December 2015 NPD

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Quote

 

The following data release is sourced from The NPD Group's U.S. Games Industry Sales (New Physical Sales Channel) report for December 2015.

 

All data disclosed to Neo GAF is fundamentally immaterial to the business of The NPD Group, Inc.

 

NPD's monthly point-of-sale data reports on U.S. Games Industry sales occurring from new physical purchases at retail which is the largest channel for games sales, but does not represent 100% of industry sales; it does not account for consumer purchases made via digital distribution, used game sales, subscriptions, mobiles, rentals, or social network games. NPD's Games Market Dynamics: U.S. is issued quarterly and is NPD's official estimate of the consumer spend on the industry and it does include estimate of the size of these other monetization methods.

Last Month:

 

U.S. November 2015 Video Game Console Hardware Unit Sales:

 

Sony Corp's 'PlayStation 4': 1539K units (+85.3% year-over-year)
Microsoft Corp's 'Xbox One': 1296K units (+5.3% year-over-year)
Nintendo's 'Wii U': 240K units (+0.1% year-over-year)
Microsoft Corp's 'Xbox 360': 72K units (-76.5% year-over-year)
Sony Corp's 'PlayStation 3': 23K units (-74.1% year-over-year)

 

This Month:

 

U.S. December 2015 Video Games Console Hardware Unit Sales:

 

Sony Corp's 'PlayStation 4': 1582K units (+48.5% year-over-year)
Microsoft Corp's 'Xbox One': 1376K units (+6.1% year-over-year)
Nintendo's 'Wii U': 463K units (-19.5% year-over-year)
Microsoft Corp's 'Xbox 360': 139K units (-55.0% year-over-year)
Sony Corp's 'PlayStation 3': 29K units (-83.3% year-over-year)

Here is a handy bar graph produced for your convenience:

 

 

Quote

 

Software:

 

Note: Bundled sales are not reflected in the platform rankings.

December:

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard | Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
Star Wars: Battlefront (Electronic Arts | Xbox One, PS4, PC)
Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks | PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Madden NFL 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
NBA 2K16 (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft | Xbox One, PS4, PC)
Minecraft (Microsoft | 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
Minecraft: Story Mode: A Telltale Game Series (Microsoft/TellTale | 360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
FIFA 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)

 

Full Year:

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision Blizzard | Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
Madden NFL 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks | PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Star Wars: Battlefront (Electronic Arts | Xbox One, PS4, PC)
Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One) 360, PS3, PC)
NBA 2K16 (Take-Two | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
Minecraft (Microsoft | 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4)
FIFA 16 (Electronic Arts | PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
Mortal Kombat X (Warner Bros | PS4, Xbox One)
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision Blizzard | Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)

 

Notes:
- PS4 sold the most third party software this year.
- Super Mario Maker has surpassed 1 million copies physical + digital.

 

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=192255383&postcount=1564

 

May as well just post the NPD leak rather than company PR. In case you want that though.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

GG Sony

[soniqstylz]

Witcher and Assassins creed not in top 10, beaten by Minecraft, last year's CoD, and a 2 year old GTA.

[+Asmodai MVC]

I'm glad to see both MS and Sony hardware sales continue to increase year-over-year.

Despite the fact I own my PS4 and am happy with it I really thought MS was going to win Nov. and Dec.  They did so the previous year without a new Halo, backwards compatibility, etc. so it seemed like a given.  I can only assume that PlayStation's market share has reached critical mass and now people who a just now buying current gen consoles do so primarily based on what their friends already have and not features and/or exclusives.

 

As a gamer I wish the console race was a bit closer than it is.  I kind of feel that with Sony as far ahead as they are they're slacking off a bit.  Maybe if MS were winning a few months here and there they'd have released a proper PS2 emulator that plays PS2 discs you already own instead of trying to resell you old games you already have.  Likewise maybe they'd be a little quicker in OS updates like friend notifications, folders, etc.

 

On the games side for me this just underscores how over hyped "exclusives" are.  There is not one exclusive in either the December or Full Year software title rankings.  Microsoft had a much better exclusive lineup for the holiday season.  None of that matters though because the fact is that most people primarily play the major multi platform games not exclusives.  That's not to say exclusives don't gave big followings but in the grand scheme of things they just don't matter that much.  I mean I'd personally LOVE to play Xenoblade Chronicles X, I understand it's an amazing game, but I'm not going to run out and buy a Wii U just to play it.  Nintendo owns some of the best first party franchises in video games but it's not enough to save the Wii U.  I expect the platform holders themselves to push their exclusives heavily because it's a key differentiator, but it's amazing to me how much of the gaming press just parrots their PR and gives the average gamer the impression that exclusives are a much bigger deal than they are.

 

Personally I think Sony's first party exclusives are sparse because they have the bulk of their first party developers working on VR.  As such even the race being closer between Xbox and PS wouldn't likely change the sparse 1st party titles.  I think they're "all-in" in making VR work so it will be interesting to see what their pricing comes out to be.  My view is that if it's in the $200-$400 range it's got a good change to succeed.  If it's in the $400+ range it will be DOA.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

1 hour ago, soniqstylz said:

Witcher and Assassins creed not in top 10, beaten by Minecraft, last year's CoD, and a 2 year old GTA.

Who DOESN'T own GTA5 at this point, jeez!

 

The Top 10 software never has taste anyway

[Hedon]

GG Microsoft 

[GotBored]

On 1/15/2016 at 2:28 AM, Asmodai said:

I'm glad to see both MS and Sony hardware sales continue to increase year-over-year.

Despite the fact I own my PS4 and am happy with it I really thought MS was going to win Nov. and Dec.  They did so the previous year without a new Halo, backwards compatibility, etc. so it seemed like a given.  I can only assume that PlayStation's market share has reached critical mass and now people who a just now buying current gen consoles do so primarily based on what their friends already have and not features and/or exclusives.

 

As a gamer I wish the console race was a bit closer than it is.  I kind of feel that with Sony as far ahead as they are they're slacking off a bit.  Maybe if MS were winning a few months here and there they'd have released a proper PS2 emulator that plays PS2 discs you already own instead of trying to resell you old games you already have.  Likewise maybe they'd be a little quicker in OS updates like friend notifications, folders, etc.

 

On the games side for me this just underscores how over hyped "exclusives" are.  There is not one exclusive in either the December or Full Year software title rankings.  Microsoft had a much better exclusive lineup for the holiday season.  None of that matters though because the fact is that most people primarily play the major multi platform games not exclusives.  That's not to say exclusives don't gave big followings but in the grand scheme of things they just don't matter that much.  I mean I'd personally LOVE to play Xenoblade Chronicles X, I understand it's an amazing game, but I'm not going to run out and buy a Wii U just to play it.  Nintendo owns some of the best first party franchises in video games but it's not enough to save the Wii U.  I expect the platform holders themselves to push their exclusives heavily because it's a key differentiator, but it's amazing to me how much of the gaming press just parrots their PR and gives the average gamer the impression that exclusives are a much bigger deal than they are.

 

Personally I think Sony's first party exclusives are sparse because they have the bulk of their first party developers working on VR.  As such even the race being closer between Xbox and PS wouldn't likely change the sparse 1st party titles.  I think they're "all-in" in making VR work so it will be interesting to see what their pricing comes out to be.  My view is that if it's in the $200-$400 range it's got a good change to succeed.  If it's in the $400+ range it will be DOA.

I thought X1 would have December in the US also with the release of Halo, TR, GoW, another forza and a few other big exclusives over the year but I honestly didn't think backward compatibility would have any effect. Don't get me wrong I think backward compatibility is great but personally I don't buy a new console to play last gen games on, its just something that sounds good but realistically you probably wouldn't use.

 

The previous year Xbox One had Halo: TMCC which I think helped boost sales in December.

 

I too think Sony are slacking off a bit but I have no interest in a PS2 emulator, you can download a PS2 emulator for PC now and download the games too. I personally don't even do this as I don't really want to play any PS2 games or even PS3 games. But I think Sony are slacking in the PS plus department with barely any big PS+ games, majority are indie games.

 

Exclusives do play quite a big role, people do go out and buy a console specifically for one game franchise like for example I know a few people who bought a Xbox One specifically for Halo. I honestly think if Halo wasn't a Xbox One exclusive X1 sales would be a lot worse than they are now.

 

Not sure if the bulk of Sony's first party studios are working on VR, but this is a good thing if they are, PS VR needs some great games for it to sell anywhere near Sony's expectation of almost 2 million in the first year.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Dark Cloud 2 is coming in a few days with trophies, that's all the BC that is needed 

 

(/s... but, really DC2 is a mighty fine game)

[soniqstylz]

Random note: the X1 is selling at slightly behind the rate the PS3 did.

 

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2016/01/29/ps4-xbox-one-sales-reach-combined-55-million-units-according-ea-estimates/

 

According to EA estimates and Sony's released sales numbers, there's roughly 19-20 million X1 sold through.

 

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/PlayStation_3

 

At this time, PS3 had just over 21 million