Titanfall tops chart, but PS4 leads hardware again in March - NPD


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While the Xbox One shooter fared well, Sony's PS4 led hardware sales for the third consecutive month in the US, NPD said
 
The NPD Group has issued its March video game sales report, revealing a 28 percent drop in software sales (including PC) to $432 million. Hardware, however, soared 78 percent on the strength of the new consoles, totaling $395 million. Accessories were also up 4 percent to $224 million. Overall, total industry sales increased 3 percent to $1.03 billion.
 
NPD noted that Sony's PlayStation 4 led hardware sales (for the third month in a row) despite the Xbox One exclusive Titanfall topping the games chart. Globally, Sony announced recently that PS4 had surpassed 7 million units sold.
 
Hardware in general put in a robust performance during the last month, boosting the industry year-over-year. "PS4 and Xbox One continue to see success with cumulative sales of the two consoles through the first five months currently totaling more than double that of their predecessors, the PS3 and Xbox 360," noted NPD analyst Liam Callahan.
 
In addition to Titanfall, game sales were driven by Sony's inFamous on PS4, Ubisoft's South Park: The Stick of Truth and Activision's Call of Duty: Ghosts. Check out the top 10 chart below.
 
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Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-04-17-titanfall-tops-chart-but-ps4-leads-hardware-again-in-march-npd

 

XB1 Hardware 

 

Xbox One continues selling at a strong pace with 311,000 units sold in the U.S. in the month of March
We?re also happy to share today that more than 5 million Xbox One consoles have been sold-in to retailers since our launch

 

 

 

FYI sold to retailers is not sold to consumers

 

http://news.xbox.com/2014/04/xbox-one-march-npd

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Sony reports sold to retailers as well so it's a fair comparison. Dunno why everyone keeps bringing that point up.

 

All numbers looking good though.

 

Should quell any nonsense talk about MS doing poorly for not releasing numbers themselves :rolleyes:

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Yes, sold to retailers doesn't mean sold to customers, that's obvious. Regardless retail isn't buying if they're not selling, what the difference between the two is, is a guess but business wise I doubt it's a lot, probably 200k to 400k tops.  I think it's safe to say they've sold through 4.5 million at least.

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Sony reports sold to retailers as well so it's a fair comparison. Dunno why everyone keeps bringing that point up.

 

All numbers looking good though.

 

Should quell any nonsense talk about MS doing poorly for not releasing numbers themselves :rolleyes:

 

The most recent figure of 7 million is sold through, not sold to retailers

 

Hi guys! I?ve got a quick update to share with you. Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. just announced that PS4 has cumulatively sold through more than 7.0 million units globally as of April 6th

 

 

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/04/16/ps4-hits-7-million-globally/

 

Not saying they haven't used sold to retailers before, they have, just pointing out where we stand right now.

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The most recent figure of 7 million is sold through, not sold to retailers

 

 

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/04/16/ps4-hits-7-million-globally/

 

Not saying they haven't used sold to retailers before, they have, just pointing out where we stand right now.

 

Right, that's all you're doing...

 

Anyhow, it's all good news, no need to diminish any of it.

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doesn't say anywhere on that page it's to customers.

 

Sold through means shipped to customers (sold in means shipped to retailers)

 

Tokyo, April 17, 2014 ? Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that the PlayStation?4 (PS4?) computer entertainment system has cumulatively sold through more than 7.0 million units*1 globally as of April 6, 2014 (JST), demonstrating the rapid growth of the PS4 platform.

 

 

*1Number of retail sales to consumers is estimated by SCEI. PS4 sales data in Japan collected 2/22/2014 ?4 /6/2014. PS4 sales data in North America collected 11/15/2013 ? 4/5/2014, in Europe and Latin America collected 11/29/2013 ? 4/5/2014, and in Asia collected 11/29/2013 ?4/6/2014.

 

 

http://bgr.com/2014/04/17/sony-ps4-sales-7-million/

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All I see is estimated numbers, and the sold through seems more to indicate they've sold through that much stock.

 

MS reports numbers they have hard numbers for is that any less right then reporting estimated numbers....

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All I see is estimated numbers, and the sold through seems more to indicate they've sold through that much stock.

 

MS reports numbers they have hard numbers for is that any less right then reporting estimated numbers....

 

You do realize any sort of number reporting like this is classed as estimated? You're never going to be accurate to the last individual sale. A 7 million figure is most likely 7,025,238 or something. But all we ever report to even at the most accurate is the 100,000 decimal. That's only really seen at the start of a generation as well before lapsing to .5 or flat out million markers.

 

MS' sold through reporting is no different than how Sony or Nintendo do it, if you want to start an industry wide conspiracy that the other companies don't do it fairly and only MS do you're best going here. The only thing that differs is as and when PR wants to use sold in versus using sold through (they'll use whatever is most favourable at that given time).

 

As in right now MS' sold through might be nearer 4.5/6 million, but considering this is Titanfall month and they've been outsold, and Sony just announced 7 million sell through days ago, what do you think PR would rather use? If they've got over 5 million units including those in retail it's a bit of a duh what they're going to say given what encompasses a PR job.

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You do realize any sort of number reporting like this is classed as estimated? You're never going to be accurate to the last individual sale. A 7 million figure is most likely 7,025,238 or something. But all we ever report to even at the most accurate is the 100,000 decimal.

 

MS' sold through reporting is no different than how Sony or Nintendo do it, if you want to start an industry wide conspiracy that the other companies don't do it fairly and only MS do you're best going here. The only thing that differs is as and when PR wants to use sold in versus using sold through (they'll use whatever is most favourable at that given time).

I think both their numbers are fairly accurate and are indicative of the same stat.  Sony doesn't have a better estimate of how many consumers have in their hands IMO anymore than Microsoft does.  We'll know when these numbers are PR juiced when either company starts talking about sales being insert % over the last month to make it seem huge without naming a specific number.

 

In my opinion Microsoft needs to slowly bring back their original vision of what they intended with the Xbone, down to the game sharing and not needed the disc anymore if you don't want to.  They also need to leverage the console's power as effectively an alternate cable box and sign some deals with Comcast and other companies.  Sign a three year contract get a Xbone for $200 or $300, whatever.  It'll put the systems in people's homes.

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I think both their numbers are fairly accurate and are indicative of the same stat.  Sony doesn't have a better estimate of how many consumers have in their hands IMO anymore than Microsoft does.  We'll know when these numbers are PR juiced when either company starts talking about sales being insert % over the last month to make it seem huge without naming a specific number.

 

That's never been said in here, both are just as accurate as each other, but both will know an estimate for what has been sold to consumers, and what has been sold to consumers PLUS what inventory they have in retail. One figure would include units currently unsold. Those units will imminently sell, duh, but at the point of having to release a figure going with the later always sounds better. Why not always do that you say? Well, people know what both mean and if you're selling a lot to consumers at a fast rate there isn't any real need to use sold in - It's more so used as we currently see as a PR tool.

 

It's not a new way of reporting so I don't know why anyone wants to get up in arms (especially at me just for reporting it and explaining what it means). It happened all of last generation as well, especially early days for the PS3 with Sony reporting sold in to try and make the PS3 sound like it was selling faster than it was.

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So how many units did Sony sell in the US for March? I see it says it outsold the X1, but what is the specific number? Surely Sony will release the exact numbers for the US since they are doing so well. More to brag about.

We know the worldwide figure from Sony but not the US numbers. So its hard to make an apples to apples comparison between it and the X1. The ps4 is higher, but how big is the difference?

Still, the sales numbers seem good for the X1, so wouldn't everyone agree that is a good sign? Combine that with Titanfall topping the charts and maybe its a positive sign. MS mentioned that worldwide, sales are outpacing the 360 at the same point in its life by 60%, so that's a good trend.

Someone had posted a comparison in the PS4 sales thread that showed how much it was outselling predecessors including the WiiU over similar time frames. Based on these new numbers for the X1, it seems that the X1 required 4 months to pass what the WiiU did in a year and the ps4 required 2 months. Those kinds of sales is pretty impressive.

It's also interesting that it seems Titanfall is doing well, even against Infamous, but we will see what the next month shows. Maybe Titanfall wasn't doing bad after all.

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So how many units did Sony sell in the US for March? I see it says it outsold the X1, but what is the specific number? Surely Sony will release the exact numbers for the US since they are doing so well. More to brag about.

We know the worldwide figure from Sony but not the US numbers. So its hard to make an apples to apples comparison between it and the X1. The ps4 is higher, but how big is the difference?

Still, the sales numbers seem good for the X1, so wouldn't everyone agree that is a good sign? Combine that with Titanfall topping the charts and maybe its a positive sign.

Someone had posted a comparison in the PS4 sales thread that showed how much it was outselling predecessors including the WiiU over similar time frames. Based on these new numbers for the X1, it seems that the X1 required 4 months to pass what the WiiU did in a year and the ps4 required 2 months. Those kinds of sales is pretty impressive.

It's also interesting that it seems Titanfall is doing well, even against Infamous, but we will see what the next month shows. Maybe Titanfall wasn't doing bad after all.

 

Sony hardly ever release NPD specifics (at least in recent times). All we have to go off of is some of the NeoGAF folks saying 371k.

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Sony hardly ever release NPD specifics (at least in recent times). All we have to go off of is some of the NeoGAF folks saying 371k.

I wonder why they never do that. This is one of those cases where a company just doesn't release numbers, even when they are clearly at the top.

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Wow,  honestly can't believe MS couldn't outsell the PS4 with the bundles, price cuts, hype and practically giving away Titanfall. A very hard year ahead of them with a dry summer and delayed tier 2 launch :/ 2014 pretty much belongs to Sony no matter what happens at this stage. MS need to just say yes to everything that customers want and to introduce a Kinectless SKU to drop that price or this gen is going to be their worst yet.

 

GG to South Park TSOT though, very happy for them after all the trouble it went through :yes: I hope we see a sequel.

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How can Sony know how many were sold to customers? That's impossible, they can't account for every console handled by retailers. Which is why that doesn't matter. They are manufacturers, what counts is how many they sell to retail as retail pays them, we pay retail. Unless they are tracking activations, which means seven million were activated by PSN members. That would mean much more than seven million were sold to retail.

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Wow,  honestly can't believe MS couldn't outsell the PS4 with the bundles, price cuts, hype and practically giving away Titanfall. A very hard year ahead of them with a dry summer and delayed tier 2 launch :/ 2014 pretty much belongs to Sony no matter what happens at this stage. MS need to just say yes to everything that customers want and to introduce a Kinectless SKU to drop that price or this gen is going to be their worst yet.

 

GG to South Park TSOT though, very happy for them after all the trouble it went through :yes: I hope we see a sequel.

 

I don't think we're looking at the same numbers if you're somehow pulling "worst gen yet" out of that for MS. I don't see how not outselling the PS4 when it had a blockbuster game come out as well being indicative of anything of the sort. But you seem nothing but dire these days.  They're still selling 60% more hardware than during the 360 launch so, you know, there's that countering your worst gen yet argument among plenty of other positive news.

 

Or do you really not see how more than one console can be doing well at once? Because they both kinda are.

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I don't think we're looking at the same numbers if you're somehow pulling "worst gen yet" out of that for MS. I don't see how not outselling the PS4 when it had a blockbuster game come out as well being indicative of anything of the sort. But you seem nothing but dire these days.  They're still selling 60% more hardware than during the 360 launch so, you know, there's that countering your worst gen yet argument among plenty of other positive news.

 

Or do you really not see how more than one console can be doing well at once? Because they both kinda are.

 

Because prior to launch of Titanfall and inFamous it was considered in the bag that the former would outsell (which it did but we don't know the split), and that it would boost the X1 past PS4 numbers for the month. Not only that, but inFamous was being downplayed as some niche title that doesn't have the broad appeal of Titanfall. I distinctly remember having the conversation with BajiRav and he wasn't wrong. And at the end of all that, it still didn't outsell the PS4 with a "niche title" with no "broad appeal". If that doesn't sound alarming to you then I don't know what to tell you...

 

Again, 300k is amazing numbers (I said both consoles have promising numbers probably 12 hrs ago in the 7 million topic), but not when you consider this is MS flagship game for 2014 and it came with discounts (price cut in UK) / bundles / the ridiculous amounts of hype. And I said if things don't change it could be MS worst gen yet, not that it already is. A very big difference to how you interpreted my words.

 

People are genuinely shocked at this result if you look around the internet.

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Because prior to launch of Titanfall and inFamous it was considered in the bag that the former would outsell (which it did but we don't know the split), and that it would boost the X1 past PS4 numbers for the month. Not only that, but inFamous was being downplayed as some niche title that doesn't have the broad appeal of Titanfall. I distinctly remember having the conversation with BajiRav and he wasn't wrong. And at the end of all that, it still didn't outsell the PS4 with a "niche title" with no "broad appeal". If that doesn't sound alarming to you then I don't know what to tell you...

 

Again, 300k is amazing numbers (I said both consoles have promising numbers probably 12 hrs ago in the 7 million topic), but not when you consider this is MS flagship game for 2014 and it came with discounts (price cut in UK) / bundles / the ridiculous amounts of hype. And I said if things don't change it could be MS worst gen yet, not that it already is. A very big difference to how you interpreted my words.

 

People are genuinely shocked at this result if you look around the internet.

 

Both consoles launched with bundles. Personally I'm surprised Xbox One is only 2 Million behind considering how many more markets Sony is in compared to the Xbox One. Xbox still isn't available in many European countries. Not launching in countries like Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland was a huge mistake IMO.

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Both consoles launched with bundles. Personally I'm surprised Xbox One is only 2 Million behind considering how many more markets Sony is in compared to the Xbox One. Xbox still isn't available in many European countries. Not launching in countries like Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland was a huge mistake IMO.

 

That's the other point, the PS4 is still under supply constraints and expected to stay that way for the next 2 months at least. Whereas X1 is readily available, albeit in less markets.

 

As for bundles, I'm not talking about the launch versions, just the promotional versions for the 2 games last month.

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Because prior to launch of Titanfall and inFamous it was considered in the bag that the former would outsell (which it did but we don't know the split), and that it would boost the X1 past PS4 numbers for the month. Not only that, but inFamous was being downplayed as some niche title that doesn't have the broad appeal of Titanfall. I distinctly remember having the conversation with BajiRav and he wasn't wrong. And at the end of all that, it still didn't outsell the PS4 with a "niche title" with no "broad appeal". If that doesn't sound alarming to you then I don't know what to tell you...

 

Again, 300k is amazing numbers (I said both consoles have promising numbers probably 12 hrs ago in the 7 million topic), but not when you consider this is MS flagship game for 2014 and it came with discounts (price cut in UK) / bundles / the ridiculous amounts of hype. And I said if things don't change it could be MS worst gen yet, not that it already is. A very big difference to how you interpreted my words.

 

People are genuinely shocked at this result if you look around the internet.

 

I don't think people are as shocked as you think they are.  And if so, that's their own fault. You could tell a mile away that it'd be a long shot for them to have outsold the PS4 even with Titanfall because of infamous.

 

It doesn't sound alarming because it's not.  It's still selling excellently.

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Because prior to launch of Titanfall and inFamous it was considered in the bag that the former would outsell (which it did but we don't know the split), and that it would boost the X1 past PS4 numbers for the month. Not only that, but inFamous was being downplayed as some niche title that doesn't have the broad appeal of Titanfall. I distinctly remember having the conversation with BajiRav and he wasn't wrong. And at the end of all that, it still didn't outsell the PS4 with a "niche title" with no "broad appeal". If that doesn't sound alarming to you then I don't know what to tell you...

So wait, doesn't this mean inFamous turned out to not have the issues your claiming? It was not niche or lacking broad appeal. It was actually successful.

After the hand ringing about inFamous, turns out it was a system seller right along with Titanfall and the result is what we see here.

So why does the success of inFamous mean there is reason to be alarmed?

 

Again, 300k is amazing numbers (I said both consoles have promising numbers probably 12 hrs ago in the 7 million topic), but not when you consider this is MS flagship game for 2014 and it came with discounts (price cut in UK) / bundles / the ridiculous amounts of hype. And I said if things don't change it could be MS worst gen yet, not that it already is. A very big difference to how you interpreted my words.

You realize that the price cuts in the UK do not apply to the US sales numbers though. The bundle deals that cut the price in the US started to show up at the beginning of April I believe, so would they be reflected in these numbers? So you think the X1 sold amazing numbers, but because Titanfall did not propel the X1 beyond the ps4, its alarming?

I can see where your coming from on it though. You assumed that Titanfall would be far more popular than inFamous and that would mean a huge jump in X1 sales. Unfortunately, it turned out that both games sold systems, with the ps4 edging it out. Your right that this could be the beginning of the end, its not like there is much evidence to refute that.

It'll be interesting to see what E3 feels like for both. You could see Sony put the nail in the coffin with a strong push and MS stumble as they try to fix it. Like you said, just do everything that has been asked for online. Drop Kinect, drop the price, only talk about games, do whatever it takes to get all indies on board, give away more games via GfG, etc, etc.

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