Video Game Market Analysis Thread

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Have you not visited any other areas on the internet? :laughing:

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Fanboys taking it seriously? Who takes fanboys seriously?

I’m happy VGChartz exists because you can take your onw guess on top of theirs, fanboys are going to fanboy about the stupidest things anyway.

Like Nick said on the podcast, if they start announcing sales again it’s just going to prove their sales were bad last gen and what happens if sales go bad again are they gonna be quiet. All what will happen if Microsoft announces sales is they’re going to be compared to PS5 sales and people will say it’s a failure if it’s not beating or matching them.

MAU and sub numbers matter more for MS than console sales, though those still matter too.

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The only ones who are taking advantage of this dumb situation is VGChartz, because of the level of traffic they are getting right now. :sweat_smile:

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Fanboys LOVE it whenever their box is winning

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Aside from the accuracy of VGChartz, I have to also take issue with Grubb’s take here. Going forward there’ll be plenty of Series X/S sales that will go to existing Game Pass subscribers. Mostly folks who’re upgrading from Xbox One, but also some PC and Cloud-only users. So to assume that future Game Pass growth will be proportional to future S/X sales I think is a bad assumption.

Taken from Hiska-kun at Installbase… Here is the Japan Media Create numbers for physical sales for 2021. This is basically our first insight to how physical Xbox games are doing there…

Xbox is abysmal, but that’s expected. They want to become the Game Pass machine there (well, everywhere lol) so extremely low physical sales are highly expected. I do not see this as a red flag or sign of doom or anything. It’s not like this being a high number was ever an expectation.

The real thing to see is how poorly PS5 SKUs are doing there. The attach rate for PS5 is absolutely dire in Japan. This has created theories that most PS5 sales there are actually being scalped out of the country… or that people are buying the console just to play Genshin Impact :joy:. Unlike Xbox… PS is supposed to, you know, have a reputation in this region, so the numbers are not reflecting this.

Switch crushes all :muscle:

Physical sales actually do still beat digital sales in this region (I think the highest digital sales go is about 40% of a game’s sales), though I believe they get closer every passing year. So even with digital factored in, PS5 is not very hot at all.

By the way, Minecraft on Switch has made XGS a more successful publisher in Japan than Sony Interactive Entertainment :laughing:

I can see Sony sweating a bit with Microsoft taking back NA and Nintendo having yoinked Asia/Japan away from them due to their negligence.

I believe Xbox and Switch even sold better than PS recently in the UK?

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Everybody knows that the sales for the Xbox one were bad, the tide change when Phil took over and they release Xbox One X and S.

Without finding the exact reference for this, it feels about right from my fuzzy memory recall. One month Switch was #1 with Xbox #2 leaving Sony for 3rd. There may have been another month where Xbox and Switch had swapped ranks.

Series S + Game Pass is going to be the trojan horse this gen, people say that it’s gonna help but I don’t think people realise how big this is going to impact sale numbers. I think Sony is gonna have to come out with their own version or else they’re going to get screwed massively when a COD + Series S + Game Pass bundles come out for $199-$249.

The Series S + Game Pass is perfect for so many scenarios

  • Birthday gift that’s not too expensive

  • Holiday gifts for those who don’t know much about gaming, a console + 1 year of game pass with over 300 games will make it so simple for those who don’t know much about gaming.

  • Cheap enough console that people who already have another console can pick one up for just game pass.

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i think the only case we would ever get console numbers from MS again is if they pass the xbox 360 numbers (81M?). in which i imagine a ‘best selling xbox ever’ tweet would appear. i doubt they would something for any other amount (except maybe if they broke 100M consoles)

Im not even sure Xbox sells physical games at all over there anymore, not to mention Series S is the console thats been mostly bought over there vs X

They dont care, Xbox digital ratio is massive and I imagine for most people buying an xbox over in Japan are buying it for GamePass

I dont think we will ever get official console numbers from Xbox anymore, maybe some big milestones but even that’s doubtful

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Yup Xbox physical games are almost non existent in Japan. Everything is basically digital only.

“Sales numbers corp.” is one of the biggest ammo suppliers for console wars. The numbers are taken seriously.

Oh, no doubt about. In USA I believe they might even have more overall sales than Playstation, but not anywhere. I would not believe that.

While VG Chartz estimates the sales numbers, as long as they’re within a few million, I don’t see an issue whatsoever and it’s better than having nothing to go on at all.

Microsoft SHOULD 100% release/announce their console sales numbers. Show some balls, some pride and respect for the consoles you released regardless of how they’re selling. If Nintendo can release Wii U sales numbers, there’s no excuse for Microsoft not to.

We all know it surpassed Xbox One already and it appears that it’s surpassed Xbox 360 as well so what’s the issue? Announce the numbers Mirosoft, it’s not that difficult.

With that said, I have always said that Microsoft wins back NA this generation with Xbox Series, gets within 10m of PS5 in Europe but loses to Sony overall. Before all the consoles launched, I always said that PS5 will outsell Series 1.5 to 1 which is a massive improvement compared to last generation. And it’s not about winning this generation, it’s about gaining market share, mind share and building momentum for the future and while it’s over 5 years away, next generation.

All of which they have done to a high level for the most part thus far. Best of all, it’s all before current generation only games release and before their studios really get going which should finally happen this Fall. Overall, an already great generation for Microsoft and Xbox should get even better as the generation progresses.

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Good way to give all these media outlets and fanboys online ammo every time they announce numbers that are even slightly lower than Sony or even Nintendo. They’ve taken away that ammo, if anything Microsoft should stop giving out free hits by being so open like that. The whole crossgen for 2 years and such BS that got flipped on them, just look at the articles about Microsoft putting ads in games and how quickly that spread and got everyone talking for only the next day I think Sony said to be doing the same thing and how much less backlash that was.

Edit I forgot to mention with the whole play anywhere deal, what happens if people stop buying Xbox’s because they like PC gaming more or Mobile gaming, it’s going to make the Xbox division look like it’s failing when it’s not.

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I saw somewhere that Xbox series sold almost 6k units last week in Japan. I dont remember if i saw it on twitter or era. but that is an improvement as they have been selling around 4k a week previously IIRC

As for VGchartz everyone knows that its not entirely accurate. I dont care. And i appeciate the info as nobody else is updating with estimates as often. They are giving guidance on the direction of sales before NPD does their monthly update. VGchartz data shows xbox has been outselling PS5 for most of the last 5 months beforeofficial NPD releases. and they have been right as confirmed by NPD every month. Maybe they are getting more accurate or they are getting lucky. I Just take their numbers with a grain of salt.

I don’t see the harm in releasing numbers, fanboys will always find a way to make something out of nothing anyways.

Not releasing numbers is more damning in my eyes compared to the alternative.

You’re focusing on the entirely wrong area.

Releasing numbers for something the company is NOT focusing on does not suit the company nor the ShareHolders. At worst it could get them to focus on the wrong aspects of the business. That is where the real harm would be at. To prevent Share Holders from demanding the wrong things, they simply dont provide them.

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