October 2015 NPD

[+Asmodai MVC]

NPD numbers are U.S. retail only.  They do not include digital sales.  Bundles count for hardware only.  Platforms in parenthesis after the Software titles are in order of decreasing sales so for example NBA sold most of PS4 and least on PS3.

Software

1. Halo 5: Guardians (Xbox One)
2. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
3. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (PS4, Xbox One)
4. Madden NFL 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
5. WWE 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
6. FIFA 16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
7. Destiny: The Taken King (PS4, Xbox ONe, 360, PS3)
8. Yoshi’s Wooly World (Wii U)
9. Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (PS4)
10. Rock Band 4 (Xbox One, PS4)

Hardware

Microsoft:

Quote

The strength of the greatest games lineup in Xbox history drove record Xbox Live usage for October and made Xbox One the best-selling console in the U.S. with 81 percent growth compared to October 2014,

We saw amazing fan excitement, commercial success, and critical acclaim in October for Halo 5: Guardians, which was the best-selling game in the U.S., and other Xbox One titles launching earlier this fall, including Forza Motorsport 6, Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Harmonix’s Rock Band 4, and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.

 

Sony:

Quote

We are truly humbled by the success of the PlayStation 4 and look forward to celebrating with our fans at PlayStation Experience in December,

Thank you to our community for making PlayStation 4 the top selling console globally.

 

Source

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Sales

As for Halo 5

The best-selling title of the October 2015 U.S. Games Industry Report, Microsoft's Console Software SKU 'Halo 5: Guardians,' sold a combined total of 935K including all Bundle units.

[Hedon]

Looks like we will never know digital sales totals for games. Would be interesting to see how many million Halo 5 games sold worldwide right now. Must be a few million by now.

Looks like the PS4 is down now 6 of the 10 months, and Xbox One is up 8 of the 10 months. Crazy to think the PS4 had a price cut last month too.

[soniqstylz]

A price drop and sold fewer consoles.  Ouch.  I wonder if people were waiting on Battlefront or CoD bundles.

And Halo taking the month in only a few days of sales.  Simultaneously surprising and unsurprising.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

RotTR sold less than 63K in UK

Absolutely awful business decision on both MS and SE's part, making this both a timed exclusive for a petty console war and going against FO4. Seriously hope CD do not suffer layoffs as a consequence.

[LaP]

A price drop and sold fewer consoles.  Ouch.  I wonder if people were waiting on Battlefront or CoD bundles.

And Halo taking the month in only a few days of sales.  Simultaneously surprising and unsurprising.

I actually expected a bigger difference. Halo is a huge exclusive franchise and i expected the Xbox one to win this month by a landslide.

[Emn1ty]

I actually expected a bigger difference. Halo is a huge exclusive franchise and i expected the Xbox one to win this month by a landslide.

Considering it was only present in 4 days of October, I'd say that was pretty well done.

[Vandalsquad]

RotTR sold less than 63K in UK

Absolutely awful business decision on both MS and SE's part, making this both a timed exclusive for a petty console war and going against FO4. Seriously hope CD do not suffer layoffs as a consequence.

Launching against a new Halo, CoD and Fallout was the most awful decision about it.

Awesome game but, would recommend if anyone hasn't picked it up yet. Genuine GOTY contender. 

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

RotTR sold less than 63K in UK

Absolutely awful business decision on both MS and SE's part, making this both a timed exclusive for a petty console war and going against FO4. Seriously hope CD do not suffer layoffs as a consequence.

 

Besides it being a daft time to launch it, the egg on the face remarks more so come from MS being bullish about expectations for it - http://www.vg247.com/2015/10/27/rise-of-the-tomb-raider-can-stand-on-its-own-against-fallout-4-says-microsoft/

Didn't stand a chance against two of the biggest third party titles this year, not to mention past trends - TR has historically sold more on each PS platform.

[Hedon]

Nice to see that ROTTR charted so high. Looks like it will be similar to last time where it had long legs. I remember square was not excited about the sales early on, then it turned out to be the best selling Tomb Raider ever. I actually am surprised it did so well against those juggernauts. Bummer we will never know the digital sales which is a large percentage now 

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Nice to see that ROTTR charted so high. Looks like it will be similar to last time where it had long legs. I remember square was not excited about the sales early on, then it turned out to be the best selling Tomb Raider ever. I actually am surprised it did so well against those juggernauts. Bummer we will never know the digital sales which is a large percentage now 

 

Are you reading the same charts as everyone else?

[Week 10, 2013] TOMB RAIDER (SQUARE ENIX EUROPE) - 183,000 / NEW
[Week 46, 2015] RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER (SQUARE ENIX EUROPE) < 62,900 / NEW

04 (NE) RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER (SQUARE ENIX EUROPE) 56,700

Xbox One (85%) &lt; 48,200
Xbox 360 (15%) &lt; 8,500

It's less than half of what the reboot did. Not sure if it''s 62.9k or 56.7k though.

Definitive edition sales as well

[Week 5, 2014] TOMB RAIDER: DEFINITIVE EDITION (SQUARE ENIX EUROPE) - 27,500 / NEW

PlayStation 4 (69%) - 19,000
Xbox One (31%) - 8,500

[Hedon]

 

Are you reading the same charts as everyone else?

 

Yup, I sure am reading the same charts as everyone else is reading. Reading how it is out on one platform (Xbox) with a lower userbase right now, yup.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Yup, I sure am reading the same charts as everyone else is reading.

Explain how that is charting high then? It seems to be the worst TR launch for a mainline title.

[Hedon]

 

Explain how that is charting high then? It seems to be the worst TR launch for a mainline title.

Go back and read what number it charted at on the list. Go back and read how many platforms it is released on.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Go back and read what number it charted at on the list. Go back and read how many platforms it is released on.

 

In going timed exclusive they will be judged on what sales they were able to get for TR when it was day 1 (console/PC) multiplatform. MS and CD boasted about how Xbox would be the platform passionate for TR and they first of all launched at a silly time, and secondly, obviously didn't attract enough of the PC or PS crowd to care to pick it up on the XB1 with a few months PC delay, and 1 year PS delay.

I mean even if you look at the XB1 F4 figures

01 (NE) FALLOUT 4 (BETHESDA SOFTWORKS) - 482,000 / NEW

PlayStation 4 (53%) - 255,460
Xbox One (41%) - 197,620
PC (6%) - 28,920

They completely annihilate TR (4x more). It's not a good launch at all.

[Hedon]

 

In going timed exclusive they will be judged on what sales they were able to get for TR when it was day 1 (console/PC) multiplatform. MS and CD boasted about how Xbox would be the platform passionate for TR and they first of all launched at a silly time, and secondly, obviously didn't attract enough of the PC or PS crowd to care to pick it up on the XB1 with a few months PC delay, and 1 year PS delay.

No, they won't be judged for day one. They will be judged over the lifetime. Not only did it chart 4, but that was really only one one platform and was UK only. Secondly, I am curious as to how you know what the digital sales ended up being. I haven't seen a single confirmation of those numbers from Square or MS. Care to share your source of the digital sales?

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

No, they won't be judged for day one. They will be judged over the lifetime. Not only did it chart 4, but that was really only one one platform and was UK only. Secondly, I am curious as to how you know what the digital sales ended up being. I haven't seen a single confirmation of those numbers from Square or MS. Care to share your source of the digital sales?

The "but think of the digital sales" argument is irrelevant in one sense - We never get digital sales for any title, so we've always judged sales merits from the charts on physical for every title. TR is not getting a pass from critique, because no other title does.

As I edited in above you can see how much F4 on the XB1 trounces TR sales. 

[Hedon]

 

The "but think of the digital sales" argument is irrelevant in one sense - We never get digital sales for any title, so we've always judged sales merits from the charts on physical for every title. TR is not getting a pass from critique, because no other title does.

As I edited in above you can see how much F4 on the XB1 trounces TR sales. 

But digital sales ARE relevant and DO determine the success of the title. That is something that Square and MS look at for success. They don't look at what the consumer thinks that GAF posted sales from one country, on one platform, retail only. 

Irrelevant in one sense, sure. But relevant in the most important sense.

We can all see how the as expected sales of F4 would do better. I don't think anyone anticipates games like Tomb Raider, Until Dawn, Uncharted, Sunset Overdrive to match the success of games like Halo 5, Fallout 4, Call of Duty and Star Wars. One would have to be out of touch in the video gaming realm, or just naive. Or intentionally being obtuse.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

But digital sales ARE relevant and DO determine the success of the title. That is something that Square and MS look at for success. They don't look at what the consumer things that GAF posted sales from one country, on one platform, retail only. 

Irrelevant in one sense, sure. But relevant in the most important sense.

We can all see how the as expected sales of F4 would do better. I don't think anyone anticipates games like Tomb Raider, Until Dawn, Ucharted, Sunset Overdrive to match the success of games like Halo 5, Fallout 4, Call of Duty and Star Wars. One would have to be out of touch in the video gaming realm, or just naive. Or intentionally being obtuse.

 

Yeah they do, but we're in an NPD thread where what we have to go on is physical sales. Hence why we are discussing what we can from what we know. Speculation is fine and dandy within context, but from what we know AAA digital doesn't sell anywhere near as much as physical on consoles (especially in the UK where physical can be £10~20 less than digital). You'd need digital sales to be over 100% of physical to even get something that looks decent on paper compared to the 2013 reboot, and since it was CD's decision to go timed exclusive after having long moaned about TR 2013 sales they will certainly get judged on that business decision.

From the smoke and mirrors at the launch announcement around exclusivity, to releasing the game at a stupid time, it's just not been handled well.

 

[Hedon]

 

Yeah they do, but we're in an NPD thread where what we have to go on is physical sales. Hence why we are discussing what we can from what we know. Speculation is fine and dandy within context, but from what we know AAA digital doesn't sell anywhere near as much as physical on consoles. You'd need digital sales to be over 100% of physical to even get something that looks decent on paper compared to the 2013 reboot, and since it was CD's decision to go timed exclusive after having long moaned about TR 2013 sales they will certainly get judged on that business decision.

From the smoke and mirrors at the launch announcement around exclusivity, to releasing the game at a stupid time, it's just not been handled well.

 

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Sure, but for anyone else interesting in reading about our conflicting opinions, EA's digital sales only make up 20%, and that's EA.

Last quarter for EA full-game downloads represented 20% of all XB1\PS4 copies

So let's be generous and give TR another 11k of sales then!

[vcfan]

didn't like the last tomb raider, and even though my daughter made me buy her the new one, I probably wont play it either. its a nice looking game, but gameplay is ho hum. I will feel so dirty when I have to borrow a ps4 to play uncharted 4 though

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

didn't like the last tomb raider, and even though my daughter made me buy her the new one, I probably wont play it either. its a nice looking game, but gameplay is ho hum. I will feel so dirty when I have to borrow a ps4 to play uncharted 4 though

I forgot one of the reasons CD probably accepted timed exclusivity was the fear of Uncharted 4 stealing it's PS4 userbase, then Uncharted gets delayed... and Fallout 4 steals the userbase anyway lol.

[Hedon]

Sure, but for anyone else interesting in reading about our conflicting opinions, EA's digital sales only make up 20%, and that's EA.

Last quarter for EA full-game downloads represented 20% of all XB1\PS4 copies

So let's be generous and give TR another 11k of sales then!

And on one platform!

BTW, other developers have reported upwards of 50% of their sales being digital including Taken King. Not to mention digital sales alone were up 30% in September. Taken King sales, physical, were actually 84% lower than Destiny as well.

Speaking of EA, they are expecting digital to exceed retail soon:

http://gamerant.com/digital-video-game-sales-vs-retail-ea/

[Hedon]

didn't like the last tomb raider, and even though my daughter made me buy her the new one, I probably wont play it either. its a nice looking game, but gameplay is ho hum. I will feel so dirty when I have to borrow a ps4 to play uncharted 4 though

I always enjoy the UC story more than TR, but enjoy TR game play so much more than UC game play.