Aquamarine said:
Yes, they are similar. Bethesda has a smaller catalog then Activision Blizzard, but Doom's 521K with high ASPs gave the publisher a good shot in the arm (like $29-$30 million in revenue).
Another interesting macro data point you made that others should take notice of: "Less than 20% of Packaged Software sales in the U.S. are from 1st party publishers."
This figure varies widely. It's not true for the past couple of months, but in general...it's true. An interesting trend to notice is that shares for 1st-party publishers tend to be decreasing over time with their marketshare decreasing in most months (and cumulatively throughout the years), and that 1st-party tends to gain traction in the weaker months as opposed to the Holiday months when they get quickly overshadowed by titles like Call of Duty.
(Assume Microsoft is negligible and less than Sony for most months except when there are huge releases like Halo 5)
November 2015 NPD: Total Software (excluding PC): $1.07 billion November 2014 NPD, $993.9 million November 2015 NPD Nintendo: 5.6% of software (-61.0% YOY) Sony: 1.2% of software (-38.1% YOY)
December 2015 NPD: Total Software (excluding PC): $1.25 billion December 2014 NPD, $1.21 billion December 2015 NPD Nintendo: 9.0% of software (-22.7% YOY) Sony: 1.4% of software (-50.9% YOY)
Calendar Year 2015 NPD: Total Yearly Software (excluding PC): $5.30 billion 2014 NPD, $5.17 billion 2015 NPD Nintendo: 11.1% of software (-19.3% YOY) Sony: 3.4% of software (-22.4% YOY)
January 2016 NPD: Total Software (excluding PC): $235.6 million January 2015 NPD, $212.7 million January 2016 NPD Nintendo: 12.8% of software (-15.5% YOY) Sony: 1.9% of software (-45.7% YOY)
February 2016 NPD: Total Software (excluding PC): $338.9 million February 2015 NPD, $303.9 million February 2016 NPD Nintendo: 13.84% of software (-22.6% YOY) Sony: 1.66% of software (-75.5% YOY)
March 2016 NPD: Total Software (excluding PC): $395.4 million March 2015 NPD, $425.8 million March 2016 NPD Nintendo: 17.64% of software (+28.4% YOY) Sony: 4.80% of software (-56.6% YOY)
April 2016 NPD: Total Software (excluding PC): $256.7 million April 2015 NPD, $203.9 million April 2016 NPD Nintendo: 16.94% of software (+23.2% YOY) Sony: 10.13% of software (+7.6% YOY)
May 2016 NPD: Total Software (excluding PC): $204.7 million May 2015 NPD, $241.9 million May 2016 NPD Nintendo: 8.92% of software (-28.9% YOY) Sony: 25.61% of software (+505.5% YOY)
And another quote you made: "Meanwhile in the US, the recent 2DS price drop to $79 caused sales of the SKU to jump 38% MoM in May in the US and 148% YoY."
3DS sales weren't all that bad this month because of the 2DS 148% YOY jump. Sure, they're not the greatest, but its YOY decline could have been MUCH worse given the fact that Nintendo is manuevering both the 3DS and Wii U towards discontinuation and replacement only 9 months from now. |
Is it decreasing because first party publishers are releasing fewer number of retail releases or the strength of their releases has been decreasing? if we can have average unit sales of a first party title have over a 12 month period then it can give us some hint on whether it is due to the fewer releases or due to weaker releases
