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ShinobiBk

One Winged Slayer
Member
Dec 28, 2017
10,121
Yeah thats the heart of it

People want to War over consoles. I want to talk about the industry as it's the most interesting market to talk about due to how volatile it is

But wars are more important. And I just dont have the energy for that sort of thing anymore

Thanks for all the insight you've provided. It's always been a pleasure to read.

I don't know why people are so invested in any supposed console war. This ain't the early 90's
 

Nisaba

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,940
Canada
Just wanted to pop in to say thank you to Benji for all the interesting insider info and predictions he has kindly discussed in the past and given his time to. I wish him the best and I hope he gets the rest he needs away from all the social media negativity!

Also congrats to the Switch for being the best selling in 2018 and for having the best December of the generation! It's great to see it doing so well for Nintendo even without a price drop or anything.
 

SilverX

Member
Jan 21, 2018
12,990
They are both in a bad spot, $50 isnt going to swing the needle.

What I am looking at going forward is whether mobile power has reached the 'good enough' point where buying a non portable home console is not as appealing. The number of games that would be impossible on 3ds/Vita vs home consoles was huge. That number is much less now with Switch, and might be single digits or zero with a switch2.

For PS4, a $50 price cut will move the needle. I mean you have to be reasonable here and understand that it wont get it back to its peak performance (its 6 years later and about to hit 100 million), but it´ll keep its sales healthy coupled with big releases like Days Gone, Dreams, Death Stranding, etc.

Xbox could do the same, do a price cut and couple it with Gears 5, Crackdown 3, etc. but its not going to have much effect in comparison.

The selling power for both consoles is just very different.
 

Sense

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,551
They are both in a bad spot, $50 isnt going to swing the needle.

What I am looking at going forward is whether mobile power has reached the 'good enough' point where buying a non portable home console is not as appealing. The number of games that would be impossible on 3ds/Vita vs home consoles was huge. That number is much less now with Switch, and might be single digits or zero with a switch2.
I think the point here is that a $199 ps4 will sell a heck of a lot more and maybe even arrest the slide than an Xbox one for 199
 

SilverX

Member
Jan 21, 2018
12,990
I think the point here is that a $199 ps4 will sell a heck of a lot more and maybe even arrest the slide than an Xbox one for 199

Yes, but it is also other aspects. For example, Sony barely moved the price lower than $299 most of 2018 while the Xbox One was at a sale price ($50 off or more) month to month for most the year. Even with that,, Sony sold about 1 million more units last year.
 

asd202

Enlightened
Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,541
Sony had a dump strategy this holiday season in US. First off Spiderman in the $200 bundle was unnecessary, they would have sold the same amount of consoles without it, it would have taken longer but it would sell. Second no PS4 deal in December, only VR. For example they could have used those Spiderman copies and bundle them in December for $300. They would sell better than they did at it would cost them the same.
 

Instro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,002
What happened in this thread lol. Too bad about Benji, although I think his info sometimes hurt discussion as much as it helped it. People can control themselves in taking "hey guys Switch might hit over 2m" to ridiculous guessing of 2.5m+.
 

Jiggy

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,279
wherever
What I am looking at going forward is whether mobile power has reached the 'good enough' point where buying a non portable home console is not as appealing.

You should probably look at the fact that these consoles are nearly six years old and as a result are hitting a natural sales decline in their twilight years

The successors will come out in 2020 and sell a ton assuming they're competent products

We went through this exact same song and dance in 2012
 

Deleted member 46922

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 21, 2018
595
Wow, I completely overestimated all three consoles. I'm not good at this game.

Although my fiscal year prediction of 18,7 million Switches sold from a month ago may still hold some merit. :P
 

Deleted member 2785

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,119
You should probably look at the fact that these consoles are nearly six years old and as a result are hitting a natural sales decline in their twilight years

The successors will come out in 2020 and sell a ton assuming they're competent products

We went through this exact same song and dance in 2012

Nothissh*tagain.jpg
 

Deleted member 36622

User requested account closure
Banned
Dec 21, 2017
6,639
They are both in a bad spot, $50 isnt going to swing the needle.

What I am looking at going forward is whether mobile power has reached the 'good enough' point where buying a non portable home console is not as appealing. The number of games that would be impossible on 3ds/Vita vs home consoles was huge. That number is much less now with Switch, and might be single digits or zero with a switch2.

Switch is not comparable with mobile.

Mobile has been ready for serious gaming a while ago on the hardware side (with the lack of an efficient cooling system being the only challenge to overcome) , the problem is the software and the monster Google/Apple (and Microsoft to some extent) created pushing free crap just to see the number of downloads blow up on their store.

But from my experience, you can totally live with just Switch and PC already, with one system being a bit more versatile and the other with the best deals. It also depends on your lifestyle and your tastes obviously.
 

Ikaruga

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,055
Austria
It's pretty crazy that 1.8 mil units sold in a month becomes somewhat disappointing.

Nintendo will be thrilled with the numbers.
What many don't realize is that there is also quite a lot of planning involved in just shipping 1.8 million consoles, I wonder if there are or were any news on the system being sold out in some stores. Well I guess we'll see what Nintendo missed in December once we see January numbers, so far the Switch seems to do pretty good this month too I've heard.
 

joe_zazen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,490
You should probably look at the fact that these consoles are nearly six years old and as a result are hitting a natural sales decline in their twilight years

The successors will come out in 2020 and sell a ton assuming they're competent products

We went through this exact same song and dance in 2012

Which song and dance? Good enough mobile power? Afaik, Switch is the first legitimate portable home console and I am just wondering if 'console on the go' is the future.

Or release date? The ps3 to ps4 transition was not planned particularly well from the business side, so I dont think they want to replicate that as they cannot count on Nintendo and MS both faceplanting again. One of the issues they had was waiting too long to release the next gen.
 

srtrestre

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,965
I just heard about Benji

Nooooooooooooooooo

I understand, though. Era can be both the best and worst place sometimes
 

joe_zazen

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,490
Switch is not comparable with mobile.

Mobile has been ready for serious gaming a while ago on the hardware side (with the lack of an efficient cooling system being the only challenge to overcome) , the problem is the software and the monster Google/Apple (and Microsoft to some extent) created pushing free crap just to see the number of downloads blow up on their store.

But from my experience, you can totally live with just Switch and PC already, with one system being a bit more versatile and the other with the best deals. It also depends on your lifestyle and your tastes obviously.

I should have said portable, as you need to maintain the user base who will buy $60+ games. Mobile, as in phone, isn't what i meant. Rather, are portble concoles the way forward?
 

Deleted member 49804

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 21, 2018
1,868
So excited to finally know if Smash bested Halo or not, just a few more hours to go

This is the list to beat:

1st Month U.S. Best-Selling Exclusives - Dollar Sales
1) X360 - Halo: Reach (19 days / 3 weeks tracking)
2) X360 - Halo 4 (19 days / 3 weeks tracking)
3) XBO - Halo 2 (19 days / 3 weeks tracking)
4) X360 - Halo 3 (12 days / 2 weeks tracking | $225 million)
5) PS4 - Marvel's Spider-Man (23 days / 4 weeks tracking)
6) Wii - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (27 days / 4 weeks tracking)
x) XB1 - Halo 5: Guardians (5 days / 1 week tracking | $119 million**)

** retail only figure, while NPD has digital data for the release.


NSW - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (30 days / 5 weeks tracking)
 

Emilijo

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
494
I mean, if Switch wasn't up compared to first year when was supply constrained and when consoles usually sell the least it would be pretty dissapointing.
 

SilverX

Member
Jan 21, 2018
12,990
I've updated this post. See post #2,222 for the reasoning.

I have a question for you Welfare, I recall you saying that the gap between PS4 and Xbox One in the US wouldn´t be 4 million till Summer 2019 just last month. By your numbers, it looks like it will hit that either this month or February.

Were you overestimating Xbox´s performance in December THAT much or were numbers miscalculated?
 

Zedark

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,719
The Netherlands
+4% for Nintendo is somewhat disappointing, but Benji was still correct it sold better than PS4+XB1 combined.

We love you Benji , please take care!
The +4% is the growth in weekly average from November to December. December has 5 weeks, November 4, so the total growth is obviously much larger. YoY December sales grew 18% for Switch, YTD is something like 17% or so up as well, I believe (that's off the top of my head, though).
 

RPG_Fanatic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,623
Alright yeah lets make it official

If a mod is reading this can they please remove my tag?

End of an era folks. Thanks for the love I've gotten over the years

While I mostly lurk in the sales thread, I just want to say that I really appreciated the insight you brought to these threads. Your two cents made reading these sales threads a real treat. I hope you feel better after this and that even if you don't have anything more to do with sales discussion, you do stick around as a valued member of this community. If not, best of luck to you.
 

Welfare

Prophet of Truth - You’re my Numberwall
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,912
I have a question for you Welfare, I recall you saying that the gap between PS4 and Xbox One in the US wouldn´t be 4 million till Summer 2019 just last month. By your numbers, it looks like it will hit that either this month or February.

Were you overestimating Xbox´s performance in December THAT much or were numbers miscalculated?
I expected Xbox One to sell more than 1M this December ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ PS4 was in the range I expected.

I think it happens either in February or March. Really depends how tax returns are handled this year given the shutdown.

The +4% is the growth in weekly average from November to December. December has 5 weeks, November 4, so the total growth is obviously much larger. YoY December sales grew 18% for Switch, YTD is something like 17% or so up as well, I believe (that's off the top of my head, though).
YTD is +16%
 

Deleted member 46922

User requested account closure
Banned
Aug 21, 2018
595
Massively important point. Things could get real ugly(er) real quick for consumer spending if tax returns are held up.

This is the reason why my predictions were this bad. I don't know how the US system works, and why and when consumers have more or less to spent. Yeah, this is what I'll be going for to defend my horrible predictions. :P
 

Dr. Mario

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,831
Netherlands
The +4% is the growth in weekly average from November to December. December has 5 weeks, November 4, so the total growth is obviously much larger. YoY December sales grew 18% for Switch, YTD is something like 17% or so up as well, I believe (that's off the top of my head, though).
Uh, ya I no.

Last year weekly average was +55%.
That's why I called +4% somewhat disappointing.
Of course this year's November was much better, but still.
 

Zedark

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,719
The Netherlands
Uh, ya I no.

Last year weekly average was +55%.
That's why I called +4% somewhat disappointing.
Well, considering November this year was up 75% compared to last year, that number isn't completely unexpected. Even if it had done 2.5 million, the weekly increase would have been less than last year. What it could tell you, I think, is that Switch does very strongly with a modest price reduction (300 dollar + MK8D). Maybe that could signal some very strong sales for next year if a price drop happens.

Edit: Oh, and Cyber Monday being in November doesn't help this year, either, as LordKano correctly observed.
 

bane833

Banned
Nov 3, 2017
4,530
Which song and dance? Good enough mobile power? Afaik, Switch is the first legitimate portable home console and I am just wondering if 'console on the go' is the future.
For what exactly is the Switch supposed to be good enough except Nintendo Games and Indies? Certainly not the big games like RDR 2 or the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.
 

Deleted member 49804

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 21, 2018
1,868
For what exactly is the Switch supposed to be good enough except Nintendo Games and Indies? Certainly not the big games like RDR 2 or the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.

Yes, please lets talk about Cyberpunkt 2077 my most anticipated game of the generation.
NPD sales topic will also be madness, when the game releases.
I expect the game to do better than RDR2 just from very early indicators, tho.
 
Oct 26, 2017
9,827
Yes, please lets talk about Cyberpunkt 2077 my most anticipated game of the generation.
NPD sales topic will also be madness, when the game releases.
I expect the game to do better than RDR2 just from very early indicators, tho.
Yeah, that's not happening. It could have an overall better reception but it's not gonna beat out monsters like RDR 2

For what exactly is the Switch supposed to be good enough except Nintendo Games and Indies? Certainly not the big games like RDR 2 or the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.
Mid tier titles, fighting games, and other more scalable AAA titles, such as Doom. There's a big gulf between Nintendo's games and indie titles and those aren't the only ones the Switch is "good enough for"