PS2 2005 vs PS4 2018 NPD

[DonFerrari]

Shadow1980 said:

DonFerrari said:

Thank you for not only proving my point on the mental barrier but to also show that PS4 at this time in its life is the most expensive PS console and still tracking ahead.

Except it's not tracking ahead in LTD sales when you break things down on a region-by-region basis. For example, in the U.S. (being this is an NPD-focused thread) it isn't even close, with the PS4 running a massive deficit against the PS2:

The PS4 simply doesn't have the market dominance the PS2 did in the U.S. And as for Japan, well, we all know the market for traditional home consoles has shrunk tremendously there. The PS4 is tracking ahead of the PS3, but not by much, and it never had a prayer of matching the PS2. So, while the PS4 may be ahead of the PS2 on a global LTD basis (86.1M vs. 81.4M shipped after 20 fiscal quarters), that's only a technicality arising from launch timing and how the regions were staggered. Such a comparison is not an honest one. You have to break it down by region.

And the pricing data was meant to demonstrate that the $400 launch price is the same as the PS2's $300 launch price when you take inflation into account, and is therefore not an outrageous launch price. Yes, the PS4 has spent most of its life having a higher inflation-adjusted launch price than the PS2 in the U.S. So has the XBO, and so did the 360 and PS3. PlayStation and Xbox systems having smaller price cuts spread out further apart and being fewer in number over the system's life for these past two generation explains why we don't see the pronounced early peaks we used to see (the old norm was a noticeable peak anywhere from Year 1 to Year 3). Last generation we saw greatly delayed peaks in the U.S., and this generation we're not seeing pronounced peaks at all, making this the "flattest" generation ever.

Furthermore, this generation has seen sales migrate more towards Q4 thanks to official temporary BF and Christmas price cuts. While both the PS4 & XBO have both spent most of their lives costing less than the 360 & PS3, their combined Q1-Q3 sales haven't been better than combined PS3+360 sales outside the first year (after five years, Q1-Q3 sales have totaled 21M for the PS4+XBO vs. 22.1M for the PS3+360), even though combined aligned LTD PS4+XBO sales still far outpace that of the PS3+360. That's because combined aligned Q4 sales for the PS4+XBO have been on average far better so far than those of both the PS3+360 and PS2+Xbox.

Yes I know that if you make alignment per region PS4 would be behind (and we also expect that at end of all the total for PS4 will be lower than PS2 unless PS5 screws up). We know that Japan is about a lost cause for regular consoles and that USA became much tighter than previous gen.

The growth for PS4 came from Rest of the World being earlier and more intense than before (which will probably rob some of the later legs).

I do know that the inflation equates the value of both at launch (I had recognized that before your post). But that won't erase the mind barrier of 399 have versus 299 had.