GCD2: Games Chart Discussion

[Neon Ignition]

I'll just summarise as it's not a story worth the effort but there's news stories going around that Alan Wake II has been an immense flop for Remedy. The original story sprang from a story that was pure speculation, an assumption that it had performed poorly because Remedy hadn't screamed from the rooftops about its sales figures.

There's since been lots of handwringing over estimations that in two months the game is circling a likely 1m units sold

https://twitter.com/PiersHR/status/1735007619645907352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1735007619645907352%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=

Bear in mind - critical darling and huge hit Control sold 2m units - in 15 months

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.reuters.com/technology/sony-highlights-ps5-momentum-hardware-sales-top-50-million-2023-12-20/

PS5 has hit 50m units sold just 1 week slower than the PS4 took to hit the same milestone


01 - Nintendo Switch - 132.46m
02 - PlayStation 5 - 50.00m
03 - Xbox Series S/X - 23.90m​

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.ft.com/content/3b89e9f7-e3cf-4e60-bfa4-987af24efa75

According to this report PS5 hit 50m by selling 23m units in the last 12 months alone. The Switch managed to sell over 16m units this year whilst the XSX sold just over 7m. If the data can be relied on then it puts total XSX sales to date somewhere around the previously reported 23m figure and hints that the system is currently on course to struggle to surpass the Xbox One.

[fishbowlhead]

https://www.ft.com/content/3b89e9f7-...4-987af24efa75
According to this report PS5 hit 50m by selling 23m units in the last 12 months alone. The Switch managed to sell over 16m units this year whilst the XSX sold just over 7m. If the data can be relied on then it puts total XSX sales to date somewhere around the previously reported 23m figure and hints that the system is currently on course to struggle to surpass the Xbox One.

The SeriesX has catastrophically underperformed compared to the One hasn't it though, not that we have concrete numbers by MS for obvious reasons but its probably at what, 8-10m, its only the SeriesS keeping the gen on life support for MS.

Switch is on track to become biggest selling console of all time at this rate.

[egparadigm]

I see a lot of people carrying PS5s around the streets of Bristol lately (3 months), and not just in the centre.

[Neon Ignition]

If the Series S hadn't existed then we'd likely be looking at a crisis with Xbox based on the momentum behind the X. I wonder if MS would ever consider going for a new brand name

[fishbowlhead]

I think without the SeriesS they would be looking at the console market and their future in it in a serious way.

[nonny]

It's impossible to predict what would have happened without the Series S in my opinion. It certainly has helped them in some respects butequally it's hindered them in others.

As for overall sales. Again it's hard to dispute the PS5 is way ahead but there's other factors to weigh up.

Firstly what is going on with the portal being counted as a console sale? Is that now being included in overall numbers because if that is happenings that is some creative accounting!

Secondly comparing to the Xbox One era is difficult because we didn't have day one releases on PC or accessibility of cloud . I'm sure a lot of would-be Xbox owners that have a capable PC have simply chosen to not grab aconsole this generation due to that strategy.

Do I think going on raw hardware sales doesn't give the full picture anymore. It tells us something as an indicator but it doesn't tell us as much as it used to in the last generation.

Regardless I see both the Series X and S are heavily discounted right now after not wavering too much in earlier months when PS5 was dropped £80... so it's clear MS wants to shift more this xmas period.

[Lebowski]

The portal thing i doubt has much of an impact on sony's numbers, if it had gone crazy like the kinect did on the 360 you can bet Sony would be shouting about it. I'd be surprised if they have even sold 100,000 units of them. No doubt some leak will let us know how badly its done in 9-12 months.

Back to Microsoft it's one for four now with only the 360 being a decent success and even then the ps3 ended up being 1 millions shy of matching its sales numbers despite a disaster of a launch and coming to market late. Do we think MS will make another console to take on Sony and Nintendo again. I can't see them not doing, but throwing windows money at a piece of hardware that's failed to do the business 4 times now seems pretty idiotic.

[Neon Ignition]

I think part of the issue is Game Pass. They're going big on content which is good to see given how long they had next to nothing on that front but they've also got a sense about them now of not really being 'in the game'. Nintendo and Sony are currently giants by comparison and MS is more like a glorified third party publisher, they aren't aggressive enough in pushing the console which is their primary driver for Game Pass etc.

[Lebowski]

I think with the momentum they have with game pass they could push a cloud only subscription based model of content delivery, via app stores steaming boxes and built into tv's without the need for a dedicated console. I know game streaming has failed for so many other providers but stadia was a mess that lacked a clear strategy and onlive was too early to market.

[nonny]

I think part of the issue is Game Pass. They're going big on content which is good to see given how long they had next to nothing on that front but they've also got a sense about them now of not really being 'in the game'. Nintendo and Sony are currently giants by comparison and MS is more like a glorified third party publisher, they aren't aggressive enough in pushing the console which is their primary driver for Game Pass etc.

I think they started out pretty aggressively with game pass as the focus but between being overly ambitious on cloud and getting caught up in months of legal ongoings with the Activision stuff they've slowed right down this past year.

If they'd directed more hardware into physical units instead of building out the cloud server blades there wouldn't have been such a big shortage at retail... thankfully they seem to have changed this now.

They also seem to be pushing the console much more now that the Activision acquisition is done. Both things combined make me think Xbox is be much more aggressive in the next year as the focus is very much back on content, game pass and being competitive.

[Neon Ignition]

It's that balance between making Xbox a great way to access Game Pass versus making Game Pass the focus to the extent that it drowns out Xbox, which I suspect has happened. To be honest, we're too deep into this gen for MS to right the ship but they really need to think harder about it as with the console being the biggest driver its stagnation will be the key reason GP subs have stalled also. They really don't want to have spent $70bn+ this gen to have a fifth generation Xbox suffer the same fate too.

[nonny]

It's that balance between making Xbox a great way to access Game Pass versus making Game Pass the focus to the extent that it drowns out Xbox, which I suspect has happened. To be honest, we're too deep into this gen for MS to right the ship but they really need to think harder about it as with the console being the biggest driver its stagnation will be the key reason GP subs have stalled also. They really don't want to have spent $70bn+ this gen to have a fifth generation Xbox suffer the same fate too.

They need a constant stream of content from their first party studios which hasn't happened as well as expected.

We got Starfield, Forza and Hi-Fi Rush this year but Redfall fell flat and Age of Empires isn't going to set the world on fire.

We're looking at Hellblade, Avowed, Stalker 2 and more coming next year and they won't be limited by the constant scrutiny of the Activision merger now.

Agree it doesn't look good when your console is selling considerably less than the market leader, but the market isn't just consoles in the Xbox strategy now. What they need is a reason to access game pass and stay subscribed.

They need games, great games and plenty of them in all sizes.

[Neon Ignition]

I think they're going to eventually come to a painful realisation that their plan isn't going to work.

Game Pass isn't going to come to Switch or PS5 which would be the two biggest areas of expansion. It's already on PC and broadly the response has been indifference because people are either entwined with Steam or have a myriad of other options due to the openness of the platform. The TV, mobile etc dream is a golden goose - it's never going to be a billion player giant that every company keeps thinking is going to be something that they crack the magic of. It's the same reason as to why console sales in total have hit a roof over the past two gens. The target should be to effectively remove the existing markets reason to own a PlayStation and build from there because if they did that then Sony would likely never recover. I do think that in many markets now though that the Xbox name is too tainted after so many unsuccessful generations regionally