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Forums - Sales Discussion - A little milestone that people have not noticed - the PS4 has outsold the NES

Ka-pi96 said:
VGPolyglot said:

Yeah, I know, but I think he was joking this time.

I very much doubt that...

If PS4 finishes around 110-120m, I think Switch will outsell it.

No joke.



Nov 2016 - NES outsells PS1 (JP)

Don't Play Stationary 4 ever. Switch!

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Solid-Stark said:
And in about 27 years, we'll get a mini PS4!

I wonder about the future... will there be cyborg scalpers selling them on ebay or will we just have scalp bot vendors on the streets?

 

On topic though, great milestone :) Ps4 is a monster.



Why not check me out on youtube and help me on the way to 2k subs over at www.youtube.com/stormcloudlive

Pyro as Bill said:
Ka-pi96 said:

I very much doubt that...

If PS4 finishes around 110-120m, I think Switch will outsell it.

No joke.

So, in no uncertain terms, you are saying 110 million minimum for the Switch? Maybe if Nintendo has 4-5 Switch revisions to the PS4's 3-4. Nobody ever wants to back their comments up and bet. I'll take the low end of your prediction because I'm so lovely. Switch 110 million not happening for 6 months avi/sig control, and another 6 months for Switch not outselling PS4 in general. A tie is possible if we each win one side of the bet. Non compliance results in a 1 year ban. I usually only call out the most outlandish posts. This is as risky as I get, because this IS possible, but I think it won't happen, and want to have some fun. With your VGC identity. For one year. I don't know how to handle the hardware revision situation, because I feel the Switch could eclipse the PS4 in that area, staying on the market under the same name for a longer period, while Sony clearly moves on to the PS5. I guess I'll just eat that one......Well?



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

COKTOE said:
Pyro as Bill said:

If PS4 finishes around 110-120m, I think Switch will outsell it.

No joke.

So, in no uncertain terms, you are saying 110 million minimum for the Switch? Maybe if Nintendo has 4-5 Switch revisions to the PS4's 3-4. Nobody ever wants to back their comments up and bet. I'll take the low end of your prediction because I'm so lovely. Switch 110 million not happening for 6 months avi/sig control, and another 6 months for Switch not outselling PS4 in general. A tie is possible if we each win one side of the bet. Non compliance results in a 1 year ban. I usually only call out the most outlandish posts. This is as risky as I get, because this IS possible, but I think it won't happen, and want to have some fun. With your VGC identity. For one year. I don't know how to handle the hardware revision situation, because I feel the Switch could eclipse the PS4 in that area, staying on the market under the same name for a longer period, while Sony clearly moves on to the PS5. I guess I'll just eat that one......Well?

OK, I'm happy to do both.



Nov 2016 - NES outsells PS1 (JP)

Don't Play Stationary 4 ever. Switch!

Pyro as Bill said:
COKTOE said:

So, in no uncertain terms, you are saying 110 million minimum for the Switch? Maybe if Nintendo has 4-5 Switch revisions to the PS4's 3-4. Nobody ever wants to back their comments up and bet. I'll take the low end of your prediction because I'm so lovely. Switch 110 million not happening for 6 months avi/sig control, and another 6 months for Switch not outselling PS4 in general. A tie is possible if we each win one side of the bet. Non compliance results in a 1 year ban. I usually only call out the most outlandish posts. This is as risky as I get, because this IS possible, but I think it won't happen, and want to have some fun. With your VGC identity. For one year. I don't know how to handle the hardware revision situation, because I feel the Switch could eclipse the PS4 in that area, staying on the market under the same name for a longer period, while Sony clearly moves on to the PS5. I guess I'll just eat that one......Well?

OK, I'm happy to do both.

I thought you'd go for it. This one has pretty even odds imo. It'll be fun. We're a ways off from having results though. ha.



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

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Lawlight said:
killeryoshis said:

You are right I am missing a few circumstances. The amount of games released on the PS4 is way higher than the NES recieved back in the day. Less games = less sales. 

Also PC gaming has always been around and growing. It could be argued that PC was a bigger threat back then as PC actually had exclusives that you will never find on consoles like Ultima and Wizardry. Also PC's were way more advance than anything the NES could do. I am talking about having huge open world games in 1985.  (Which were more in depth than anything the NES could munster.)  PCs were 16 bit while the outdated NES was 8 bit.  Almost every Western PC company avoided the NES because of it being outdated and harsh 3rd party restrictions. Source


Also Microsoft entering the gaming industry much as they spend billions of dollars trying to beak into the industry but can only sell in America and UK. I do not see a reason why I should take them in consideration as they don't impact the industry like population growth and openings of new markets. 

Also mobile gaming doesn't even effect Handhelds let alone big budget home console games.  Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20110603032017/http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/06/01/goo_3ds_survey/

1. The PC market back was very much separate from the console market unlike today where there is some overlapping. As you yourself pointed out - the markets were very much separate and not in competition with one another.

 

2. You said MS can only sell in NA and the UK - well that's 2 of the biggest gaming markets right there. They're much bigger competition than Nintendo has ever faced with the NES.

 

3. You're giving me an article about why the 3DS wasn't selling in 2011 - a year when less than 15% of mobile users had a smartphone. Compare this to 2015 when 77% of mobile users had a smartphone. There's also a big difference between mobile gaming in 2011 vs now.

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Phone-Users-Japan-Upgrade-Smartphones-Finally/1012880

https://1d31c772ec21a65b0a71-0707aae3004193da193e1ad4a942592d.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/24968/japan_mobile_profits__large.jpg

On top of that, you're ignoring the downwards trend of consoles in Japan. The NES is the 2nd highest selling console in Japan with only the PS2 surpassing it. Even th Wii only sold 12.5M there compared to the NES's 19.35M.

 

Now, let's look at a point that you forgot: Rise of alternative forms of entertainment. During the NES era, you're at home, you're a kid - what's the best way to spend time - video games. Any other distraction back then is still available today. But now:

1. Social media. The average perso spends 116 minutes, almost 2 hours per day, on social media. That's 2 hours that could have been spent on gaming.

2. Streaming services. It's easy to now access thousands of movies/shows to entertain oneself. Average time spent on just Netflix by a subscriber is 1h33min per day. That's more time that could have been spent gaming.

3. And yes, smartphones. Smartphones cut into people's use of a gaming device and it provides multiple ways to spend time.

All of the above compete against the PS4 in one way or  another as they offer alternative ways to spend time.

Some people seem to forget that music and playing in bands was a big part of kids/teens lives back in the 80s, they also would go outside a lot more than kids now, and would go to arcades. There were tons of alternatives. Also we have about 2-3 billion more people on the planet now than the 80s, and the fact that back then it was mainly a kids market. Now you have those kids playing games along with the younger gen of today.



AlfredoTurkey said:

When you consider the market difference between 1985 and 2013, it's not really that impressive. It's like comparing revenue for movies and not adjusting for inflation. The NES selling 60 million units in the climate it launched in is like the PS4 selling 300 million units.

Mate i agree with your post. However be prepared to be shot down and possibly reported for going agaisnt the tide here. Gamers today dont understand the market differences. In the mid 80s and early 90s it was a very hard sell to home consoles. The market was dead. I know i was gaming in that era. 60m on a console where gamers were very hard to find with no dedicated gaming stores or advertisements is incredible. NES own the market and is legendary for its feats.

The NES still shows its dominance today with the Mini NES selling out and causing giant unexpected demands.



I'd be more surprised if it didn't outsell the NES...



Ganoncrotch said:
Solid-Stark said:
And in about 27 years, we'll get a mini PS4!

I wonder about the future... will there be cyborg scalpers selling them on ebay or will we just have scalp bot vendors on the streets?

 

On topic though, great milestone :) Ps4 is a monster.

Console vending machines, made to order. The future.



e=mc^2

Gaming on: PS4 Pro, Switch, SNES Mini, Wii U, PC (i5-7400, GTX 1060)

The PS1, PS2, and PS3 all also outsold the NES. How is that really relevant?

In all honesty, I think the sales of the NES, for it's era, are still more impressive than, say, the sales of PS1/2 or Wii, because gaming was becoming far more mainstream and popular by those generations. Back in the 80s, gaming was largely looked down on by mainstream society, it was thought of as something that only kids and "losers" were into. It was akin to a toy. And yet, the NES was a massive success, the best selling video game console of all time until the late 90s or early 2000s. The NES succeeded in spite of the era's stigma against video games and gamers.