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NPD March 2022 Results - More info tomorrow

KellyM

Member
Is that how we doing things now? Putting someone on the board because they sold a higher dollar amount 👀.

Noone should be surprised at the switch moving more units when it isn't being supply constrained.
They been doing this for the last year or so. Maybe longer.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Is it even confirmed anywhere that there will be PS5 streaming in the PS+ revamp? Even in the last blog post they don’t say it:

Key word in my post: speculation. Regardless, Sony hasn't confirmed what games will be in the new service either so obviously there are more announcements on the way.
 
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yurinka

Member
I wonder if this is going to be a longer than normal console generation. It's been a year and a half and it feels like these machines barelly launched since there's no software specifically for them.
This is a lie, there's software specifically for them, even if you only count next gen only games. But it's true that for now there is less next gen only titles than in previous generations at this point, and there are several reasons that expain why there are way more crossgen games as of now:

There has been a global pandemic that delayed developments, and a global chips shortage that highly delayed/reduced hardware shipments. Plus there's still a huge active userbase of the previous generation, and now both generations share hardware family/architecture and game engines. In addition to this, what this next gen offer thank to super fast SSD loading opens the door to the biggest paradigm shift in terms in different levels since the 2D to 3D visuals meaning real next gen engines and games taking advantage of them this gen will take longer as usual.

On top of this, each generation AAA games get bigger, more complex and more detailed. Meaning they require more work, more manpower and longer development times.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
instead of a sequel to our original RPG lets release this strategy game with old sprites for $60 and Switch bros will bite'
You mostly assuming bunch of stuff without actually try to give the game a chance, Triangle Strategy is well worth $60, because it quality game it doesn't matter it has sprite based visuals.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Just wanna let you know that I'm counted as US buyer due to my account, many as well worldwide. Hardware-wise, we've been receiving a lot of PS5's in the Gulf countries lately, it's super easy to get one if you want to. Maybe Sony has been studying the markets and spreading consoles accordingly? Not sure.

Of course, we get zero xboxes here since OG xbox, I think UAE and KSA have recently started receiving xboxes officially this gen.
 

elliot5

Member
Im not expecting ps5 games to be streamable. Sony probably knows Streaming is such a small fraction of their use even with the previous psnow system. They don’t have a bespoke system in place to access it from anywhere conveniently (Any browser and mobile). Seems like a waste to dedicate hardware currently when they probably will only allow for… a few ps5 games like Returnal?
 
Sony is killing it with software sales!

FRMSL6RXwAA7QAm
Sony had 3 games inside the top 5 of the best selling games?

That Gamepass competitor needs to happen otherwise they won't survive much longer...
 

Woopah

Member
That said, Triangle Strategy launched pretty low

I bathe in satisfaction.
Its published by Nintendo so digital sales aren't included.
It's sold at least 800k units world wide. Bathe in something else.
Its over 1 million now
I've been on this board for a long time and I am 1000% sure they did not always report "who made the most money"

And I'm another 1000% sure "corporations" could care less what fan boys post on social media about sales but I digress
NPD used to report in units, but now reports in dollars. Because corporations care more about dollars than units.
friend Final Fantasy Tactics is an ancient PS1 game.not the most helpful comparison, Triangle doesn't even have the Final Fantasy brand

To be honest it feels like old Square hasn't figured out the Switch audience yet, their outpout has been inconsistent at best.

Octopath was welcomed and sold quite well, their Final Fantasy ports sold well afaik, "perfect! instead of releasing brand new games in our biggest brands (they can still be multiplatform, don't need to be KH4 or FFXVI)with decent marketing lets make a (worse) sequel to a super niche Nintendo DS game, lets release a buggy online only version of our beloved classic Kingdom Hearts games, instead of a sequel to our original RPG lets release this strategy game with old sprites for $60 and Switch bros will bite'

its not even that they don't put some effort, but its just weird how they been treating the Switch all this time, people are just catching up
There's definitely things that SE has been getting wrong with Switch, but the Team Asano games aren't one of them. All 3 are million sellers.
 

Astral Dog

Member
You mostly assuming bunch of stuff without actually try to give the game a chance, Triangle Strategy is well worth $60, because it quality game it doesn't matter it has sprite based visuals.

Its cool that an audience clearly likes it, obviously. personally im wary after not enjoying Neo TWEWY anywhere much as the first one, and other Square releases.
 
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Astral Dog

Member
Ooops i didn't know Triangle Strategy was published by Nintendo!😳 Seems like it actually sold better than implied, sorry Danjin i acted like a jerk, still not too fond of SE on Switch but im glad the game performed well

will edit my previous comments 😅
 
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twilo99

Member
Starting to think the speculation that Sony are in the process of allocating PS5 hardware into datacenters might be accurate. Doesn't sound right for it to be in such short supply in March.

Great month for Xbox though.

Datacenters... for what? Sony and cloud gaming? No way. Its all about generations here.

Doesn't Microsoft allocate hardware for "datacenters" as well considering they actually have a cloud gaming service running?

edit. I see, they've had "streaming" for a while, so it makes sense.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Datacenters... for what? Sony and cloud gaming? No way. Its all about generations here.

Doesn't Microsoft allocate hardware for "datacenters" as well considering they actually have a cloud gaming service running?

Jez Corden said last year that XSX stock was lower than PS5 due to the allocation of units to Azure. Very possible Sony could be in that same process now.

Why do you think Sony isn't going to go forward with cloud gaming? Seems obvious to me that would be a big part of their move to Azure.
 
The sad and unfortunate truth and I don't see it improving on a noticeable level until next year without a revision in the form of a pro or slim model.

i could see sony releasing a new model to go along with a price cut. similar to the ps3 slim in 2009. almost like a relaunch. bundle it with spider-man 2 and that thing will break all sorts of records for them.
 
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iQuasarLV

Member
friend Final Fantasy Tactics is an ancient PS1 game.not the most helpful comparison, Triangle doesn't even have the Final Fantasy brand

To be honest it feels like old Square hasn't figured out the Switch audience yet, their outpout has been inconsistent at best.

Octopath was welcomed and sold quite well, their Final Fantasy ports sold well afaik, "perfect! instead of releasing brand new games in our biggest brands (they can still be multiplatform, don't need to be KH4 or FFXVI)with decent marketing lets make a (worse) sequel to a super niche Nintendo DS game, lets release a buggy online only version of our beloved classic Kingdom Hearts games, instead of a sequel to our original RPG lets release this strategy game with old sprites for $60 and Switch bros will bite'

its not even that they don't put some effort, but its just weird how they been treating the Switch all this time, people are just catching up
The last Single player game I touched from SE is FF12 from 2017. Says alot. I think Se is just poorly juggling being a development house AND a publisher. They are half assing both.
 

Chukhopops

Member
Key word in my post: speculation. Regardless, Sony hasn't confirmed what games will be in the new service either so obviously there are more announcements on the way.
Sorry I thought the speculation part was about the stock allocation to data centers, not the PS5 streaming part. I find the question interesting because Sony allocating hardware that they are sure to sell to customers would show they are serious about Cloud.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Sorry I thought the speculation part was about the stock allocation to data centers, not the PS5 streaming part. I find the question interesting because Sony allocating hardware that they are sure to sell to customers would show they are serious about Cloud.

Well.....speculation for both really. Sony said their relationship with Microsoft and their Azure partnership was "deepening". (sounds romantic, doesn't it? :messenger_beaming:)

To me, it seems obvious that part of that has to be streaming and if so then they will need PS5 hardware installed in the datacenters. Now that could have nothing to do with the current stock shortage, but it would make sense. But yeah, Sony's commitment to cloud is very serious, imo.
 
I've been on this board for a long time and I am 1000% sure they did not always report "who made the most money"

And I'm another 1000% sure "corporations" could care less what fan boys post on social media about sales but I digress
Yeah, it changed in 2017 or something.
 

Elios83

Member
Being #3 Units but #1 in revenue would be almost impossible, unless every PS5 sold was the digital one and Xbox was selling alot of Series X and that skewed the average price per unit enough.

So it should be in terms of units
- Switch
- Xbox
- PS5

Anyone sees something that I am missing?

Also we can assume that both the switch and Xbox sold at least 433k each so probably close to 1m including the ps5

Edit apparently ytd in Feb, it was already switch, xbox and PS in terms of units.
You're right, I was on a hurry on the phone and I totally misread the comment :messenger_grinning_sweat:

Btw yeah Sony had a weak Q1 in terms of supply as they forecasted back in the February report.
I wonder what is the reason behind it, maybe they're transitioning to new models out soon that are going to allow them to reach the high shipments goals they have for FY2022.
Or they simply had some major disruption at some of components needed for the current models.
I guess we'll have an update when they announce their full fiscal year results in early May.

At least they can be happy for their software sales since all their games Horizon, GT7 and MLB have been hits.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Probably changed around the same time MS stopped reporting hardware sales numbers. To compensate for MS's policy change.

I don't think so. MS stopped reporting console sales numbers in 2015. I think NPD's change was in relation to the mid-gen refresh as well as the Switch launch in 2017-2018 time frame.
 
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Markio128

Member
Biggest March ever for Xbox, even with chip shortages.
Got to say Phil has done more than turn this around he's taking it to the next level. They have a Tsunami of software in the pipeline, this is going to be a great generation.
Tsunami?! It feels more like a fleas fart at the moment 😂
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?



Between the Xbox Series S remaining in stock consistently and the increasingly obtainable Xbox Series X (try opening up your Best Buy app in the morning or checking local stores to find one — many have had them in stock lately), Microsoft’s consoles led in terms of hardware dollars for March 2022 and the entire first quarter in the US.

According to the stats released by NPD video game analyst Mat Piscatella, industry hardware sales were $515 million in March (down 24 percent from 2021) and $1.2 billion in Q1 (down 15 percent from 2021). Despite that, this is the best March result for Xbox hardware sales in a long time with the most total units sold since March 2011 and the most revenue for March since 2014, just a few months after the Xbox One was released.
 

ANIMAL1975

Member
Yet here we are, PSNow was released almost 10 years ago and still to this day almost nobody cares about streaming. xCloud and Stadia didn't fair much better, it's almost as if they don't exist.

You don't need to sell me on it, you need to sell the idea that streaming is the future to all the people that could be playing over streaming right now, that don't even have a console, who wouldn't even care for lag or compression yet still they don't play over the cloud, almost as if they never wanted to play these games in the first place and them being available over the cloud doesn't make any difference to them.

Every PS5 chip that doesn't go into a PS5 is a waste and a potential client willing to spend good money that they are losing to go chase a market that doesn't even exists. Wait to set up those servers when supply isn't a problem anymore, will make no difference since the streaming market is already so dead.

If your internet is good enough for streaming, it's good enough for download unless you have ADHD and is constantly changing between random games all the time and have no run out of storage. Just another excuse to make cloud more a thing than it really is.
You misunderstood me, im not English speaker maybe was because of that. I was not trying to sell you or anyone else to streaming, far from it, yes i use it and like it for the stuff that hads to my gaming experience but that's it _ im first of all a 'normal player'. To summarize i was just trying to tell you why i think they are preparing for ps5 streaming in response to your post saying that it doesn't exist yet, so that's that, just normal conversation _ and i even agree with you that it's a bummer and im one of its victims still without a a PS5 till this day.
 
You misunderstood me, im not English speaker maybe was because of that. I was not trying to sell you or anyone else to streaming, far from it, yes i use it and like it for the stuff that hads to my gaming experience but that's it _ im first of all a 'normal player'. To summarize i was just trying to tell you why i think they are preparing for ps5 streaming in response to your post saying that it doesn't exist yet, so that's that, just normal conversation _ and i even agree with you that it's a bummer and im one of its victims still without a a PS5 till this day.
I'm sorry about that man, I'm too defensive against "cloud is the future" proselytizers.

I got a friend that is going to the US next month and would be able to get a PS5 for half the price it costs here in my country, I'm really hoping he can somehow find one for him without getting scalped. I guess it will require a lot of luck.
 
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Dr Bass

Member
Biggest March ever for Xbox, even with chip shortages.
Got to say Phil has done more than turn this around he's taking it to the next level. They have a Tsunami of software in the pipeline, this is going to be a great generation.
And they still lost to Nintendo.

I honestly thought they would easily win this month. The fact they seemed to have as much stock as they did (it was in stock for weeks at Walmart and readily available throughout the month at other locations) and still come in second ... not sure what that means big picture. Should have been a blowout month.

I don't think Phil has done squat for Xbox, personally. Where are my freaking games? MS has been saying the "games are coming" for like 9 years. We can say the "tsunami of games" has arrived, when they've actually arrived. Everything else is just talk until then. Per the usual.

Just more waiting I guess.
 

Riky

$MSFT
And they still lost to Nintendo.

I honestly thought they would easily win this month. The fact they seemed to have as much stock as they did (it was in stock for weeks at Walmart and readily available throughout the month at other locations) and still come in second ... not sure what that means big picture. Should have been a blowout month.

I don't think Phil has done squat for Xbox, personally. Where are my freaking games? MS has been saying the "games are coming" for like 9 years. We can say the "tsunami of games" has arrived, when they've actually arrived. Everything else is just talk until then. Per the usual.

Just more waiting I guess.

Better to be number one in money taken, than last. Do you really think corporations think like that🤣 we had a great month but we "lost", not only did they take the most hardware dollars but a percentage of those sales will be signing up for Gamepass, that's a massive plus all round.

As for the games, you don't get publisher of the year with the highest percentage in history if you didn't deliver.
 
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And they still lost to Nintendo.

I honestly thought they would easily win this month. The fact they seemed to have as much stock as they did (it was in stock for weeks at Walmart and readily available throughout the month at other locations) and still come in second ... not sure what that means big picture. Should have been a blowout month.

I don't think Phil has done squat for Xbox, personally. Where are my freaking games? MS has been saying the "games are coming" for like 9 years. We can say the "tsunami of games" has arrived, when they've actually arrived. Everything else is just talk until then. Per the usual.

Just more waiting I guess.
Might have missed the fact MS got publisher of the year in 2021. Not bad for having no 'freaking games' for nine years. Most Xbox fans credit Phil for turning the entire perception of the brand around and that is true based on metrics like console sales, game scores, and accolades like the one I mentioned earlier.
 
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Kagey K

Banned
Yeah, it changed in 2017 or something.

Probably changed around the same time MS stopped reporting hardware sales numbers. To compensate for MS's policy change.
It was actually back in 2010 during the "Playstation Family" obscurity of sales numbers.

 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
It was actually back in 2010 during the "Playstation Family" obscurity of sales numbers.



Oh wow, that's a lot longer far back than I thought.
 
This is awesome.news for Xbox. Wait until the April numbers come in. It should be even bigger for MS.
Even the die hardest Sony fanboy should be happy as a competitive Xbox means a more competitive Sony.
Look how shit Intel became when AMD was releasing subpar CPUs like Bulldozer. Now look at what Intel is doing now that AMD is back.

This kind of doesn't make sense, though. The PS5 isn't a subpar console; it's an excellent system affected harshly ATM by supply constraints. The only way Sony can compete in that way is by paying for chip priority and producing a lot more PS5's to satisfy more of the demand (if not all of it). That isn't the competition most think of when they ask for healthy competition between the consoles.

Anyway though, this is a great result for Xbox. They're being strategic with their early supply in what have traditionally been their strongest markets to try and hopefully solidify a lead in them. Sony seems more keen to probably wait until later in the year before seriously pumping systems into US & UK markets. So it's possible Series maintain sales lead in those markets for a few more months TBH.

I'm really curious what Sony will do to get PS5 supply large enough consistently in these markets. Will they cut off PS4 production altogether ? Pay for chip priority on 6nm? Make a lower-cost spec-reduced PS5 that can be made in greater volume (and if so, what impact would that have on 1P games targeting current PS5 specs for things aside resolution and textures)?

A really tough situation for them unfortunately. But it sounds like April stock will be a lot better so that could hopefully be the start of more consistent PS5 supply.
 

Dr Bass

Member
Might have missed the fact MS got publisher of the year in 2021. Not bad for having no 'freaking games' for nine years. Most Xbox fans credit Phil for turning the entire perception of the brand around and that is true based on metrics like console sales, game scores, and and accolades like the one I mentioned earlier.
Yeah we've been over that, and it's a really weak response. I'll explain why. Again.

They didn't really have many games, and some of them they really had no hand in creating.

There was Halo (which is a bad game IMO, and I can easily enumerate why. But why wait for me? Go look at what the fans are saying in the Halo threads), and it's basically dead at this point.

Age of Empires, Not an Xbox game. Do not care about that here. I used to like this game when I had a PC but I'm not into RTS anymore, and again ... you're talking Xbox, and this is not Xbox.

Then there was Flight Sim. IMO, this is not a good console game. Have you even played it? I have. It's clearly a PC game shoehorned into a console and it shows. It also doesn't look nearly as good as some people like to claim. The pop in, the shifting of landscapes as you fly around, and terrible detail as you reduce your altitude ... it is what it is. A flying sim for people who are serious about ... flying sims. I don't for a second believe the Xbox warriors here are firing up FS and putting in hours and hours on the title.

Forza is not my thing. It's cool for people that it is I'm sure. Xbox has something here for sure.

Psychonauts 2 is incredibly average and felt low budget to me. The guise of the story is just not that clever. Things like, fighting doubts and regrets and how the levels work ... they are obvious things to do given the subject matter, and the gameplay just was not tight at all IMO.

Those five games are your entire list for the year. On top of that, one of them was purchased by MS well into dev, one is not really a game, one is a complete disappointment, and one isn't even on Xbox.

You can cling to the idea that this merits a "publisher of the year" from a site like Meteoritic, but since I actually own and play all of these platforms and games I will reiterate that Xbox continues to be, for me, the most disappointing console ecosystem I own by far. To the point where I am considering selling mine off and getting again IF Starfield is worth playing, but we will see. I sold my PS5 last year and regretted it and bought it again, so not sure I want to do that with Xbox yet.

I don't even know what Sony had last year, or what their total score is, but they had 10 unique releases compared to MS's 5 and Returnal absolutely spanked anything released by MS (and Nintendo) last year. Again, you have to play these things in depth to get it. Not just play console warrior games on forums and such. I'm here for the games. That's why I can say things like "publisher of the year" means absolutely nothing when the proof is in the pudding and the pudding is bland and has an odd skin on top. Sorta like that year "Shakespeare in Love" won Best Picture. Nobody takes that stuff seriously.

Think about it. If you need to point to an award from a site that means nothing as proof that your system of preference is doing well, while gamers are like "just look at the cavalcade of games coming out on Switch and Playstation" ... don't you think that might mean something? If you don't understand what I mean, just take a little time to think about it.
 

Riky

$MSFT
Yeah we've been over that, and it's a really weak response. I'll explain why. Again.

They didn't really have many games, and some of them they really had no hand in creating.

There was Halo (which is a bad game IMO, and I can easily enumerate why. But why wait for me? Go look at what the fans are saying in the Halo threads), and it's basically dead at this point.

Age of Empires, Not an Xbox game. Do not care about that here. I used to like this game when I had a PC but I'm not into RTS anymore, and again ... you're talking Xbox, and this is not Xbox.

Then there was Flight Sim. IMO, this is not a good console game. Have you even played it? I have. It's clearly a PC game shoehorned into a console and it shows. It also doesn't look nearly as good as some people like to claim. The pop in, the shifting of landscapes as you fly around, and terrible detail as you reduce your altitude ... it is what it is. A flying sim for people who are serious about ... flying sims. I don't for a second believe the Xbox warriors here are firing up FS and putting in hours and hours on the title.

Forza is not my thing. It's cool for people that it is I'm sure. Xbox has something here for sure.

Psychonauts 2 is incredibly average and felt low budget to me. The guise of the story is just not that clever. Things like, fighting doubts and regrets and how the levels work ... they are obvious things to do given the subject matter, and the gameplay just was not tight at all IMO.

Those five games are your entire list for the year. On top of that, one of them was purchased by MS well into dev, one is not really a game, one is a complete disappointment, and one isn't even on Xbox.

You can cling to the idea that this merits a "publisher of the year" from a site like Meteoritic, but since I actually own and play all of these platforms and games I will reiterate that Xbox continues to be, for me, the most disappointing console ecosystem I own by far. To the point where I am considering selling mine off and getting again IF Starfield is worth playing, but we will see. I sold my PS5 last year and regretted it and bought it again, so not sure I want to do that with Xbox yet.

I don't even know what Sony had last year, or what their total score is, but they had 10 unique releases compared to MS's 5 and Returnal absolutely spanked anything released by MS (and Nintendo) last year. Again, you have to play these things in depth to get it. Not just play console warrior games on forums and such. I'm here for the games. That's why I can say things like "publisher of the year" means absolutely nothing when the proof is in the pudding and the pudding is bland and has an odd skin on top. Sorta like that year "Shakespeare in Love" won Best Picture. Nobody takes that stuff seriously.

Think about it. If you need to point to an award from a site that means nothing as proof that your system of preference is doing well, while gamers are like "just look at the cavalcade of games coming out on Switch and Playstation" ... don't you think that might mean something? If you don't understand what I mean, just take a little time to think about it.
UtR97HR.jpg


Luckily your opinion isn't important to anyone but you.
 

iceatcs

Junior Member
Starting to think the speculation that Sony are in the process of allocating PS5 hardware into datacenters might be accurate. Doesn't sound right for it to be in such short supply in March.

Great month for Xbox though.
Could be but their 1st party games are also coming on PC platform. I suspect not just because of the PC market is profitable, but ability to set PC gaming cloud servers in the datacentres easier and future proof than PS5/PS4 servers internationally.
 
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*beat me to it

Yeah, Gran Turismo 7 is killing it in sales almost everywhere. Horizon is showing great legs too. So much for dead/forgotten game lol

Now that they've fixed the MTX fucery and are adding even more content I think GT7 legs are going to surprise a lot of people, even though it shouldn't. Every installment's done about 10 million LTD, IIRC. One of the few things I think they can still fix is the behind-the-car camera; it's too tight on the car. Apparently GT4 had this same issue, so I hope in 7's case Polyphony make a change to that with a patch update.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
It was actually back in 2010 during the "Playstation Family" obscurity of sales numbers.
Oh god, I remember that shit.

Sony would boldly announce that sales from all their hardware beat Wii. But conveniently left out DS, which at the time even sold more than WIi.
 
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