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NPD Sales Results for May 2015

Moreche

Member
One of the biggest issues of consoles are value in gaming.
Most teens and kids now want a tablet, smartphone or console for Christmas bug they're to expensive to own all three for most people.
When I was young all kids wanted an Xbox or PS2 and the brick and mortar game stores were packed everyday. Those days are gone now.
Take the App Store on tablets and consoles for example, one is instant, in my hand at all times and easily accessible with constant updates and on consoles it's just not there.
 
One of the biggest issues of consoles are value in gaming.
Most teens and kids now want a tablet, smartphone or console for Christmas bug they're to expensive to own all three for most people.
When I was young all kids wanted an Xbox or PS2 and the brick and mortar game stores were packed everyday. Those days are gone now.
Take the App Store on tablets and consoles for example, one is instant, in my hand at all times and easily accessible with constant updates and on consoles it's just not there.

Its also a space issue. I don't think the actual "console" market has shrunk, but the demand for consoles within it has. A family might have owned 2 or more consoles before, now they just need one, especially since 95% of the software is identical across non-Nintendo platforms. Ditto for 20-somethings in an apartment. And with last-gen having stalled system requirements, a decent Laptop can stand-in for AAA games.

The biggest casualty of this has been Nintendo whose post-SNES market niche was always as a 2nd console, and with the high WiiU price and lack of 3rd party AAA, have ended up selling a luxury item in a generation that places a premium on budget.

Nintendo's secret sauce is third party AAA + Exclusives. Given that 95% of the library is shared between Xbone/PS4/PC differentiation could win it for it them given the weakness of exclusives elsewhere. But that is easier said than done as they found with the WiiU.
 

QaaQer

Member
Right... but how substantial a mainstream market exists will be determined partially by how many titles are being published for those Consoles. Are current output levels of Console focused titles enough to sustain the current HW sales of PS4 and Xone?

Content is king. Right now, the Console market is lacking Content. Without compelling mass market friendly content, the mainstream will stay away.

I would argue that they are.

Who buys games at gamestop and Walmart, and consoles to play them on? In my experience, it is parents of teens, teens, and 20-ish people; the teens and 20-ish people being >80% male. Those are the folks browsing the shelves and showing enthusiasm.

And what games do they buy? Sports, fps, and tps--usually slathered with rpg mechanics. How many of those games are needed each year in order to keep these folks enthused? Well, a lifetime console attach ratio of 5-10 suggests one or two really big games per year is enough.

TLDR; the majority of retail AAA console enthusiasts are male, between 12-30, buy 1 or 2 games per year, and have a narrow range of taste and are being served by the industry quite well.

I guess part of the perception problem here is that not many of us fit into the target audience any more, if we ever did; and so our natural tendency is to see the industry as lacking compelling content because we are not compelled.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
Just to restate my personal analysis here, it is this: the console market faces significant problems going forward. They've been bleeding market share to browers and PC and mobile for nearly a decade now, and that trend isn't abating. All the while, development costs continue to go up relentlessly. Despite these problems, however, there is a healthy market of dedicated console enthusiasts who are sustaining the market right now, and the contraction does not indicate some sort of catastrophic collapse in the forseeable future. In other words: there are serious problems, but not "consoles will be dead soon, this is the last generation, abandon ship" type problems.

Pretty much this.

A lot of people are confusing the phrase "The dedicated console market size has contracted" to mean "OMG VIDEO GAMEZ ARE DEAD!".

That's not the case at all.

We know that the size of the market has contracted over the past few years and we've seen publishers leave the market due to this. We still have a small amount of AAA developers who are having to follow strict protocol in order to release a successful game and create maximum profit from each consumer. Development costs are increasing for everyone and so some publishers are not releasing as many games and smaller developers are having to go digital only or limited physical release. The number of games being released at retail will continue to drop but should stabilise fairly shortly.

So in conclusion, the contraction has already taken place and now its up to console manufacturers and publishers to see if they can either grow the market back to where it was or maintain stability under current market conditions. The market is very different to what it was before, with mobile growing so fast in the gaming space, all publishers need to take advantage of multi platform solutions if they want to create the same or more amount of profit as they used to just developing for consoles previously.

Right now, DFC Intelligence is forecasting that dedicated console hardware revenue will be up to $5.4 billion, up from $5.3 billion in 2014 and software revenue for console games will increase to $9.7 billion, up from $8.7 billion from the previous year.

Overall the industry is expected to be worth $15 billion this year which is up 7% from last year. Digital download sales are expected to grow from $1.8 billion to $3.3 billion by 2019.

(Please note all figures above are from DFC Intelligence for Dedicated Console market in the USA)
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
You see it growing in the US too? Morpheus? Or price drop? Or something else? :)

Compared too X1 only it must have been shrinking for a while?

It is now ~52/48.
Last time the gap was ~800k (July/Aug 2014) it was ~55/45.

It has definitely gone slightly down for the last two months.

I guess it doesn't really matter all that much anyway, and it is interesting first and foremost because it is the only place in the world where we have a "real battle" on our hands.

Gap is near 700k, not 800k.

Here is the chart you asked for. What is most interesting is how the Wii U held 100% market share for the first year on the market but as soon as the PS4 and Xbox One were bought out their market share dropped to under 45% because the cumulative total of the PS4 and Xbox One launches was actually higher than the Wii U's LTD after one year on the market.

It took the PS4 till the first week of January 2014 to outsell the Wii U and took the Xbox One until March 2014. What we can see below is that the Wii U market share continues to decline and eventually will even go under 10% whilst the PS4 and Xbox One market shares have gradually increased but are now at a point where neither will significantly jump up. I do believe that the PS4 will start to pull ahead of the Xbox One in time and therefore will increase its market share percentage.


111111_zpskyv0seln.jpg

(Please note this is based off estimated numbers)
 
TLDR; the majority of retail AAA console enthusiasts are male, between 12-30, buy 1 or 2 games per year, and have a narrow range of taste and are being served by the industry quite well.

Early HW momentum though shows that the customer you're talking about is here... but mass market expansion and adoption will be necessary if this generation will have a similar sales curve to others. The current software offerings are very narrow in target market. Unless Rock Band/Guitar Hero can get back to the mass or Toys to Life really picks up pace on new gen, what is there to convince mom to buy a PS4 for her family this Christmas? Know what I mean?
 

Amused

Member
Gap is near 700k, not 800k.

Here is the chart you asked for. What is most interesting is how the Wii U held 100% market share for the first year on the market but as soon as the PS4 and Xbox One were bought out their market share dropped to under 45% because the cumulative total of the PS4 and Xbox One launches was actually higher than the Wii U's LTD after one year on the market.

It took the PS4 till the first week of January 2014 to outsell the Wii U and took the Xbox One until March 2014. What we can see below is that the Wii U market share continues to decline and eventually will even go under 10% whilst the PS4 and Xbox One market shares have gradually increased but are now at a point where neither will significantly jump up. I do believe that the PS4 will start to pull ahead of the Xbox One in time and therefore will increase its market share percentage.


111111_zpskyv0seln.jpg

(Please note this is based off estimated numbers)

Great work - thanks a lot!

Very interesting to see - PS4 really pulling away up until October last year, Xbox One doing great work during the holidays, and the market share gap stabilizing pretty close to the December level up until now.

Thanks again!
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Gap is near 700k, not 800k.

Here is the chart you asked for. What is most interesting is how the Wii U held 100% market share for the first year on the market but as soon as the PS4 and Xbox One were bought out their market share dropped to under 45% because the cumulative total of the PS4 and Xbox One launches was actually higher than the Wii U's LTD after one year on the market.

It took the PS4 till the first week of January 2014 to outsell the Wii U and took the Xbox One until March 2014. What we can see below is that the Wii U market share continues to decline and eventually will even go under 10% whilst the PS4 and Xbox One market shares have gradually increased but are now at a point where neither will significantly jump up. I do believe that the PS4 will start to pull ahead of the Xbox One in time and therefore will increase its market share percentage.


111111_zpskyv0seln.jpg

(Please note this is based off estimated numbers)

Nice. Does anyone know what the marketshare percentage for Gamecube was? Will this be lower?
 
A lot of people are confusing the phrase "The dedicated console market size has contracted" to mean "OMG VIDEO GAMEZ ARE DEAD!".

That's not the case at all.

True, but I believe it is all a matter of perspective. From the point of view of a die-hard console fan who grew up with the console market not just being the center of the gaming universe but the universe itself, it may well seem like the sky is falling. It's not, but today's gaming landscape is different in ways that make said fan feel uncomfortable, even scared.
 
True, but I believe it is all a matter of perspective. From the point of view of a die-hard console fan who grew up with the console market not just being the center of the gaming universe but the universe itself, it may well seem like the sky is falling. It's not, but today's gaming landscape is different in ways that make said fan feel uncomfortable, even scared.

Yep. Change is scary. Extremely so for some parts of the console market (as gamergate has shown).
 
True, but I believe it is all a matter of perspective. From the point of view of a die-hard console fan who grew up with the console market not just being the center of the gaming universe but the universe itself, it may well seem like the sky is falling. It's not, but today's gaming landscape is different in ways that make said fan feel uncomfortable, even scared.

Yep... and not to throw in too big a generalization, but it's a certain narrow demographic that will fit here too. N64 Kid through X360 gen (call it born between 1988-2000 maybe?) seem to have a love and passion for consoles that older and younger demographics don't quite have. Old people grew up with 80s to mid-90s PC market, younger kids growing up with iOS and Minecraft/PC stuff. But since these N64-X360 kids are now square in the middle of the core gaming consumer demographic they are loud and carry a lot of market spend weight.
 

Biker19

Banned
So that's what, Madden & now The Witcher III in which it had exclusive advertising (?) on Xbox One, only for those versions of the games to be surpassed by the PS4 versions? Wow!
 

Biker19

Banned
Wasn't Madden just bundled?

Yeah, I think so.

Plus I'm also glad that Splatoon's in the Top 10, despite being out for only 3 days.

Holding a firesale every year to keep from being swamped (worldwide or UK/USA) isn't sustainable. This gen is set, the only variable is how large the gap grows.

This. This upcoming November will be two years since both PS4 & Xbox One came out on the market. Question is, who's going to care about what Microsoft does with Xbox One after that point (especially outside of the U.S.)?

More & more people are getting used to the PS4 now, & Sony has yet to offically lower the price of the console while Microsoft has plenty of times. Another firesale or another price drop won't work for them every single holiday, as that isn't exactly a great long-term strategy.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
Great work - thanks a lot!

Very interesting to see - PS4 really pulling away up until October last year, Xbox One doing great work during the holidays, and the market share gap stabilizing pretty close to the December level up until now.

Thanks again!

No worries,

I don't think we'll see the PS4 or Xbox One exceed 50% market share anytime soon, both will be under that number for a while to come.

Nice. Does anyone know what the marketshare percentage for Gamecube was? Will this be lower?

Please take a look below for Market Share of Gen 6 consoles in the USA between November 2001 through November 2007. The PS2 had a year head start and that allowed them to hold an 80% market share as soon as the competition launched (compared to Wii U's low 45% market share).

As always when there is competition the market share for the PS2 crept down but stabilised around the 60% mark. The Xbox market share peaked at 25% and GameCube market share peaked just under 20%.

As of 2014, the final market share for gen 6 is 64% for PS2, 20% for Xbox and 16% for GameCube. The Wii U's market share is currently at 21% and is on track to decrease lower than that of the GameCube and should eventually go sub 10%.


32134_zpswlnqyrpc.jpg

(Based on estimated numbers from various sources)

True, but I believe it is all a matter of perspective. From the point of view of a die-hard console fan who grew up with the console market not just being the center of the gaming universe but the universe itself, it may well seem like the sky is falling. It's not, but today's gaming landscape is different in ways that make said fan feel uncomfortable, even scared.

Sure, I mean Video Gaming as a whole is still a massive industry, and just like we have arcades today, video game consoles aren't going anywhere. Just the landscape is changing as you said.
 

QaaQer

Member
Early HW momentum though shows that the customer you're talking about is here... but mass market expansion and adoption will be necessary if this generation will have a similar sales curve to others. The current software offerings are very narrow in target market. Unless Rock Band/Guitar Hero can get back to the mass or Toys to Life really picks up pace on new gen, what is there to convince mom to buy a PS4 for her family this Christmas? Know what I mean?

You asked

Are current output levels of Console focused titles enough to sustain the current HW sales of PS4 and Xone?

I think as long as there is a supply of 12 year olds who really like shooting/stabbing/sporting to replace those who grow out of console gaming, things will continue as they are.
 

MilesTeg

Banned
I've predicted a drop to $299 for PS4 this year many times. Not sure how likely it is at this point, but someone needs to make the move this year so we can see growth in hardware sales. One move will force the others hand.

With Microsoft announcing $349 as official price right now, any further price reduction in the short term does not seem likely.
If Sony is smart they will drop to $299 ASAP and undercut Xbox One, banking on the $299 price having a big effect on hardware sales and expansion of userbase. It's really all there for the taking.

Playing the parity game on price with Xbox One isn't gonna work though (unless they are gunning for 50/50 split in US) and it's harmful to the market especially with mobile on the rise. Better to act first, get the momentum and marketing at $299 locked in. Force MS hand to change their price yet again, literally weeks after their $350 price is finally official.
 

Opiate

Member
I think it would be helpful to define the time horizons we're talking about.

In June 2015, to 3rd party publishers, 2 platforms in the Packaged Goods market matter: PS4 and Xbox One. Everything else is periphery at best, completely ignored at worst.

The dedicated handheld market for 3rd party publishers couldn't be more extinct when you look at release count. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are getting the last gasps of support, and sales are fairly dismal.

So what else is left to contract significantly in this market today? Not much.

Now, if MS decides to not make a next generation Console, then we really have contraction. However, this could be offset if Nintendo finds secret sauce and hits a homerun with the NX. How likely is that? Who knows.

So I'd very much disagree that one of the remaining big publishers will fold on their own. If anything, EA could very much be bought by Disney (probably dependent to some extent on how the Star Wars games do), or some other big media conglomerate M&A activity. Or, one of the big publishers could just stop making Console games after diversifying enough in other markets. That's completely plausible. Or a 1st party could choose not to participate in a next generation. All of these are more likely causes of changes to the remaining big pubs than the now niche core gaming customer base becoming disinterested.

Maybe that's some you say tomato I say tomayto type stuff... but the data suggest that further contraction in this space could very much be supply, not demand, related.

Absolutely, I definitely agree that most of the consolidation on the producer side is done for the foreseeable future -- with the very important caveat that we're talking about the west here, because Konami and Sega and Capcom are all still in the process of migrating away from consoles.

Contraction tends to be downward spiral-ish, unless you can break out of the spiral, of course. A full circle of the spiral can start with producers reducing output (or exiting the market), but then the next step in the process are that marginal consumers exit the market because their needs are no longer being fulfilled. In the long term this reduces output even further, which further marginalizes consumers, and so forth. This process continues until a very dedicated core of consumers remains who will stay under virtually any circumstance.

I think we're at the part in the spiral where consumers are leaving. Some have already left, obviously; those would be the most casual consumers. But the mid range consumer, who wasn't casual but also wasn't hyper dedicated may not be serviced as well now. They may see only 1-2 games a year they're interested in, and now maybe they're 33 and think "eh, I'm done I guess." That sort of consumer might start walking away.

We won't really know if that's happening until the end of the generation, but I strongly suspect it's happening right now, as we speak. Any potential repercussions on the production side won't be obvious for a long time, and of course, all of this is reversible/stoppable if conditions change. If the console manufacturers can figure out how to appeal more broadly again, get more games on their platforms, they can pull those fringe people back in along with casuals, if they're really good. We'll see.

I just wanted to highlight how contraction tends to occur. Production contraction leads to some marginal consumers walking away, with leads to further production contraction later on, which leads to the next most marginal consumers walking away, which leads to further production contraction, and so forth, all the way down until you are left with nothing but very dedicated consumers who will buy the product under virtually any condition.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
Market Share for Home Consoles in the USA (Gen 6 - Gen 8)

Gen 6-

Please take a look below for Market Share of Gen 6 consoles in the USA between November 2001 through November 2007. The PS2 had a year head start and that allowed them to hold an 80% market share as soon as the competition launched (compared to Wii U's low 45% market share).

As always when there is competition the market share for the PS2 crept down but stabilised around the 60% mark. The Xbox market share peaked at 25% and GameCube market share peaked just under 20%.

As of 2014, the final market share for gen 6 is 64% for PS2, 20% for Xbox and 16% for GameCube. The Wii U's market share is currently at 21% and is on track to decrease lower than that of the GameCube and should eventually go sub 10%.

32134_zpswlnqyrpc.jpg



Gen 7-

Please take a look below for Market Share of Gen 7 consoles in the USA between November 2006 through December 2014. The Xbox 360 had a year head start and was able to sell through approximately 3 million units to end users before the competition had a chance to launch.

Once the Wii did launch it quickly outsold the Xbox 360 and ate into Microsofts market share very rapidly. The Xbox 360 quickly fell to almost 30% market share whilst the Wii almost hit 50% market share. As new sales died away for the Wii and the Xbox 360 received a boost from Kinect we saw the 360 market share increase again and take over the Wii. The PlayStation 3 struggled from day 1 and wasn't able to increase market share much hovering around a low 20% for most of its life.

At the end of the gen (Dec 2014), the Xbox 360 has 38.4% market share, the Wii has 37.8% market share and the PS3 has 23.8% market share.

3443_zps5mrsvsdh.jpg



Gen 8-

Please take a look below or Market Share of Gen 8 consoles in the USA between November 2013 through May 2015. What is most interesting is how the Wii U held 100% market share for the first year on the market but as soon as the PS4 and Xbox One were bought out their market share dropped to under 45% because the cumulative total of the PS4 and Xbox One launches was actually higher than the Wii U's LTD after one year on the market.

It took the PS4 till the first week of January 2014 to outsell the Wii U and took the Xbox One until March 2014. What we can see below is that the Wii U market share continues to decline and eventually will even go under 10% whilst the PS4 and Xbox One market shares have gradually increased but are now at a point where neither will significantly jump up. I do believe that the PS4 will start to pull ahead of the Xbox One in time and therefore will increase its market share percentage.

111111_zpskyv0seln.jpg



Please note that the above charts are based on estimated sell through figures from multiple sources.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
Absolutely, I definitely agree that most of the consolidation on the producer side is done for the foreseeable future -- with the very important caveat that we're talking about the west here, because Konami and Sega and Capcom are all still in the process of migrating away from consoles.

Contraction tends to be downward spiral-ish, unless you can break out of the spiral, of course. A full circle of the spiral can start with producers reducing output (or exiting the market), but then the next step in the process are that marginal consumers exit the market because their needs are no longer being fulfilled. In the long term this reduces output even further, which further marginalizes consumers, and so forth. This process continues until a very dedicated core of consumers remains who will stay under virtually any circumstance.

I think we're at the part in the spiral where consumers are leaving. Some have already left, obviously; those would be the most casual consumers. But the mid range consumer, who wasn't casual but also wasn't hyper dedicated may not be serviced as well now. They may see only 1-2 games a year they're interested in, and now maybe they're 33 and think "eh, I'm done I guess." That sort of consumer might start walking away.

We won't really know if that's happening until the end of the generation, but I strongly suspect it's happening right now, as we speak. Any potential repercussions on the production side won't be obvious for a long time, and of course, all of this is reversible/stoppable if conditions change. If the console manufacturers can figure out how to appeal more broadly again, get more games on their platforms, they can pull those fringe people back in along with casuals, if they're really good. We'll see.

I just wanted to highlight how contraction tends to occur. Production contraction leads to some marginal consumers walking away, with leads to further production contraction later on, which leads to the next most marginal consumers walking away, which leads to further production contraction, and so forth, all the way down until you are left with nothing but very dedicated consumers who will buy the product under virtually any condition.

I believe the right term to use is that you just hit the nail on the head.
 

Opiate

Member
I think it's an important idea so I'm going to summarize it for clarity. The potential downward spiral of market contraction goes as follows:

1) For whatever reason, consumers start walking away from a market. Generally, the first consumers to go are those who are least invested/dedicated.

2) As the consumer base contracts, production responds by reducing production. Fewer products are made in the market.

3) As fewer products are made, the next most marginal customers begin to walk away. They were satisfied with the market before, but the contraction of production has made it slightly less appealing, and these consumers who were just barely interested enough are no longer satisfied.

4) As a response to further consumer base contraction, production contracts even further.

5) As a response to even further production contraction, the new most marginal consumer leaves.

Repeat indefinitely until either something significantly changes to disrupt the spiral or the market is reduced to a very core enthusiast market that will buy the product under virtually any circumstance. I personally believe we're currently at step 3 (or step 5, whichever), but maybe the spiral has been broken or stopped.
 
Because of the fact that shovelware helped cause the Great Video Game Crash. Shovelware literally killed the North American console game market until Nintendo and its overly restrictive policies revived the market.

False hyberbole.I can't believe with all the info we have history before 1986 is still complete nonsense and misinformation keeps spreading, doesn't surprise me gaming history basically is never taken seriously, never will, and why there's a lack of effort for older articles or information/data. Also why developers/publishers, bury their own history or make themselves look good if there's a gap somewhere that needs filling.

I do believe that the PS4 will start to pull ahead of the Xbox One in time and therefore will increase its market share percentage.

Why do you think this?
 
BTW this could be a good forum to talk about E3 tomorrow, in relation to it effecting June NPD anyway, especially since this forum will be overshadowed and there won't be a chat room to deal with. Some good people in this thread as well.
 
False hyberbole.I can't believe with all the info we have history before 1986 is still complete nonsense and misinformation keeps spreading, doesn't surprise me gaming history basically is never taken seriously, never will, and why there's a lack of effort for older articles or information/data. Also why developers/publishers, bury their own history or make themselves look good if there's a gap somewhere that needs filling.



Why do you think this?

Well ps4 is still 399 and has not had any price drops, what happens when PS4 and x1 are back to price parity? MS can only go so low, I agree with him I think eventually the gap will grow a lot more. We are year 2 into the gen and the ps4 is clearly the console more people want currently as even at 50 cheaper PS4 is still winning most months in the US>
 
I think it's an important idea so I'm going to summarize it for clarity. The potential downward spiral of market contraction goes as follows:

1) For whatever reason, consumers start walking away from a market. Generally, the first consumers to go are those who are least invested/dedicated.

2) As the consumer base contracts, production responds by reducing production. Fewer products are made in the market.

3) As fewer products are made, the next most marginal customers begin to walk away. They were satisfied with the market before, but the contraction of production has made it slightly less appealing, and these consumers who were just barely interested enough are no longer satisfied.

4) As a response to further consumer base contraction, production contracts even further.

5) As a response to even further production contraction, the new most marginal consumer leaves.

Repeat indefinitely until either something significantly changes to disrupt the spiral or the market is reduced to a very core enthusiast market that will buy the product under virtually any circumstance. I personally believe we're currently at step 3 (or step 5, whichever), but maybe the spiral has been broken or stopped.

My goodness I wish I had your gift of succinctly capturing an idea and presenting it in an easily understandable way. This is what I was really failing at trying to say.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
My goodness I wish I had your gift of succinctly capturing an idea and presenting it in an easily understandable way. This is what I was really failing at trying to say.

Me too haha.

Why do you think this?

Multiple reasons which when combined should allow the PS4 to pull ahead in the US Market.

- PS4 already is the cumulative leader and has larger positive mind share in the US as the console of choice this gen.
- The PS4 will have more appealing titles that are exclusive/have exclusive content in the US.
- The PS4 should have a price advantage later in the gen
- Morpheus and other PlayStation exclusive features will help sales of the console
- There are still core, semi casual and casual gamers who are yet to buy an 8th gen console.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Right now the audience seems really interested in buying what's there, but I'm not convinced we're making nearly enough content for them.

Like the Summer is very barren. That is not good.

We see this manifest in the vastly larger amount of complaints about delays this generation, because there's nothing still coming out when games get delayed. Before they were noticed vastly less, and minded less to boot.

Things like Kickstarter are probably also the ultimate representation of an unsatisfied audience that is willing to go so far as to fund their own games so they can get things they want to play.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Right now the audience seems really interested in buying what's there, but I'm not convinced we're making nearly enough content for them.

Like the Summer is very barren. That is not good.

We see this manifest in the vastly larger amount of complaints about delays this generation, because there's nothing still coming out when games get delayed. Before they were noticed vastly less, and minded less to boot.

Things like Kickstarter are probably also the ultimate representation of an unsatisfied audience that is willing to go so far as to fund their own games so they can get things they want to play.

Considering how tons of the games released have been breaking records and so forth, I tend to agree. The horror genre for example clearly seems to be strong, yet we've only gotten Dying Light & Evil Within so far. Hopefully E3 brings more.
 

heidern

Junior Member
Imru’ al-Qays;167736838 said:
You say this like it would be unusual. The eighth generation was the first that Nintendo didn't significantly undercut the competition in terms of pricing since at least the N64.

Gamecube launched at $199. With Wii they increased to $249 and then to $349 with Wii U. Now they will have to go back down. Sony have already had to come down from a $599 PS3 to a $399 PS4 and MS have had to abandon the $499 Kinectbox to the sub $400 mark. As the industry was growing the manufacturers were going upmarket and trying to broaden the market by offering diverse/better features but now they are being forced to go more downmarket and concentrating on their core audience with attractive pricing as their tool to broaden the market.

The massive growth last gen in dedicated gaming was due to a collection of 'fads' (Wii, Wii Fit, PSP, Nintendogs, Brain Training, Kinect) and those expanded audiences have been lost this gen for various reasons. The core audiences on the other hand have been pretty resilient, especially if you take account the increased prices Nintendo and Microsoft have offered this gen.

The big problem for the industry isn't demand or shall we say potential demand for dedicated gaming devices. The problem is on the supply side and the rising development costs. There's been a massive contraction in the number and variety of games and that makes the dedicated gaming devices relevent to less people. That's what pushes you into the downward spiral. The downward spiral isn't just less games being produced, but also less variety/risks in the games being produced meaning a market that is getting both smaller and narrower.

To break that spiral either you need to offer something really good/different that will grow the market or you somehow stop the rising development costs. But if you go for the latter, then you probably have to go downmarket and cut hardware and software prices. This is where competition from smart devices and cheap/free games would really kick in.
 
I think it's an important idea so I'm going to summarize it for clarity. The potential downward spiral of market contraction goes as follows:

1) For whatever reason, consumers start walking away from a market. Generally, the first consumers to go are those who are least invested/dedicated.

Is it really a question of the console market or a TV based entertainment market i.e. are consumers moving/being pushed away from devices/content attached to the TV and onto tablets/phones?

Consoles do seem very tied to the idea of a big TV in the home, or TVs in kids bedrooms, as a hub around which entertainment sits. If tablets are replacing those bedroom TVs, or kids are being fobbed off with tablets so their parents can keep access to the living room TV, then that's going to have a knock on affect at some point.

My kids have got access to a tablet and a 3DS, but those £30-40 Nintendo titles can be a hard sell when tablet titles are either free or a few quid each. Especially considering how fickle kids can be when it comes to actually playing a game as opposed to tossing it aside after five minutes for something else.
 
Well ps4 is still 399 and has not had any price drops, what happens when PS4 and x1 are back to price parity? MS can only go so low, I agree with him I think eventually the gap will grow a lot more. We are year 2 into the gen and the ps4 is clearly the console more people want currently as even at 50 cheaper PS4 is still winning most months in the US>

PS4 has been struggling to pull ahead for almost 2 years.

Me too haha.



Multiple reasons which when combined should allow the PS4 to pull ahead in the US Market.

- PS4 already is the cumulative leader and has larger positive mind share in the US as the console of choice this gen.
- The PS4 will have more appealing titles that are exclusive/have exclusive content in the US.
- The PS4 should have a price advantage later in the gen
- Morpheus and other PlayStation exclusive features will help sales of the console
- There are still core, semi casual and casual gamers who are yet to buy an 8th gen console.

1. Barely.

2. This requires a crystal ball and knowing what people want to buy.

3. Why?

4. An Expensive add-on is going to sell consoles? (at least the number you're implying.

5. Which could also translate to Xbox as well this isn't a PS4 exclusive feature.

Seems clear to me it can go either way based on game announcements.
 
PS4 has been struggling to pull ahead for almost 2 years.



1. Barely.

2. This requires a crystal ball and knowing what people want to buy.

3. Why?

4. An Expensive add-on is going to sell consoles? (at least the number you're implying.

5. Which could also translate to Xbox as well this isn't a PS4 exclusive feature.

Seems clear to me it can go either way based on game announcements.

LMAo yeah it's more expensive, which was the entire point of my post...It won't be forever. Sony has had to do nothing to maintain a lead in MS strongest territory...What happens when PS4 is the same price or even cheaper?

Ps4 will widen it's lead eventually imo.
 
LMAo yeah it's more expensive, which was the entire point of my post...It won't be forever. Sony has had to do nothing to maintain a lead in MS strongest territory...What happens when PS4 is the same price or even cheaper?

Ps4 will widen it's lead eventually imo.

Considering ones increasing and ones decreasing I don't see that at all. Not to mention we are randomly assuming that a price drop of $349, which has already been done, will suddenly boost the PS4 "ahead" instead of at close range. Same with $299, where both will likely drop.

As I said before, I think it can go either way depending on the games. I do believe one of them will show a pull ahead b y the end of this year, or CLOSE to that.
 
So what does that make the XBone who has yet to pull even in 2 years with all the price cuts and bundled giveaways?

Narrative spins - so dizzy.

Bundled giveaways? You do realize PS4 had that as well right?

I also don't think you know what spin means, especially since I already said it can go either way.

Another fine graduate of the hasbarah school of marketing. bravo. your historical revisionism is breath taking.

Yes the historical revisionism of factual history of an around 700k gap and a chance that the gap from last year may happen slower this time. If it does.

Yep revisionism, PS4 definitely has not been around the same range all this time. Wait...

Seems there's a lot of uh, issues with personal bias here, all ignoring the fact I said it could go either way, very interesting.
 
Considering ones increasing and ones decreasing I don't see that at all. Not to mention we are randomly assuming that a price drop of $349, which has already been done, will suddenly boost the PS4 "ahead" instead of at close range. Same with $299, where both will likely drop.

As I said before, I think it can go either way depending on the games. I do believe one of them will show a pull ahead b y the end of this year, or CLOSE to that.

Because we know at the same price ps4 was way outselling x1 and is even when it is more expensive it is obvious IMO.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
PS4 has been struggling to pull ahead for almost 2 years.

Well the PS4 pulled ahead early on but sales were disrupted due to Microsoft unbundling Kinect and also creating an attractive holiday bundle at $150 less than launch price.

1. Barely.
2. This requires a crystal ball and knowing what people want to buy.
3. Why?
4. An Expensive add-on is going to sell consoles? (at least the number you're implying.
5. Which could also translate to Xbox as well this isn't a PS4 exclusive feature.
Seems clear to me it can go either way based on game announcements.

The PlayStation without a doubt has more mind share on a global scale and in the US today. There is plenty of evidence with the US market that a number of Xbox 360 users have chosen the PlayStation 4 computer entertainment system as their primary console this generation and that will translate into sales among friends when they come to choose a console and want to play online with each other through the unified PlayStation Network system.

We already know that PlayStation is pushing to market their exclusive titles and exclusive content with publishing partners and this is having an effect on software sell through ratios between PlayStation and Xbox. Even games that are being marketed on Xbox have better sales on PlayStation.

Sony can easily control the price of their system as demonstrated in the UK market and in the US historically. Especially as they haven't moved on their launch price and are already making a profit on the console itself. Therefore they should be able to do what they did with the PS1 and PS2 which is match the price of their competitors and perhaps even sacrifice margin in order to gain a stronghold over their competition.

I actually think that Morpheus won't sell many new consoles. But I do think it will build hype leading up to the release and through 2016. As will other PlayStation services such as PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Vue, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Remote Play and others services such as Spotify.

Sony has a much better chance to capture more gamers this gen as well as a more semi casual / casual audience through the future game announcements that it has planned. I envision this gen being similar to PS1 and N64 where N64 easily matched PS1 sales early on but ultimately lagged behind in to second place as the gen went on. The Xbox brand isn't as strong as it was and the majority of people who have bought the console so far are core gamers who owned the 360, secondly the number of games being released on the Xbox One are less than that of the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation 4 has many more compelling reasons for a gamer to purchase the console than the Xbox One has.

Despite Dreamcast selling a mere 32 units this month it still remains ahead of WiiU...but we're down to a gap of 11,167 units.

I'm fairly certain the Dreamcast sold 4.1 million in the USA?
 
Because we know at the same price ps4 was way outselling x1 and is even when it is more expensive it is obvious IMO.

This doesn't apply since Xbox One was more expensive in the first place. We don't have enough data to go and assume that Xbox one won't outsell or be even with PS4 at the same price on even terms.

But again like I said, looks like it can go either way imo. Please note this sentence.
 
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