By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Kyuu said:
hiccupthehuman said:

It's not ridiculously onesided. The move is towards digital anyways. In these sales split,  I rarely see people mention how the physical sales not only almost always get smaller and smaller, but are also become a smaller share of the total sales.

RE8 physical is 40% smaller than RE7.

Hitman 3 physical was only 17% higher than Hitman 2 physical sales, yet IO Interactive have said total Hitman 3 sales are 300% higher than Hitman 2. Where did the rest of the 283% growth come from? Seeing how Hitman 3 vanished from the retail charts the following week, it's obvious it was digital.

Hitman 3 sold 300% better than Hitman 2 | PC Gamer

It's been confirmed by analysts that Xbox users are by far the most digital out of the big three. To quote: "Digital game sales on the Xbox One are far higher than they are on PlayStation or Nintendo systems, according to analyst Daniel Ahmad", and "I really need to stress how large the digital shares are on Xbox compared to other platforms." Xbox themselves have said GP users, on average, buy more games. Obviously, they will be geared towards digital purchases. Why would Xbox users, who's entire ecosystem is now so digital-focused, go out and buy physical discs?

Xbox One Has Higher Ratio Of Digital Game Sales Than Other Platforms – Analyst (gamingbolt.com)

Thank you for sharing Daniel Ahmed's post (I wasn't really aware of it). But your old information is misleading for the following reasons:

1. Playstation's digital ratios saw a rapid growth from 37% in FY2018 (coinciding with the date of Daniel's post) to 65% in FY2020 (79% in Q4). So unless you have an evidence that Xbox had a similar growth and kept the advantage (which we didn't even know how big it was exactly) this evidence doesn't amount to much.
2. Game Pass discounts encourage digital purchases (may apply on Outriders, doesn't apply on RE8 or NieR Replicant).
3. It goes without saying, digital ratios vary region by region and game by game. We simply don't know how that is playing out with RE8+UK specifically. I very much doubt they change the split by more than 5-10%, but who knows?

Physical numbers are onesided as hell while digital is guesswork.

1. Why would you expect Xbox to NOT have a similar rapid growth of digital sales? The entire industry is moving towards digital, and there is absolutely no reason to believe that this momentum towards digital would have suddenly slowed or stopped only for Xbox in 2018-2020. Xbox has been at the forefront of pushing digital: Xbox Play Anywhere (buy a game once and own it across Xbox, PC and soon Xcloud - only for digital games), the first manufacturer to produce a digital-only console, Game Pass, the Microsoft Rewards program that gives credit for game purchases (only for digital purchases), Quick Resume (digital games only), promotion of digital game sales at retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, and XCloud. And of course, the pandemic, which has accelerated the shift to digital for everyone. 

2. Once someone makes the switch to digital, they are likely to stay digital. The shift to digital has been onesided; the average customer goes from physical -> digital, not digital -> physical. Also, funny you mentioned RE8 and Nier: Replicant because the Microsoft Rewards program I mentioned earlier actually did have special deals for those games (it only applied to digital purchases, of course)

From their Q3 2021 earnings: "Xbox content and services revenue grew 34% driven by strength from third-party titles, Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, and first-party titles"

Xbox Q3 Sales Show 232 Percent Growth Thanks To Xbox Series X And S, Huge Boost For Minecraft - Game Informer

From their Q2 2021 earnings: "We exceeded $2 billion in revenue from third-party titles this quarter for the first time."

Microsoft surpasses $5bn in gaming revenue for the first time: Nadella | Business Standard News (business-standard.com)

Sales revenue seem pretty good to me.

As I said, RE8 physical is down 40% from RE7. This should mean that RE8 is having a catastrophic launch, yet no one makes that argument. Why? Because everyone knows physical sales alone don't speak about a game's performance. Yet, those same physical sales are enough to talk doom and gloom about Xbox game sales performance. Hmmm... interesting.

Last edited by hiccupthehuman - on 11 May 2021