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Forums - Sales Discussion - December 2016 NPD Thread! The Last Guardian and Dead Rising 4 sales up!

Neodegenerate on 12 January 2017
Soundwave said:
Neodegenerate said:

So they are basically competing well globally in the US?

 

#ForumLogic

This is an NPD thread, NPD covers sales in America, hence the discussion is about American sales. 

#CommonSense

Sorry the joke went over your head.

To say that they are closing any gap by selling less is purely spin and absolutely silly.  They aren't closing any gap at all.  Are they more competitive?  Sure, in 2 out of the 4 months that they say matter.  Or, in reality, in 4 out of the 12 months this year.  Are they spinning it to sound MUCH better than it actually is?  Yup.  Are you attempting to do the same?  Sure looks like it.

 

Thus, #ForumLogic



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Soundwave on 12 January 2017
3sexty said:
Soundwave said:

What's wrong with that statement if that's true? MS has been dramatically more competetive since the XBox One S launched and even the much balley-hooed PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim have not stopped XBox One from having a very good holiday season apparently. December was their best month ever, meanwhile Sony is somewho down year over year despite having a new model and revision and a $250 promotion. 

Yeh I think this would suggest that the XBoxOne S has had a more positive impact on sales in th U.S than the PS4 Slim and PS4 pro. Add VR to the equation and we still have only a margin of defeat - virtual tie nearly. Quite incredible really. Still tho a win is a win.

Right now I would say no question, XBox One S has had an incredibly positive effect on the XBox One sales, meanwhile Sony is down YoY in December despite having a new model AND a new revision. 

To me that suggests the One S is taking away sales from Sony, because there is no way the PS4 should be down YoY for December. Even November should not have been close but from the leaked numbers we got November was extremely competetive with a razor thin difference. 

I call out PR spin as much as anyone on this board, but in this case MS does have the right to crow a bit. They definitely are doing *way* better and certainly overperformed expectations this year in the US market. Everyone and their grandma was saying once PS4 Pro + Slim came out that PS4 would go back to dominating the XBox One in the US ... that doesn't look like it's happening. 



Playstation_awaiter on 12 January 2017
Soundwave said:
Hiku said:

Sony sold more PS4's in December than MS sold XBO, which means Sony increased the gap in December.

The only way for MS to decrease the gap in any given month is to sell more units than PS4.

It's one MS model (XBox One S) taking on *two* PS4 models at the same time that also had a $250 discount for December. Sorry, but Sony should've *crushed* MS, instead some how XBox One S has its best month ever and Sony is down from last year. 

For them to be down means MS is cutting into their supposed advantage, this should not even be competetive, yet it looks to me like MS has found a second wind in the US after the XBox One S has launched. Sony should have won both November and December easily. 

Nah, you worry too much, Sony didn't even try and still won. The logical reason as to why they are down is due to not having as many bundles due to not having great third parties to bundle with. Next year with RDR3, BF 2, Destiny 2, COD will show the true power of the playstation brand. Plus Sony, not even trying as hard outsold MS best month.

 

#Common Sense



Intrinsic on 12 January 2017
Soundwave said:
Hiku said:

That's fine.
But the term "closing the gap" in any given month should not be used when you lose/sell less units.
If PS4 outsold XBO by 400k one month, and 399 999 the next month, that's closing the gap?

Fine. They're closing the gap in terms of being competetive every month now, whereas before it looked like Sony was just going to run away with this generation in the US, now it looks like they have a bit of a fight on their hands because that XBox One S is fighting pretty damn hard from what I see. 

Almost tied Sony in November and now forces Sony to be down year over year in December and records the best Xbox One month ever. To me that's notable, MS is definitely getting more competetive in the US, PS4 Pro + PS4 Slim have not pushed MS back like they should have. 

I honestly don't know which US you are talking about, but it has never looked like sony was going to run away with it in the US. There is a reason why the US is still referred to as MS strongest market. 

Even after 3 years, sony has only managed a little over a 1M lead over MS in the US. So I don't get what you are saying.... unless you are just trying to make this sound a lot better than it really is.

I won't consider around a mil lead as running away with it especially when the XB1 is selling well in that region. Now if we are talking abot global sales..... mow thats a totally different matter.



Swordmasterman on 12 January 2017

Did we got any numbers from November NPD ?



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Soundwave on 12 January 2017
Playstation_awaiter said:
Soundwave said:

It's one MS model (XBox One S) taking on *two* PS4 models at the same time that also had a $250 discount for December. Sorry, but Sony should've *crushed* MS, instead some how XBox One S has its best month ever and Sony is down from last year. 

For them to be down means MS is cutting into their supposed advantage, this should not even be competetive, yet it looks to me like MS has found a second wind in the US after the XBox One S has launched. Sony should have won both November and December easily. 

Nah, you worry too much, Sony didn't even try and still won. The logical reason as to why they are down is due to not having as many bundles due to not having great third parties to bundle with. Next year with RDR3, BF 2, Destiny 2, COD will show the true power of the playstation brand. Plus Sony, not even trying as hard outsold MS best month.

 

#Common Sense

lol, ok. 

They weren't "trying" with a new revision, a new remodel, PS VR, and a $250 price promotion on top of new games like Final Fantasy XV (which has it's primary fan base on he PS4), Uncharted 4, etc. etc. etc. 

People chose not to buy a PS4 this Christmas because they'd rather wait for a bundle, it couldn't be that some of them opted to buy a XBox One S instead. Sure, sure. 



Soundwave on 12 January 2017
Swordmasterman said:
Did we got any numbers from November NPD ?

We got some leaked numbers I believe, it was extremely close between Sony and MS. 



Aura7541 on 12 January 2017
Soundwave said:

Right now I would say no question, XBox One S has had an incredibly positive effect on the XBox One sales, meanwhile Sony is down YoY in December despite having a new model AND a new revision. 

Was it the XB1 S or the steady release of new bundles that provided a boost? Because here was Microsoft's release schedule starting from August:

Aug 2 - 2TB XBO S
Aug 23 - 1TB Madden 17 bundle, 500GB Halo Collection bundle
Sep 27 - 500GB Minecraft bundle
Oct 11 - 1TB Gears 4 bundle, 2TB Gears 4 LE bundle
Oct 18 - Battlefield 1 special edition bundle
Oct 21 - 500GB Battlefield 1 bundle
Nov 1 - 500GB Gears 4 deep blue bundle

By spacing out the releases like this plus selling the Minecraft bundle at $225 last month, Microsoft was able to temporarily increase the baseline for 5 months.

To me that suggests the One S is taking away sales from Sony, because there is no way the PS4 should be down YoY for December. Even November should not have been close but from the leaked numbers we got November was extremely competetive with a razor thin difference. 

No way the PS4 should be down YOY for December? If you looked at what Sony released December 2015, then the YOY decrease should be surprising to absolutely no one. Sony released three different Star Wars Battlefront bundles. The Black Ops 3 standard bundle was released December 14, 2015 whereas the Infinite Warfare bundle was released on the last week of December 2016. By the time the Infinite Warfare bundle came out, the holiday shopping has already died down.

 I call out PR spin as much as anyone on this board, but in this case MS does have the right to crow a bit. They definitely are doing *way* better and certainly overperformed expectations this year in the US market. Everyone and their grandma was saying once PS4 Pro + Slim came out that PS4 would go back to dominating the XBox One in the US ... that doesn't look like it's happening.

The XB1's performance, while impressive, is not as good as you're making it out to be. If it managed to sell this much with less bundles and at price parity in December, then I would wholly agree with you. However, the situation is a lot more nuanced than that. Microsoft released 9 new SKUs from August through November. Each SKU is like the mushroom in Mario Kart. Now all those mushrooms have been used up, can the XB1 maintain a high baseline from January to Scorpio's release?


Neodegenerate on 12 January 2017
Soundwave said:
Swordmasterman said:
Did we got any numbers from November NPD ?

We got some leaked numbers I believe, it was extremely close between Sony and MS. 

If I remember right the leak was within 100k of each other for Nov. 



Soundwave on 12 January 2017

MS has had a ton of bundles every year. 

Why is it now magically bundles are suddendly the difference? They have things like that Madden bundle every year. 

Gee, guess someone should've told MS all they need to be competetive with Sony is to make a few more bundles. Yeah I don't buy it.