NPD sales for March 2014- mildly interesting

[techie]

Mildly interesting to have a laugh at the console peasants (and MS's struggles)

 

North American sales figures for games in March 2014

 

 

 

notes:

• Minecraft is a machine- still selling well on 360
• South Park is doing very well
• Thief is nowhere to be found. Expect to find it for a few $ in the next steam sale if you still want it, but haven't gotten a copy yet.
• PS4 highest selling console for March

 

I know we're a PC forum, but I find this last point very, very interesting because MS has been massively hyping up Titanfall, and putting up massively discounted bundles for the XBone + titanfall + xbox live gold. Also, until E3 happens, MS has no real big new games coming. This was their killer app, yet they came 2nd for the month behind Sony, who had no such killer apps coming out.

 

 

tl;dr: Consoles are silly. Peasents like them. Sony doing very well with console sales, MS's XBone: no so. PS4 sold 7 million. in NA to date. XBone shipped 5 million to retailers. Very easy to come by XBone in shops. Lots of unsold units / discontinued promo bundles.

 

"Why should I care?" I hear you asking. Well, sit back and enjoy watching MS slowly kill their console division. Also, SONY trying to find the money to maintain their console division. Makes for good entertainment.

 

 

[Lukiose]

That sounds great! Once console officially dies out(this gen will be the last) then more noobs will flood over to PC for easy frags

[Derangel]

That sounds great! Once console officially dies out(this gen will be the last) then more noobs will flood over to PC for easy frags

 

And a vast portion of the game industry will be dead. Anyone that thinks consoles dying will push people to the PC are fools, most of them will find something else to do and not mess with the PC.

[One Who Craves Souls]

And a vast portion of the game industry will be dead. Anyone that thinks consoles dying will push people to the PC are fools, most of them will find something else to do and not mess with the PC.

Cheap pre-built Steam PCs for the casual gamers... we're still years from "console's end"(if that happens). By that time "gaming consoles" could actually be full PCs... take a look at these new consoles marketing, media center? sharing? they're closer to a PC now than what consoles were say NES or SNES era.

 

New consoles are practically cheap PCs with less functionality. I really doubt "gaming" would disappear in the next decades just because people will find "other" things to do.

[Lukiose]

And a vast portion of the game industry will be dead. Anyone that thinks consoles dying will push people to the PC are fools, most of them will find something else to do and not mess with the PC.

Meh, it's a toss up for me, with consoles dead surviving studios would actually make games for PC, and only PC. We would no longer be held back by cheap hardware and crappy ports.

Most(if not all) of the best games I've ever played were available on the PC anyway, the imminent death of consoles might finally push more developers to say "fuck y'all, we're making an awesome game for PC, screw your cheap hardware restrictions" like CR did[figuratively of course].

But yes, definitely, a large portion of the game industry will shrink - but hopefully with that brings quality.

For one I really like the Sims series lol

[Derangel]

Cheap pre-built Steam PCs for the casual gamers... we're still years from "console's end"(if that happens). By that time "gaming consoles" could actually be full PCs... take a look at these new consoles marketing, media center? sharing? they're closer to a PC now than what consoles were say NES or SNES era.

 

New consoles are practically cheap PCs with less functionality. I really doubt "gaming" would disappear in the next decades just because people will find "other" things to do.

 

In several years sure, but he was specifically talking about this gen.

 

 

Meh, it's a toss up for me, with consoles dead surviving studios would actually make games for PC, and only PC. We would no longer be held back by cheap hardware and crappy ports.

Most(if not all) of the best games I've ever played were available on the PC anyway, the imminent death of consoles might finally push more developers to say "fuck y'all, we're making an awesome game for PC, screw your cheap hardware restrictions" like CR did[figuratively of course].

But yes, definitely, a large portion of the game industry will shrink - but hopefully with that brings quality.

For one I really like the Sims series lol

 

If consoles suddenly vanished in the next few years every major publisher and every major developer in the industry would go under. There has been a multiplatform shift in the industry the last four years and I could see that continuing but the console industry still keeps the core gaming marketing floating. In 10-15 years I could see consoles as we know them now vanishing, but not anytime soon.

[nicehat]

I dont get this whole PC vs console war. They arnt at war, and no one needs to validate themselves, regardless of what camp you are in. Both sides are jealous of the others qualities... All this bruhaha for nothing

[kuddlesworth9419]

The OC gaming market is far more healthy then the console market. Wealth on PC is distributed fairly evenly between 100's of games. On console though sales mainly go to a handful of games. That is just an assumption though.

[matin94]

And a vast portion of the game industry will be dead. Anyone that thinks consoles dying will push people to the PC are fools, most of them will find something else to do and not mess with the PC.

nintendo wii U, i  think most of console users are kids. and their parents arent gonna build them PCs, as long as Wii starts publishing COD and Fifa, everyone will stay away from PC. say if PS4 and Xbone died tomorrow. Nintendo will be the hero to save gaming, and every PC gamer will transfer their hate from PS4 and Xbone to Nintendo.

 

Although i think if ps4 and xbone died, amazon will do something, they're expanding fast and in every area

[Derangel]

The OC gaming market is far more healthy then the console market. Wealth on PC is distributed fairly evenly between 100's of games. On console though sales mainly go to a handful of games. That is just an assumption though.

 

It does seem like the money is spread out more, or rather that PC gamers buy more games but there is also less money overall being spent by the core gamer market on the PC.

 

 

nintendo wii U, i  think most of console users are kids. and their parents arent gonna build them PCs, as long as Wii starts publishing COD and Fifa, everyone will stay away from PC. say if PS4 and Xbone died tomorrow. Nintendo will be the hero to save gaming, and every PC gamer will transfer their hate from PS4 and Xbone to Nintendo.

 

Although i think if ps4 and xbone died, amazon will do something, they're expanding fast and in every area

 

You couldn't be more wrong about your assumption. According to research from the ESA the average gamer is 30 years old, only around 19% are boys under 17. http://www.theesa.com/facts/

[chillxnate]

I think if consoles want to survive they need to refocus their efforts. These machines need to be specialized. Just make a box that plays games, leave out all the other crap, and slash the price. Look at this list and think about the ones that were successful. Any console worth two shits was priced between $200-$300 at the time of release.

 

[kuddlesworth9419]

It does seem like the money is spread out more, or rather that PC gamers buy more games but there is also less money overall being spent by the core gamer market on the PC.

 

 

 

You couldn't be more wrong about your assumption. According to research from the ESA the average gamer is 30 years old, only around 19% are boys under 17. http://www.theesa.com/facts/

Yea but is a game really worth £49. I don't think so. A game on release should be around £30 like most PC games are. Over time games go down in price significantly on PC but not on console. I do think that buying a game for £2 is too low for any old AAA title although I don't blame anyone who waits for a game to go that low because I do it all the time. I don't buy games that I think I won't like though. I try to only buy games that I know I will get 100 hours plus in them and most of the time I do but sometimes I just can't get along with a game so I decide to go and play a different game. The last time I actually bought a game though was about a month ago when I bought the original Deus Ex. I played an hour of it and then uninstalled it. I think it's just too old for me.

[fade]

Both consoles are selling pretty well relative to past consoles.  Although MS shit the bed it is still selling better than the 360 did.  Console aren't going anywhere.

[matin94]

It does seem like the money is spread out more, or rather that PC gamers buy more games but there is also less money overall being spent by the core gamer market on the PC.

 

 

 

You couldn't be more wrong about your assumption. According to research from the ESA the average gamer is 30 years old, only around 19% are boys under 17. http://www.theesa.com/facts/

thanks for the clarification

[mr moose]

I dont get this whole PC vs console war. They arnt at war, and no one needs to validate themselves, regardless of what camp you are in. Both sides are jealous of the others qualities... All this bruhaha for nothing

 

I was thinking it's like some sort of androgynous pissing contest, but most of these guys don't even have pubes so it's more likely just a pissing contest. 

[nicehat]

I was thinking it's like some sort of androgynous pissing contest, but most of these guys don't even have pubes so it's more likely just a pissing contest. 

 

this made me shoot coffee from my nose....dont make jokes when Im drinking coffee please. 

[Rassilon]

People in this thread think the PC market can actually support triple A games. What's wrong with you people?