NPD July Video Game Sales

How is NCAA football this year? There has not been a football game I liked since NFL 2k5, but I was thinking about getting NCAA football this year

 

I have to say it does disgust me a bit that the new 360s are selling so well, only because I'm pretty sure people are mostly buying them because they're tired of their old ones breaking constantly. I know that's why I bought mine... Microsoft shouldn't get rewarded for making launch hardware that was so terrible.

 

Got any numbers on that?

And if people didn't want the system, or the games on it, or liked the alternatives better, they wouldn't get the improved hardware. There are other options.

 

Not much of a month for gaming, aside from SC2 dropping on the 26th.

Since when did the masses have a clue about...anything?

 

Um...what?

 

What do you mean "what"?

 

it's kind of hard to switch systems when you already have a library of games.

With how smart this has been, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft intentionally made their initial systems unreliable.

Not only are people who's old 360s broke are buying the 360 Slim, people who have had no problems with their old 360s are now also buying the slim for the pure fear that their system will break eventually.

Of course MS would never admit to it, because this would be a successful but sly and largely unethical business strategy.

 

The models after the first year or so do not have the same failure rate as the first ones did. Also, the games library has very little to do with people re-buying their 360. I for one have a PS3 but bought a 2nd 360 after my first broke. I have not turned on my PS3 in over a year, the 360 is just far and away the better system for me.

 

Do you have any numbers to disprove it?

I know three people who bought the new 360. Myself, one co-worker, and one friend. All three of us bought a new slim and traded our old ones in to Gamestop, because we were either tired of our existing ones breaking, or we were afraid they were going to break.

Yeah, a sample size of 3 isn't statistically significant. I know. But I hardly think I'm the only one.

I like PS3 better... I own two... and guess how much I jumped at the PS3 slim when that came out? I didn't. Because my existing PS3 worked fine. Unlike my 360.

I like the games in the 360's library enough to buy one, even though I like the PS3 better in general. That doesn't mean it isn't crappy that I felt compelled to buy new hardware because the old hardware broke if you so much as looked at it wrong.

 

Not only must you be a Drexler fan, you MUST be Drexler with that incomprehensible and overall malicious attack on consumer logic and reason.

 

I mean, NFL 2k5, really?

 

Yeah, it's the only decent football series that has ever been produced, in fact I played some today. Madden has always been and still is a piece of crap game.

 

Wow. I respect your opinion.

 

Not really. In fact, the more games you have laying around the better. Places like Gamestop usually make trading in a system and a handful of games toward another system pretty cheap.

Or better yet, get rid of those games, use the money/credit for more games for the system you want to keep.

come on dude. MS had no leg to stand on at the beginning of this generation. Playstation was king. Throwing out broken consoles to start your new generation isn't exactly a sly move.

that's tin foil hat console wars fodder.

Really, Drex? Really? I didn't make a claim I have to back up.

I have no doubt you know people that did this. I also know people that got rid of perfectly good PS3 phat for a Slim. People love new hardware. And 360 has a huge userbase, with some big selling titles.

The system has pretty much been second in sales just about every single month of this entire generation; sometimes even in first. Obviously the ****ty quality of the initial systems is going to have an impact. But to chalk its numbers up to 'well everyone only buys them because they break' is ridiculous.

 

I know I did

 

I see. So when I think something, I have to prove it. But when you think the opposite, you don't. Got it.

That's like someone saying they believe in god, and responding with "don't have proof? Ha, well there isn't then!"

TheRealist seems to share my opinion. Don't go asking for proof if you have none yourself. Your assertions are just as much opinion as ours are.

If you have a library of say, 20 non-exclusive 360 games, and you got fed up with your 360 breaking all the time, and went to trade it in for a PS3 with all the same games... on a good day you'd get maybe $10 for all your games that cost $30. 20 games x $20 difference = $400. I traded in my 360 not too long ago... got $60 for it. So there's another couple hundred dollars' difference. Let's generously say that maybe you got in there on a special "extra-credit day" and say there's only, oh... $120 difference to trade in your 360 and buy a new PS3. Well, you're paying $520 difference to get the same thing you had before on another system.

Most people don't want to do that. Hence TheRealist's point "it's kind of hard to switch systems when you already have a library of games."

 

No. When you make a claim - especially one that leads to you being 'disgusted' so - you should probably be able to prove it. I didn't make any.

360s sales are what they are, and they've been consistent relative to the other systems. This isn't what I 'believe'. It simply is fact.

And 'realist' also thinks there was a mass Microsoft conspiracy to push out broken 360s. Do you 'share' that as well?

It's not hard. People do it every day.

You act as though people still don't have to fork over $300 for the new 360.

And, while it may describe some of the gamers and particularly people who discuss such things on the Internet :grin: , most people aren't going to be uber collectors that have a library of 20+ games that they play regularly and therefore would not get rid of. (ESPECIALLY if these games are so old they are getting 10 bucks in a trade in as in your scenario). If that were the case, places like Gamestop would not be making money hand over fist because no one is getting rid of their games.

The used market is what fuels their entire business model.

And of course that says nothing of people who are simply buying a 360 for the first time, which would have none of the problems with their 'library' you are referring to.

Again, people pick up these things for lots of different reasons. It's sales have been smack dab between Wii and PS3 for years now, pretty consistently. Obviously MS's ****ty build quality on the early 360s is going to play a role, but to think it's 'only because most people are tired of them breaking' is just sour grapes.

 

First, you inferred that my claim was BS. Inherently, you are claiming that the old 360 SKUs reliability issues were NOT a primary driver for sales of the new model. Do you really deny that? And if you want me to back up my "yes they were" claim, you gotta back up your "no they weren't." Sorry.

Secondly, it is a claim that there will very likely never be any conclusive proof on EITHER WAY. It's almost completely unverifiable. You know that, or at least you should. Hence, it is very disingenuous of you to demand proof while offering no real evidence yourself.

But there is this: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/survey-shows-that-42-percent-of-all-xbox-360s-fail/

...42% failure rate for the 360, in a survey of 500,000 people, as recently as 4 months ago. You don't think that will spur people to buy a model that won't break on them? Really? The number was 8% for Sony, 1% for Wii.

Really? 360 sales have been consistently crushing the Wii? I don't think so.

Secondly, I was never arguing against this. I know it's a fact. What's not a fact is why those numbers are where they are. That's opinion. Your opinion, inherent in your posts, is that "Original 360 SKU failure rates do not have a statistically significant effect on sales of the new model." THAT'S YOUR CLAIM that I have a problem with.

No, I don't share that opinion at all. I think they were incompetent, not that there was a conspiracy. What I 'share' with Realist is annoyance that I believe Microsoft is now profiting from how poor their original SKUs were.

Um, trading in an old system for a new SKU of the same is waaaaay less of a big deal that switching system entirely. I'm not seeing how anyone can disagree with that.

I was trying to use a simple example to demonstrate the cost, but there are many more issues with moving platforms than re-buying the same games you still want.

First, you take issues with the prices I used. Sure, some games would trade for more than $10. But that also means they would sell new for more than $30. Obviously buyback prices scale. I figured I didn't need to call that out, as anyone who's ever traded anything to Gamestop knows that. In almost every case thought, Gamestop will give you substantially less than 50% of the value of your games.

Secondly, I didn't even get into the issue of exclusives. If you bought a 360, maybe you're heavily invested in Gears of War or Halo. You WILL NOT just arbitrarily switch to PS3 just because you think the 360 hardware is crap. But that doesn't make it fun for you that the hardware is crap.

Thirdly, fine. Let's say it's 8 games instead of 20. You still end up trading the 8 in, and getting maybe 3 of similar value back. That's not a big deal to you? Well, it is to a lot of people. Most people don't like trading 5 quarters for 5 dimes.

Which is not what we're talking about at all, but okay. Yeah, there will always be people buying each system for the first time... your point?

So you're saying the build quality *DOES* play a role?

So you even agree with my most basic premise, which is that it plays a role. We simply disagree on the extent of effect that it has. I think it's statistically significant, you don't. That's the point we disagree on. You can tell me it's "sour grapes" all you want, but that's just as much opinion as mine, and no more or less valid than mine.






...and on a semi-related note, I'd like to say that I do love my new 360 slim. I use it a ton more than I used my old 360. It means a lot to me that it isn't always sitting in the back of my mind that "if I play this for more than an hour or so, it might break on me." It's also nice how quiet and power-efficient it is. I only wish I hadn't felt forced into buying it, because I like the 360's games, I just couldn't stand the old hardware.

 

Dude, what? You made a claim and I asked for proof of it. The only thing I did do is state that there are a lot of factors that contribute to the sales - hence the switchers, the bad hardware, the new buyers, etc. etc.

So, which sounds like something that needs to be proven? The simple fact that there are lots of reasons people buy systems, or:

"MOST PEOPLE ARE ONLY BUYING IT BECAUSE THEY BREAK"

You are letting your system bias cloud your common sense.

Er, where did you even the 'consistently crushing the Wii' stuff from? What are you talking about?

And the 'consistent sales' point is only to show that the 360 has sold well for a long period of time. So either it's sold well month after month (When there were no new designs) because there are lots of things drawing people to the system, or it's ALL about people rebuying them because the initial runs break.

One of those conclusions is fanboy warz BS. I'll let you guess which one.

Thank God, I can at least agree with you on that.

This happens all day, every day. This is why Gamestop is booming.

If a person is really having to deal with constant systems breaking, they want to switch and they've got a few games they don't play any more, doing so is hardly difficult.

Just because a person has an opinion doesn't mean it's a good one. Some of the fanboys are also of the opinion that the PS3 can't beat the 360 because it has ****ty online and still no games. THey have an opinion, is it also valid?

That stuff is fanboy war crap, just like 'the only reason the 360 sells well is because they keep breaking!'. It's all cut from the same cloth.