Consoles Still Rule

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VideoGameCritic
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Consoles Still Rule

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 12th, 2015, 6:30 pm

I was just reading this article on how consoles sales have been consistently strong over the last few years:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015 ... /71046076/

What I would really like to see is the sales of downloaded games versus traditional.

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scotland
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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby scotland » June 12th, 2015, 6:51 pm

Interesting to have this during Steam and GOG summer sales...giving my paypal account a workout.

The story says console software sales are $9.6 billion, compared to PC games at $4.7 billion and mobile/tablet $4.0 billion.

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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby Vexer6 » June 12th, 2015, 6:59 pm

That's one area where NDP often screws up, as Totalbiscuit has mentioned on a number of occasions, those sales figures they mention are for physical copies of games, NDP does not take into account digital sales on the E-Shop, PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, GOG, Gamersgate, Green Man Gaming and several other digital distribution platforms.

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scotland
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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby scotland » June 12th, 2015, 8:09 pm

How can that be? For Mobile/Tablet games there are *only* digital copies!

Either you misheard, or TotalBiscuit was in error here. NPD has been tracking digital since 2010.

If you look at the ESA (Entertainment Software Association - the video game lobbying group) pamphlet, they use the NPD data, and it clearly has sales broken down by 'other delivery methods' which includes "subscriptions, digital full games, digital add-on content, mobile apps, social network gaming and other physical delivery"

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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby Vexer6 » June 12th, 2015, 8:33 pm


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scotland
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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby scotland » June 12th, 2015, 9:03 pm

This is from the Video Game lobbying group, which includes Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. It explicitly says it does include digital games.

http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ESA_EF_2014.pdf

The NPD numbers do seem to be the industry standard for comparisons, and are certainly good enough for our little conversation. Its fine to be critical of numbers, but its not fine to just toss them aside. Its quite likely that NPD does not need to explicitly collect data from every significant retailer to effectively estimate sales. For instance, here is a Forbes article that estimates Steam sales, even though Valve is a private company. For public companies, estimating sales would be even easier.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverchiang/2011/02/15/valve-and-steam-worth-billions/

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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby Sut » June 13th, 2015, 4:06 am

Personally I'm glad to have read that, I found it odd that many people were saying that this generation of consoles would be the last and mobile gaming was going to take over.
Then on the other hand PS4 and Xbone have recorded really strong sales figures so it couldn't be both could it ?

From a selfish point of view I much prefer console gaming over both mobile and PC gaming and if it (console games) keeps on top of the sales charts it means my hobby is in a healthy place.

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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby Oltobaz » June 13th, 2015, 7:02 pm

Consoles still rule!! Still, it's always SONY, MICROSOFT and NINTENDO. I want NEC and SEGA to come back. And I'd like another Japanese company to step in. Considering SEGA and TAITO are huge in Japan in the arcade entertainment, and I mean huge, I would love to see TAITO as a contender. I'd buy a TAITO console instantly. One can dream...

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scotland
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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby scotland » June 13th, 2015, 7:35 pm

I would never say 'Always' for Nintendo consoles.

As the years roll by, Nintendo went from "We own the marketplace with a great machine and an awesome controller" to "We have all sorts of great games and family friendly games with a competitive console and an awesome controller" to "We own family friendly games we make ourselves on a console that is not exactly cutting edge and controllers that some of you might like" to "We own family friendly games we make on a supped up last generation system with a new kind of rechargeable controller you will get bored with in a year" to "We own games we make ourselves on a low spec console with just one expensive rechargeable gamepad you can fight over and heaven help you if you break it and put some of our console games on our better selling portable and other games on mobile phones".

Tracking console history is a slow process, but if there is a trendline here, its not one back to Nintendo's glory days. Yes, the Wii was a sensation, but it didn't move software, and many of the adopters moved on to adopt something else in a few years. The WiiU won't be their last console, but could the next one could be? For awhile, Nintendo consoles might be a hardcore gamer's secondary system, but I think the WiiU is not getting that second look. Nintendo does not have the deep pockets of Sony or Microsoft, and despite having a bankroll from the Wii, they times they are a'chaning for Nintendo. Who would ever have thought Mario would be on mobile phones, in any authorized form at all? It weakens the brand, and reinforces that Nintendo is low tech.

Who knows tomorrow, but 10 years from now, we might be talking about "Remember when Nintendo made consoles as well as portables and mobile games? Yeah, those were good times".

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Oltobaz
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Re: Consoles Still Rule

Postby Oltobaz » June 17th, 2015, 3:36 am

I certainly don't want Ninty to go away, and I hope they get through this by sticking to their roots somehow. I'd sure like to see more competitors enter the playfield though.


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