Amazon U.S. March monthly bestsellers and general Amazon-based discussion

[Zanten]

Shadow1980 said:

jason1637 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZo2sL38KmY

"Xbox One is the only system with every top ten best-selling console game from 2015."

Actually, not according to the NPD. The top 10 best-selling games of the year were all multi-platform and were available on both the PS4 and XBO. The top 10 games of 2015 were:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
2. Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
3. Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
4. Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox One, PS4, PC)
5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One) 360, PS3, PC)
6. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
7. Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4)
8. FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
9. Mortal Kombat X (PS4, Xbox One)
10. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)

Of course, that's just the U.S., but since the U.S. generates the majority of the Xbox One's global sales it's highly improbable that global software sales would tell a different story. The only plausible explanation is that MS is counting only titles released in 2015, which would disqualify GTAV, Minecraft, and CoD:AW. In that case Halo 5 would probably break the top 10 (though past main series Halo games ranked in the top 3 in their respective years; Halo 5's sales were good in absolute terms, but relative to past entries it was a massive decline).

I know marketing is mostly spin, and that all companies do it, but this is dizzying. The XBO could be doing a lot better than it currently is sales-wise, but a bunch of PR legerdemain isn't going to help. Even this temporary price cut isn't working. I'm not sure anything will help right now, at least not at this point in the year. It may be that this was just a bad time to implement a price cut and that it would take something as simple as a $300 Slim model to boost sales. The 360 struggled with nearly zero-growth sales in the U.S. for four years before the 360S boosted sales to new heights. The original Xbox didn't experience its best sales until its third price cut, which dropped it from $180 to $150. Xbox systems just seem to have a growth problem in general, and that they don't really hit their strides until after multiple rounds of price cuts. They're the late bloomers of the console market.

I believe that'a the case, as i seem to recall some prior piece of Microsoft PR (might have been an NPD statement, or something,) said the same thing, only with much more precise language. I believe it was for December NPD, and the wording back then was; "Xbox One is the best place for gamers and the only console that has all top 10 best-selling titles of this generation that launched in 2015." It would appear that they've decided their new phrasing here is both close enough to be technically correct, while ambiguous enough so they can get across the most positive interpretation possible.

And I agree; spin is a part of all companies to try and minimize the not-so-stellar, and emphasize the positive, but Microsoft does seem to be have been working overtime when it comes to how they phrase their statements. Although to be fair, Sony's in a position where they can just say 'Yeah, we sold more consoles and more software this month, so... yay us!' so I don't think they're necessarily showing a lack of capacity to be just as spin-y, just a lack of necessity.