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ZhugeEX on 12 August 2016
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Cheers, Aqua.


Aquamarine said:

Some observations I made when looking at July 2016 physical sales:

 

Console/handheld software sales were only $156 million, down -13% YOY. In general, those are really weak physical software sales, lowest since the turn of the century.

Although:

PS4 software was down -3% YOY (-46% MOM)

WIU sofware was down +0% YOY (-33% MOM)

XBO software was down -3% YOY (-42% MOM)

 

So even though the industry was down -13% YOY (-35% MOM), 8th-gen console software largely held steady.

 

 

No major releases this July either, as compared to 2015. So good to see the 8th gen consoles hold in regards to software sales. No doubt digital will have grown YoY. 

Still, with declines in handheld and 7th gen spend it means the retail packaged software market is considerablly smaller than it was during the same period last gen. Not a great number as you point out. 

 

Aquamarine said:

Best-sellers of July 2016:

Monster Hunter Generations: >165K

Pokemon Ruby + Sapphire (right behind Monster Hunter according to CosmicQueso on NeoGAF)

 

Pokemon effect was strong this month. What will be interesting to watch is how Sun & Moon performs this Holiday. 

Good opening for MHG. Wonder if Nintendo will commment on digital sales for the title next week. 

 

 

Numbers for HW are disappointing this month, other than 3DS. One S should boost sales in August. Not sure on the PS VR impact, but a price cut and a Neo release could certainly re-invigorate PS4 sales this holiday. 

AAA Software output this holiday looks to be fairly healthy. That'll certainly drive higher software and hardware sales during the final quarter of the year. 

 

Aqua, Do you have any general thoughts on the future of 8th gen consoles? Especially with Neo and Scorpio being confirmed to release soon. No doubt there is a higher percentage of core gamers owning consoles this gen. So Neo and Scorpio adoption rates will be interesting to watch. As will adoption among more casual users as the price to entry for the base models are lowered and more attractive/higher ouput of software titles are released.