General Gaming Sales/Charts Discussion

[killthenet]

My local Tesco has a small selection of games, they sell maybe 3 for each platform (so basically FIFA, CoD and a recent popular game like Spider-Man) and they rarely have displays for game outside of the usual shelves. For CoD last week they had a couple of small standees with Xbox and PS4 copies on but for Red Dead they had two huge standees with equal amounts of Xbox and PS4 copies, they are maybe 12 copies wide and 4 or 5 tall so I'm betting that they had a few hundred copies in stock at least. I bought my copy from Argos and they actually had copies on display where they usually keep everything in the stock room, theres been a huge push from retailers that I've not seen for a game outside of FIFA for a long time - my brothers friend said he bought GAME in Coventry's last copy on Friday evening so for a shop to sell out of something that isn't an Atlus game in this day and age is pretty rare. Comparing anything to the juggernaut that is GTA V is always going to be unfair, RDRII is going to sell 20 million+ before 2018 ends and Rockstar are going to make a tonne more money from the online mode so I don't think they'll be concerned that it got beaten out by FIFA, they're still going to make more than enough money to warrant the long development cycle and big marketing push.

EDIT: Apparently the third fastest selling non-FIFA game this generation in the UK behind CoD: Black Ops III and CoD: Advanced Warfare so its clearly doing pretty well.

Edited October 29, 2018 by killthenet

[Goafer]

10 hours ago, dwarf said:

It's only been out for half a week, though. Am I missing something?

You are indeed missing something: The internet mindset. If it isn't the best thing that's ever happened, it's the worst thing that ever happened.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Goafer

[Dcubed]

Nintendo's financials for Q2 are out now!

 

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/index.html

 

Some highlights...

 

Quote

For the six months ended September 30th, 2018:

Net Sales
Cumulative: ¥388,905 million (~$3.44 billion),
%4.0 increase YoY

This quarter: ¥220,748 million

Operating Income
Cumulative: ¥61,405 million (~$544.35 million),
%53.7 increase YoY

This quarter: ¥30,870 million

Net Profit
Cumulative: ¥64,576 million (~$572.46 million),
%25.4 increase YoY

This quarter: ¥33,976 million

Capital Adequacy Ratio: 77.5%

Current Assets: ¥1,377,489 million

Current Liabilities: ¥357,835 million

Cash and deposits:
¥659,390 million

Shareholder's equity:
¥1,344,265 million

Smart devices, IP related income, etc. (Includes income from smart-device content and royalty income.)
Cumulative: ¥18,766 million

This quarter: ¥9,669 million

Consolidated Financial Forecast for the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2019:

Net sales:
¥1,200,000 million
13.7% increase YoY

Operating profit
¥225,000 million
26.7% increase YoY

Net Profit:
¥165,000 million
18.2% increase YoY

News:

Sales of other popular titles that were released
during previous fiscal years and titles released by other software publishers continued to grow, bringing the total number of million-seller titles during this period to 9, including the titles of other software publishers.

Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition and Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition recorded total sales of 3.69 million units.

Hardware sales units: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html

Nintendo Switch
Hardware: (units)
This quarter: 3.19 million
Cumulative: 5.07 million
LTD: 22.86 million
Forecast: 20.0 million

Software: (units)
This quarter: 24.17 million
Cumulative: 42.13 million
LTD: 111.10 million
Forecast: 100.0 million
(Only counts Digital software that has a retail version)

Nintendo 3DS
Hardware: (units)
This quarter: 0.64 million
Cumulative: 1.0 million
LTD: 73.53 million
Forecast: 4.0 million

Software: (units)
This quarter: 3.32 million
Cumulative: 6.27 million
LTD: 371.16 million
Forecast: 16.0 million


Nintendo no longer lists the following which was showed Nintendo's share of Pokémon Go's earnings:
Share of profit of entities accounted for using equity method

The above is now combined with Other and it can no longer be determined how much earnings are made from Pokémon Go.


Supplemental information:
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2018/181030_3e.pdf

Proportion of overseas sales this quarter: 78.7%
Cumulative: 77.8%
(※ Proportion of overseas(outside of Japan) sales to total sales)

Proportion of hardware sales this quarter: 62.4%
Cumulative: 57.8%
(※ Proportion of hardware(including accessories) sales to total dedicated video
game platform sales)

Proportion of first party software sales this quarter: 71.0%
Cumulative: 76.8%
(※ Proportion of first-party software sales to total dedicated video game software
sales)

Digital Sales in Japanese Yen this quarter: 20.6 billion
Cumulative: 39.1 billion
(※ Digital sales include downloadable versions of packaged software, download-
only software and add-on content.)

Proportion of Digital Sales this quarter: 26.0%
Cumulative: 25.1%
(※ Proportion of digital sales to total dedicated video game software sales)

Switch Hardware shipments WW LTD: (units)
Japan - 5.52 million
The Americas - 9.13 million
Other - 8.20 million

Switch Hardware shipments WW LTD by %:

Japan - 24%
The Americas - 40%
Other - 36%

Million-Seller Titles of Nintendo Products (this fiscal year)

Nintendo Switch

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Japan: 260k
Overseas: 1.41M
Global: 1.67M
Global LTD: 1.67M

Mario Tennis Aces
Japan: 460k
Overseas: 1.7M
Global: 2.16M
Global LTD: 2.16M

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Japan: 400k
Overseas: 2.09M
Global: 2.49M
Global LTD: 11.71M

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Japan: 200k
Overseas: 1.61M
Global: 1.81M
Global LTD: 10.28M

Super Mario Oddysey
Japan: 150k
Overseas: 1.62M
Global: 1.76M
Global LTD: 12.17M

Splatoon 2
Japan: 470k
Overseas: 980k
Global: 1.45M
Global LTD: 7.47M


Top selling title sales units as of September 30th, 2018: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/index.html

Switch

Super Mario Odyssey
Quarter: 1.0 million units
LTD: 12.17 million units

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Quarter: 1.36 million units
LTD: 11.71 million units

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Quarter: 0.96 million units
LTD: 10.28 million units

Splatoon 2
Quarter: 0.71 million units
LTD: 7.47 million units

1-2-Switch
Quarter: 0.19 million units
LTD: 2.64 million units

Mario Tennis Aces
Quarter: 0.78 million units
LTD: 2.16 million units

ARMS
Quarter: 0.09 million units
LTD: 2.10 million units

Kirby Star Allies
Quarter: 0.21 million units
LTD: 2.10 million units

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Quarter: 0.27 million units
LTD: 1.67 million units

Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Quarter: 0.11 million units
LTD: 1.53 million units

3DS

Mario Kart 7
Quarter: 0.31 million units
LTD: 17.52 million units

Pokémon X/Y
Quarter: 0.03 million units
LTD: 16.34 million units

Pokémon Sun/Moon
Quarter: 0.01 million units
LTD: 16.13 million units

Pokémon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
Quarter: 0.01 million units
LTD: 14.13 million units

New Super Mario Bros. 2
Quarter: 0.12 million units
LTD: 12.82 million units

Super Mario 3D Land
Quarter: 0.10 million units
LTD: 12.22 million units

Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Quarter: 0.16 million units
LTD: 11.94 million units

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Quarter: 0.05 million units
LTD: 9.35 million units

Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
Quarter: 0.24 million units
LTD: 7.96 million units

Tomodachi Life
Quarter: 0.05 million units
LTD: 6.30 million units

There's a huge amount to get through, but what stands out to me? Switch has surpassed Gamecube! (it's also up YoY, despite the weaker lineup)

 

MTA has surpassed ARMS! As has Kirby!

 

DKCTF has surpassed the Wii U original!

 

Xenoblade 2 has surpassed 1.5 million! (The legs!!)

 

NES Classic and SNES Classic will likely outsell Wii U soon...

 

There's just so much to go through! I'll leave it all to you to get on with!  

[Ike]

They stealth confirmed DQ Builders 2 is getting a localisation.

[Sheikah]

Just putting drahkon's post here too, since RDR2 was discussed here very recently:

 

Quote

Rockstar Games® is proud to announce that the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption 2 has achieved the single-biggest opening weekend in the history of entertainment*. With over $725 million in worldwide retail sell-through during its first three days, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the second-highest grossing entertainment launch of all time next to Rockstar Games’ previously released title, Grand Theft Auto V, which achieved over $1 billion in retail sell-through in three days.

...

Red Dead Redemption 2’s list of initial benchmarks include:

• Biggest opening weekend in retail sell-through across all entertainment releases;
• Second biggest launch (three days) in retail sell-through across all entertainment releases;
• Biggest entertainment launch of 2018;
• Most pre-ordered full game ever on PlayStation Network;
• Biggest day one full game sales ever on PlayStation Network;
• Biggest first three days full game sales ever on PlayStation Network.

@Dcubed wondering if your thoughts on the magnitude of sales success of this game have changed at all?  I remember you saying that Rockstar definitely won't be happy with the numbers.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Sheikah

[Dcubed]

7 hours ago, Sheikah said:

Just putting drahkon's post here too, since RDR2 was discussed here very recently:

 

@Dcubed wondering if your thoughts on the magnitude of sales success of this game have changed at all?  I remember you saying that Rockstar definitely won't be happy with the numbers.

 

The UK sales obviously didn’t reflect the US sales in the end; which is surprising, because it normally does.

 

Perhaps it shows how increasingly irrelevant the UK market is on a world scale? 

Edited October 30, 2018 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

  The UK sales obviously didn’t reflect the US sales in the end; which is surprising, because it normally does.   Perhaps it shows how increasingly irrelevant the UK market is on a world scale?  

 

 

 

It''s more that I don't think that original post really looked at the reality of the situation - GTAV had a Tues release, RDR2 had a Fri release. RDR2 had digital sales unaccounted for (50% of sales were digital for Destiny 2, as an example of a recent game), whereas GTAV was released in 2013 when digital on PS3/X360 was much less a deal. If you account for all that (and GTA/FIFA being massively mainstream in the UK) I don't see how we can determine anything about the true sales/success from that article. Really though, we always knew this was going to be huge.

[Aperson]

To be honest, I don't know why you would want to digitally download Red Dead Redemption 2 unless you want to completely fill up your hard drive. A game with that amount of detail must surely take up a lot of GB on the hard drive to contain the entire game?

 

Might just be my own mindset, but I prefer buying physical games when possible, moreso for more graphically intense games, because it gives the system memory more room to breathe and allows you to ultimately store much more on the hard drive itself. Then again, maybe that's just a mentality I have picked up from playing Nintendo consoles with limited memory as opposed to the amount of space you get on a PS4 or Xbox One.

[Sheikah]

To be honest, I don't know why you would want to digitally download Red Dead Redemption 2 unless you want to completely fill up your hard drive. A game with that amount of detail must surely take up a lot of GB on the hard drive to contain the entire game?
 
Might just be my own mindset, but I prefer buying physical games when possible, moreso for more graphically intense games, because it gives the system memory more room to breathe and allows you to ultimately store much more on the hard drive itself. Then again, maybe that's just a mentality I have picked up from playing Nintendo consoles with limited memory as opposed to the amount of space you get on a PS4 or Xbox One.

It's been mentioned before but RDR2 digital takes up exactly the same amount of space as the disc game. If you buy the disc game it just installs to your hard drive all the same.

It's the way that works these days.

[Tim B]

Will it be Pokémon or Spyro taking the number one spot on the charts this week?

 

Spyro

• Released on two formats
• Released three days earlier
• One of the most anticipated games of the year

Pokémon

• Second biggest Nintendo game of the year
• Has multiple versions including a Switch bundle and Pokéball plus bundles
• First proper Pokémon game on a home console
• Mass TV advertising

 

I'd be interested to see what comes out on top and what other people think. Hopefully Pokémon will be number one, but I'm not sure.

Edited November 16, 2018 by Tim B
repetition

[Hero-of-Time]

There's also the fact that Spyro is £29.99 whereas Pokemon is £45. I'm gonna go with Pokemon. Certain Switch titles ( usually the 1st party stuff ) have done very well in the UK charts and Pokemon has a lot of pulling power. 

[bob]

I'm betting on Pokémon too.

Reason being that I bought Pokémon, but I didn't buy Spyro. So Pokémon is already one copy ahead, and that seems like a pretty unassailable lead.

[Julius]

Pokémon. I will be shocked if Spyro outsells it this weekend. And no, that wasn’t a Pikachu reference  

[killthenet]

I think Red Dead will probably outsell both of them and hold onto top spot but Pokémon will sell better than Spyro 

[Tim B]

2 hours ago, killthenet said:

I think Red Dead will probably outsell both of them and hold onto top spot but Pokémon will sell better than Spyro 

That's not impossible, however I don't think it's likely as Red Dead has been selling 53% less than previous week. I read it on Game Industry Biz. That was down 50% on the first week as well, so it seems likely to me that one of the new releases should take the top spot this week.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-11-12-red-dead-redemption-2-is-still-no-1-at-uk-retail-after-three-weeks

[Aperson]

Guys you completely forgot that Fallout 76 came out this week. I wouldn't rule that game out of the equation, though it's been getting a lot of negative reviews so that might impact sales... or not.

[Hero-of-Time]

I don't usually wish ill on games but I'm happy Fallout is bombing. The game is supposed to be an absolute wreck and they knew this was the case when they released it. Getting customers to buy your game at full price and essentially test it for you is a disgrace.

[Dcubed]

I reckon that Spyro will likely come out on top in the UK.  The combined sales of Let’s Go will likely outdo Spyro though.

 

Worldwide it’s no contest of course, Pokemon will crush Spyro.  But then again, I’m not convinced that Let’s Go will be able to match Fire Red/Leaf Green, let alone the new mainline entries.  It’s not a proper Pokemon game at the end of the day; and the Switch userbase is still smaller than the GB/DS platforms were when their respective Pokemon games came out (it’s also a LOT more expensive too!)

Edited November 18, 2018 by Dcubed

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Dcubed said:

But then again, I’m not convinced that Let’s Go will be able to match Fire Red/Leaf Green, let alone the new mainline entries.  It’s not a proper Pokemon game at the end of the day; and the Switch userbase is still smaller than the GB/DS platforms were when their respective Pokemon games came out (it’s also a LOT more expensive too!)

I’m curious to see how it does, because it really feels like something that could go either way. If by new mainline entries we’re referring to the initial offerings of each generation, precedent indicates that it won’t catch them — but these games, at this point in time, are anomalies when it comes down to it, and could well be anomalies in sales too. 

On the one hand, every Pokémon remake (read: not enhanced third versions) to this point has sold better than the last: FRLG sold 10 million units, HGSS sold 12 million units, and ORAS sold 13 million units. So, following this, there’s reason to believe that Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee will surpass FRLG’s 10 million units. Also in its favour is that every initial offering of a pair of Pokémon games considered to be core series games on a new device have ended up with lifetime sales of at least 15 million units — again, perhaps another indicator that it could cruise past FRLG’s 10 million units. Every core series title released to this point which has us start our journey in Kanto (i.e. Red & Blue, Yellow, and FireRed & LeafGreen) has also sold a minimum of 10 million units — and let me take a moment to outline that while Red & Blue sold 31 million units between them, Yellow has sold approximately 15 million units on its own, meaning that it has higher sales than every remake and other third version, and is also the highest-selling standalone (i.e. unpaired) core series Pokémon game to date — so a remake of that game could sell particularly well. It’s also worth noting that the most recent pair of remakes prior to these games, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, sold approximately 13 million units — ~80% of the sales of the original Ruby & Sapphire. If we were to forecast figures from this amount, then, Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee would sell approximately 12 million units — and considering the particularly high attachment rate of games like Splatoon 2 (7.5 million) , Super Mario Odyssey (12.2 million) and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (10.3 million) on Switch (23 million), I don’t think that’s too far of a stretch for lifetime sales. There’s also the question of whether or not TPCi will have succeeded in their business goal for this game: to get more of the GO crowd onto the core series games on console. It’s also Christmas season, and Pokémon games have been selling well in this position consistently for the last few years.

On the other hand, there’s a lot that we just simply don’t know, and some things which could go against it. This is the second time that we have been reintroduced to Gen I Kanto since, well, Gen I; this is the first remake of a third version of a core series Pokémon game; these are the first entries in the Let’s Go subseries of core series Pokémon games; it’s the final core series game of Gen VII, and the final core series game/s of each generation to this point has had the worst sales of their respective generation; and so on and so forth. There’s also the question of whether or not the GO players this game is primarily aimed at converting will actually be converted.

The biggest thing going against it is probably that this is the first core series pair of Pokémon games to be announced and released with prior consumer knowledge that there is another game in the works for the next year — and, more importantly, that those games have previously been described as being closer to the typical core series Pokémon experience. It’s with this in mind that I recall Pokémon Sun & Moon’s sales, which are astounding, at 16 million units to date; however, I do think that Ultra Sun & Moon released the following year cannibalised the sales of those games, as it broke a number of sales records for Pokémon games, and was likely well on its way to being only the third pair of core series games to surpass 20 million units sold.

The question is, is Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee a unique enough experience to coexist with the sales of the Gen VIII juggernaut next year, or will their sales be cut short by it’s coming? I think that one way to work around that would be to have Kanto-based Pokémon remain exclusive to Let’s Go for the foreseeable future, and transferrable to next year’s games only via Pokémon Bank, as this would give the games a similar USP to the one which saw X & Y’s sales numbers continue to grow long after the release of ORAS. 

It'll be very interesting to see how it performs, because I think it’s more a question of how well these games will sell more than it is a question of if they will.

[Hero-of-Time]

Results are in and Spyro takes the top of the charts. 

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-11-18-pok-mon-and-spyro-top-hyper-competitive-week-at-uk-games-retail

[Dcubed]

Looks like we got our answer a little early!

 

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-11-18-pok-mon-and-spyro-top-hyper-competitive-week-at-uk-games-retail

 

Edit: WE HAVE NUMBERS!!

 

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee - 116 000
Super Mario Odyssey - ~85 000
Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon - 76 000

 

Here in the UK? 5% down on X/Y's first weekend and 60% down on Sun/Moon's opening weekend.

 

Not a bad result really, especially considering the userbase size difference and the price difference!  I reckon that it'll probably sell similarily to Fire Red/Leaf Green (but will probably end up lower because its legs will likely be killed off when Gen 8 lands next year).

 

What I'm really interested in though is a demographic breakdown.  The real question here isn't "how much will Let's Go sell?", but rather "will Let's Go bring in new players who have previously only played Pokemon Go and make them buy a Switch?"

 

Let's Go was never going to match the proper mainline games.  It's a remake of a remake after all! (Fire Red/Leaf Green is the main point of comparison here, not X/Y or Sun/Moon); but can it bring in lapsed and new players and get them buying Pokemon games and Switch consoles?  That's what Nintendo is really banking on here...

 

The fact that it seems to be selling around the numbers that you'd expect for a Pokemon remake, despite a lot of the typical Pokemon userbase being put off by the changes made, does seem to imply that there is an influx of PoGo players that is currently offsetting the loss... so it does seem to be bringing in some of that audience for now... But I really want to see a proper breakdown! Hopefully Nintendo will give us one in one of their investor meetings soonish!

Edited November 18, 2018 by Dcubed

[Tim B]

Oh, so that's interesting. Basically Pokémon is number 1, but because they aren't counted together then Spyro is number one. No worries. Like the article says, I think these games will sell consistently well for a very long time.

[killthenet]

Switch hardware had quite the bump from Pokémon in Japan, from 50k last week to 200k this week. Pokémon itself shifted 600k units, very impressive opening considering the install base.

[Aperson]

Pokemon alone imo is why Nintendo's handhelds have constantly been more successful than their consoles (especially on 3DS which had a really bad start but it doesn't seem so bad now). There are people who don't primarily play Nintendo consoles that still end up buying the handhelds just for Pokemon games. Moving the main series to the Switch therefore can only be a good thing for Nintendo.

[Tim B]

Next week's UK chart is going to be carnage with all the Black Friday deals going around. I can see Fifa 19 or something slightly random and multi-format topping it next week.