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NPD Sales Results for January 2016
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
KillerMan91
Member
But that is what people have exactly said? Sony screwing up with PS3 definitely helped MS a lot and made it default HD console early on in US. Same thing happened otherwise around this gen. As for your second point I don't really agree. Sure if MS would have came up with some Wii like gimmick that would have attracted people outside of the standard gaming audience the totals for the two would be higher but if they just had made better console for the traditional gamers (like Sony with PS4 and MS before with X360) the current totals would be simply split up differently (of course totals for the two would not be exactly the same but in same ballpark). Having two PS4 like consoles would mean that the better brand and momentum would decide the leader early on and back in 2013 MS definitely had big advantage on those in US.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
That pic gets me every time
And not directing this to this poster at all, but I remember gaffers saying we don't need Cream anymore. That was awful.
You always needs Cream. Always!
If you say XB1 mistakes are what made PS4 what it is, you should think also that Sony made 360 what it was. And if MS was a minor factor in their own success, how can they be relevant enought to be a major factor in the success of another product when they were not a major factor in their own success? Can't you see how flawed is your logic?
this. It's so easy to see I'm facepalming already
FeenixRising
Banned
edit - nvm
Primethius
Banned
All these wild predictions about what would have happened seem pointless to be honest.
Microsoft are good guys. They just wanted to level the playing field after Sonys debacle in the PS3 gen.
Microsoft are good guys. They just wanted to level the playing field after Sonys debacle in the PS3 gen.
Putting a platforms success all on another company is shortsighted and ignores all the work that goes into launching a platform and maintaining that success. You can't just say "if x company did things this way the outcome would be different". How do you know? You can't look at past consoles and expect the same results for the future. I would of thought PS4 success would make people realise this. Looking back that one certain thread before the consoles launched is hilarious.
I thought this kind of thinking would be brought up in Nov and Dec NPD threads. It seems back to pre season sales has sobered up some people.
I thought this kind of thinking would be brought up in Nov and Dec NPD threads. It seems back to pre season sales has sobered up some people.
The Mad Draklor
Member
However, that isn't to say Sony cannot come up with other ways to sell/advertise the PS4. Sure, it would be more difficult, but it wouldn't be impossible either. Perhaps Sony would've been more aggressive grabbing marketing deals/exclusive content with 3rd party studios. Maybe Sony would've ran a more aggressive marketing campaign. There are a lot of variables to take into account.
You can get a Xbox One for $200 less than you could 2 years ago while PS4 is only $50 cheaper than it was 2 years ago but PS4 is still outselling it. this month it look to be outselling it around 2:1 at a higher price.
MS can't be happy with selling the Xbox One $200 cheaper than it's launch price while PS4 is only $50 cheaper than it's launch price & still being outsold by a lot with no change insight. they are already down to $299 but not outselling the PS4 so the question is will it be worth it for MS to drop to $199 - $250 when PS4 make a price drop to $299 or $250?
MS can't be happy with selling the Xbox One $200 cheaper than it's launch price while PS4 is only $50 cheaper than it's launch price & still being outsold by a lot with no change insight. they are already down to $299 but not outselling the PS4 so the question is will it be worth it for MS to drop to $199 - $250 when PS4 make a price drop to $299 or $250?
I reckon it's a combination of the 2 really, with Sony's success being the greater influence. They simply did everything right and executed well imo, MS goofing up added to that.
Your logic is what doesn't make sense, capitalize on top of Sony's mistakes doesn't change the result of the 360 in the market and this was a factor for the next generation.
3rdamention
Member
It was interesting PR. Funny thing is, we all know Microsoft transitioned to MAUs, in part, because they no longer want to share console sales. Its obvious, and I do agree that MAUs can be an important metric. If they wanted to share console sales, they wouldn't have stopped sharing them.
However, when you aren't sharing Console Sales (which appear to be down so you cannot use some YOY %) and MAUs havent increased at a fun PR statistic rate (they never mentioned an increase or even the number of MAUs again this month) you are forced to share some stupid stat like Hours Played. Sony could come out today and say "By the way, we just crossed 1.5 Billion Hours Played" or something and crush that statistic too.
Microsoft has kinda backed themselves into a corner when console sales dont rise YOY, then they cannot use that YOY% in their PR. If MAUs haven't increased they cannot use that statistic. And when they do not use those statistics, we get more glorious hours played, bullets fired, etc.
Ever since Microsoft has transitioned to the MAUs, we really only had meaningful MAU updates, what, twice?
What?
so you're telling me that 360 succeeded thanks to MS, and that PS4 succeeded thanks to MS too?
The market revolves around what MS does?
This is a waste of time, Im out
LegendofLex
Member
Wii won because Nintendo finally turned their marketing back to the largest segment of their market: people who weren't avid gamers but were still interested in playing accessible games like Super Mario Bros., Tetris, sports games, etc.
That's the same market that propelled the NES, every handheld generation, etc.
It's kind of like how the PS4 is winning in the same way the PS1 and PS2 did: it's simply being sold as the best platform for games, and selling that idea by grabbing up the largest total library among consoles.
Which is exactly what we are saying.
Sony capitalizing on MS fumbling (everybody remembers the game loan video) does not remove anything from their own achievements and doing mostly everything right, just like MS was both capitalizing on the PS3 problems -and- doing everything right last gen early on.
The most jarring this gen imo is the turnaround on MS's home turf really.
Now we can theorize till the end of time about 'what if' MS had done things right, but that's forgetting something: they only did things 'wrong' in context, and in comparison to things being done 'right' by the PS4.
I'm sure that back then all those policies and features made a lot of sense and seemed 'right' at MS Headquarters.
thekiddfran
Member
Amazing that people are saying that Sony is only ahead due to MS mistakes. Are ye for real?
This is some "PS4 has no games" type of stupidity
PlayStation is a bigger, more popular worldwide brand than Xbox simple as that.
The PS1, PS2 and now the PS4 destroyed the competition. Yes the mistakes of the PS3 era fucked them at the start but they ended up selling more worldwide than the 360 even though it launched a year later
It's called brand awareness.
This is some "PS4 has no games" type of stupidity
PlayStation is a bigger, more popular worldwide brand than Xbox simple as that.
The PS1, PS2 and now the PS4 destroyed the competition. Yes the mistakes of the PS3 era fucked them at the start but they ended up selling more worldwide than the 360 even though it launched a year later
It's called brand awareness.
Movalpolos
Banned
I see the "PS4 is only successful because MS fucked up" narrative is alive and well according to some people in this thread.
I never said the opposite.
Apparently you didn't followed the discussion because I said that Sony mistakes was a big part of 360's success.
Blackleg-sanji1
Banned
Im honestly surprised you kept at it this long lol.
Anyway this is a pretty dead thread February should be...ah nevermind.
Movalpolos
Banned
Maybe being out a year before PS3 had something to do with it?
But what you're doing isn't rational at all. You list Sonys good strategy and say that if Nintendo had adopted the same things it would have been successful therefore it was Nintendo that did it wrong instead of Sony doing it right. It's basically like saying well if the N64 was designed like the PS1 and the policies they adopted were like Sonys they would have beaten the PS1, therefore Nintendo throw it away instead of Sony doing the right thing. I mean it's pretty clear from the utter failure of the Saturn that it was not catridges that made Nintendo fail or CDs that made the PS1 win.
Trying to downplay the success of Sony entering the console market so well by suggesting Nintendo merely "f'd up" is such a gross oversimplification that it's not even worth mentioning.
Clearly, that is how they beat Microsoft and Nintendo* the last four generations. You saw last generation what happens if Nintendo doesn't fuck up for once.
My guess is that we'll start seeing the generation over generation drops (in terms of "The fifth January of the PS4 + XBO did worse than the fifth January of the PS3 + 360") in the fourth or fifth year when those systems really started reaching mass market prices and the Wii was starting to die down, putting more focus on the other two.
Mind, I don't think we will necessarily see the PS4 + XB1 lifetime total fall behind the 360 + PS3 one before they get replaced if for no other reason than I'm expecting them to get replaced sooner than the 360/PS3 did, and they had a very impressive front end performance.
Microsoft let Sony take back first place, but it wasn't because of the Xbone, they made a huge mistake not replacing the the 360 in 2011. By letting the gen go on Sony course corrected and won their faithful back with the PS3 and basically matched the 360 sales numbers. If Microsoft had launched while they were still dominant last gen and Sony was in no place financially to launch a new console they could have buried Sony.
Certainly.
You said all those were minor factors compared to the big one thing that is the XB1 botched launch, the major factor of PS4 sales.
So you definitely believe that companies are never responsible of their own successes, and that they just wait for the competition to fuck up.
Edit: If nobody fucks up, what happen? They all sell the same?
--
I said I was out, I'm doing it now for real >.>
KillerMan91
Member
I don't think anyone is trying to downplay what Sony has done right this gen (or during PS1/PS2 gens).Just adding that mistakes of former market leaders play also a major role in these kind of reversals in sales and that is of course completely natural but still a valid point to make.
No, is a combination of both. Never said that Sony not had its merits
That's what you are saying because I said nothing in that sense.
3rdamention
Member
What I have learned so far in this thread is, if you cannot congratulate MS for strong Xbox 1 sales, you might as well congratulate them for strong PS4 sales.
If you cannot congratulate Sony for their strong January console sales, you might as well congratulate them for strong Wii Sales.
If you cannot congratulate Nintendo for strong WiiU sales, you might as well congratulate them for solid PS4 and XB1 sales.
The Ouya should get all the respect in the world for all good console sales!
unapersson
Member
I think the MAU thing was for financial reports, so should be quarterly.
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
The way I see it, Microsoft only really had two aces up their sleeves to try and turn the tables; Titanfall and Halo 5. We all know the former did break the type of waves that Microsoft and EA were expecting. Hell, I'd say the most damning thing wasn't that they were reluctant to tell how much it sold, but how quickly EA was to reassure that the sequel would definitely also be on a PS4.
Basically. MS messed up their initial message with the X1 and never recovered from it.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Perfect assessment, lol.
The point is the things you list as Nintendos f'ups WERE Sony's merits so arguing one way or the other is pointless.
I swear you guys, go read up on Allan-bh 's post history. Time and time again the guy downplays Sony's stuff and is always crediting MS for much of their success, if not almost all of it. The guy is incredibly biased IMO (PS1 was successful mainly due to nintendo, ps3 is a failure despite the one year later release and evening the numbers out, the PS4 is mainly a success due to MS etc...)
I'm honestly surprised his bias hasn't been detected before, unless I miss out on anything.
Its like xbox is only relevant because of sonys ps3 mistakes.
Hard to recover when you come out with a product much less powerful than competition on top of the bad delivery.
This gen will also show how remarkable the Sony turn around was with PS3.
The argument is what would happen if Nintendo had done differently, that's not pointless.
darkinstinct
...lacks reading comprehension.
They could have had the perfect message and it wouldn't have helped them launching the substantially weaker hardware for $100 more. Nothing can save you from that mistake. If they had the best hardware this gen and the same price point I guess they would've won this gen no matter what their stance on ownership was.
If it's "If Nintendo had done what Sony had done then Nintendo would have won instead of Sony" then it kind of is. To be honest I think any alternate universe talk kind of is in this thread put that's just my opinion, you're perfectly free to discuss it.
Birgitte2004
Member
This is so not the truth.
Early 7th gen Sony tried to give people and incredible amount of value and power, which was difficult to utilize to the fullest, and resulted in a very high front end price.
Early 8th gen Microsoft decided that their real customer were corporations, so packed an underpowered box with a bunch of means to sell their end-users to said corporations.
If Sony had simply changed a few media statements early, saying "Sorry it's so expensive but we are trying to make a really good product" instead of the arrogant "get a second job", I think Sony wouldn't have had to change anything else. And contrary to the popular story the PS3 still outsold Microsoft in a lot of places, from launch.
Microsoft had to revamp pretty much everything just to get where they are, primarily because even after policy reversals they still ended up with a weak system which was more expensive.
Movalpolos
Banned
Somebody please make a Wii graph!
It is the cornerstone on which all sales expectations should be judged.
MisterR
Member
Had MS done everything Sony did, they still didn't have a chance to win this Gen. With all of Sony's mistakes with the PS3, they still outsold the Xbox 360 every year worldwide. The Playstation brand is a worldwide brand. The Xbox One may have done better in the UK and US than they are, but worldwide the winner was decided before the generation started. MS mistakes helped turn it into a total blow out, but the result was always going to be the same, as far as the winner. Every gen that Sony hasn't had a total fuck up, they've completely dominated console sales. With them doing everything right with the PS4, that wasn't going to change.