New post from Abdiel.
Good Morning, all you info-crazed folks. I'm just kidding, the analysis and speculation was what originally led me to join GAF way back when, and why I still made a decision to come over here when things fell apart over there. It's also that time of year, there is a palpable tension in the air when it comes to shopping related topics. It just becomes easier for people to try to make a point and have things get more personal than intended, especially when they happen to be more invested in any particular ecosystem. At the same time, that SalesEra has had such a great group of people who still make an effort to look at things beyond their own personal appetites and biases and communicate together is why I'm still willing to share details with everyone. Even when I'm exhausted like right now.
On that note: Well, it's the Saturday after Black Friday. The last 36 hours were draining as hell. whoever thought it was a good idea to start opening on Thanksgiving Day proper gets no points in my book. 2 long shifts with a single pause in between to sleep. I can say that I'm very proud of the way my team handled themselves in the face of customers who were more than a little earnest about doorbusters.
I've tried to read through the thread to get a feel for some general questions people had, so I can offer whatever summary I can off the top of my head. I'm heading back in in a little while, so it will be as detailed as I can manage.
My home store, and every other store in my district, completely exhausted inventory of the 1TB PS4s by the EOD on Friday night. This is a lot of PS4s. My home store had well over 100 of those consoles ready for purchase (I won't say close to the actual number, but we had plenty of inventory for a promo sale item). We also sold a respectable number of pros, but I feel that was more an opportunity sale thing for customers getting 4k TVs dirt cheap. The BFII Bundles were not a hot ticket item, but I didn't expect them to be. The price point was almost laughable in comparison, and when I mentioned it to our Sony rep, I got the feeling that that's more a December plan to move those, similar to last year, so we'll see. The movie will likely create another peak of Star Wars interest and maybe EA can boost the title's image. I'm expecting some kind of restock on the 1TB systems by Monday, though I have no idea what that will look like, that's just how Sony has typically operated on these matters in the past.
PSVR sold out of what inventory we had at quite a few of our stores. The deals on it, and the continued demos we've been doing have helped make it that much more accessible to people. Not to mention the new big ticket games like Skyrim offering serious, long term experiences to dive into. We didn't have tons of inventory to start with though, Sony seemed to have set realistic expectations on it, and even once we sold out, it isn't like we had tons of people asking, only a few.
We started out with fairly limited inventory of XB1Xs, and what was there, was just sold as a matter of course in the rush. I don't know exactly when the last unit was sold, but it wasn't during the initial doorbuster push, it was probably similar to the opportunity sales on 4k TVs that I was seeing with the Pro units. It's still new enough that those sales come for their own reasons, regardless. The XB1S units also sold very well, the promo for them attracted excellent sales and moved very good numbers. However, no store in our district sold out of the $189 systems as a comparison. They're still readily available, and will likely still sell some more over the weekend.
Switch stock was excellent by comparison with previous stock issues, and the system sold at a brisk pace throughout the Black Friday period, though at the same time, it not being bundled with any discounted rates, etc. made it just another base unit, it was selling well based on its own 'star power' (Is that a pun? Kind of...), so with that in mind, the amount it sold so far was still excellent. We had inventory left over at pretty much all stores in my district, though I wonder if it will be there after Monday. The 3DS was almost an afterthought by comparison, selling okay, moving some stock, but not really having any limelight other than being cheaper and having a solid existing library to work off of for people wanting Nintendo stuff.
Software wise, the various deals lead to massive sales of lots of different games. Made me really happy to see so many copies of Horizon going out, as it is one of my favorite games in a long time. Lots of various titles got picked clean, others only had a dent in their stock, so it's the fickle waves of who happens to be shopping where when it comes to actual software. All three core systems moved a lot of SW.
There you go guys. I survived! And let's keep our SalesEra focused and friendly. No need to get caught up in 'narratives', PR firms gonna PR, all that jazz. Sharing insights here and offering ideas of how things pan out across the larger cross section is what makes this all fascinating.
Essay Pro