• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

US NPD May 2022 - Lowest Month since Feb 2020

jigglet

Banned
I guess the state of the US economy was going to hit the entertainment industry. Its one of the first spending segments of household budgets that gets tightened.

I honestly don't get comments like this. I've seen the same said about the relative decline of many other companies and subscription services (keyword = RELATIVE).

Feb 2020 is coincidentally when almost the entire world stayed at home. I'd say this shocking coincidence has more to do with it than anything.

Yes the economy is in the pits, but it's not an obvious reason for it. In fact, if you look back through the entire history of economic recessions, depressions and wars, you'll see that cheap lifestyle thrills is actually what increased the most in sales...lipstick, stockings, champagne. I distinctly remember learning this back at Uni. When times get tough, people look for anything to keep their minds occupied and a cheap hobby like gaming in theory should be bolstered more than other industries.
 
Last edited:
Nah, people are just buying everything available.

Not to mention that until very recently MS were pushing the idea that Starfield and Redfall would be out this year, and suggesting the same for Forza 8 too.
the spending of 300 euros / dollars in a time of recession like this is not done lightly, especially if they are products that did not fall within the priorities. I will explain better those who want a PS5 do not go out and buy a series s. They are two different products for multiple reasons, especially when you have a 399 ps5 console. People will keep waiting for the PS5, sales of the S are mostly not due to the lack of PlayStation.
 
Last edited:

Hezekiah

Banned
What does that have to do with anything here except subpar attempts at bait ? :messenger_tears_of_joy:
He said MS hadnt even released anything yet - however up until very recently people thought Starfield for example was coming out this year.

It's not that difficult to work out if you can avoid getting triggered 🤦
 

MikeM

Member
I guess the state of the US economy was going to hit the entertainment industry. Its one of the first spending segments of household budgets that gets tightened.
Yep. Already cancelled my renewal of PS Plus. I’ll buy back in black friday once its stupid cheap. Cashed out my stocks month ago before the bloodbath. Gonna hoard cash while the chaos ensues.
 

Roxkis_ii

Member
Man, I wonder if Sony has been sending most stock to the Europe. Ps5 been selling gangbester there.

Regardless, congrats to MS and Xbox this month.
 
Last edited:

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
He said MS hadnt even released anything yet - however up until very recently people thought Starfield for example was coming out this year.

It's not that difficult to work out if you can avoid getting triggered 🤦

Starfield and Redfall delays were announced a month ago. That and equating a good sales month for games that weren't scheduled to come out till later in the year anyway is still wrong.

The one thing you said right was that people are buying whatever is available.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
Nah, people are just buying everything available.

Not to mention that until very recently MS were pushing the idea that Starfield and Redfall would be out this year, and suggesting the same for Forza 8 too.
Even without a healthy 2022 exclusive lineup Xbox is doing well in the west because, it's more popular in the West.

I'm sure it's sales will increase when the games come and I do see them reclaiming NA.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
Starfield and Redfall delays were announced a month ago. That and equating a good sales month for games that weren't scheduled to come out till later in the year anyway is still wrong.

The one thing you said right was that people are buying whatever is available.
Not at all, you seriously don't think people might buy a short-in-availablity console based on games coming in the next few months? Nonsense.

And the news came out in the middle of the month, and not everybody reads gaming forums.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I honestly don't get comments like this. I've seen the same said about the relative decline of many other companies and subscription services (keyword = RELATIVE).

Feb 2020 is coincidentally when almost the entire world stayed at home. I'd say this shocking coincidence has more to do with it than anything.

Yes the economy is in the pits, but it's not an obvious reason for it. In fact, if you look back through the entire history of economic recessions, depressions and wars, you'll see that cheap lifestyle thrills is actually what increased the most in sales...lipstick, stockings, champagne. I distinctly remember learning this back at Uni. When times get tough, people look for anything to keep their minds occupied and a cheap hobby like gaming in theory should be bolstered more than other industries.

Just like a series s and gamepass. It's obviously working. Thing must be flying to beat out the ps5 in revenue too. You have to sell 1.75 series s to equal a ps5 value.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Not at all, you seriously don't think people might buy a short-in-availablity console based on games coming in the next few months? Nonsense.

And the news came out in the middle of the month, and not everybody reads gaming forums.

Not at this point, at this point people who want PS5s or Series X's will buy them whenever they're available regardless of what's coming out in the immediate future.
 
How many units has Elden Ring sold at this point? Crazy legs.

Americans basically paying European prices for gas... you love to see it.
Yeah, the difference is that America's dysfunctional, nonresponsive government hasn't been investing in public transit since probably the 1970s, so in most parts of the country people are just shit out of luck if they can't afford to drive anymore. In most of Europe, even in relatively rural areas, you can just shift more of your travel over to train or bus if you start feeling the gas prices. In the US that's just plain not an option outside of a handful of major (mostly blue state) cities.

Luckily I live in one of them, so I haven't been feeling the gas prices at all.
 

Hezekiah

Banned
Not at this point, at this point people who want PS5s or Series X's will buy them whenever they're available regardless of what's coming out in the immediate future.
Well for the most part that's probably true, but to say that future games doesn't play a part to some extent is wrong imo.
 
lets skip the vague shit. anyone knows LTD for PS5 and series consoles? or a close estimate? without actual numbers, none of this dollar revenue percentage crap tells us anything
 
Last edited:

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
The difference between a $299 Switch or Series S and a $399 digital PS5 is a tank of gas to many people these days.

Since 1995 $299 has been the "sweet spot" for game consoles. That's why Sony's "$299" at E3 was a mic drop against the $399 Saturn.
I don't think you can find a digital ps5 either though.
 

Helghan

Member
Microsoft / Xbox are going to reclaim America in 2022 aren't they?

Crazy when you think they haven't released anything. Sony has had both Horizon and GT and they have been third all year. They need to get that hardware to USA asap.
USA already got the most units in the beginning. They really neglected Europe compared to other generations. I understand why though, Europe is Sony land, they'll buy PS5 even if they have to wait 2 years.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Gaming peaked during pandemic, all these publishers chasing that sweet money by building bajillion service games are in for a rude awakening when consumer spending normalizes due to not being locked in at home all the time.
Very astute observation. Not something Jimbo is capable of seeing as how he's about to release 12 GaaS games in the next 3-4 years.

This reminds me of both Sony and Microsoft chasing the Wii Motion Control fad in the PS360 era. Every conference had half a dozen kinect and move shovelware, and while MS was far more successful, it didnt translate into longterm growth.

It's clear that there can only be so many subscription based games on the market at one point. A lot of these guys have already missed the fortnite and warzone craze. Even battlefield and traditional cod cannot compete with these juggernauts, what chance does sony have? I love Destiny so dont mind ND's take on PvE raids, but man 12 is just way too much. you are flooding the market at that point. People dont invests hunderds of hours into one game only to abandon it three months later for another gaas game. Thats precisely why Sony was selling so many of their single player games during the GaaS boom of last gen. People wanted something different and Sony was able to create their own niche while EA, Activision and Ubisoft chased the gaas trends. It's far easier to buy a new 20-30 hour single player game every 3 months than it is to drop 3 months of progress to pick up an entirely different gaas game.

Shawn Layden once said something that annoyed me but i can see what he was trying to say now. He said he didnt want to make online multiplayer games because he didnt want to compete with Activision and Ubisoft. I was angry because I wanted to see Sony make more online games like KZ, Warhawk, Mag and Resistance. But now I see that he simply looked at how difficult it is to penetrate that market and astutely decided to stay the fuck from it. Their games started selling 20 million after languishing around 5-10 million for over two decades, and even that is not good enough. Incredible.
 
Last edited:
Because the $400 PS5 barely exists, while Series S is selling on par or maybe even outselling the Series X.
Well yeah, that's what I mean about the supply chain thing. Sony has to decide if a manufactured PS5 is going to be digital or disc, therefore either one or both are going to be in low supply until production gets sorted out.

The difference between a $299 Switch or Series S and a $399 digital PS5 is a tank of gas to many people these days.

Since 1995 $299 has been the "sweet spot" for game consoles. That's why Sony's "$299" at E3 was a mic drop against the $399 Saturn.
The case could be made that counterintuitively, that makes any of these prices look better. Of course gamers are notoriously horrible at assessing relative value, since they will gladly pay the same price for a few skins that the would for an entire game.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Man, I wonder if Sony has been sending most stock to the Europe. Ps5 been selling gangbester there.

Regardless, congrats to MS and Xbox this month.

Congrats to all console makers, it's not easy mass manufacturing devices with extreme chip shortage.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
V rising sold 1.5 million copies in 2 weeks. Market new content, someone as usual needs to play more games.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Xbox may be about to surpass PS5 in the USA at this point right? Or is it still far? I have no idea...but it seems from February to May things were bad for Sony in there. They seem to be prioritizing other places as well

Seems like xbox has pegged back to the US as the global PS sales are still ahead, trying to get at least one market lead globally.
 
Damn, Xbox is doing well even with a content drought at the moment. Just imagine how crazy sales numbers are going to be next year with the insane lineup they have planned.

I don't think casuals are even aware of the content drought like the online gaming community, Switch didn't have many big budget first party game for a while and it sold like hotcakes still these last 2 years.

Casuals that bought an Xbox probably wanted to upgrade and found out all the EA sports games, nba 2k, new Halo, New Forza, Minecraft are on Game Pass and see the Rocket League and Fortnite Series S bundle. Just Stuff that casuals play. I bet they have heard good things about Game Pass and feel they can save some money.
 

FStubbs

Member
I don't think casuals are even aware of the content drought like the online gaming community, Switch didn't have many big budget first party game for a while and it sold like hotcakes still these last 2 years.

Casuals that bought an Xbox probably wanted to upgrade and found out all the EA sports games, nba 2k, new Halo, New Forza, Minecraft are on Game Pass and see the Rocket League and Fortnite Series S bundle. Just Stuff that casuals play. I bet they have heard good things about Game Pass and feel they can save some money.
Nintendo's followed their usual handheld software strategy on Switch - basically once the platform gets momentum, they back off of a lot of first party games and let the third parties take over. (I think the 3DS was the only time they did not do this)
 
I don't think casuals are even aware of the content drought like the online gaming community, Switch didn't have many big budget first party game for a while and it sold like hotcakes still these last 2 years.

Casuals that bought an Xbox probably wanted to upgrade and found out all the EA sports games, nba 2k, new Halo, New Forza, Minecraft are on Game Pass and see the Rocket League and Fortnite Series S bundle. Just Stuff that casuals play. I bet they have heard good things about Game Pass and feel they can save some money.
This is an excellent point. Many here have no idea what casual gamers think or want. The poll from Twitter showing how 70% of the people who watched the Xbox showcase thought positively about it vs. some here predicting MS exiting the console market shows the disconnect.

Xbox has tons of games. They aren't making tons of 1st party games right now but they are stacked on general content and as long as major titles like Street Fighter and Elden Ring are available not having Redfall this year won't really hurt them.

Having an inexpensive $300 console was really a stroke of genius despite many here predicting it would flop. Enthusiasts are the very example of vocal minority.
 

M16

Member
Someone who is set on buying a PS5 and playing Sony exclusives isn't going to spend $300 on an XSS just because the PS5 is out of stock.
That's a much smaller percentage of the overall console market. Look at the most played games list from last month.

Minecraft (2009)
Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
The Sims 4 (2014)
Fortnite (2017)
Among Us (2018)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020)
Call of Duty: Warzone (2020)
Madden NFL 22 (2021)
Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021)
NBA 2K22 (2021)
 
I honestly don't get comments like this. I've seen the same said about the relative decline of many other companies and subscription services (keyword = RELATIVE).

Feb 2020 is coincidentally when almost the entire world stayed at home. I'd say this shocking coincidence has more to do with it than anything.

Yes the economy is in the pits, but it's not an obvious reason for it. In fact, if you look back through the entire history of economic recessions, depressions and wars, you'll see that cheap lifestyle thrills is actually what increased the most in sales...lipstick, stockings, champagne. I distinctly remember learning this back at Uni. When times get tough, people look for anything to keep their minds occupied and a cheap hobby like gaming in theory should be bolstered more than other industries.
Yeah...Every company is breaking all sorts of records from the Xbox division to PlayStation and Nintendo. The idea that somehow the industry may struggle in the future is not true.
Let's face it, this year has been quite "bad" for huge games so far. The ones that were released came out all close to eachother: Pokémon Legends: Arceus > Forbidden West > Elden Ring > Gran Turismo 7. All these 4 games came out from january 28th to march 4th.

If we had another huge game release everyone would go buy it today as well. We're going to be suffering from development delays due to covid for quite a while.
 

reksveks

Member
Yeah...Every company is breaking all sorts of records from the Xbox division to PlayStation and Nintendo. The idea that somehow the industry may struggle in the future is not true.
Let's face it, this year has been quite "bad" for huge games so far. The ones that were released came out all close to eachother: Pokémon Legends: Arceus > Forbidden West > Elden Ring > Gran Turismo 7. All these 4 games came out from january 28th to march 4th.

If we had another huge game release everyone would go buy it today as well. We're going to be suffering from development delays due to covid for quite a while.
I don't know if that's true, think the economic headwinds might impact everything but COD might be the big test.
 
"Subscription content is the only category showing year-on-year spending growth."

That probably doesn't mean what you think it means.

This is now $3:

t-mcdonalds-Cheeseburger-1:1-3-product-tile-desktop


The point is people are paying A LOT more for gas and food now and for many a $500 plastic box that plays games isn’t an option right now. That’s why the $299 Switch and Series S are going to continue to top NPD even if PS5 and XSX supplies improve.

The worst modern President and world leaders with the worst banks and Federal Reserve, contributing to the most needless inflation of the century. Love to see it.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom