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NPD Sales Results for April 2009

Fuzzy

I would bang a hot farmer!
Spiegel said:
They are predicting 13 million consoles sold this fiscal year, previous fiscal year they sold 10 million.

A price drop is coming very soon.
Or a redesign.
 

J-Rzez

Member
Fuzzy said:
Or a redesign.

Or a redesign with a price drop. I think it's also at the point now where people maybe figuring there has to be a price drop soon. Too many signs pointing to it, and people aren't going to listen to Sony's PR against it for now. There are probably some people who are just holding off for now to see what becomes of all this.

They can't rely on their PS2 sales much longer, they're going to have to make a move to get the PS3 into homes, to start collecting game royalties and the sort. They have more than enough software to get people to buy it. Price is, and has been clearly barrier now for a long time.

Pretty interesting how basically everything fell of this past month.
 
PantherLotus said:
We can come up with all these ridiculous metrics for how/why/how much a console is "winning" by, but it will never matter to companies that target specific demographics if they don't believe they can reach those demos by using that medium.

I think it's only gradually become a matter of publishers not believing they can reach specific demographics. Early on, there was every sign that those demographics were there and eager to buy. But publishers were already committed, or were afraid the Wii was a fad, or just didn't want to admit they were wrong, or whatever. And now, after the extremely slow industry reaction has finally turned things around somewhat, that demographic may have already died of starvation.
 
Leondexter said:
I think it's only gradually become a matter of publishers not believing they can reach specific demographics. Early on, there was every sign that those demographics were there and eager to buy. But publishers were already committed, or were afraid the Wii was a fad, or just didn't want to admit they were wrong, or whatever. And now, after the extremely slow industry reaction has finally turned things around somewhat, that demographic may have already died of starvation.


I think the problem is that the average gamer, probably doesn't trust the quality of some of these developers. I think your average gamer is the person who says ohh hey I have an extra 50 - 60 bucks this week I want a new game. They're not the people reading every article and word in all the gaming mags, or following gaming sites. They go to the store look around and buy something. If you were the average gamer with a Wii, you probably don't trust any game with the Ubi logo on it right now. I think developers fucked themselves by putting out half assed crap, or shitty ports and now the "average gamer" probably doesn't trust alot of what they put out. Its a self fulfilling prophecy. Developers say they can't compete with Nintendo and put out crap, average gamer learns to only trust games with the Nintendo logo on them.
 

yoopoo

Banned
Front page of Yahoo

Clipboard-1.jpg


http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/ps3-bested-by-older-brother/1315218
 

JoJo13

Banned
Shin Johnpv said:
I don't know, hasn't Sony been pretty adamant about no price drop for the PS3. I don't think a price drop would really help them that much, and I think they know that. I think right now they'd rather try to make as much money as they instead of trying to win the console wars, which they have no hope of now. I'm gonna say we don't see a PS3 price drop till Christmas or early next year, and if that happens the Wii will already be well on its way of beating them combined in the US. Though Sony could totally shock everyone and do a price drop at E3 but I don't think they will. I would be very surprised if they did.

What the hell? Price is the biggest factor for the PS3 right now. It'll make a huge impact to get it down to a less insane price point. :lol

A price drop will come naturally as a result of cost reductions (PS3 slim), and expectations that increased hardware sales will increase software sales and make them more money, long term.
 

manueldelalas

Time Traveler
JoJo13 said:
What the hell? Price is the biggest factor for the PS3 right now. It'll make a huge impact to get it down to a less insane price point. :lol

A price drop will come naturally as a result of cost reductions (PS3 slim), and expectations that increased hardware sales will increase software sales and make them more money, long term.
10 year plan... BELIEVE
 
JoJo13 said:
What the hell? Price is the biggest factor for the PS3 right now. It'll make a huge impact to get it down to a less insane price point. :lol

A price drop will come naturally as a result of cost reductions (PS3 slim), and expectations that increased hardware sales will increase software sales and make them more money, long term.


No its not its biggest problem. Dropping the PS3 to 300 isn't going to make them surge past the 360, or even come close to the Wii. It's just like last gen. No matter how many M rated games came out and did well, the GC was the purple kiddy lunch box. The PS3 is the expensive bluray player that has no games. They need to change the image people have of the system.
 

JoJo13

Banned
Shin Johnpv said:
No its not its biggest problem. Dropping the PS3 to 300 isn't going to make them surge past the 360, or even come close to the Wii. It's just like last gen. No matter how many M rated games came out and did well, the GC was the purple kiddy lunch box. The PS3 is the expensive bluray player that has no games. They need to change the image people have of the system.

Dropping the PS3 down to $299 will definitely put them ahead (or roughly the same) relative to the 360 in terms of ongoing sales (assuming Microsoft doesn't counter with a price drop of their own). The last time the price disparity was that close, you saw the PS3 doing better than the 360 for most months, and about the same for others.

This gen isn't applicable to last gen because the GameCube was doing those poor numbers at a $150 price point. At least the PS3 has the price excuse for its situation, which most certainly is a gigantic factor.

If you think price isn't a factor, you're in for a rude awakening when you see the NPDs after the price drop hits.
 
JoJo13 said:
Dropping the PS3 down to $299 will definitely put them ahead (or roughly the same) relative to the 360 in terms of ongoing sales (assuming Microsoft doesn't counter with a price drop of their own). The last time the price disparity was that close, you saw the PS3 doing better than the 360 for most months, and about the same for others.

This gen isn't applicable to last gen because the GameCube was doing those poor numbers at a $150 price point. At least the PS3 has the price excuse for its situation, which most certainly is a gigantic factor.

If you think price isn't a factor, you're in for a rude awakening when you see the NPDs after the price drop hits.

No I think it'll be the die hard Sony fans that are in for a rude awakening after a price drop. Price Drops never lead to sustained increase, its always a short jump, maybe a month or two difference.

And wasn't the better they did against the 360 so small, that come Christmas with how much the 360 outsold them then it whiped out the minimal difference.

Look the ship for second place in America has sailed, and the 360 was on it. The 360 is almost 8 million units ahead of the PS3. Look for the PS3 just to match that, be on equal footing with the 360 it would have to sell 333k more than the 360 for the next 24 months straight. Which is not going to happen.

So why drop the price and loose even more money, when you're so close to breaking even. To try and fight some war that you have NO HOPE of winning? It's absolutely retarded.
 

JoJo13

Banned
Shin Johnpv said:
No I think it'll be the die hard Sony fans that are in for a rude awakening after a price drop. Price Drops never lead to sustained increase, its always a short jump, maybe a month or two difference.

And wasn't the better they did against the 360 so small, that come Christmas with how much the 360 outsold them then it whiped out the minimal difference.

Look the ship for second place in America has sailed, and the 360 was on it. The 360 is almost 8 million units ahead of the PS3. Look for the PS3 just to match that, be on equal footing with the 360 it would have to sell 333k more than the 360 for the next 24 months straight. Which is not going to happen.

So why drop the price and loose even more money, when you're so close to breaking even. To try and fight some war that you have NO HOPE of winning? It's absolutely retarded.

explain the 360's price drop then. it keeps getting cheaper, and every year they sell more and more in the US.

the latest price drop wasn't a 'month or two difference'.

the only month they were down was in april when there wasn't a single big release and last year it was GTA4 month.
 
JoJo13 said:
explain the 360's price drop then. it keeps getting cheaper, and every year they sell more and more in the US.

the latest price drop wasn't a 'month or two difference'.

the only month they were down was in april when there wasn't a single big release and last year it was GTA4 month.
It's pretty obvious that Microsoft has the money which they are willing to lose if they gain more market share and its working well. As I recall, other branches of Sony haven't done so well the past two years. Less funds for their gaming branch.
 
Yahoo said:
So if you're contemplating taking the Playstation plunge -- and with top exclusive superhero thriller Infamous just a week away, we're betting some of you are -- you might well want to hold off and wait to see what June has in store.

Stuff like this will only hurt PS3 sales in the short term.
 

JoJo13

Banned
DJ Crimson said:
It's pretty obvious that Microsoft has the money which they are willing to lose if they gain more market share and its working well. As I recall, other branches of Sony haven't done so well the past two years. Less funds for their gaming branch.

That's not really what I was discussing.
 

PARANO1A

Member
DJ Crimson said:
It's pretty obvious that Microsoft has the money which they are willing to lose if they gain more market share and its working well. As I recall, other branches of Sony haven't done so well the past two years. Less funds for their gaming branch.
You have the best avatar in the universe.
 

JoJo13

Banned
Shin Johnpv said:
But it all plays into it. Sony doesn't have the cash to loose 140 bucks on every PS3, just to sell 50k more each month in the US.

With the new PS3 Slim model, they won't be losing $140 bucks on every PS3.
 
JoJo13 said:
Dropping the PS3 down to $299 will definitely put them ahead (or roughly the same) relative to the 360 in terms of ongoing sales (assuming Microsoft doesn't counter with a price drop of their own). The last time the price disparity was that close, you saw the PS3 doing better than the 360 for most months, and about the same for others.

Yeah temporarily. But as you point out, MS will obviously cut their price if they have to. It is more than price now . . . because honestly, the PS3 is a better bargain right now considering the Blu-Ray, hard-drive, free PSN, and built-in Wi-Fi. The 360 has the first mover advantage & networking effects. It has a bigger better game library and kids want to get the console that their friends have so they can play against them online & share games. The war is over . . . it is just a matter of how far back PS3 is now.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
JoJo13 said:
With the new PS3 Slim model, they won't be losing $140 bucks on every PS3.

yeah, they may have cut $100 off the manufacturing costs with the PS3slim so they'll still lose only $40 on each PS3 sold if they cut the price to $300.
 

Brashnir

Member
DJ Crimson said:
It's pretty obvious that Microsoft has the money which they are willing to lose if they gain more market share and its working well. As I recall, other branches of Sony haven't done so well the past two years. Less funds for their gaming branch.

I'm not sure that's the case. The lowest-priced 360 has dropped in price $100 since its launch in 2005. The lowest-priced PS3 has dropped $100 since its launch in 2006.

It's not like Microsoft has gone on a price-slashing rampage here. In fact, I remember a lot of belly-aching around GAF before last year's price cuts that MS was waiting too long to cut the prices, and when they did, the cuts weren't substantial enough.
 

Danthrax

Batteries the CRISIS!
Shin Johnpv said:
Do we have proof of the PS3slim. Cause I could have sworn those leaked pics were proven fake.

omg.

you have 1,378 posts to go through, dude. get reading.


[edit] wait, I just realized this wasn't the PS3slim reveal thread. go read that one — I have no idea why you posted this question in the NPD thread.

and that one has 1,800+ posts, but it shouldn't take more than a few hundred to answer your question.
 

JoJo13

Banned
speculawyer said:
Yeah temporarily. But as you point out, MS will obviously cut their price if they have to. It is more than price now . . . because honestly, the PS3 is a better bargain right now considering the Blu-Ray, hard-drive, free PSN, and built-in Wi-Fi. The 360 has the first mover advantage & networking effects. It has a bigger better game library and kids want to get the console that their friends have so they can play against them online & share games. The war is over . . . it is just a matter of how far back PS3 is now.

I'm not sure how much more Microsoft can cut prices. They're already at a very mainstream and competitive price point of $199. I don't think Microsoft will knee-jerk into dropping the price yet again just because the PS3 has overtaken them in monthly sales when they release the new PS3 slim and cut the price.

PS3 is not a better bargain because consumers don't understand, or appreciate, the value that the PS3 represents.

They see that CoD:WaW, Guitar Hero, and Madden can be had at an entry price of $199 rather than $399, and that's all that matters; Blu-Ray, WiFi, free PSN -- those are for the very hardcore that appreciate such features. But for some teenager that has a limited budget, he'll go for the cheaper system and won't really care about those other bullet points.

It has a library that is largely the same as the PS3 (multiplatforms), though the PS3 has a better library of exclusive content (meaning a better overall library, arguably); Microsoft, however, markets their big budget titles better and has more brand recognition for a few key titles.

You're right - The war is over: MS won the US market for HD consoles, world wide they'll likely be in third when all is said and done, and the Wii won't be stopped.


Shin Johnpv said:
Do we have proof of the PS3slim. Cause I could have sworn those leaked pics were proven fake.


Nope. Proven 99% true at this point. Just waiting on the official confirmation and press release.
 

Vinci

Danish
BishopLamont said:
Why would Sony cut the price if they're still losing $40 on each PS3? Isn't profitability their number one priority?

Probably feel they can't be profitable ever with the thing if it continues to slip down in sales month after month. Releasing a cheaper-to-produce slim with a price drop could help a lot actually; it's a good move.
 
Vinci said:
Probably feel they can't be profitable ever with the thing if it continues to slip down in sales month after month. Releasing a cheaper-to-produce slim with a price drop could help a lot actually; it's a good move.
If they could drop the price, they would have done it already. If the PS3slim does come soon, I don't see them dropping the price. It's one or the other, not both.
 

Vinci

Danish
BishopLamont said:
If they could drop the price, they would have done it already. If the PS3slim does come soon, I don't see them dropping the price. It's one or the other, not both.

A Slim model without a price drop would be problematic. They basically need to relaunch the thing. A Slim model should have a distinct price-point to help suggest that's what is happening, starting fresh.

Otherwise, they're dead anyway.
 
Shin Johnpv said:
No I think it'll be the die hard Sony fans that are in for a rude awakening after a price drop. Price Drops never lead to sustained increase, its always a short jump, maybe a month or two difference.

And wasn't the better they did against the 360 so small, that come Christmas with how much the 360 outsold them then it whiped out the minimal difference.

Look the ship for second place in America has sailed, and the 360 was on it. The 360 is almost 8 million units ahead of the PS3. Look for the PS3 just to match that, be on equal footing with the 360 it would have to sell 333k more than the 360 for the next 24 months straight. Which is not going to happen.

So why drop the price and loose even more money, when you're so close to breaking even. To try and fight some war that you have NO HOPE of winning? It's absolutely retarded.

Whilst I agree with the general sentiment, the PS3 project is far from breaking even. They've got about $5 billion to go to manage that.
 

Zhuk

Banned
The last time that the PS3 was redesigned with the 40gb and launched with a lower pricepoint the market acted favourably and the PS3 over time did gain some ground, however this was merely a temporary effect and did not change the overall trend which is the PS3 is a 3rd place console.

I don't agree that a $299 PS3 slim is going to save the day, or turn around Sony's fortunes for the console to a significant degree. What it will do is give the console the ability to compete against the Wii and the 360 with a reasonable price point, something which should improve its competitiveness until they drop their price further.
 
Zhuk said:
The last time that the PS3 was redesigned with the 40gb and launched with a lower pricepoint the market acted favourably and the PS3 over time did gain some ground, however this was merely a temporary effect and did not change the overall trend which is the PS3 is a 3rd place console.

I don't agree that a $299 PS3 slim is going to save the day, or turn around Sony's fortunes for the console to a significant degree. What it will do is give the console the ability to compete against the Wii and the 360 with a reasonable price point, something which should improve its competitiveness until they drop their price further.
A $299 PS3 Slim with a hard drive will at least meet the price of a 360 with a hard drive. If they could release a secondary version with 16gig of flash for $250, they may at least come close to competitive pricing with MS. I wish I had some clue as to how much Jaspers cost to put together, but I don't see MS doing more that a $50 price drop right now, if they felt the need to respond to Sony. I'd personally like to see MS consolidate down to 1 SKU and stock all hard drives as add-on packages. It would be good for reducing consumer confusion.

I don't see Nintendo dropping price in the US until after the Holiday.

Sony really is stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
 
JoJo13 said:
I'm not sure how much more Microsoft can cut prices. They're already at a very mainstream and competitive price point of $199.

What does that mean? If MS is currently making more on each console sold and the division overall is performing better than Sony's what puts Sony in a better position than MS to cut the price?

Also why is the price of the 360 thrown around as $199. That is the lowest SKU not everyone sold. Even with the latest estimate the average price of a 360 sold is $270 (i think have to look it up).

I'm not saying Sony wont drop the price i think at some point in the not to distant future they will but surely MS is in a better position to do so.

brain_stew said:
Whilst I agree with the general sentiment, the PS3 project is far from breaking even. They've got about $5 billion to go to manage that.

We will never know just how much the PS3 lost as the profits made from the PS2 and to a lesser extent the PSP will mask a substantial amount of it.
 

pakkit

Banned
PantherLotus said:
Maybe it's a good choice on their part, and maybe it's not. But if the Wii does end up outselling both combined and we see companies fold that didn't even attempt a Wii game (Factor 5?), well, that's a whole lot of money left on the table to fufill some internal hardcore fantasy some of these devs must have.
Bad example. Factor 5 has worked on several Wii projects, their problem was they never could get a game to completion without publisher hiccups or money problems. I agree with your point in the end, though. Western developers look at Nintendo's share of profit off of games and see no room for themselves outside of mass-market games or B-developed "experiments." If nobody steps into the ring, there is no data to show Wii's sales potential one way or another. This year is getting a lot better though, and I expect Wii will have a few big Western developed games revealed or playable at E3.
 

Mooreberg

is sharpening a shovel and digging a ditch
yoopoo said:

And this is why they really need to do something:

So if you're contemplating taking the Playstation plunge -- and with top exclusive superhero thriller Infamous just a week away, we're betting some of you are -- you might well want to hold off and wait to see what June has in store.

The lower the monthly sales get, the more rumors of prices cuts are spread, the more people decide to hold off.
 

Dunlop

Member
JoJo13 said:
PS3 is not a better bargain because consumers don't understand, or appreciate, the value that the PS3 represents.

Ding!

I've grown to appreciate my PS3 as my media hub over my 360, but even after showing all the features, my father and brother in laws each picked up a standalone BD player. They are not "gamers" and I just couldn't break past that perception of the PS3 being a gaming machine.
 

Karma

Banned
speculawyer said:
Yeah temporarily. But as you point out, MS will obviously cut their price if they have to. It is more than price now . . . because honestly, the PS3 is a better bargain right now considering the Blu-Ray, hard-drive, free PSN, and built-in Wi-Fi. The 360 has the first mover advantage & networking effects. It has a bigger better game library and kids want to get the console that their friends have so they can play against them online & share games. The war is over . . . it is just a matter of how far back PS3 is now.

This IMO is the most important thing. It is a snowball effect.
 
Karma said:
This IMO is the most important thing. It is a snowball effect.

Maybe, normally the most important thing is snowballing developer support based on the install base. But circumstances have largely neutered that for the HD consoles so second order effects come to the fore.
 
GTA Legs theory . . .

NPD: GTA: Chinatown Wars Continues Steady Sales In 2nd Month

According to NPD data provided to Gamasutra, Rockstar's GTA: Chinatown Wars for DS sold 74,000 in its second month on sales in the U.S., not much less than its debut that disappointed analysts in March.

Extending data provided as part of our in-depth NPD analysis, the company revealed that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which landed at Number 18 on the all-formats Top 20 for the month, sold only slightly less than its first month of 89,000.

As Gamasutra commentator Matt Matthews notes of the Rockstar Leeds-developed title, a DS debut for the popular GTA franchise: "With the additional April sales, life-to-date [U.S.] sales for the title have reached 163,000."

At one point, industry analysts like EEDAR's Jesse Divnich considered that 200,000 units in first-month sales might be poor, a figure the game has still not reached.

Nonetheless, robust second-month sales may indicate that a different, steadier-selling sell-through model for Nintendo's Wii, given a more casual clientele less likely to be informed about the precise date of new game releases.

However, Gamasutra's Matthews does caution that "sales of the game may have been bolstered when Best Buy discounted the game from $35 to $20 temporarily in April."
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23670
 
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