August 2014 NPD Thread! PS4 - 190k, XBO - 160k, Wii U < 60k, PSV < 6k

[Zanten]

thismeintiel said:

Zanten said:

Bah, ninja'd. xD Just to reinforce this point in agreement, would like to note that the Dreamcast was discontinued in March 2001. For those who don't know, the other sixth gen consoles, (i.e. the Gamecube and Xbox,) didn't release in North America until November 2001, meaning that, as far as sixth generation consoles in North America went, the PS2 had April 2001 til October 2001 entirely to itself. The added bonus of having essentially bitchslapped a competitor- the Dreamcast- into oblivion would no doubt have provided a substantial PR boost as well, as God only knows people tend to flock towards Winners.

So yeah, with the summer entirely to itself... how could it NOT have sold at least 250k? The total NPD this month alone is 420k, and while there will be some crossover, unless someone wants to claim that more than a small group of people bought two or three pricey pieces of hardware in a SINGLE month, (and did so consistently for all the summer months,) then it isn't hard to imagine why a console that has two direct competitors (one of whom is, in the U.S. at least, providing stiff opposition,) isn't selling as well as a console that had none.

If we're to accept 'Oh, the PS2 was only in Japan those first months, we HAVE to take that into consideration,' then fine. But if one doesn't also take into consideration that its vaunted first summer on the market was spent with absolutely no sixth generation competition whatsoever, then yes, one is just cherry picking the numbers and ignoring any facts that get in the way of their case. =P For people insisting on a frank and rational comparison of two generations, a really bad job is being done if one somehow completely misses, or deliberately ignores, this extremely important circumstance.

Good points.  You could also, once again, look at the 360.  It had no competition for a year, not even an early Dreamcast-like failure, yet it had months that were even worse than the PS4 is having, with two other consoles competing right out the gate.  Even with the lower months, however, the 360 won the US.  Playstation consoles have always showed that these gens are marathons, not sprints, even when they start in front.  It's just last gen they didn't have the best start, lol.

Very true, but there's something in the PS2's circumstance that made such an uncontested period even more effective than the 360's, which I believe translated to its even higher-than-360's NA sales and its highly dominant global sales.

The Xbox 360's head start occured during the beginning of its lifespan, and as a result during that inevitable period where the content is at its weakest, fewest titles, lowest amount of sales momentum, etc, etc, which likely worked to partially limit the advantage that came with the head start. By the time it hit its stride in its second year, the competition was out- though struggling- which took a bit of its thunder.

However, though 2001 was the PS2's first summer in North America, it was actually its second summer overall. It gave developers more time to get familiar with the hardware, allowed a greater backlog of titles, and had enough of an already established install base for more devs to hop on board creating titles for it. So not only did the PS2 have several months without competition during that period, it had several months without competition after it had already built up content. It built up such an insane head of steam in terms of titles, install base, and sales momentum, it basically ran laughing from any competition that rose up against it.