Yup, "for now" of course. Thanks again.

You're one of my favorite posters on this site. Your comments are always sound and logical. That's why I'm interested to know your reasoning behind bolded.

Isn't competition bigger than ever for consoles? With the growing popularity of F2P gaming on mobile devices as well as the growing popularity of F2P and Esports on PC? It seems like a large part of the new generation enjoys gaming on other platforms than consoles.

Those SW sales, especially for the PSP weren't very profitable. PSP was a massive pirate system.  Sure Sony could have kept a lower price and very piratable features for the Vita, but they didn't want that. 360 will definitely outsell XB1, but I think MS much prefers the XB1. PS4 on its way to 100m at $299/$399, when at this point in time  PS2 got to $149 and soon to $99.

All I am trying to point out is that; it would be very easy for console companies to get bigger unit sales but they chose not to go that route.

Ya making me blush (though I'd personally say Shadow is a much better contributor to the forums than me). It wasn't my intention to provide an in-depth argument, as I noted to Shadow my original comment was just a mild observation, but since you've asked so nicely i'll oblige :')

I'd like to start by highlighting that all of this is purely from the perspective of market size/share, not health. The latter is an important factor when discussing the validity of some of the choices Sony, Nintendo, and MS have made (e.g. paid online will likley have had at least some kind of negative sales affect, but the profit advantages are abundantly clear), but that isn't relevant to the original comment I posted (which was focused simply on how the decline from the 7th to 8th gen, particularly initially as I should probably have better highlighted, has changed our perspective of hardware success in NA).

The PS4 launched at a significantly lower price than the PS3 (and the X1 quickly fell in line with the standard 360 once it ditched the Kinect), they faced minimal competition from Nintendo, the majority of the handheld market moved to mobile (which I would personally consider less directly in competition with home consoles than dedicated handhelds), and most importantly gaming as a whole was getting more popular. So to recap, cheaper, less successful consoles fighting, and launched along side overall market growth. It was their failure to capitalise properly on that growth, despite what could have been good internal market conditions, that created a lot of the competition from PC they would face.

A lot of factors played into why the generation started that way (some arguably even intentional), but I think the biggest one was games. For several years the PS4 and X1 simply lacked a meaningful number of the types of games that could attract the attention of the of people who would normally not be interested in a console. Almost all their big titles were initially on PC and the PS3/360, their exclusives were mostly unexceptional, and the few console-only titles that did create far reaching interest (like Destiny) disappointed. They needed a big hook to attract the attention of PC gamers in particular, and they just didn't have it. They needed a Zelda or Spider-Man in 2014, or at minimum to sooner get on-board with growing PC trends (the trends that were resulting in much of PC gamings own growth). Instead they spent a while just being PS3.5s, which was the same market already being ignored by this new wave of gamers.

As the last year has shown, the NA console market still had a lot of room to grow. Enough room in-fact that an entirely new successful console could arrive, and its competitors would actually grow themselves. Sony, MS, and Nintendo just needed to adapt to this new and growing market. Embracing FTP and other trends, offering PC gamers a hardware middle-ground (MS more so than Sony, and Nintendo's case a side-ground), consistently releasing console-only titles with genuine mass appeal, understanding the value of being a second system to those who will never see you as a priority, or simply filling new niches. Back in 2014 I had friends who would light heartedly mock me for owning a PS4 (i'm primarily a PC gamer, and most of my gaming friends are too), but now in 2018 they're pretty much all interested in or now own either a PS4 or Switch. I'm a lot more optimistic about the long-term viability of home consoles in NA now than I was a few years ago.

As a final note, I should mention that I don't consider my position to be fact, I don't feel we have enough data to be able to come to conclusions that firm (e.g. we don't know the specific composition of the Wii's userbase, and by extension how feasible keeping a larger portion of them might have been). This is just my personal observation :)

Shadow is one of my faves as well.

Thanks. When you look at it that way, I see what you mean by PS4 and XB1 having an easier market.

I can definitely follow you on this as well. Early this gen, Sony and Microsoft could've done a better job attracting gamers that gradually migrated to PC gaming by having a stronger library as you say and stronger hardware capable of delivering a stable 60FPS (that seems to be a demand from many of my friends on PC).

Though, stronger hardware would've made the consoles more expensive and to some degree less accessible to the broad mainstream market that PS4 in particular seemed to successfully tap into. Maybe e.g. Sony should've offered a PS4 Pro launching at $600 simultaneously with the $400 PS4 back in 2013? Maybe that's the way to go with the PS5?

As you point out, more and more PC gamers are gradually "coming back" to buying consoles (my friends on all platforms talk about Spider-Man), often as a secondary platform now that great exclusives and stronger hardware (PS4 Pro and XB1X) have arrived.

In the end, it's difficult to know what (and if) Sony and Microsoft could've done differently this gen in order to better tap into this "easier market". Maybe they have a bunch of market analyzes lying around showing that cheap (and weaker) consoles is the way to go and that premium and expensive consoles launching simultaneously are a disadvantage? No matter what, they must try to secure a stronger exclusive library much earlier going forward.

Yeah, even with hindsight it's hard to know what would have been the most optimal approach, and there are some things that would have quite fairly seemed very risky at the time. As much as i'm focusing on what I think went wrong here (in the context of taking full advantage of the opportunities available to them), I do think Sony and MS have overall still done a good job in NA (barring the obvious lol). They had a lot of difficult choices to make, and not only have a lot of those decisions paid off, but they've also learnt a lot from what didn't. I'm excited to see where the console market goes next.

It'll be interesting to see if either of them opt for base and premium models at launch next-gen. I'd personally love it, but as far as the market at large is concerned it's hard to know. The safer move would be to just have a base model, but ensure it launches with software compelling enough to still drag some PC gamers though the door (and some more casual gamers too if possible). I guess we'll find out soon! If Sony release a premium model I hope it's 599 US dollars, just so we can go full circle :D

That would be beautiful.

Oh, that was pretty damn close!

Thanks to the NPD Group for the breakdown.

Here are the numbers for August 2018:
Total: $796 million (up 26 percent from $634 million in August 2017)
Hardware: $214 million (up 28 percent from $168 million)
PC and console software: $330 (up 16 percent from $285 million)
Accessories: $251 million (up 39 percent from $181 million)
August 2018 spending across video game hardware, software, accessories and game cards grew 26 percent when compared to a year ago, to $796 million.

Year-to-date spending across video game Hardware, Software, Accessories and Game Cards is up 17 percent when compared to the same period a year ago, to $7.5 billion. Growth has occurred across all categories of spending, with Accessories & Game Cards driving the largest dollar growth.

SOFTWARE

Dollar sales of Console, Portable and PC Games Software reached $330 million in August 2018, 16 percent higher when compared to a year ago. Year-to-date software spending is up 6 percernt versus year ago, to $3.1 billion.

Madden NFL 19 was the best-selling game of August 2018: Launch month sales of Madden NFL 19 are the highest achieved since the launch of Madden NFL 13. Since 2000, Madden NFL Football has been the best-selling game of August every year, with the exceptions of 2011 and 2012, when Madden NFL launched in the September tracking period.

Grand Theft Auto V ranked as the fourth best-selling game of August 2018 and is now the fifth best-selling title of 2018 year to date: August marks Grand Theft Auto V's 60th month in market, and is the 59th month Grand Theft Auto V has appeared on the best-sellers chart. Grand Theft Auto V remains the best-selling game in tracked history.

Monster Hunter: World returns to the best-sellers list in August driven by the release of the PC version on August 9th: Monster Hunter: World was the second best-selling game of August and remains the third ranked best-selling game of 2018.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 returns to the monthly best-sellers list in August, driven by sales of the Xbox 360 version: The title was added to the Xbox One Backward Compatible Game Library on August 28th, propelling the title up to number 8 on the August best-sellers chart. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 finished July 2018 as the 321st best-selling game of the month.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege climbed the chart from the 9th ranked position in July to become the third best-selling game of August: Performance was driven by the free play period that ran August 16-20 in conjunction with the Six Major Paris 2018 Esports tournament and associated retail and digital promotion.

Electronic Arts is the top-selling Full Game software publisher of August: Nintendo retains the top-selling publisher ranking for 2018 year to date.

HARDWARE & ACCESSORIES

Hardware spending in August 2018 grew 28 percent when compared to a year ago, to $214 million. PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One and Plug N Play devices such as the NES Classic Edition all posted year-on-year gains.

For the 2018 year-to-date period, hardware spending has increased 22 percent to $2.1 billion. Spending gains for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Plug N Play devices such as the NES Classic and SNES Classic have driven growth. Hardware spending remains at its highest level achieved since 2011.

Nintendo hardware unit and dollar sales are at the highest year-to-date totals since 2011. The Nintendo Switch Neon Red/Blue Joy Con 32GB is the year's best-selling hardware item in both unit and dollar sales.

Year to date, Sony's PlayStation 4 remains the best-selling console hardware platform in both units and dollars.

August 2018 dollar sales of Plug N Play consoles grew by a factor of 21x when compared to a year ago, and are now up over 400 percent year to date. The NES Classic Edition is the year's best-selling Plug N Play console in units, while the SNES Classic Edition leads in dollar sales.

Accessories Roundup: Total spending on Accessories and Game Cards grew 39 percent in August 2018 when compared to a year ago, to $251 million. This represents a record high for an August tracking period.

Year to date, Accessories and Game Card spending has grown 33 percent when compared to a year ago, to $2.3 billion. This is also an all-time high, significantly exceeding the $1.7B generated in the 2017 year-to-date period.

Game Card spending continues to set records. Unit sales of Game Cards are up more than 50 percent in the year, while dollar sales growth exceeds 40 percent.

RANKINGS
Physical and Full Game Digital for publishers in the Digital Leader Panel, ranked on dollar sales
Madden NFL 19 ^
Monster Hunter: World
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege
Grand Theft Auto V
Mario Kart 8*
Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker
God of War
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*
Super Mario Odyssey*
Minecraft
Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
Far Cry 5
Monster Hunter: Generations Ultimate*
Call of Duty: WWII
Mario Tennis Aces*
Overwatch ^
Lego The Incredibles
We Happy Few*
The Crew 2

* Digital sales not included
^ PC digital sales not included

Xbox One
Madden NFL 19
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Grand Theft Auto V
Playerunknown's Battlegrounds
Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
Overwatch
Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker
Far Cry 5
Call of Duty: WWII
Star Wars: Battlefront II 2017
PS4
Madden NFL 19
God of War
Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker
Grand Theft Auto V
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
Horizon Zero Dawn
Detroit: Become Human
Far Cry 5
MLB 18: The Show
We Happy Few*
Switch
Mario Kart 8
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Super Mario Odyssey
Monster Hunter: Generations Ultimate*
Mario Tennis Aces
Octopath Traveler
Splatoon 2
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
Minecraft
Year To Date
Far Cry 5
God of War
Monster Hunter: World
Madden NFL 19^
Grand Theft Auto V
Call of Duty: WWII
Dragon Ball: Fighterz
Mario Kart 8*
NBA 2K18
Super Mario Odyssey*

Thanks

So if Spider-Man beats Far Cry 5 to the top, Sony will have both the 1st (Spider-Man) and 3rd (God of War) best selling games of 2018 (for now) slaying a bunch of huge multiplatform games. What a strong year for them.

I wonder which will end on top when all is said and done, and when COD BO4, RDR 2, Smash, and Pokémon have released.

While its too bad Octopath Traveler could not sustain its sales success enough to make the overall top 20 for the month, its a success story nonetheless. Not sure how much of an impact the shortage affected the game in the US..

Nevertheless, Octopath Traveler, hopefully, can be a catalyst for more original AA-AAA games coming to the Switch. A successful Switch game does not have to be a port or an indie.