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NPD January 2012 Sales Results [Up2: MW3 Sales, (Down ~50% Over BLOPS, But Still #1)]

I don't know if more expensive new consoles are the solution.

The consoles definitely need a price cut.

I mean 360 is selling good, now comparitively this last month, to the other consoles, but it should be higher.

The PS3 is still $249, and it's always said that most console sales occur below or at that magic $199 mark. The Wii doesn't really "count" per se, since it is $149, yes, but support there is minimal, and its successor has already been announced.
 

nasos_333

Member
I don't know if more expensive new consoles are the solution.

Falshy graphics always make for an easy and rather reliable solution

I would like to see Kinect 2.0 capabilities though, that will be very interesting

Even Kinect seems to be working very well with optimization, like in the latest Haunt title and i am sure they can open new possibilities in interaction and immersion in games
 

nasos_333

Member
The three consoles should get pricecuts as soon as the fiscal year ends.

Wii $99
PS3 $199

How much is the 360 in USA?

I believe xbox 360 will go down to 150$ in holiday and before WiiU launch

Maybe they can afford a Kinect bundle at 199$ too for the 4GB model
 
The three consoles should get pricecuts as soon as the fiscal year ends.

Wii $99
PS3 $199

How much is the 360 in USA?

It has the $199 4GB console-only SKU, and the $299 4GB Kinect bundle.

Beaten...but yeah Amazon is still selling the holiday bundles with 250GB HDDs...$299 and $399 MSRP.
 

Yopis

Member
Where are all the guys crying "we don't need new systems for 10 more years im happy?"
Sales are starting to decline for sure. I worry for ME3 in march.
 

Petrichor

Member
They can afford it, the question is whether they want to cut into their profit margin so deeply.

And would it really stimulate the extra sales necessary to make such a drop viable? I can see us going into the next generation with HD consoles no cheaper than $199, imo. It's a possibility.
 
14 hours later and still no more numbers than we had when this thread started. The NPD threads are officially just as informative and fun as the PAL sales threads.

Will Nintendo never bother again with a press release or something? You'd think that it's due to bad sales, but last december the 3DS did well and yet they kept their mouth shut.

And the truly sad part is that now we're hoping for PR releases to get numbers, while those PR releases used to be just fun because they spinned numbers that we already knew anyway.



I'm a sad panda.
 

nasos_333

Member
They will, to steal momentum from the WiiU. I expect the MS price cut to fall on Ninty launch date.

Indeed, since they can afford a price cut, i think too that will go for WiiU launch

The more games and cool stuff WiiU comes with, the more they will want to cut the price and offer some cool Halo 4 bundles
 

TheOddOne

Member
Still baffled by the MS discussion going on here. Guess even when they are doing decently, the still are doing bad according to posters.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
If we suppose Nintendo is talking about NPD datas, and not internal datas...
At October, they were at over 1.65 millions. From now on, let's just pick the number, without the "over".
At November, they did "over" 795k. NPD Datas. So, 1.650.000 + 795.000 = 2.445.000
Then, for December, we hadn't the official Nintendo PR with NPD datas, but one much earlier, with the 4 millions figure. Then, with the investor meeting, we had finally the concrete NPD datas for December, since Nintendo uses them for the quarterly investor meetings

Dec, 2011:

360 - 1.73m
3DS - 1.60m
Wii - 1.06m
PS3 - 0.95m
DS - 0.63m
PSP - 0.26m

So, 2.445.000 + 1.600.000 = 4.045.000

Considering the 4.250.000 figure without the "over", we have a base of 205k. So, 3DS should have done at least 205k for the month, if the report in the IGN article is based on NPD datas.
 

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
Yep! Vita to help buck this down YoY trend all by itself. All my friend are telling me they're gonna buy it.

lol

Stuff your face with Cheesy Gorditas™, Win Vita = Gangbusters

Still waiting for the Subway™ Marchita, Stuff Your Face with our new Salmon Teriyaki Sub™
 

KageMaru

Member
What a depressing NPD.

Depending on how sales hold up, I can see MS dropping $50 at E3 or shortly after. I think they'll try to save the $99 price point to carry the final year of the 360 as much as it can.

I can also see Sony dropping again this year and possibly see a good surge if they drop down to $200. IMO it's likely Sony will launch their next system in 2013, so I'm curious to see how they handle the PS3's pricing next year.

I think Nintendo is going to just ride on the Wii as much as they can, dropping the price again as we get closer to the Wii-U's launch.

2) dev kits are already in the hands of the developers ( even third parties ) since many months . and this i know for sure :)

How do you know for sure? Just curious.

if they want to launch this year, they can , and they would have many games ready . Of course the most probable situation right now is a 2013 launch but nothing is sure right now. We will know @ E3 when the new system will be shown/announced

I really don't see this being the case. Unless the industry at large has tightened up on all the leaks, we should have heard or even seen something about a next gen game. By this point last gen, we have seen UE3, Condemned, Dark Sector and Oblivion. A specific system doesn't need to be revealed for 3rd party companies to show off what they have cooking, yet we haven't seen much outside a few tech demos.

Not to mention, many major studios either wrapped up their last current gen game last year or are planning to do so this year. So unless MS is happy with a bunch of current gen ports, which they shouldn't be, I don't see the next Xbox launching this year with no real software to justify it's existence.

What better way to launch a new system than an enhanced version of Halo 4 releases alongside the 360 version?

Launching with a Halo title, especially a last gen port, is pointless. People who would pick it up are likely those who were going to pick up the system anyways since very few people would fork over $400+ to play a last gen game (especially if they already have a 360).

As long as MS, Sony, and Nintendo market and price their next systems well, it will sell out at launch regardless if there is a halo, Uncharted, or Mario in the launch line up. A better strategy is to sell your new system on a solid launch line up and hold on to your AAA franchises until a year or two later to help bolster sales with those who are waiting for X game to release.
 
What a depressing NPD.

Depending on how sales hold up, I can see MS dropping $50 at E3 or shortly after. I think they'll try to save the $99 price point to carry the final year of the 360 as much as it can.

I think MS is almost better off not cutting the price until the next Xbox's price is announced. If they can launch the base model at $300-$350 while the current base model is still $200 it will look like a great price.
 

KageMaru

Member
I think MS is almost better off not cutting the price until the next Xbox's price is announced. If they can launch the base model at $300-$350 while the current base model is still $200 it will look like a great price.

The system hasn't had a proper price drop in over 3 years, I highly doubt MS can hold off on dropping the price for almost 2 years.

Launching next gen at $400 while the current gen can sell at $99 would be most ideal IMO.
 

szaromir

Banned
The system hasn't had a proper price drop in over 3 years, I highly doubt MS can hold off on dropping the price for almost 2 years.

Launching next gen at $400 while the current gen can sell at $99 would be most ideal IMO.

I don't think they can go down to $99 without scaling to 32nm which I don't think is possible for console manufacturers this year (all the 32nm facilities are occupied with newer, more lucrative processors).
 

Miles X

Member
Considering what the PS2 did? There's no way the 360 will sell even close to PS2's level, even when the market becomes fully saturated. Because like szaromir said, the audience got split between PS3 and 360. If you look at the overall picture, PS3/360/Wii have already outsold PS2/Xbox/GC.

IMO price cuts will help draw in some new sales, but overall the market is pretty close to being saturated. There's not that many late adopters left, maybe enough to drive current-gen sales through 2013. New hardware is definitely needed next year.

In the US it will come close though, it's already at 33m, even a harsh drop this year to around 5m (down 2.3m) would see it end at 38m, I can't see the xbox not coming within 4m of PS2's 46m lifetime US sales.
 
I think MS is almost better off not cutting the price until the next Xbox's price is announced. If they can launch the base model at $300-$350 while the current base model is still $200 it will look like a great price.
Having the 360 dip to current Wii sales levels while Nintendo's next console is on shelves would be pretty dumb. The biggest advantage MS and Sony have this fall against Nintendo will be price and library, the Wii U will seem like a bargain if it's the same price as a 360.

MrB natural, the hardware refresh will bring new interface opportunities and new ips to revitalize sales.

Apple ' gets away with' never price dropping because they refresh their hw so often. You can't expect an iphone 3 to sell comparable to a Galaxy S2 in 2012 if they were the same price.
 

Elios83

Member
Seems like December was a hint that things were going downhill.
I guess that 2012 will be a really slow year until the next round of price cuts (99$ Wii, 149$ 360, 199$ PS3) comes in. But it's not just about price, there is also a lack of big releases and of course the market is saturated since current consoles are already in most of the households.
So yeah 2013 will need the launch of next gen consoles.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
The market has gone through tremendous change in the last five years and the situation the Wii U will be launching into is entirely different compared to the Wii.

For one, it's obviously to basically everyone who's paying attention that from a consumer interest standpoint, graphics are well past the point of diminishing returns. There's no way publishers are going to go for the same jump in costs again trying to use that new power. It's not sustainable. Basically everyone lost money this generation. I just can't see any beastly consoles being released, especially since the controllers/interfaces are adding extra costs. If Microsoft want to bundle Kinect into every device (which it looks like they do), that's power they have to forsake in the box to get it down to a reasonable price. So the Wii U should get all the multi platform titles.

Nevermind the year head start compared to coming in a year late.

The situation is entirely different. This could end up being good or bad for the Wii U. The differentiation factor turned out to be a pretty big boon for Wii, despite the troubles it caused later on. This might not exist this time, so who knows what will happen.
Comments like these make Dennis4k cry.

I'd be happy if all games were 60fps next gen but I know that's not gonna happen.
 

Petrae

Member
After getting a look at the raw data, I can see why the industry is so tight-lipped about what's on the report. This was a rough month.
 

KageMaru

Member
I don't think they can go down to $99 without scaling to 32nm which I don't think is possible for console manufacturers this year (all the 32nm facilities are occupied with newer, more lucrative processors).

Well it's a good thing the next xbox isn't releasing this year ;)

I would imagine a $99 would be possible some time next year.

Having the 360 dip to current Wii sales levels while Nintendo's next console is on shelves would be pretty dumb. The biggest advantage MS and Sony have this fall against Nintendo will be price and library, the Wii U will seem like a bargain if it's the same price as a 360.

Exactly. If MS and Sony can drop the price of their systems to $150-$200 range this year, while providing many of the same games as the Wii-U, they can market their systems as a very attractive alternative.
 

Elios83

Member
People stating price cuts for current consoles, how much do you expect Wii U to launch for?

299$-349$.
Anything more would be a bomba, it's a 360 with a tablet controller. Also it's not like the Wii where people could immediatly see the novelty, people are already accustomed to tablets and touch screen controls, so I don't think that casuals will be particularly attracted by this product.
 

Dipswitch

Member
MS is essentially out of options in regards to keeping the price of the 360 elevated. Kinect was the last hurrah and it bought them a year, give or take. There's nothing else that I can envision they can add/bundle with the console that will convince people to keep paying $299/$399 for the current models/bundles.

I think their last shot at selling a console for $299 is to drop the HD equipped SKU completely and drop the price of the $399 Kinect bundle by $100. And even then, I'm not convinced people are going to continue to spring for that price much longer. I can see them doing the same thing with the 4GB/Kinect bundle. So they'll have two Kinect equipped SKU's by end of year, running $299 and $199 respectively.

I'm not sure what Sony's options are at this point, other than to drop price again. $199 has always been a good price for a full featured console - it's just unclear whether it'll be profitable at that price, at least in the short term.

And Wii needs to drop to $99 stat. Still a decent future for the console at that price point I think.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
A poor showing in the US isn't arguably the worst possible scenario for Sony or Nintendo because they are in a stronger position in the other worldwide markets.

Looking at the media create numbers, PS3 isn't collapsing in Japan so those sales are going to be more statistically significant if the NA market is depressed.
 

HylianTom

Banned
I'm not sure what Sony's options are at this point, other than to drop price again. $199 has always been a good price for a full featured console - it's just unclear whether it'll be profitable at that price, at least in the short term.

And Wii needs to drop to $99 stat. Still a decent future for the console at that price point I think.

Yeah.. Nintendo might want to take the hit, offer a game bundle, etc.

Can Sony really afford a price drop right now? I'm curious..
 

LosDaddie

Banned
Solid month for the X360, not so much for the other 2 consoles. Nothing unexpected on the software side, either.

But yeah, price cuts are needed. Really kinda surprising the X360 has this momentum without a proper cut in, what, 2yrs+? I doubt Sony would be willing to cut the PS3's price right now, but they just make their standard $250 SKU include the Move. Nintendo should be able to cut the Wii's price to $120.

As for MS, I really don't know what they could do. I'd say a $250 SKU that included the 250GB HDD and Kinect.



If it makes you guys feel better, I don't think we'll see anybody try to stretch a console generation out this long ever again. The 360 and PS3 are just embarrassingly old tech at this point..

Nah, I think the opposite. These extened console gens will be the norm from now on. I know that I'm happy this gen has lasted for 6yrs+, and I'd imagine most gamers feel the same way.



Not at all. PS2 had a library that put Xbox and GC to fucking shame.

Depends on your gaming tastes. Once I bought the Xbox, my PS2 was only used for God of War and R&C games. The rest of my gaming was done on the Xbox1.
 

Petrae

Member
crash landing? Keeping tight lipped to keep investors calm?

There simply isn't a lot of positive news to share, aside from impressive Skylanders toy sales and another solid month of Just Dance 3 Wii sales. A bit surprised that Sony didn't trumpet its 2nd place finish overall, but with negative YOY (and the company's trend of not sharing raw numbers), it makes sense.
 

Elios83

Member
Can Sony really afford a price drop right now? I'm curious..

It's not like they don't have roadmap for costs cutting and price cuts and they take a hit whenever they cut the price.
As far as we know they are profitable on PS3 hardware at 250$. They cut manufacturing costs every year with a new hardware revision, so it's not hard to imagine that later this year (late summer) they will be in a position to cut the price to 199$ while still being profitable.
Also PS3 needed the 199$ price last year imo.
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
There simply isn't a lot of positive news to share, aside from impressive Skylanders toy sales and another solid month of Just Dance 3 Wii sales. A bit surprised that Sony didn't trumpet its 2nd place finish overall, but with negative YOY (and the company's RECENT trend of not sharing raw numbers), it makes sense.
Fixed.

They used to dump all kinds of data. That's back when they had three platforms to talk about, and none of them were rapidly dying.

If you look back over a decade of news releases, I think you'll find that we're in another lull in information that accompanies contraction and bad news. It's a shame, really it is. :(
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
I think the situation in the home sector is both saturation at certain prices and economic depression.
In fact, 360 did perfectly fine, with almost 300k in its...7th year. And still costing 200 $. But it's what PS3 and Wii did that scares me, and make me think there's something going on not only linked to the fact prices are still "high" for a complete last mass penetration of the platforms...

However, no one saw this. Neither Nirolak :(

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=35012400&postcount=517
 
Fixed.

They used to dump all kinds of data. That's back when they had three platforms to talk about, and none of them were rapidly dying.

If you look back over a decade of news releases, I think you'll find that we're in another lull in information that accompanies contraction and bad news. It's a shame, really it is. :(

The real shame here is NPD as a company.

Hopefully some people tweet or leak the HW numbers atleast.
 

Petrae

Member
They used to dump all kinds of data. That's back when they had three platforms to talk about, and none of them were rapidly dying.

If you look back over a decade of news releases, I think you'll find that we're in another lull in information that accompanies contraction and bad news. It's a shame, really it is. :(

Indeed, the sharing of raw data seems to be driven by generally good news. As I'm sure you will be writing about, there was none of that last month. I can understand, in some ways, why companies don't wish to publicize such specifics... but it's still a letdown as an observer or armchair analyst to have to base your perspective on second-hand data and extrapolations.

Having access to the raw data paints a much different picture, I've found out.
 

Petrae

Member
The investors that matter have access to this data, they pay NPD big bucks for it.

Exactly. That's why we can't share anything more than vague observations at best, and largely have to rely on NPD public guidance when we talk about results. NPD is an expensive service, so allowing all kinds of raw data to be outed would likely drop subscription rates and hurt NPD as a business, such as it is.
 

jman2050

Member
Yeah I hope everyday that they go broke and disappear from the world. I hate that they hold information hostage.

I can't tell if you're serious or not, but do you understand what NPD is and what they actually do? And how they make money?

Seriously, it's unfortunate that NPD has become as stingy as it has but the fact of the matter is that we were never entitled to all that data in the first place.
 
There simply isn't a lot of positive news to share, aside from impressive Skylanders toy sales and another solid month of Just Dance 3 Wii sales. A bit surprised that Sony didn't trumpet its 2nd place finish overall, but with negative YOY (and the company's trend of not sharing raw numbers), it makes sense.

So PS3 > Wii?

Meaning that Wii sold at most 139k, down 57% yoy or more. 0_0

I can't tell if you're serious or not, but do you understand what NPD is and what they actually do? And how they make money?

Seriously, it's unfortunate that NPD has become as stingy as it has but the fact of the matter is that we were never entitled to all that data in the first place.

It's been beaten to death in previous threads, but NPD does what 3 independent trackers do for Japanese sales, but the Japanese trackers do it for free. We also get weekly US and global box office updates on the top 40 movies in theater count, revenue, and projected budget. For. Free.
 
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