Serialsid

@WheresWaveRace the ps4 pro sold 65k in it's first week and it was less than half the price(even adjusted for inflation) so for a niche high end product is a pretty good opening.
Though I'm sure in a week or so it will be in the couple of thousands.

@HeadPirate you make a lot of assumptions. Microsoft may be a trillion dollar company, but they have a lot of failures in their recent past.
Time will tell how all this plays out.
I have a feeling though, gamers won't be the winners.

@HeadPirate you seem very bullish from one great quarter. One quarter where they had arguably the biggest, most hyped game of the year. "Going to transform xbox going forward", now that is some serious hyperbole!
The quarter before they were up 1% from the year before. The quarter before that xbox gaming revenue was down 4%. Yes I know active users has been increasing, it will be interesting to see if the trend continues. The pressure is certainly going to be on now, investors are going to want to see a return on 70 billion. Just a year ago xbox were 40% below their own GP growth target. Will be interesting to see where they are in a years time.
I mentioned xbox sales because they considered the xbox one a failure, so selling less than that is not a good look. Maybe it doesn't matter to the bottom line, still not a good look for the brand.

@HeadPirate I agree that Microsofts long term goal is owning the streaming space and having as many subscribers to GP as possible. Hardware is not their to priority anymore. But selling less series consoles than the xbox one in North America(their own turf as it were) is not good. They sold less units in North America during October than the switch, and that's after just releasing starfield and forza 8. That's not good optics.
And yes they've had a good quarter, but GP numbers are still nowhere near where they need them to be. Stagnant on console, strong on PC. But the way they count concurrent users can sometimes be misleading. One of the main tricks on PC was just to create a new email address and do the $1 a month trial and repeat.
Also as impressive as Starfield numbers were, 25% didn't even get off the first planet on GP. Players actually finishing games on GP compared to switch and ps5 is quite low. And I've just looked on steam, Skyrim has more players at the moment than Starfield.
And I know they want the billions in the phone market, Phil Spencer said that years ago. It will be interesting to see if people in that market space want to subscribe to another service. Want to play those sorts of games on a small screen. Candy crush yes, but the rest of the line up?
I think the sad thing is, the hard-core xbox gamer, that's been with them from the start, is going to be left behind whilst they chase these other markets. And I say this as a series x owner and GP subscriber.

@johnvboy it definitely won't outsell the switch(which I think will do 150-160 million), but it's tracking ahead of the ps4 in North America, Japan and other regions now, so I reckon it will have better life time sales.
Xbox is the interesting one, will the new Activision deal help them sell more consoles. Its just been revealed that the series consoles are 11% behind the xbox one in North America during the same time period.

@The-Chosen-one my 12 year old son beat Wonder in just under 9 hours, so someone as skilled as Sakuria would have no problem beating them both over a weekend!

Wow what an interesting comment thread! As someone who games on all 3 systems, and has no loyalty to any piece of plastic that sits next to my TV, I love to read articles like this. I just want to play amazing games, I don't care who makes them.
His love and appreciation of brilliant games is lovely to read. And he must be a beast of a player! My youngest beat Wonder today and its now his favourite 2d mario, though he was disappointed with the boss fights! We're going to play through it together now! Saving spiderman 2 for Christmas.

@SBandy1 you were right last week, got the top 2 spot on! I was surprised with the switch having the larger install base.
Great for both games though, and equally superb pieces of entertainment! Both will sell over 10 million + easily.

@Zanzox all the previews have been very positive, and quite surprised by the gun play, nailed on atmosphere from the films and police investigations you have to do.
To say a game is horrible that you've never played and obviously not seen in action is a strange take.
As a massive fan of the original film I can't wait. I'm sure it will come to the switch 2, hopefully next year.

@SBandy1 yeah I know the ps5 install is big in the UK, but switch has sold extremely well here from the start. Wouldn't be surprised if it has twice the install base after 3 extra years on sale, plus how hard it was to buy aps5 for the first 2 years.
I know spiderman is big, but mario is arguably the biggest character in gaming. And people love 2d Mario games!
Will be interesting to see, I'm just looking forward to playing both.

@SBandy1 I'd swap 1 and 2. Switch has a much bigger install base, and sells more games physically than Sony does. Will be close I reckon.
Nor that I'm bothered as I'll be getting both. Their both going to be great games.

@Ryu_Niiyama definitely eating the competition in Japan. Not the rest of the world though.

@Duncanballs the digital version is the same price in the UK, same with the disc version. Its only America I believe that is having a price increase, but then they didn't have the price jump last year like the rest of the world.
But charging extra for the stand is a joke.

@Savage_Joe 31 million vs 4 million install base. Not really a surprise at all, I thought it would be a lot bigger split.
Nice to see so many new games in the charts for a change though.

@JohnnyMind cyberpunk just had patch 2.0 drop which basically changes/improves most of the game. It's a massive patch, so with the sale and the dlc coming this week people are jumping back into it.

@ESC71 yes your correct with the software sales, its silly having a chart in dollar sales when software launches at different prices.
But the article states the ps5 was no1 in dollar and unit sales, and series x/s was second in dollar and unit sales too.

@Jhena to you a degeneration, to many millions a great new direction. But hey, some amazing games out this year on all platforms so plenty to play for everyone. And thanks, I am enjoying it. Need to finish it so I can get stuck into Starfield!

@Jhena interesting, just out of curiosity, have you played it? I'm 40 hours in and apart from some poor side missions I'd say it's a brilliant entry. Story is epic with some great characters and engaging combat. An 87 on metacritic, the same as pikmin4 means its one of the highest rated final fantasy games. Best in the series, no. But I love the new direction personally.

@Axecon so you really don't think during this switch generation, MS or playstation have had any games sell more than 5 million? Really? Just ignore spiderman/MM being at 33 million. GOW ragnarok hitting 11 million in under 3 months. A new IP like ghost hitting 10 million. And with MS you really just can't judge. The make billions from GP, most of their games sell digitally, which they don't give sale figures for, and they also have very good sales on the PC steam platform.
By all means enjoy these charts, but remember, it's
30 million vs 3.6 million vs 500k. Globally its a whole different story.

@Serpenterror my question to you is why you think Sony has these massive expectations for Japan any more? Home console sales have been on the decline in Japan since the ps2. Sony knows this. They also know that their main market now is the west. This is why during the console shortage they prioritised sending consoles to Europe and North America.
Most of those games you mentioned had huge sales globally. GOW ragnarok shifted 11 million in under 3 months. Ghost is at 10 million, that's a new IP. And well hogwarts had shifted 15 million by May, its still the top selling game in America for 2023 with a big percentage sold on Sony's platform.
You using word like nail and coffin is funny when you consider they've been smashing records for the last year in sales and revenue. Christmas quarter 2022, Nintendo revenue 4.6 billion. Playstation 8.8 billion. I'll agree that the Japanese chart doesn't look good at first glance, but when you have one platform that has 30 Million customers and another with 3.6 million, do you really expect the one with 9 times less owners to show up in these charts and stay around?? And especially when 70% to 80% of Playstations software sales are now digital.

@Serpenterror so it's the number 2 selling game in North America for June, and the 9th best selling game of 2023 for the region but no ones buying it? With 8 days of sales. Yeah OK.
I get it, you don't like the game, but millions of people are loving it.
Again they made the game they wanted to make, nothing to do with Sony. The game was in early development when they pitched it to the different platforms to see who they wanted to partner with.
And even if they had made a traditional FF, nothing to say the sales numbers would be any different. Certainly looking at rpg sells on switch, I don't think it would have been a massive seller on the system.
I mean Xenoblade C3 is only at 1.86 million after all these months, with a 120+ million install base. Pretty awful for such an excellent game. FF16 did 3 million in 3 days with a 40 million install base but you seem to think its a failure?

@Dark_Knight could you show me where SE said they are not happy with the games sales numbers in Japan? Or is that you just making an assumption? So you know the numbers in Japan including digital?
SE did an interview where they said they are very happy with the sales numbers and the attach rate globally and they expect it to be a long term seller.

@UltimateOtaku91 maybe the developers didn't want to scale back their game, have cartooney graphics. Apparently they went to multiple platforms with the game in early development and considered all the offers they received, before going with playstation and pc.
They obviously made the game they wanted to make, with the graphics, art style and combat that the ps5 enabled them to do. I know the FF traditionalists might not like it, but I think it's a brilliant game.
And you are correct, it's selling much better in the west. In North American charts it was the 2nd biggest game in June, and is the 9th biggest seller of 2023. (Though I will admit Nintendo don't release digital sales numbers for that region so the charts are not the most accurate).

@Dark_Knight whilst you are right, playstation has become more western oriented, the results speak for themselves. They have been posting record revenue numbers during the last year(8.8 billion in q3 2022 alone), eclipsing anything in their history.
They may have lost some of the Japanese soul, but at the end of the day they are a business. Gaming doesn't revolve around Japan.

@Jemae you said any AA OR AAA that had sold better numbers in 2020!
Well you must know more than all the gaming media, they seem to think its a AAA game. It's certainly marketed like one.

@Jemae its a 1st party game, made by and published by Nintendo. With a massive marketing campaign. It's a AAA game! Show me a AA game with the marketing Pikmin has had! Games everywhere in the UK.
Last year of ps4, LOU 2, 4 million in opening week.
Ghost of tsushima, 2.3 million in 3 days, a brand new IP!

Again I hope pikmin 4 is selling great worldwide, but I wouldn't base its global numbers on these charts. Japan is the switch capital of the world.

@Jemae Pikmin 4 is a AAA game, well most the the games media are calling it as such. And it's been marketed like one too.

Will be interesting to see its worldwide numbers. As I said in an earlier post, a quarter of the switchs in the world are in Japan, so I wouldn't go off these charts for world numbers.
By the way, I do hope it sells great. Always loved the series.

@johnedwin just compared to some of the switch big hitters and the biggest selling games. For most developers, selling over 5 million is a big success.

@Arawn93 I never said ps5 games would sell as much as the switch. Switch is a beast in Japan. But I'd bet you if there were 30 million ps5's in Japan FF16 would have sold more than pikmin 4. So yes install base does make a difference.

And your also conveniently forgetting that PS sales are now between 60-80% digital. Much much higher than in 2016. So the actual sales numbers for the first week might be a lot closer to 15 than we know. (And higher than pikmin)

Anyway FF games have never been massive sellers apart from FFXIV at 24 million. And that was multiplat. Most are between 8 to 15 million, again all multiplat with many years of sales. So to say a game that launches at 3 million in the first week on a 40 million install base shows a decline is laughable. And remember FF is now geared towards the western audience. Remember a quarter of all switch's in the world are in Japan. One country from 196. That's an insane number, the charts for Japan in no way represent the rest of the gaming world.

@Dr_Lugae it sold slightly more to a much much bigger user base, nearly 8x the user base! Doesn't sound bigger to me! It will be interesting to see its legs and its worldwide numbers. I hope it does great.
And for SE to be happy with the numbers of FF16 and its attach rate must mean they are decent. They're usually never happy.
For most games, 3 million in the first week is a great result, especially on a system at 40 million. Most games don't do the insane numbers some switch games do like the new zelda.
Just look at street fighter 6, available on multiple platforms, 2million in the first month and they were very happy with the numbers.
Res Village did 3 million on multiple platforms in its first week, your talking 150+ million user base just on console alone. So I find it interesting you find FF16 numbers so bad!
I mean you could look at Bayonetta 3 for really poor sales numbers. Took nearly 4 months to hit 1 million on an install base of 115 million at launch.

@Dr_Lugae how do you figure that? A bigger franchise?
Switch install base 30 million, ps5 4 million. That's over 7x the install base.
Pikmin 4 (which is great) first week attach rate is just over 1%.
Ff16 (which is also great) first week attach rate nearly 8%.
Plus let's not forget Sony's sales are more digital now, anywhere from 60 to 80%. So who knows what the real sales are for Japan.
Anyway good to see you mention FF16 again this week. You must be happy SE are so pleased with its sales figures.

@Serpenterror final fantasy 16 is a masterpiece for me, amazing characters, great story, amazing world and combat that gets a lot more tactical as the game goes on. Its obviously the game the developers wanted to make, it may not be FF to you, but they are proud of it.
The game you haven't played may be garbage to you, but millions would disagree.

@Max_the_German they've actually just released a press release saying they are happy with the sales and its attach rate. Not surprised its not selling that well in Japan, more for the western audiences now.

@Dr_Lugae well since Sony's own financial results show their sales are now 70-80% digital we don't know the real UK sales figures. It sold more than diablo 4 and dead island 2 which were both multi format physically so its not the failed game that you state. Unless they failed too.
Square have stated it's already sold over 3 million in its first week, and there is no reason why it won't be a long seller as more ps5's enter the market. I think it will top 10 million, you don't. We're just going around in circles. Let's revisit at the end of the year and see.

@Dr_Lugae but as everyone keeps saying, it's not really a jrpg. It's an action game with a game of thrones storyline. It probably will drop off in Japan, but I have a feeling it will have very good legs worldwide, especially in the west.

@Dr_Lugae I don't think it was ever going to crush 8's sales, price, rating and completely different gaming landscape to back in 1999. I think FF16 will sell more than 8.6 million in its lifetime. Time will tell.

@Dr_Lugae by the end of 1999 (11 months on sale) FF8 had sold 6 million worldwide! After 10 years it sold 8.6 million in total on PS.
FF16 has just sold 3 million in 3 days world wide. Not much of a steep decline to me! I bet you it goes on to outsell FF8 in the end. Game is a success.

Really great to see final fantasy doing so well, a really brilliant game. I know it's not one for the purists, but I'm loving the storyline, characters, gameplay and it looks amazing. Much more adult orientated, hence its 18 rating.

@Yalloo with that I completely agree. I don't want a digital only future either, I like to have the choice. I'd always buy the console version that allows physical games.
I just hope we are always given that option, but I fear as digital sales trend higher and higher the console makers will use it as an excuse to drop physical consoles.

@Yalloo most people only have one ps5 or series consoles in their house, anyone can play any game on those consoles whether it's physical or digital.
I'm glad you like to collect boxes, I myself have a few I'd never part with. But data shows digital is becoming more and more dominant in the gaming market. PC is now completely digital after years of having boxes with multiple discs in. Like it or not consoles are going to go that way.
Yes DLC are included in digital sales( don't think subscriptions are too be honest) but on PS and xbox more games are sold digitally than physical.

@Yalloo Because it gives you the option to buy physical if you want to. Hardware sales mean nothing when it comes to how games are bought.
Personally I buy games I just want to play once physically, any I want to keep I get digitally. Plus Sony has many digital sales where you can get games very cheap.
Facts are the facts, Sony's own financial release show they sell between 70-80% through their ps store. And xbox is even more, especially as the digital only series s is outselling the X.
Even Nintendo gamers are going digital. In 2023 48.2% of game sales were digital, up from 42.6% in 2022.

@Yalloo worldwide digital is now the way most games are bought.
Playstation digital sales are now between 70-80% of game sales. One quarter in 2022 it was 79%. Apparently xbox sales are even higher digitally.
Maybe its different in Japan, and Nintendo is still more physical (just), but to say digital is now not the primary way games are bought is just wrong.

@BFahey3 the link @BTB20 has in comment 45 shows all the latest Nintendo numbers. PlayStation I found on a few different sites. Xbox much harder to find.

@BTB20 obviously updated from the ones I read. Should imagine the ps4 numbers are higher now too. Good numbers for Nintendo though.

@BFahey3
ps2 sold 1.53 billion
Ps4 upto 2020 was on 1.56 billion

Switch is very impressive for Nintendo though, next best are

DS 942 million
Wii 892 million.

@bransby not saying it's a monopoly. Just saying that at this point it's almost impossible to compete with a franchise that launches yearly, and has a core fanbase of millions which was your point.
Any publisher may be able to make a great fps that does well. But not be able to churn them out year after year and casual gamers constantly just eat them up.
If it was that easy, microsoft would have done it with their billions rather than just taking the easy route.

@ParadoxFawkes brand new engine launched in 2019 with new physics. The switch is 10 year old tech, no chance it could hit 60fps.

@bransby the last COD made $800 million in 3 days. Only gta5 has ever done better, and COD is a yearly product. Its a global brand phenomenon! There are millions of casual gamers out there that buy it ever year and its pretty much all they play.
To say anyone can just make a first person shooter to COMPETE is laughable. EA has thrown millions at battlefield and its not even close. To come out yearly they have 3 different studios making them, at one point in 2021 they had 8 studios and 2000 people helping.

The switch might, and its a very slight might, be able to run the current COD. But with major concessions, blurry graphics and struggle to get 30fps.
The problem would be next year when COD will be new gen only, programmed from the ground up to run from ssd's only. There would be no chance then.
Then again maybe MS know what Nintendo have in the pipeline hardware wise. I am hoping the switch 2 is a beast.

@Cashews what are you on about? Sony just had their highest ever 3rd quarter revenue in their history. Failing???
They've just sold more ps5's in North America during Feb and March than any Sony console before it. First quarter in the UK up 180%, over half of all consoles sold were ps5s. Europe up 369%. What you think, people are buying all these consoles and not buying games?
78% of Sony's software sales are now digital. The ps2 charts were all physical!
GOW ragnarok 11 million in 3 months. Gt7 6-7 million, and it's still charting now, especially after the free psvr2 update.
And 3rd party games, Sony get a cut of. Hogwarts legacy, 12 million sold, in one of the first weeks 83% were ps5! First 2 weeks of res evil 4 remake sales, 65% were ps4/5, and that's against xbox And PC.
If you think Sony are failing when they plan to ship 31 Million ps5's this year, the highest in their history, then 🤷‍♂️! Nintendo can go BOOM all they like, still not going to stop the massive success that the ps5 has become.
Oh and I do hope Nintendo does release a brilliant switch 2 and amazing games, I'll buy it day one. Because unlike you I have no weird loyalty to a billion dollar company.

Oh and they've been selling the disc version for a profit since Aug 21.