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[semiconscious]

Welp, Ubisoft finally makes a great open world game again (best since AC:B) that's positive and socially progressive and it completely bombs. This why we can't have nice things and all that.

the game cover prominently features a hacker with a gun. sorry if i'm just not really seeing what's 'positive' or 'socially progressive' about that ...

 

[Kill3r7]

Was talking to some Sr friends at 2K not too long ago, and while there was a bit of a select resurgence a couple years back - there's seems to be a big overall question about the future of big single player games as a whole in the industry these days. The "resurgence" didn't seem to last into this generation as games move more toward services, and for all the reasons you mention

There is a lot of truth in what you are saying about big AAA SP experiences vs games as a service but maybe it also has something to do with the genre of these games as well. Both Deus Ex MD and Dishonored 2 underperformed. Maybe the gameplay loop needs to be updated for the masses to enjoy it. I have yet to play Dishonored 2, picked it up on BF but really enjoyed my time with Deus Ex MD even if the main story was a bit of a letdown.

 

[LifeBrandRobot]

Pokemon titles from the same gen are far more similar than Smash 3DS and Wii U. To argue otherwise is honestly silly.



And entirely different modes.

Black Ops 3 current gen and last gen were grouped together and the last gen version didn't have a campaign mode and was online only. I don't think ingame features have anything to do with it.

 

[John Harker]

There is a lot of truth in what you are saying about big AAA SP experiences vs games as a service but maybe it also has something to do with the genre of these games as well. Both Deus Ex MD and Dishonored 2 underperformed. Maybe the gameplay loop needs to be updated for the masses to enjoy it. I have yet to play Dishonored 2, picked it up on BF but really enjoyed my time with Deus Ex MD even if the main story was a bit of a letdown.

It touches upon a larger issue of publishers losing the script on what it is the market wants out of big single player experiences. It's changed a lot in the passed 2-3 years, and games that were successfully launched as new IPs last gen aren't not finding the same successes now despite arugualy improved experiences

 

[Loudninja]

PlayStation Store: November’s Top Downloads

1 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
2 Battlefield 1
3 FINAL FANTASY XV
4 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
5 Star Wars Battlefront
6 Grand Theft Auto V
7 Watch Dogs 2
8 Overwatch: Origins Edition
9 EA SPORTS FIFA 17
10 Far Cry Primal
11 Titanfall 2
12 Rocket League
13 Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition
14 TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE
15 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition
16 Need for Speed
17 Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
18 Mad Max
19 Just Cause 3
20 Terraria: PS4 Edition

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/12/12/playstation-store-novembers-top-downloads/

 

[LifeBrandRobot]

This is a depressing conclusion to come to. Single player story driven games can still be fairly successful under the right conditions but it certainly does seem a lot harder to sell them this gen for some reason that's for sure. As someone who loves these sorts of games I can't help feeling a bit scared about what this means for investment from publishers for these titles going forward... T_T

Bad sign for Sony if true. All of their big games are single player experiences. Even the ones with MP like Uncharted are still only seen as SP games. They're releasing the only open world zombie game that's NOT MP lol.

 

[Clear]

One of the things I observed from looking at the interest for Dishonored 2 is how all of the excitement was focused on gameplay.

Practically none for story, characters, world.

That was a huge red flag for me. It might as well be a new IP if you failed to generate any bring-forward resonance for the lore you've spent a long time building from the first game. Even Gears has a stronger story touch point with Fenix whereas Emily and Corvo were like "oh... cool. Meh."

Especially when the title "Dishonored" only means something if you can identify with the person who's honor has been taken from them! If you are going with a title like that, you need to really establish a name and a face for your protagonist that everyone knows.

If not, people are just gonna shrug it off. Promo's I saw on TV didn't get that across, just made it look like a pretty if generic Assassin's Creed spin-off.

 

[ethomaz]

Sad everything being down when the userbase is close to 10m bigger than last year.

More consumers = less software sold.

Novber this year was terrible.

 

[Y2Kev]

I know it doesn't explain sales but I didn't like mankind divided or dishonored 2. Clearly I am the barometer.

People need to stop making their games so goddamn annoying. Playability is down across the board this gen for me. Mechanics seem needlessly complex.

 

[deriks]

Nice to see Titanfall getting more love

 

[OléGunner]

Bad sign for Sony if true. All of their big games are single player experiences. Even the ones with MP like Uncharted are still only seen as SP games. They're releasing the only open world zombie game that's NOT MP lol.

I dunno.
Most core Sony for fans are in it for SP (whether that's enough to sustain them is another thing)

And they are filling the never ending open world thirst with Horizon, Days Gone and Spiderman while still being single player.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

One of the things I observed from looking at the interest for Dishonored 2 is how all of the excitement was focused on gameplay.

Practically none for story, characters, world.

That was a huge red flag for me. It might as well be a new IP if you failed to generate any bring-forward resonance for the lore you've spent a long time building from the first game. Even Gears has a stronger story touch point with Fenix whereas Emily and Corvo were like "oh... cool. Meh."

Funny you mention that, criticism of the Campaign's underwhelming story & characters are what prevented me from purchasing it, it's something I increasingly value.

 

[outunderthestars]

I know it doesn't explain sales but I didn't like mankind divided or dishonored 2. Clearly I am the barometer.

People need to stop making their games so goddamn annoying. Playability is down across the board this gen for me. Mechanics seem needlessly complex.

I keep running I to this as well.

 

[Principate]

Just because they don't have it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist

Who said it doesn't exist. I'm saying for the purposes of that conclusion Eshop sales aren't included, unless venturebeat decided to use external data and added it in and even it wouldn't be correct as that's hardly just an npd chart anymore.

 

[Poimandres]

Dishonored 2 is pretty great, what is wrong with people?

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

I thought everyone said Titanfall 2 tanked.

And that's without digital sales counted.

It did. Which is why they had it for like $20 at every storefront imaginable

 

[Jack The Nipper]

PS4+XB1 alone have a higher userbase than 3Ds not to mention CoD is also on PC.

This userbase idea doesn't matter. To say one game has more doesn't prove much.

The very idea of sales come more from perception. Obviously a userbase matters to a point but half or more of those 3Ds systems probably aren't even actively used or bought for.

Games sell a lot more with small based too. If course there are many factors involved. With increased competition and cod fans not liking the new gameplay it was inevitable to drop. A new modern warfare could possibly bring them back.

I'm mostly excited because I hope shooter devs stop copying the mp style and iron sight gameplay. Just make something unique and some depth again.

Siege is good but feel it can go further in being different.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

I know it doesn't explain sales but I didn't like mankind divided or dishonored 2. Clearly I am the barometer.

People need to stop making their games so goddamn annoying. Playability is down across the board this gen for me. Mechanics seem needlessly complex.

it is a common trend to confuse depth with complexity.

 

[Kill3r7]

I know it doesn't explain sales but I didn't like mankind divided or dishonored 2. Clearly I am the barometer.

People need to stop making their games so goddamn annoying. Playability is down across the board this gen for me. Mechanics seem needlessly complex.

Personally I thought the gameplay mechanics for MD were a natural evolution from HR. If anything, they might not have been a big enough jump. So if you liked HR's gameplay you would be hard pressed to dislike MD. The main story on the other hand was a bit of a letdown especially when compared to the quality of the side missions.

 

[allan-bh]

Dishonored 2 is pretty great, what is wrong with people?

Bad timing for launch. Dishonored 2 was obfuscated in november.

 

[outunderthestars]

Would really like to hear known how the 3DS would have done if Nintendo actually had inventory. I have not seen a 3DS or 2DS is a store around here since early November and no 2DS models in maybe five months.

 

[LordBaztion]

hey, glad to see titanfall 2 there.

 

[Poimandres]

Bad timing for launch. Dishonored 2 was obfuscated in november.

Agreed it's absolutely not a game that should have gone head to head in the heavy hitter holiday season. I'm sure it will ultimately do alright, but I'm pretty concerned about its future now.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

I know it doesn't explain sales but I didn't like mankind divided or dishonored 2. Clearly I am the barometer.

People need to stop making their games so goddamn annoying. Playability is down across the board this gen for me. Mechanics seem needlessly complex.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way and that it's not just that I'm bad.

And I loved the previous games in those series.

 

[klier]

Is this the first time GTAV is not on the list since it came out??

 

[benny_a]

I know it doesn't explain sales but I didn't like mankind divided or dishonored 2. Clearly I am the barometer.

People need to stop making their games so goddamn annoying. Playability is down across the board this gen for me. Mechanics seem needlessly complex.

But that doesn't matter. It's not like console games sell based on how good they are in the first month.

 

[jett]

Too bad @AstronautClaire deleted her twitter account, for some reason. It was nice getting numbers, at least for a short while.

 

[ethomaz]

Is this the first time GTAV is not on the list since it came out??

Last month it didn't entered in the TOP10 too.

To be fair since the ranking is about revenue it has low changes to enter because well it is cheaper.... it showed when the ranking was about units.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

PlayStation Store: November’s Top Downloads

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/12/12/playstation-store-novembers-top-downloads/

Dishonored not in the top 20 downloads for the month? Yeesh.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

I don't think SP games are going to make it unless there is a lot of content like a RPG \Open world .
You can also try to make them but the budget has to be lower .

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I don't think SP games are going to make it unless there is a lot of content like a RPG Open world .
You can also try to make them but the budget has to be lower .

So over/under 500k first month for Resident Evil 7?

 

[MatPiscatella]

Sad stuff.
All the service based games that will be in the market in a couple years will be a bloodbath. There's only so many people can commit to at once.

When games are made that are designed for hundreds of hours of play, there will certainly be winners and losers. You don't need to wait to see the impact of this, look around right now.

Was talking to some Sr friends at 2K not too long ago, and while there was a bit of a select resurgence a couple years back - there's seems to be a big overall question about the future of big single player games as a whole in the industry these days. The "resurgence" didn't seem to last into this generation as games move more toward services, and for all the reasons you mention

Sure. There's very little upside and a whole lot of risk in making $60 single player games now. Most games will be built with service models over the next few years in order to increase the opportunity. If a balance can be found there, single player games would be in a much better place.

Would really like to hear known how the 3DS would have done if Nintendo actually had inventory.

They would have sold even more.

Thanks for the clarification but the hardware is still significantly down, there were lots of great games to play this season, still seems worrying.

All about context though. This year is down in hardware partially because Nov 2015 was absolutely gigantic. Still selling more than in Nov 2014. 3DS is up vs YA.

There just wasn't the content this November to push lots of HW. Gotta remember the best seller of hardware is market moving software. With the top 3 down YoY, that will have an impact on HW.

Your concern should be more focused on software release count and the homogenization of big games that can drive HW.

Smaller release counts make every game released more important.

I know it doesn't explain sales but I didn't like mankind divided or dishonored 2. Clearly I am the barometer.

People need to stop making their games so goddamn annoying. Playability is down across the board this gen for me. Mechanics seem needlessly complex.

For my own personal gaming tastes, I can get behind this. In the rush to attract the "core" I think a lot of games are trying to have systems in order to cover being an action game with RPG elements, stealth mechanics and crafting systems. Personally, I'd like to see more games like DOOM. Pick what you are, and be really good at that one thing.

 

[John Wick]

Uh saying Pokémon would outsell a COD game in the launch month would have been heresy even 2 years ago.

Also that bodes well for TF2 if that is a revenue chart.

Pokémon is huge especially after the Pokémon Go game on mobile phones. That must have bought quite a few new players in. Also how many great other games were released on 3DS in November??? Or even in the last 2-3 months? Not many. So obviously a huge Nintendo IP is gonna do impressive numbers at launch.

 

[John Harker]

Dishonored not in the top 20 downloads for the month? Yeesh.

It's digital share is roughly 25% for the month

 

[Kill3r7]

Not sure if this has been discussed yet but every major holiday release outside of Pokemon and Watchdogs 2 was on sale for $30 or under this BF. We saw aggressive sales of COD, BF1, Titanfall 2, Skyrim, Dishonored 2 and many, many other top titles. Some excellent digital sales as well. This was not been the case previous years and IMO it is a trend worth watching. Heck I even bought FFXV on X1 (yes I know inferior version graphically) for $30 from Newegg. You can't beat that as a consumer but this has to be somewhat concerning for major AAA publishers.

Dishonored not in the top 20 downloads for the month? Yeesh.

Dishonored was not on Holiday sale digitally so that might have been a factor. The one that is even more concerning is the lack of Deus Ex MD on PS4 which could be had for $24 with 20%off coupon.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

FFXV topping the charts in November for just 2 days of sales makes me very happy.

Here is a bold prediction. The game might open to 1+ million in NPD if we count digital + physical.

This should be higher than The Witcher 3, which opened to 700k.

 

[Welfare]

So, if 2.1 million ps4/pro and xbones were sold and 30% were the 500gb uc4 ps4 sku that means the ps4/pro split was...

Ps4 700k
Pro 400k

That's actually not that bad really. Were there any other ps4 skus besides uc4?

Sales for the Black Ops 3 and Limited UC4 bundles.

 

[MacTag]

Tells you right in the article:



The top 3 games this year sold a lot less than the top 3 last year. All other games were up 12%.

The top 3 being down has an impact on HW.

So, COD:IW, BF1 and Pokemon Sun did a lot less than BLOPS3, FO4 and SW:BF.

3DS just had its biggest physical SW month ever.

I mean, it's all right there.

Isn't this comparison more like the 2016 top 2.5 versus the 2015 top 3? Seems like an odd delineation to make and claim only the top 3 really did terrible and the rest of the market was up.

And if we're voicing concerns about the AAA console market shouldn't Pokémon and 3DS sw sort of be set aside entirely? Was the PS4+One sw market outside the top 3 up?

 

[Kusagari]

Dishonored has pretty much been on fire sale as well since Black Friday. I feel like it's 35 bucks every time I go on Amazon.

Wonder if that helped it any.

 

[Kill3r7]

FFXV topping the charts in November for just 2 days of sales makes me very happy.

Here is a bold prediction. The game might open to 1+ million in NPD if we count digital + physical.

This should be higher than The Witcher 3, which opened to 700k.

The Witcher 3 number does not include digital sales and it was a May release. I could see FFXV doing around the same number physically or maybe slightly less based on its PAL performance. That said, both combined would still equal to less sales than FO4 last year.

 

[jet1911]

Titanfall 2 <3<3

 

[Primethius]

I would have gladly bought Deus Ex or Dishonored 2 in one of the slower months of the year at full price. Not sure why they would put those titles in such packed months.

I think publishers also need to start targeting release dates for certain titles during the periods in which games that are largely popular services (think Destiny) aren't releasing content.

Just on a personal level, it's hard for me to justify buying a game that releases on the same day as a new Hitman level for example. Or when new operators for Siege drop. I'm sure the same applies to others but for different titles.

 

[CaviarMeths]

Pokémon is huge especially after the Pokémon Go game on mobile phones. That must have bought quite a few new players in. Also how many great other games were released on 3DS in November??? Or even in the last 2-3 months? Not many. So obviously a huge Nintendo IP is gonna do impressive numbers at launch.

No, you really can't just handwave this. This is highly unusual, even considering the tired-ass "well, Nintendo fans have nothing else to buy" argument. Pokemon actually had two major disadvantages that CoD didn't have, (1) it had a $40 price point and (2) didn't include digital sales.

The difference is more due to the fact that CoD collapsed so much though. Pokemon is up, but CoD is way down.

 

[get2sammyb]

Bad sign for Sony if true. All of their big games are single player experiences. Even the ones with MP like Uncharted are still only seen as SP games. They're releasing the only open world zombie game that's NOT MP lol.

Could help them. If all the other publishers branch off in the services direction, the Sony games may stick out that bit more and serve an audience that's not being satisfied by the third-parties.

 

[Kill3r7]

I would have gladly bought Deus Ex or Dishonored 2 in one of the slower months of the year at full price. Not sure why they would put those titles in such packed months.

I think publishers also need to start targeting release dates for certain titles during the periods in which games that are largely popular services (think Destiny) aren't releasing content.

Just on a personal level, it's hard for me to justify buying a game that releases on the same day as a new Hitman level for example. Or when new operators for Siege drop. I'm sure the same applies to others but for different titles.

Agreed. FYI, Deus Ex MD came out in August but it too was a sales disappointment then as it is now.

 

[Reineldinho]

I would have gladly bought Deus Ex or Dishonored 2 in one of the slower months of the year at full price. Not sure why they would put those titles in such packed months.

I think publishers also need to start targeting release dates for certain titles during the periods in which games that are largely popular services (think Destiny) aren't releasing content.

Just on a personal level, it's hard for me to justify buying a game that releases on the same day as a new Hitman level for example. Or when new operators for Siege drop. I'm sure the same applies to others but for different titles.

Agree on everything, but just fyi, Deus EX came out in August.

 

[Interfectum]

I would have gladly bought Deus Ex or Dishonored 2 in one of the slower months of the year at full price. Not sure why they would put those titles in such packed months.

I think publishers also need to start targeting release dates for certain titles during the periods in which games that are largely popular services (think Destiny) aren't releasing content.

Just on a personal level, it's hard for me to justify buying a game that releases on the same day as a new Hitman level for example. Or when new operators for Siege drop. I'm sure the same applies to others but for different titles.

Yup, same goes for Watch Dogs 2. The only reason I even bought the first was I was starved for something to play.

This year there is so much shit coming out I'll probably never play some of those games now.

And like you said, content expansions for current games play a role too. Hitman, Overwatch and Hearthstone are all keeping me pretty busy right now.

 

[Meatyhooks]

I'm almost giddy to see TF2 on this list. TF3! Belive!!!

 

[Y2Kev]

When games are made that are designed for hundreds of hours of play, there will certainly be winners and losers. You don't need to wait to see the impact of this, look around right now.



Sure. There's very little upside and a whole lot of risk in making $60 single player games now. Most games will be built with service models over the next few years in order to increase the opportunity. If a balance can be found there, single player games would be in a much better place.



They would have sold even more.



All about context though. This year is down in hardware partially because Nov 2015 was absolutely gigantic. Still selling more than in Nov 2014. 3DS is up vs YA.

There just wasn't the content this November to push lots of HW. Gotta remember the best seller of hardware is market moving software. With the top 3 down YoY, that will have an impact on HW.

Your concern should be more focused on software release count and the homogenization of big games that can drive HW.

Smaller release counts make every game released more important.



For my own personal gaming tastes, I can get behind this. In the rush to attract the "core" I think a lot of games are trying to have systems in order to cover being an action game with RPG elements, stealth mechanics and crafting systems. Personally, I'd like to see more games like DOOM. Pick what you are, and be really good at that one thing.

And doom is so good! I really love how simple the game is.

 

[Primethius]

Agreed. FYI, Deus Ex MD came out in August but it too was a sales disappointment then as it is now.

Agree on everything, but just fyi, Deus EX came out in August.

Haha yea, I was thinking or myself there a bit and got mixed up. Thanks for the heads up!

A Hitman episode dropped like 5-6 days before Deus Ex IIRC so that pretty much sealed the deal on whether I'd buy the game full price or not.