldwide.

 

[McHuj]

6M vs 3.6M

Because MS sold zero elsewhere worldwide?

 

[Y2Kev]

l m a o at dave cox

 

[TheClimaxan]

titanfall is such a strange thing. this must be the first time a console maker is banking on a third party game to sell consoles, like that. the pr piece reads like an ad for the game.

GTA III sure sold a lot of PS2s.

 

[famousmortimer]

You really are full of it. That happened once. Halo 3 month.

The Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 by over 10 million in the US and still ended up getting squeaked by in world wide sales. Do you really think they are happy with being 10% behind in the US?


My point was I was looking at it as a 1 to 1 race. Trying to win the US. But Microsoft needs to do far more than just win the US to compete. Which is why the bundles make sense.

 

[LowEndTorque]

That's going to grow and get bigger too. As long as the PS4 beats or equal the sales to the Xbone in the US the gap will grow. The EU+JPN effect.

Indeed.

At the end of December PS4 had a 1.2 million lead (3M vs 4.2M). Now the PS4 has a 2.4 million lead (3.6M vs 6M). The PS4's lead has doubled since December.

 

[Faustek]

Sony should follow suit and localize Type-0 PS4.

Spoiler

yea right, think of all the indies they could bring over instead with that money

You mean Vita.

I for one believe that any sort of RPG that isn't a main title(Tales/FF/Ghibli) Will do better on handhelds. Or is it just me and those I talk to that have bought handhelds(3DS/Vita) just for the RPGs that would be coming?

God daaaaamn. Reading GAF every day I would have honestly expected half of that number from Microsoft.

Find the thread asking what MS should do to sell XBO to us Europeans. It was hilarious.

 

[michaelius]

I really, really hope Square-Enix looks at these BD numbers and feels bad.

It's free money for them gained with no effort and no risk plus if they do sequel themselves they come into already created fanbase.

 

[John Harker]

What about all the games that aren't available at retail. There is a much bigger pool than relying on retail sales alone as a guide. PC Gaming would be considered dead if you looked at retail alone.

I think that 10 percent number is low for XB1/PS4. Perhaps for PS3/360, but those consoles weren't built on day one digital.

Not significantly. Pretty comparable.
Early adopters like their trophy cases after all! It'll grow for sure though.

In terms of games not available at retail, clearly they are significantly higher.
But I was referencing the 10% decline in retail software sales, despite a big rise in hardware sales. That worries me. It's a long ongoing trend.

Attach rates have been very good, yah, but damn 'last gen' software sales fall out so quickly is still shocking. A lot of red this year. This fiscal needs to hurry up and end for everyone

 

[RedAssedApe]

I wonder how many sales were for the Titanfall bundle as that was announced last week of feb. Or do pre-orders not count?

 

[Immaculate]

EDIT: Just saw your response. Then your original post was a complete strawman, because virtually nobody was expecting the PS4 to have a big lead in the US.

i remember countless members saying ps4 had USA on lock because it was $100 cheaper

 

[GamerJM]

At this point, if Nintendo is localizing DQVII, there's only one month for the release: February. In 2012, Tales of thr Abyss didn't debut badly; in 2013, FE happened + Etrian Odyssey selling 15k in 5 days, which was great for the kind of title it is; in 2014, BD almost debuts as much as KH3D and better than Fire Emblem.
February sounds like a good month for Japanese content...

Personally I'm hoping for a Dragon Quest VII release this year with a Bravely Second localization next February. That's probably too optimistic though.....

 

[Hanmik]

GTA III sure sold a lot of PS2s.

did sony use a pr piece for the ps2 to promote gta3?

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

That's going to grow and get bigger too. As long as the PS4 beats or equal the sales to the Xbone in the US the gap will grow. The EU+JPN effect.

I'm thinking the "Japan effect" is going to be a little more subdued this go around.

 

[Goodacre0081]

looking back everyone who expected the ps4 to have big lead in the next gen sales race look silly now

xbone isn't that far behind and its being sold at a higher price. kind of a win actually

the XB1/PS4 gap is widening.

Spoiler

shit.. where have i heard that before

 

[ClearData]

Everyone did well and we are happy. But Honestly, if you had a chance to see Lewis and Foreman slug it out wouldn't you take the chance?

Sure would. The more they slug it out the more we win as consumers. This back and forth creates real value. I don't think the Titanfall bundle happens if Sony wasn't winning the NPDs. I also think Sony should be feverishly working on that next major firmware after hearing the positive buzz Microsoft is finally generating.

 

[hawk2025]

Well, if you mean TitanFall XBO vs. InFamous PS4, I agree. I have no doubt InFamous will sell more in that case. But TitanFall's also on two other platforms. I think by that virtue alone it'll outsell InFamous when taking all 3 platforms into account.

But if it doesn't actually happen like that, it'll probably be a day of reckoning.

Better tamper your expectations.

I see no reason why Infamous will sell more than Titanfall on the Xbox One, and I suspect that most people feel the same way. It won't be a "day of reckoning" at all.

 

[Tripon]

l m a o at dave cox

That's what you get for saying 2D Castlevania is dead.

 

[TS-08]

I wonder how many sales were for the Titanfall bundle as that was announced last week of feb. Or do pre-orders not count?

None since it wasn't available until two days ago.

 

[Curufinwe]

i remember countless members saying ps4 had USA on lock because it was $100 cheaper

Then you will have no trouble quoting a bunch of those posts.

We'll wait while you go find them.

 

[DieH@rd]

Would people really buy a $500 console just for a beta?

Seems crazy.

Nah, they already were prepared to buy the console for that game, beta was just excuse for earlier purchase.

 

[Canis lupus]

when you look closely at these numbers ps4 actually lost the npd

congrats microsoft

I dunno how close you're looking at the numbers but PS4 has a 30k lead eventhough it is supply constrained every day.