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digi_era

Member
Jul 21, 2020
735
Could someone share Xenoblade numbers to see how DE performed compared to for example Xeno 2 or the original Xeno?
 

Tbone5189

Succ-essor
Member
Mar 25, 2020
4,919
I assume that's launched aligned? PS4 is also one holiday ahead in that scenario, right?

Yes 14Quarters, best (fair) time for next comparisons Is 17 Quarters.

Ps4 next quarters aligned...

3.3mil
4.2mil
9.0mil (holiday)

NSW already ahead with 1.44mil and has a holiday quarter after the next one.

After 17Q PS4 was at 76.5mil. NSW might be over 80mil by that time (needs 18.55mil in the next 3Q)
 

MisterSpo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Feb 12, 2019
9,080
Sony didn't sell 90 million PS4 games - they and their partners together did. Sony shifted 18.5 million games (which they published) and just under 2 million PS4 units.

Nintendo count 50 million software units across all publishers on Switch and 5.68 million Switch units. 82.5% of the software sold was Nintendo-published - so 41.25 million units of software sold. By both metrics, Nintendo are the market leader. (Neither company counts download only titles in their figures).

A serious question: how do the other major software publishers compare to that figure?
 

Deleted member 23046

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,876
For a 10 year old JRPG, that's an impressive number. JRPG's beside Final Fantasy usually are not huge sellers.



That's not the reason, that's the freaking outcome.

Q1 FY2020 didn't have much third party games at all, a few 10 year old ports like 2K games classics and Burnout Paradise. Do you really expect gigantic sales out of those? Third parties didn't sell because there weren't a lot of third party games.

Yet they still have 2 physical third party games passing 1m.
I mean, you cant sell games if you have nothing on the platform.
I don't think the rate for their in-house software ownership has really changed for more than 10%. The problem isn't really the percentage in itself but for third-party publishers the volume and the value of sales they could expect.

Because it's not only the amount of Nintendo software sold at full price, but the playtime allowed to these that is nearly infinite if you cumulate games like BotW, Pokemon, Splatoon, Animal Crossing etc.
 

KillerMan91

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,356
Sony didn't sell 90 million PS4 games - they and their partners together did. Sony shifted 18.5 million games (which they published) and just under 2 million PS4 units.

Nintendo count 50 million software units across all publishers on Switch and 5.68 million Switch units. 82.5% of the software sold was Nintendo-published - so 41.25 million units of software sold. By both metrics, Nintendo are the market leader. (Neither company counts download only titles in their figures).

A serious question: how do the other major software publishers compare to that figure?

Hard to say because no one outside of Nintendo (and well now Sony) reveals their total sw shipments during financial releases. Also sw shipments as a metric for success is less important than it was in the past. Especially for western pubs that are all in when it comes to DLC and microtransactions money.
 

shark97

Banned
Nov 7, 2017
5,327
north america crushing Europe as a nintendo market apparently.

it's odd to me ps4 sales were way down yoy for the same period, and from what we know of npd xbox would be too. this would be because of shortages, since demand for anything video game related was high. so why was switch way up? nintendo produced way more? but how could they have predicted an event like covid? or they just had a lot more in the channel? or maybe sony and ms no longer have an interest in producing current gen consoles?
 

digi_era

Member
Jul 21, 2020
735
People here assuming that the huge difference between revenue and income compared to Sony is coming from HW margins or development costs are horribly underestimating the margin between selling a first party game compared to selling a third party game, especially digitally, especially full price vs discounted.

Nintendo's brutal profit margin comes mainly from their first party titles selling like hotcakes at full price.

Of course other factors are also relevant, but this is the most important one by a lot.
 

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,662
Ponds
Holy shit at Animal Crossing, maybe Nintendo doesn't feel bad about having a lackluster lineup this year since it's clear Animal Crossing and Mario will carry them to the finish line. I know a lot of people that bought a Lite just to play Animal Crossing, it's crazy.

Congrats to Ring Fit for doing over 4 million, I really need to get back into it, I'm a little flabby from having to stay at home. And nice to see Xenoblade not be niche anymore (though I guess that was proven with XB:2).
 

Zedark

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,719
The Netherlands
The reason is partially given here :



People spent their money to buy Nintendo software (and indies), and their wallets aren't extensible.

It's almost exactly the inverted result of Sony, where 1P represent 17-20% of their global software sales.

So it's not that a problem for publishers like Devolver or Anapurna but EA/Ubisoft/Take Two can be more hesitant
You are comparing revenue split (Nintendo data point) with unit split for Sony. Nintendo takes 82.5% of its full game sales revenue from first party, Sony takes about 20% of unit game sales from first party. But first party revenue is about 3.3x as high as third party revenue. If we convert the Nintendo number to revenue we get a minimum of 50% of units sold being third party (minimum because third party drop game prices more than Nintendo does). So the right comparison would be Nintendo first party selling 50% of total units, whereas Sony first party are about 20% of total units sold. Note that the Nintendo figure does not include digital only software, so the barrage of Indies does not explain away the 50% share.

So yeah, I'd say considering the lack of big software, 50% of units sold isn't too shabby for third parties.
 
Last edited:

g-m1n1

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,408
Luxembourg
Sony themselves also sold a ton of 1st party games - 18.5M.
My guess is that Nintendo has likely much better margins on hardware.
Margins on hardware are low for everbody.

Nintendo sells more first party games.

and their games are probably cheaper to make.
TLOU2 costs probabaly more to make than 3-4 first party Nintendo games.
 

Zedark

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,719
The Netherlands
Sony didn't sell 90 million PS4 games - they and their partners together did. Sony shifted 18.5 million games (which they published) and just under 2 million PS4 units.

Nintendo count 50 million software units across all publishers on Switch and 5.68 million Switch units. 82.5% of the software sold was Nintendo-published - so 41.25 million units of software sold. By both metrics, Nintendo are the market leader. (Neither company counts download only titles in their figures).

A serious question: how do the other major software publishers compare to that figure?
That 82.5% split is a revenue split, not a units split. First party software brings in much more revenue per unit sold, so third party units are higher than the number you arrived at.
 
Oct 25, 2017
15,172
Holy shit at Animal Crossing, maybe Nintendo doesn't feel bad about having a lackluster lineup this year since it's clear Animal Crossing and Mario will carry them to the finish line. I know a lot of people that bought a Lite just to play Animal Crossing, it's crazy.

Congrats to Ring Fit for doing over 4 million, I really need to get back into it, I'm a little flabby from having to stay at home. And nice to see Xenoblade not be niche anymore (though I guess that was proven with XB:2).
Why do you still have your Geoff avatar, the direct mini back in March counted.
 

digi_era

Member
Jul 21, 2020
735
Isn't it possible to calculate digital ratio at least in Japan from these numbers? I mean Famitsu giving us the physical numbers and Nintendo the overall.
 

pappacone

Member
Jan 10, 2020
3,146
People here assuming that the huge difference between revenue and income compared to Sony is coming from HW margins or development costs are horribly underestimating the margin between selling a first party game compared to selling a third party game, especially digitally, especially full price vs discounted.

Nintendo's brutal profit margin comes mainly from their first party titles selling like hotcakes at full price.

Of course other factors are also relevant, but this is the most important one by a lot.
also I suppose TLOU2 and Ghost of Tsushima have way higher production costs than ACNH or Paper Mario (it's not like I have any data, it just seems obvious, maybe I am wrong)
 

Mr Swine

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
6,043
Sweden
Wow, honestly I thought it would be at 58 million but 61 is really great. So I guess Switch will be above 70 million at the end of the year of this keeps up?
 

MisterSpo

One Winged Slayer
Member
Feb 12, 2019
9,080
north america crushing Europe as a nintendo market apparently.

it's odd to me ps4 sales were way down yoy for the same period, and from what we know of npd xbox would be too. this would be because of shortages, since demand for anything video game related was high. so why was switch way up? nintendo produced way more? but how could they have predicted an event like covid? or they just had a lot more in the channel? or maybe sony and ms no longer have an interest in producing current gen consoles?
PS4 and Xbox One are on their way out, even with the increased demand for videogames. They're old systems at the tail end of their lives. Switch is a younger system and it's home to the biggest console game of the year in Animal Crossing. It's not surprising.
That 82.5% split is a revenue split, not a units split. First party software brings in much more revenue per unit sold, so third party units are higher than the number you arrived at.
Yes - I see my mistake from the explanation in your other post. That makes a lot more sense and is good news for third-parties.
 

z0m3le

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,418
Well Switch has already outsold the NES as of right now 62M units. Next up is the 3DS (~75M), which it will comfortably outsell this holiday, it might even catch up to the PSP and GBA which are both under 82 Million by the end of the FY. 360 (86 Million) and PS3 (87.4M) will be challenged by this time next year, and unless Switch sales fall off a cliff, it should pass 100M sales around it's 5th year anniversary, March 2022.

2022 should still be a pretty big year for the Switch, so I could see it passing the PS4 eventually, which looks to end it's life around 115 to 120 Million units. I think in 2023's holiday period, a successor is likely to launch, but Switch lite will be repositioned as a ~$99 handheld and sell for another 2 or 3 years until the Switch '2' Lite is released. Even afterwards, a gen 1 Switch could continue to sell as a handheld for children, until they can get the successor's lite model into it's first price drop, which could be 7 years off.

Why I'm talking about all this in such a long timing, is because I believe the Switch could realistically become the best sold console of all time, and depending on how Nintendo treats the successor, it could continue the platform, which would only inflate the numbers further.
Animal Crossing has an attach rate of more than 1/3 Switch owners, fuckin' insansity. As for hardware 61m units is dang good for 4 years (and change). I'm definitely gonna be expecting more AC in the years to follow...

It's actually only 3 years and 4 months since the Switch launched to the end of June this year.
 

Mekanos

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 17, 2018
44,179
Still insane to me that they originally planned to release Animal Crossing in 2019 alongside Pokemon. Talk about overcrowding.

1/3 attach rate is mindboggling.
 

z0m3le

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,418
Wow, honestly I thought it would be at 58 million but 61 is really great. So I guess Switch will be above 70 million at the end of the year of this keeps up?
Switch sold 10.8 Million units last holiday, they will likely sell more this holiday simply because of demand, I could see them breaking 12 Million units sold, higher than the Wii or DS ever did, though they both got very close holiday 2009, putting Nintendo total hardware sales for the quarter around 23 Million. I actually think Switch could break 80 Million units sold this calendar year, and pass both GBA and PSP (under 82 Million) by it's 4th anniversary.
 

GuEiMiRrIRoW

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
3,530
Brazil
So it was all Animal Crossing fault. They completely blown their expectations. They really don't need to rush games right now. 22 million is over everything people were guessing here.
 

Kazuma Kiryu

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,538
PS4 and Xbox One are on their way out, even with the increased demand for videogames. They're old systems at the tail end of their lives. Switch is a younger system and it's home to the biggest console game of the year in Animal Crossing. It's not surprising.

Good luck trying to bring some common sense into some folks.
 

Zedark

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,719
The Netherlands
That's right. Also if i'm not wrong, ps4 is unit distributed and Switch is unit sold.
Switch is also units distributed.
Absolute opposite of Nintendo, which is why it's even more important that they reveal their line up soon.
You are comparing revenue split (Nintendo data point) with unit split for Sony. Nintendo takes 82.5% of its full game sales revenue from first party, Sony takes about 20% of unit game sales from first party. But first party revenue is about 3.3x as high as third party revenue. If we convert the Nintendo number to revenue we get a minimum of 50% of units sold being third party (minimum because third party drop game prices more than Nintendo does). So the right comparison would be Nintendo first party selling 50% of total units, whereas Sony first party are about 20% of total units sold. Note that the Nintendo figure does not include digital only software, so the barrage of Indies does not explain away the 50% share.

So yeah, I'd say considering the lack of big software, 50% of units sold isn't too shabby for third parties.
 

Aleh

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,300
Just curious, what were the results of PS4's Q1 closest to when their install base was around 60m?
 

Deleted member 23046

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,876
You are comparing revenue split (Nintendo data point) with unit split for Sony. Nintendo takes 82.5% of its full game sales revenue from first party, Sony takes about 20% of unit game sales from first party. But first party revenue is about 3.3x as high as third party revenue. If we convert the Nintendo number to revenue we get a minimum of 50% of units sold being third party (minimum because third party drop game prices more than Nintendo does). So the right comparison would be Nintendo first party selling 50% of total units, whereas Sony first party are about 20% of total units sold. Note that the Nintendo figure does not include digital only software, so the barrage of Indies does not explain away the 50% share.

So yeah, I'd say considering the lack of big software, 50% of units sold isn't too shabby for third parties.
Oh nice find, I thought the percentage was units. 🤭 But I am not sure it obliterates what I said about how their line-up is weighting in consumer wallets and playtime.
 

TorianElecdra

Member
Feb 25, 2020
2,513
Well Switch has already outsold the NES as of right now 62M units. Next up is the 3DS (~75M), which it will comfortably outsell this holiday, it might even catch up to the PSP and GBA which are both under 82 Million by the end of the FY. 360 (86 Million) and PS3 (87.4M) will be challenged by this time next year, and unless Switch sales fall off a cliff, it should pass 100M sales around it's 5th year anniversary, March 2022.

2022 should still be a pretty big year for the Switch, so I could see it passing the PS4 eventually, which looks to end it's life around 115 to 120 Million units. I think in 2023's holiday period, a successor is likely to launch, but Switch lite will be repositioned as a ~$99 handheld and sell for another 2 or 3 years until the Switch '2' Lite is released. Even afterwards, a gen 1 Switch could continue to sell as a handheld for children, until they can get the successor's lite model into it's first price drop, which could be 7 years off.

Why I'm talking about all this in such a long timing, is because I believe the Switch could realistically become the best sold console of all time, and depending on how Nintendo treats the successor, it could continue the platform, which would only inflate the numbers further.


It's actually only 3 years and 4 months since the Switch launched to the end of June this year.

I 100% agree with you. There's a chance switch might get the throne.
 

Zedark

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,719
The Netherlands
Oh nice find, I thought the percentage was units. 🤭 But I am not sure it obliterates what I said about how their line-up is weighting in consumer wallets and playtime.
Well, it is a bit of a chicken and egg problem. If you don't have Call of Duty, Final Fantasy 7R, Resident Evil Whatever, and all the other big third party games, then imo you can't expect the consumers to shell out similar proportions on a smaller selection of smaller-scale games. The result is that either first party is a big attractor (which it is), or Nintendo would not be viable because they neither have attractive first party nor attractive third party games. I think with the current state of things, a 50% share of third party is a good result considering the available software. To raise that percentage, they need to get structural big third party support (but that's a discussion for another time and place I think).
 

DeuceGamer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,476
Ps4 60mil vs NSW 61.44mil

That's already crazy giving the launch timing

Yes, considering the time, the current pacing, no official price drop (though the Lite was sort of the same concept), etc...

Launch aligned the PS4 would have just had another holiday, right?

Edit: I see you confirmed that a few posts later. Thank you!