Nintendo Switch Only Accounted For 7% Of Ubisoft's Yearly Revenue

That 7% is almost entirely carried by Mario&Rabbids (and Just Dance), which is really impressive how well that game has done if you put that into perspective!

South Park only just recently released on the Switch and as such pretty much falls out of this earnings report.

Hardly surprising.
There isn't a whole lot of Switches out there yet, they don't have that many game out for it, and the games they do have out don't have much in the way of microtransactions, DLC, or season passes.

I just only have Mario + Rabbids for Switch games.
I have other Ubisoft games (published by Ubisoft) on different machines (NDS, Wii) such as Imagine Boutique Owner NDS, Dog Island Wii, Gold's Gym Cardio Workout.

Install base and limited number of games suggests 7% is pretty reasonable. When Switch catches X1 in install base and games the numbers are likely to be similar.

So they got out roughly what they put in. The 7% is a ratio. Hardly doom and gloom

Is that really surprising? What does Ubisoft have on Switch beside Mario + Rabbids? Uno and Monopoly. lol.

Compare that to all the games they have on other platforms. I'd be surprised if the number were higher.

@Pod i would argue that there is a whole ton of switch's out there especially if you compare it to wii u.

@gcunit There won't be many more games.

@Heavyarms55
I would like to see Ubisoft games like Petz series, Imagine series, etc back again to Switch or something New, as long still for kids & women.

Only one new game released to the Switch really, South Park, even though is relatively new, was released after the fiscal year ended so it doesn't appear on that graphic.
It wouldn't make much difference anyway but the point I'm trying to make is that Rabbids + Mario are certainly the bulk of all their sales on the platform.
Apart from R+M, there was nothing else really exciting from Ubisof last year so, hopefully, they will bring some heavy hitters to the platform this year.
I'd love to see a port of the Assassins Creed and there are rumours about a new Tom Clancy game which would be great.

7% is pretty damn good considering that they had only released a handful of games for the Switch in its first year.

Just Dance 2017, Just Dance 2018, Mario + Rabbids, Rayman Legends. Have I missed anything?

Uno is the only digital-only Ubisoft title that I am aware of. Again, very solid numbers considering how few games they have released, and that they have basically covered only two franchises (Rayman/Rabbids and Just Dance) that appeal mainly to a very casual audience (and I imagine that the Switch's casual audience will be quite low, at least at this point in its life). I think porting a "blockbuster" game earlier in the Switch's life would have done them good as owners are itching for broader genre coverage, which I think a port of Watch_Dogs 2 and/or 1 would have filled nicely.

South Park is a very recent release, so I doubt that its sales numbers will be reflected in the above data.

If anything, I am surprised by how low the cumulative sales are for last-gen platforms. With that in mind, I would be very surprised if Ubisoft continues to release Just Dance 2019 on Wii and/or Wii U.

@NewAdvent : Ubisoft continued to release such games on 3DS, however, they released relatively few of them when compared with the DS (the DS was released during a time when smartphones were yet to enter the market, and software that would now cost pennies or be F2P were sold as full-priced packaged software).

While the majority of the audience have migrated to smartphones, I think there is still an audience there for consumers who prefer complete software that requires a one-off purchase. But, yes, the majority of the audience for such software would no longer use dedicated gaming hardware and may consume such software on their mobiles instead.

The article makes it sound like things are in a dire situation, not true at all. I think the profit on that 7% will be very high, the ps4 games require much larger resource. This should be a huge win for them!

This is great news!

I think monopoly was from Ubisoft maybe!

@Menchi187 screenshoted for the inevitable lulz

@edgedino
Well that REALLY isn't saying a lot.
I know the Switch is selling very well, but it's only been a year, and games only sell so fast when the install base is growing from 0.

Bearing in mind they only forecast 5% for Q4 this year, I can't imagine they are going to bother releasing anything for the Switch. Aside from Mario Rabbids, what else was going to be a volume seller? Certainly not Rayman which has been released to death on every platform imaginable and people don't love the franchise.

7% isnt to bad when you look at the console sale numbers compared to other platforms and its so early on at the moment. You can't really say much about south park sales as its been out a matter of weeks for the switch and just dance probably did alright i guess.

E3 will say a lot going forward. Will it just be Just Dance 2019, Starlink and Mario + Rabbids DK DLC or will there be more for Switch to enjoy?

It's good sales for Mario vs Rabbids, but the fact it's tied to Nintendo consoles does limit it. Think of Rayman, Assassins Creed, etc that you can put on any system that can run it either now or 5 years down the line. MvR is stuck on Nintendo consoles because that portly plumber can't be on other consoles.

I would be curious to see how a more mature title would fare on the Switch- admittedly I probably wouldn't be interested in it like I would be MvR2.

I don't understand why the title of the article makes this sound so negative. It almost feels clickbaity. I know being negative towards Nintendo drives clicks, but for a Nintendo focused site, that's a bit much.

I know there are other Ubisoft games on the Switch, but Mario + Rabbids is the only one I took note of and the only one I own and the only one I played. After taking a quick look at their other offerings just now, due dilligence and all, nothing about this is changed. I'd say having this barebones of a catalogue available + a still rather niche Mario-themed Tactical-RPG makes 7% look rather decent actually.

Surely the percentage of profit is more important? Obviously the switch revenue is low as it’s got a fraction of consoles out there :-/

I would wager that the Switch's 7% (almost entirely Mario + Rabbids) has been extremely profitable for them.

I got M+R, Uno, and Monopoly

Not bad since they only have a handful of games on switch. It would still be nice to see the Ezio Collection and AC Rogue released for switch.

I understand it’s probably impossible to put ghost recon wildlands on switch. It would be great to have that type of game or far cry 5 on the go. I was happy to see south park released on the Switch, I doubled dipped and picked it up. I’m looking forward to more Ubisoft games on the Switch.

I have no idea whether that’s a good or bad number. It would be interesting to know how much Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry 5 accounted for, and how games released at the same time for all platforms did.

While I’ll probably not pick up AC or FC5 myself, if I would, I’d probably pick ut for my PS4 Pro.

Mario + Rabbids was brilliant, I cannot wait for the DK DLC!

7% is amazing considering what is on offer by Ubisoft in comparison!

They only released one important title on the system, and it didn't come attached to a million bundles of DLC and microtransactions like their other heavy hitters. I'm not surprised, and I hope they continue to develop for the Switch, ideally with the same kind of effort they put into Kingdom Battle. That game felt more polished than any Ubisoft game I've played in years.

If it wasn't for Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle i doubt I would even have a Switch.I bought the console for this game alone and absolutely love the game and love the Switch.So glad to see the game is still doing really well and looking forward to more dlc

They don't have much on it except for Mario + Rabbids and a few ports. Fractured But Whole might not even be in these numbers (but I don't think it would make much of a difference). Hey, it's still a healthy increase from last year. I think last year had Nintendo products at a whopping 2%.

If Mario + Rabbids sold over a million, I think this says more about the sales of Far Cry 5 and Assassin's Creed than anything.

Thats not bad for like 4 games... they want big money they need to put out big titles.

Ubi, if you deliver quality on a Nintendo console, you have always made gains with it.

@gortsi Got to love the hot takes around here. I'm sure he said his dad could beat up your dad at some point as well.

are we surprised? Far Cry 5 and Assassin's Creed Origins are what we want. Not dancing or old ports like South Park. Rabbids was great at least, but Far Cry 5 and Assassin's Creed Origins would be amazing on the go

7% sounds pretty big to me given the paucity of big games they’ve put on the switch. Presumably M+R brought most of that in. Would be interested to know the profit made by M+R. Hopefully there’ll be further collaboration between the two companies in the future.

Does this count micro transactions? I have a feeling the Switchs percentage jumps up a bit if you don't

If they released all of their big games on Switch things would be completely different. As for me the only Ubisoft game I own on Switch is Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, South Park looks good but eh whatever and I would've gotten Just Dance if I were 8 but yeah not when I'm 16...

I have Mario + Rabbids and Uno, and plan to get Monopoly on deep sale (when it's cheaper than $20).

80%+ of those Ubisoft Switch software sales probably come from Mario + Rabbids. Expect a sequel in 2019/2020.

I know it just got released but it's a shame that they didn't discount Fractured But Whole with this latest Ubisoft eShop sale. It's way too expensive on Switch.

I guess if it’s not Japanese made, Japan just doesn’t care? Seems like only the US and EU actually bought the games for the most part.
I hope this isn’t a bit issue. Mario & Rabbids especially is a great game, and I want to see more from that team.

Yet they only predict 5% this year.

Guess that ship sailed eh?

That "only" singularly makes this the baitiest article I've seen in months.

You ARE aware that in 2015, when wii u was at 10-12 million (same as switch's first year), The Wii U accounted for 1-2% of total Ubisoft sales, yes? Who am I kidding, of course you are. Talking about that, then saying the switch is a massive improvement, wouldn't get clicks.

@jswhitfield8 in all fairness none of the releases on switch sold even a quarter of what their other games on other systems have sold.

I feel like they're spinning this as bad when it's good. They had, what 3 games in that 3 quarters counted for on the platform, none of them were their big titles, on a newly launched platform, and they got about half the sales of PC which includes ALL their games on literally the most common platform? That's a solid showing.

What's more interesting is just how dismal PC is. If you trust the internet everyone plays PC....yet it's a paltry 18% of sales. Subtract that and Switch and 3/4 of games were played on PS/XB, mostly PS, and PC and Switch fight for scraps.

@YummyHappyPills Wow, only 5%? So South Park is kind of it then for them this year? I guess For Honor 2 and it's 30-40 customers will require all teh powerz? I don't get how Ubi can have the most creative ideas in the industry and then squander
them all so consistently.

@Hikingguy Ubisoft games have a Ubisoft feel. The engines LOOK bland and lifeless but the worlds, to me are interesting. More interesting than most companies. But it depends. AC:O, Syndicate, original AC, and even II had a very deep, unique worlds that beg you to explore. AC3, 4 were kind of generic. Watch Dogs was generic. I haven't tried 2 yet, I've heard it's better. For Honor is a GREAT world, even if it's a map-based arena game ultimately. Far Cry elicits mixed feelings. I want 5 for the co-op, good co-op games are so rare, but the "Redneck South" theme does nothing for me while the jungles of 4 were intriguing. There's a "hey this is a Ubisoft game, isn't it" feel to so many of their games. But that doesn't always make them generic. I find I tend to like Ubisoft stuff more than most of other major AAA publishers....but it doesn't mean it's always a hit.

@YummyHappyPills
Where is that 5% prediction for the upcoming fiscal year, may I ask?

https://ubistatic19-a.akamaihd.net/comsite_common/en-US/images/pressrelease_downloadablemm_20180517_034832_ubisoftfy18englishfinal_tcm99-324418_tcm99-196733-32.pdf

All I see is that the Switch accounts for 5% of Ubisoft's total software sales during the January - March 2018 quarter, which makes sense as no new Ubisoft Switch games were released during that period.

@YummyHappyPills Considering they won't have a major exclusive this year, that 2% decrease makes sense

And people wonder why 3rd publishers think of PS4 first. Sony dosent need to pay anyone - it just makes money for them

Hope it is still worth it for Ubisoft to announce something original for Switch at E3... Ubisoft is a great company. No need for something big - Maybe Child of Light 2 - would be a great game on Switch

@frogopus haha I suppose thats a fair point. I meant more that I would like 1. a collection of AC games, or 2. same-day launch of the next AC game

Was only one game worth buying till South Park came out so now there’s two. Already played rayman on wiiu so not buying again

@Heavyarms55 South Park, Just Dance, Rayman Legends would be the others but ya not many games

7% is good for a single game.

@Agramonte
"Nintendo needs to help actual 3rd party make money - why no Ubisoft Switch bundle?!"

Maybe because Mario + Rabbids sold very well and is continuing to sell quite well...

@subpopz I don't know what gamesindustry bases things on though. Is that "sales for big publishers" is that "all the indies collected" (which aren't necessarily direct competing markets), is that NA/regional breakdown only, or worldwide including places like Korea and China that barely touch consoles and, in China's case, a has a mammoth population...but also tend to have very specific or completely different tastes in gaming?

I.E. I've noticed in Steam's stats that collects user data and publishes it, the #1 used language on Steam is Simplified Chinese. It fluctuates by month, this month English is #1 by a few percent due to an unusually big drop in Chinese (I'm guessing the new social scoring system in China has some people frightened to play games and risk dropping their score. Most months it's been #1, with English a few points back, Russian is around 10% and everything else insignificant.) I.E. "Steam" may make up a ton of gaming, however on average, almost half of the total Steam "PC gamers" playing on Steam are in CN or RU. Not even Taiwan or Hong Kong overall (they use Traditional Chinese and are more into consoles than their mainland counterparts)...this is all PRC, PRC emigrants, and associated countries, plus Russia. So that big PC bubble in the overall metrics may be a bit more regional than you'd think. Plus Korea that is all PC, but mostly into MOBA/Strategy/MMO games specifically, so it's a very specific set of games that sell very well there. SK's not a particularly populous country, but a very solid market dedicated mostly to the one platform.

I suspect Ubisoft's statistics are a much clearer image of "big publisher games in US/EU" than than gamesindustry survey, assuming GI is looking at the TOTAL worldwide market, since that includes some very large but very separate markets. Notice that Ubi's "rest of the world" stats were just 16% of their sales. No doubt where Ubi's low PC, low worldwide number line up, you'll find high PC numbers in "the rest of the world", but they're generally buying different games.

@Hikingguy Hmm, well, when it comes to Ubisoft, only the "big" games really mean much since they dont' really do many non-big games. Just dance is a cash grab. An iconic one, but on autopilot. The board games and such, yeah they probably outsourced that and didn't care much. The "big games" there is a sameness to them. They build most of it with the same few engines with the same overall design and have distilled their version of open world into a template. But yet...the locales seem very "living" (we'll rule out watchdogs. It's a flat place with nothing of interest where you just steal things and run or shoot at things and get shot at while running from cops. So it's basically just Chicago Simulator 2014. Might be too realistic for its own good...)

Not everyone loves their open worlds though, and admittedly shared controls and such between their games.

Though broken games with updates....Ubi and Bethesda are kind of in a race for that one Both build games that surpass the scope of what they can reasonably manage. It took 7 years to make BoTW for a reason. Ubi does it in 4 by spreading it out to a ton of content farms in various corners of the world.

42%, 23%, 7%. Given that the 42% and 23% are made up from about 7 or 8 games and the 7% is pretty much from 1 game I'd say that the return from the Switch was probably higher than the return from PS4/XBO.

Mario+Rabbids blew me away! Damn fine game👍 Hope there's a sequel!

@WiltonRoots can't wait for E3, it will be a veritable feast in here!

@subpopz true but it pays to keep to the same market to compare. Ubi still should be a good representation of Western publishers markets, which is not necessarily the same as the global games market.

Rabbids 2 would be most welcome!

As others have said, "only 7%" isn't a bad thing at all. In fact, it's quite impressive. That means Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (and I guess a bit Rayman Legends and Just Dance) has pulled a decent amount of weight considering the higher install bases on XBOX One, PS4, and PC and bigger titles such as Assassin's Creed Origins, Far Cry 5, and South Park: The Fractured But Whole (I know South Park is on the Switch now, but it's been out for such a short time). 7% is respectable in my opinion and that number will more likely keep growing if they keep supporting it (which they undoubtedly will).

I would highly suggest Ryan (the author) to remove the word "Only" from the title, as it gives everything a negative vibe.

But who am i kidding; the admins on this site don't ever listen to feedback.

@Anti-Matter Because only girls and kids can enjoy thay kind of game? Horrible perspective.

@BumpkinRich
"Because only girls and kids can enjoy thay kind of game? Horrible perspective."
Grown up man can also enjoy those Casual games from Ubisoft , because i play those games (Inagine series, Petz series, etc) 😀
So, why did you say horrible ?

@gortsi It's going to be fun. but apparently "we" need Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 5. First I've heard of it, I don't need either. Do you?

@Anti-Matter your comment is saying that there s a difference between games a male and female will play.

I believe you meant to say 'as long as they are for everyone'

@WiltonRoots don't you know that apparently everyone and their mom is clamouring about Far Cry 5? The gator can tell you all about it!

Just from what I can. 7% is fine because there is not a service type of game on the console that allow for microtransactions.

I am not surprised. Ubisoft puts the other 93% of their efforts on other things. You get what you put in.

Considering how Ubisoft's biggest sellers this year weren't released on the Switch, I don't see how this could be a surprise.

@electrolite77
When you repeat the same line ("Nintendo never supports 3rd parties") over and over again but forget about the actual game in question...

lol

All of their breadwinners have guns, assassins, or assassins with guns. This is unsurprising.

Besides Nintendo, Ubisoft has become my favorite, most trusted developer. None of their games have disappointed, all have surprised me with overwhelming delight.

Whatever they are doing, keep it up!

Going by the number of games, not bad.

Now, Nintendo, grease some palms and get AC on the Switch. Sony was able to get exclusive AC games for psp and vita (though the latter one later got ported, it was still exclusive for quite a while), I'm sure you could convince Ubisoft to get you some ports without too much hassle.

Cya
Raziel-chan

Ubisoft won't be releasing any AAA games on the Switch anyway.

Hey guys, let's not put games on a system and complain about sales!

That's almost 10% which is huge for only having maybe 3 games on the console and only one that is not a port. Also the system was only out for a year.

For Ubisoft its all about the “Live Services”. They like most multiplatform AAA publishers want games that will hook people into repeatedly doing the same thing over and over and over again with some microtransactions to help them along their merry way.

@electrolite77 so everyone needs to wait a turn to use a Nintendo iP and make money on Switch. PS4 was already %37 of Ubisoft 2014-15 FFY and they didn't need a SONY iP

And for all the "selling well" it was not in the highlight section or a topic in the investor call. So "financially" it was not worth talking about to them. After KB being "the Switch best selling 3rd party game"... this is the top.

They already announced 2 of the "3 AAA games " they have in the works. Both are skipping the Switch - lets hope the 3rd is a Switch game. Ubisoft is the only 3rd party that put any effort for Switch - they should get a Switch Bundle. Not like nintendo needs any help selling their games.

Income/Revenue numbers are useless without associated Expense numbers as well.

I own every Ubisoft game on the system except Uno.

I would like to have Assassins creed, Beyond Good and evil, Far Cry on Switch please.

Bring the next Splinter Cell to Nintendo Switch and we will talk. I know Blacklist didn't sell well on Wii U but I loved it immensely.

7 % seems like a good healthy number considering how very few games have been released for the Switch compared to the PS4.

@gortsi I wake up some mornings crying because Far Cry 5 isn't on the Switch. Or Assassin's Creed. We need to wake up and realise gaming is a very very serious business.

@electrolite77 I do love the whole "allow me to speak for absolutely everybody" routine. They're definitely not speaking for me.

@Kejomo : It has just dawned on me that I own every Ubisoft game on Switch. o.O

@Agramonte M+R was bundled with the Switch in several European countries (don't know about the US). Here's just one example: http://www.public.gr/product/gaming/consoles/switch/nintendo-switch-neon-redneon-blue-mario-and-rabbids:-kingdom-battle-edition/prod8840164pp/

To be fair, they don't have to many titles on the switch and most of them are ports that where out for a while on other systems. I just hope that not to many games with online features will come from them. Their online service is terrible to the point of prefering dial up to a ubi online game.

Maybe a switch trackmania or anno would curb the sales more.

"Only 7%" you say that as if it's small. None of Ubisoft's big hitters were on Switch, so I'd say 7% is a pretty big number...

@WiltonRoots I do the same with Call of Duty and Destiny. I'm thinking of giving up on Nintendo and go where the hardcore™ gamers are

For just a game including the Rabbids, a port of a game you can get on 5 bucks on any other console and a just dance game, this is pretty freakin good i'd say.

What almost everyone else is saying. Almost no Ubisoft representation on the Switch as of yet. This number will skew upwards as time goes on.

@gortsi OH wow... I never saw that in the States. Thanks for pointing that out.

Hopefully they will get that same support moving forward.

@NEStalgia On the contrary, I think these metrics are moreso a single indication (potentially out of many?) that the overall Xbox presence for a single generation has greatly declined of late. The XB1 is in such poor shape compared to how the 360 performed, that PC software sales for products of a prominent multiplatform publisher are catching up.

It's worth keeping in mind that in the past, PC sales of Ubisoft titles were much, much lower than they are today. The structure of Steam/GOG/etc is still relatively new compared to the methods used by the longtime established players. It's also worth keeping in mind that PC software sales typically spike during Q4 to coincide with the holiday sales, hence breaking 20% during that time period. This trend will likely continue.

Meanwhile, the Xbox sales % was actually STAGNANT during Q4 compared to overall during 2017. From a console sales perspective, that's horrible. At 23%, it represents barely any more than PC during Q4 and holiday sales. That's quite a different story from just a year prior in 2016. To go from 27% overall boosted up to 30% during Q4, to 23% for the year overall and stagnant for Q4 even with the holiday season boost, should be considered a remarkable failure on Microsoft's part. No wonder Microsoft is so hesitant to publish sales numbers these days...

Is this a surprise? The Switch just came out and Ubisoft hasn't released many games for the console in it's first year to begin with. Never the less, they did say they were very pleased with the software sales so far in the past, so this doesn't mean they'll stop supporting the console. If anything, it might motivate them to improve that percentage given the console's runaway success and good software sales.

@Hikingguy Interesting, I didn't know about that series. Not my kind of thing (precursor to Just Dance?) though I'm not sure that's indicitive of Ubisoft or the entire industry as they chased the lightening in a bottle that was Wii (we all remember PS Move and Kinektimals, do we not? Or have we managed to drink ourselves enough to forget it? )

Personally I think Ubi's problem is that they're too ambitious, coupled with too short-term-goal oriented. So they allow the deigners to run wild with every more outlandish grande scope concept designs, and actually start implementing it. But then Business gives them an impossible timeline, iron clad release target date, and a budget cap, and an acceptance to miss quality targets if the sales estimates meet targets....and since gamers buy things based on cool looking demos, they'll always meet the sales target, no matter if the product works or not.

So you get these ever broader in scope games that release flat broken. Or with missing parts. Or graphics and features that don't match the sizzle reel. (Remebmer W_D promised total freedom, hack anything, cause mayhem in the environment. The reality was: "Stand here, press X." They also have a problem of too many cooks spoiling the broth. They have like 20 studios on 5 continents, plus the outsource content farms. The main team just takes all the outputs tasked to these groups and fuses them into a game. All AAA is like this. But Ubi's scopes are so broad you get games that feel like there's separate games glued together. Because they are. The team in Singapore may have had a totally different idea of what they were making than the team in Budapest. Glue them together and you get the bipolar games that try to be everything for everyone, thus making them generic.

FWIW, I think maybe they're starting to learn their lesson. AC:O is amazing....taking the lessons from AC they should have retained from a decade ago and making them into a modern epic open world. For Honor is highly experimental. Mostly a PvP game, with a brief but fun campaign, but it misses some wide marks. PvP comes down to overly complicated CTF and King of the Hill. It should have been so much more. But who else had the ambition to make a large team based PvP competitive medieval castle siege game with fighting game mechanics and multi-page movesets? And then there's the fact it takes place in a weird not-quite-history world. The creativity is there, the ambition is there, but it always ships so incomplete (except for AC:O, but that's their flagship series...)

Starlink, Skull & Bones, Division, and R6 Siege do nothing for me. Old R6 was cool. Wildlands and Farcry 5 seem interesting. FC4 seemed more intesting (I actually own it on PS but haven't played it yet.) One thing I raise Ubi on a huge pillar for is their commitment to solo co-op. Not even Nintendo is as consistent with doing that. FC4 suported it...sort of. Only for running around the open world, not for missions. FC5 supposedly supports it for missions. Wildlands was built as a co-op game from the start, AC: Unity was a failed experiment. Cool, but failed. The Crew & Crew 2 are heavily coop capable. Ubi and Microsoft seem to be the only two really putting serious effort into that feature. (For MS, Halo, Gears have always supported Co-op, Crackdown 3 will.) Of course it's not split screen and it's not LAN so you need good internet, but at least someone is making such games!

But...the genericness.....I do see that too. Even in the AC series several entries were generic feeling. So much of their engine space is repetition. Steep....oh dear. Cool game concept but it's so.....empty. It took the Olympic expansion to make it feel more like a game.

@PlywoodStick In other news, water is still wet.

XBox's failure is no secret. That's why I bought one. (Oh, yes, you missed that, I got a great refurb deal on a Scorpio Edition, and it's scratching the PC itch well enough. It's actually a nice little box. The fact that it's a flailing underdog makes it more lovable. The fact the HDD isn't replaceable (well, at least not without a ton of pain, it's only like 30 screws to get to it, but no plastic tabs or glue, but unlike PS4 it can't install it's own OS and it may reject non-stock sized drives so...yeah...that's kind of ugly compared to even PS.)

Though PC software sales catching up to X1 isn't as direct an issue. Part of it is increased PC sales with foreign markets, plus declining X1 sales, plus MS openly promoting PC as "the other XBox" more or less, and probably more cut-rate Ubi sales on PC (though they do that on all platforms but ninty.) But, yeah, a lot of that PS number is from the former X360 number.

X1 stagnancy in Q4 is put in even worse light given how they were selling the 1S for $180. That was bargain basement pricing. And it still didn't move. FWIW since Q4 Ubi has done a number of "Free Weekend" promotions both on X1 and PS4, followed by big publisher sales. This years figures may be a little better.

Personally I think X1 will have a bit of a renaissance once they cut the X1X price. Sony is clearly slowing down right now, and without the hype train, it may be possible to wean some of that audience back. Right now Sony's just been running hardcore on the hype machine.

MS doesn't have the game catalog Sony has, but they need to start pushing harder on services and value. That's Sony's achilles heel. The interface is horrid, the services are thin and the value is generally nil. Game Pass can be a golden goose....but not in its present state.

Of course there's another fun way to look at the numbers: PS4 + Switch make up 50% of Ubisoft's sales. In reality PS4 alone makes up nearly half.

Still, Xbox's position isn't entirely bleak here. It's by far not the top system but still makes up the #2 sales slot of a major publisher. It's too big to ignore, but defensive enough to have to please customers to retain/generate new ones. Sony can just give us the middle finger.

@electrolite77
Table refers to 5% for Q4 2017/8 which may be a typo.
Nasdaq website refers to 5% Switch forecasts for Q4 2018, their source being ibi's trading statement. Interestingly Same forecasts from ubi states that their revenue from rereleases/rehashes of old games on different platforms is to increase from 45 to 50%

@Hikingguy Honestly I was out of the AAA third party loop for many years and only recently re-entered it. It's kind of fun catching up on a decade of missed games Personally I agree, I dislike graphic shows of gore and violence in general....just kind of grosses me out (I could never be a doctor....or work in medial in any way.... ) and makes me feel uncomfortable. However, I'm a big history fan....violent or not, history is a weakness of mine, so I'm always keen to explore it interactively. Assassin's Creed is the heir of Prince of Persia, so it's kind of....subdued? And I love walking through its history. For Honor is super brutal...but....the crusaders/vikings/samurai were what they were, and it's interesting to have that feel of presence of their world. Normally I enjoy ancient history more, but I admit Battlefield 1's real-soldiers stories are very interesting as well...it gives a good presence of what that world was like. So I guess I"m a "video game tourist"....I love exploring past times and events and places....unless they give the "HBO treatment" and glamorize the violence (sadly MGSV does this somewhat.) BF1, For Honor are realistic in the sense that scores of people are being unceremoniously killed and everyone else barely notices, focused on their own survival....which is the reality of how such events unfold....not highlighting the splatter effect of individual bullets. But, yeah, despite that, I'm in your camp. I'm just a sucker for history

More modern things, meh. Generally uninteresting unless it takes me to an interesting place or situation. (And Farcry is uninteresting to me.....the coop is appealing though.)

360/PS3 was hard to define the underdog. 360 rose to prominence due to Sony's excessive hubris....so in a way the 360 was the underdog that became top dog, but ended as underdog anyway. I tried to go with PS3 first but it was just sooooooo bad at running multiplats. I mean really really bad. I had to switch to 360! This time the X1 was such a joke at launch PS4 was an easy choice (and has so many unique games.) There is some great stuff on there....I had more fun with Ratchet & Clank than I should have. The gameplay of Doom in the world of cartoon furries. What's not to love?

BUT, I also recently got an X1X and I'm really enjoying it as well. I have this weird position, Switch is just special, though with an obviously limited library in some respects. $50 for Sushi Striker versus $48 for Ni No Kuni II....sometimes I scratch my head with Nintendo , PS4 has some great exclusives, and X1X is the nicest platform (seriously, can Sony EVER get their UI right?)

@FredTheCat
Q4 2017/2018 refers to Jan-Mar 2018 (Far Cry 5's launch quarter).

@NEStalgia Nice! That's a good flip side, you can potentially get good deals on underperforming consoles. Shame that Microsoft seemingly does everything they can to prevent people from using a different drive from stock, though, whereas Sony has a nicely laid out instruction manual for the process:

https://support.us.playstation.com/articles/en_US/KC_Article/Upgrade-PS4-HDD

A relatively easy set of instructions to follow, too- certainly easier than many laptops. SSD's also work, and they do speed up load times by a bit, which I think would be worth the upgrade.

You have a good point that these sales metrics capture regional percentages, but not a combination of that along with each platform. XB1 is much more heavily American focused than even the X360 was, which is a shame... Although in it's original incarnation, XB1 was arguably very anti-American, not just due to the Kinect and online requirements violating the privacy of citizens, but also due to screwing over U.S. Military personnel who are overseas. There's a good writeup from a service member's account about the latter issue on Gamasutra.

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JayJohnson/20130611/194155/The_Xbox_One_from_a_service_members_perspective_Conversations_Ive_had_and_heard_on_my_last_deployment.php

With E3 coming up, and rumors of long awaited titles like Kingdom Hearts 3 finally perhaps seeing the light of day, this is probably going to be another year where Sony makes great use of the hype train. I would expect this to also be a good or great year for Nintendo.

The XB1X uses an overclocked 2.1 Ghz (up from 1.8 GHz) Jaguar CPU/APU, same as the PS4 Pro... So I'm not sure the XB1X stands out enough to matter hardware-wise, since the beefed up GPU is severely bottlenecked by the CPU. (Not to mention HDD's themselves are another bottleneck in modern gaming- SSD's and game cards are the way to go.) For gaming, it's ultimately not going to provide much, if any, benefit over the PS4 Pro at least 90% of the time, especially from a 3rd party perspective. I think the main benefit from the XB1X is if you are interested in a high end 4K Blu-ray player which doubles as a gaming console... Though I can't imagine that market is very large.

So I'm not sure what Microsoft can do to stand out at this point, other than as you said, focusing on enhancing the service aspect. Since Microsoft is going all in on their "operating system/product as a service" model engulfing their business path on PC, Xbox will likely be headed in that direction as well. Future Xbox consoles may well be the Microsoft version of Steamboxes.

@PlywoodStick Yeah, Sony did a great job with making the HDD replaceable with little pain. MS, I don't know what they were thinking. Ok, they messed up on the One....but why would the 1X not have an easily replaceable drive. I don't think it's a design reason, just a glaringly stupid oversight. They post the OS files right on their own site (but formatting for them needs to be done on a PC and is a pain to get the partitions right, and most use some Linux script that's floating out there), and they're the company that started the replaceable HDDs with the X360's clip on, clip off HDD on the top, so I don't think they're actively against users replacing or upgrading, I just think it wasn't in the design spec as a priority and this is what they ended up with, near total disassembly to get to the HDD and no built in way to format the new drive or install an OS. (To be fair only one basic Torx screwdriver is required, but there's a LOT of screws.)

As for E3, Sony's supposedly said they're focusing on 4 games and they're not going to hype far into the future this time (just now they figured out that was wrong?) KH3 is also on X1, so that won't be a specific Sony boost, though they'll pretend it is as always Presumably MS is going to be showing off Crackdown 3 and Fable IV as well...."We have games now!" might work for MS IMO if they announce more changes to Game Pass they could have a big win too.

As for X1X the visuals are definitely enhanced in most (but not all cases) over the Pro. I think the GPU is still the biggest hamstring for current consoles. HDDs are still super slow, but SSD is still too expensive for "mainstream" gaming. Even in PC. Not with the storage requirements for games these days. $150-200 for a 1TB drive? No thanks. SSHD is a good stop gap. XBox tried that but then backed away. I think that "cutting edge" still outside "mainstream pricing" and will remain there for some time. I'm all in for game cards, but I doubt these companies want their digital monopolies to evaporate. Owning both a Pro and an X now, generally performance/visuals are consistently superior on the X (except for those games like Human Revolution and Andromeda that have a Pro patch but not an X patch.) At 1080p anyway, it's better looking and smoother in general for common games. Subtle to most people. IMO Pro doesn't do much beyond a stock PS4 except for a few games that really utilize it. X at least differentiates somewhat.

I do expect Xbox to be a "steambox" of sorts. I actaully suspect 1X already is gen 1 of that.

I'm still a PS4 fan over an X1 fan overall...but....I have to admit the 1X really IS a nice piece of kit, even next to the PS4. But being "a little better' doesn't easily sell them over all the exclusives of PS4. They do need to differentiate with services. And they need to fix gamepass to not look like an indie shop.

@Agramonte yeah and if you remember Ubisoft was one of the few third parties that got not one but two (!) bundles in the horrible Wii U era, one with Zombi U (that's the one I have) and another with Just Dance 2014. The only other third parties that had their games officially bundled with the console were WB with Lego City Undercover (which was exclusive at the time), Activision with Skylanders (Trap Team and Swap Force), and Capcom with MH3 Ultimate.

@electrolite77 NO!!!, did I actually miss an opening to continue this exchange with the one and only "electrolite77" - Da horror!.

Nop, IP was already part of the equation. And not all that effective (or sustainable) by comparison (that I pointed out) Why still a need to "help". The reply I was waiting for was "OK yeah, that collaboration was not enough"

But as it was pointed out to me by Gortsi - they did get a bundle. So yeah, I was dead wrong - They did try.

@electrolite77 The PS4/Xbox ship sailed. Nothing to do with my post outside of a reference data point at approximately the same userbase. No idea what the other stuff you said has to do with my post.

"a good return" is a self serving assumption, that fits your narrative. Again, if anything the CEO presentation spending very little time on Nintendo or the Switch says otherwise. But the real indicator is what Ubisoft does at E3. How much they invest on Switch.

The Switch is already a success - that ship sailed also. It is now finding a way to making it financially viable "for imaginative publishers" like Ubisoft to keep making games like KB and not end up with a yearly refresh of "Just Dance"

And seeing how in Ubisoft's "key strength of long term strategy" the first point is "ownership of IP"... Using Nintendo IP is not it. My points from the very start.

Yet somehow Nintendo fanboys insist that 3rd party games aren't included with the million sellers list because they KNOW they're million sellers from 3rd parties, despite no confirmation from Nintendo nor the actual developer of them that they have surpassed 1 million copies (a very noteworthy mark that every developer normally touts). Hmmmmmm...