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Deleted member 18161

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,805
It makes sense to go physical when it costs £59.99 digitally! I'm an always digital person and I bought a disc in a store because I got it for £44.99. Digital price of BO4 was shocking.

It was £50 lots of places online so it makes sense to pay the extra £10 to have the convenience that digital brings. That's what I did and will be doing with most games now going forward.

I'm betting a lot of RDR2 sales in the U.K. will be digital too.
 

Hasney

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,977
It was £50 lots of places online so it makes sense to pay the extra £10 to have the convenience that digital brings. That's what I did and will be doing with most games now going forward.

I'm betting a lot of RDR2 sales in the U.K. will be digital too.

I don't see what this is based on other than the usual anecdotal stories. The average is still 25%. The last CoD was 22% digital and the highest we've seen is 38% with Destiny 2. The large majority are still buying physical. Even with a 50/50 split, it's not making up the difference.

That said, the number of threads we've had this year alone look like it's the overall health of the UK market in general, unless RDR2 turns out to be an absolute juggernaut even more than current expectations. I'm not expecting next gen to be a big one here unless software prices and aggressive bundles come back.
 
Last edited:

DJwest

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,195
c5w9qqi.png

gOgaHvw.jpg
Amazing post lol
 

Z-Brownie

Member
Nov 6, 2017
3,923
Yeah, like I edited, I do it too some times because I can't wait anymore or just say fuck it, I play it 500 hours anyways, let's be spontaneous, but with BO4, even if I have slight interest, all I can think of is that this game is dead in 12 months and if I buy it, it has to be cheap or physically. Not releasing this as free to play standalone like Fortnite is a huge mistake in my eyes. Even if I would love it to death and want to support it, I couldn't put one extra cent in it to support it cause I know it's done in 12 months and it would be gone, it has an expiry date and it's a bitter aftertaste.

But to go back to our topic, I burned myself twice with digital games where I wished I had them physically (only was was available physically tho) and I was so lucky that I got a refund on both of them on Xbox One after a bit of talking, the games were Conan and DayZ and my boy, was Conan a mistake that I regret until today.

This is the truth with CODs, hopefully for those who bough it, it will survive like MW2 or BO1, but even then, it will probably lose 90% of player base in the end of the one year cicle.

Me too, I did it with MKX and Blazblue in a time where I thought i could play fighting games, after that i just gave up and never touched the games again, this was for a month or so. Still hate myself for it. We do mistakes and learn, this is the beauty of life haha
 

Welfare

Prophet of Truth - You’re my Numberwall
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,930
This is the truth with CODs, hopefully for those who bough it, it will survive like MW2 or BO1, but even then, it will probably lose 90% of player base in the end of the one year cicle.

Me too, I did it with MKX and Blazblue in a time where I thought i could play fighting games, after that i just gave up and never touched the games again, this was for a month or so. Still hate myself for it. We do mistakes and learn, this is the beauty of life haha
Black Ops 3 survived for the 3 years as one of the most played games on consoles. It was even outperforming Infinite Warfare soon after that launched! Unheard of in the 7th gen.

Black Ops 4 is going to be played for years until either Black Ops 5 or a new Modern Warfare takes its thunder.
 

Cynn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,285
Yikes... I remember back in the glory days of MW it was pulling a million at physical.
All things that go up must come down I guess
If you mean physical media then yes it's coming down and likely won't exist much longer in the future. Digital did gangbusters though and has made BO4 the highest selling one yet.
 

JigglesBunny

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
31,293
Chicago
I wouldn't buy a disc that still makes you download 55 GB from the internet either. Clearly the game is selling well on digital storefronts so it seems I'm not alone in that line of thinking.
 

Ada

Member
Nov 28, 2017
3,751
I got it digital for £37.99. So I can see a lot of people went that route.
 

Tapeworm

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
898
When digital and physical are the same price, it comes down to the pick up and play factor. Even when the next big game comes along (RDR2), can I see myself picking this game up and playing it for 20-30 min every day or few? If so, go digital. No one likes switching discs. Also, add up all the time in your life you have spent switching discs. Now imagine you are on your deathbed, saying goodbye to the ones you love...wouldn't you rather have your disc switching time transferred to your deathbed time?
 

Cynn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,285
Yep.

According to GI.biz, Black Ops 4's first-weekend physical sales in the United Kingdom were down almost 50 percent compared to Call of Duty: WWII and down 59 percent compared to predecessor Black Ops III. The site reported that Black Ops 4's first-weekend physical sales in the UK were the lowest in the series since 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. A downturn in physical game sales is expected, given the industry is increasingly trending toward digital.

And as mentioned, Black Ops 4 had more players connecting online during its first day than Call of Duty: WWII last year, so more people are playing the game.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/black-ops-4-breaks-digital-sales-records-physical-/1100-6462525/
 

MrTired

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,231
Who knows. We only know about phsyical sales in the UK.

We also know Last year's CoD WW2 digital split for 2017. Increase in digital sales ain't make up the difference.

2017 was the biggest ever year for games software, reaching a record £3.56bn in sales, driven by record results in both Digital and Online sales (£1.6bn, +13.4%) and Mobile Games, which achieved revenues over £1bn for the first time (£1.07, +7.8%). Boxed software remains a substantial factor in software sales and reversed recent trends to return a +3.4% increase in sales to £790m.

Top 20 Games (Packaged and Digital Sales)*

01. FIFA 18 (ELECTRONIC ARTS) - 2,696,721 (19.9% digital)
02. CALL OF DUTY: WWII (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 2,442,416 (22.8% digital)
03. GRAND THEFT AUTO V (TAKE 2) - 1,080,022
04. ASSASSIN'S CREED ORIGINS (UBISOFT) - 679,965 (20.4% digital)
05. DESTINY 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 673,551 (38.5% Digital)
06. STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT II (ELECTRONIC ARTS) - 658,814 (21.5% digital)
07. CRASH BANDICOOT N.SANE TRILOGY (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 651,354 (26.5% digital)
08. TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS (UBISOFT) - 574,889
09. GRAN TURISMO: SPORT (SONY COMPUTER ENT.) - 484,833 (12.4% digital)
10. HORIZON ZERO DAWN (SONY COMPUTER ENT.) - 456,374
11. FIFA 17 (ELECTRONIC ARTS) - 425,778
12. FORZA HORIZON 3 (MICROSOFT) - 400,118
13. CALL OF DUTY: INFINTE WARFARE (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 381,478
14. RESIDENT EVIL 7 (CAPCOM) - 354,247
15. MARIO KART 8 DELUXE (NINTENDO) - 341,531*
16. SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY (NINTENDO) - 339,719*
17. LEGO WORLDS (WARNER BROS.) - 336,676
18. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD (NINTENDO) - 329,013*
19. FORZA MOTORSPORT 7 (MICROSOFT) - 267,981 (21% digital)
20. FALLOUT 4 (BETHESDA) - 223,557

*Nintendo and Bethesda don't provide digital sales numbers (Not that it'd make a difference to the top 10)


(I looked into the numbers and you can assume around a ~25% digital share, on average, for the games above.)

UzSqXXo.png


https://eraltd.org/news-events/pres...elps-entertainment-outstrip-the-printed-word/

You were referring to digital only. Then please refer to the above post. Sales will most likely be down.
 

Jingo

Banned
Dec 10, 2017
1,219
This digital aceptance scares the hell outta me, especially people willing to go full price and beyond for a license.
 

jorgejjvr

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
8,423
it made a lot of sense to go digital this year, I ALWAYS go physical, and went digital myself for the first time in COD

so who knows, maybe digital made up for it
 

nib95

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
18,498
This digital aceptance scares the hell outta me, especially people willing to go full price and beyond for a license.

Yea, it's crazy to me. People willing to lose control, proper ownership, selling, trading, lending, borrowing, cheaper prices etc, just so every few hours (sometimes days) they don't need to spend 10 seconds getting up and changing a disc. Madness.
 

MrTired

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,231
it made a lot of sense to go digital this year, I ALWAYS go physical, and went digital myself for the first time in COD

so who knows, maybe digital made up for it
Without digital sales factored in, headlines like this are so useless. Every single time.

2017 was the biggest ever year for games software, reaching a record £3.56bn in sales, driven by record results in both Digital and Online sales (£1.6bn, +13.4%) and Mobile Games, which achieved revenues over £1bn for the first time (£1.07, +7.8%). Boxed software remains a substantial factor in software sales and reversed recent trends to return a +3.4% increase in sales to £790m.

Top 20 Games (Packaged and Digital Sales)*

01. FIFA 18 (ELECTRONIC ARTS) - 2,696,721 (19.9% digital)
02. CALL OF DUTY: WWII (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 2,442,416 (22.8% digital)
03. GRAND THEFT AUTO V (TAKE 2) - 1,080,022
04. ASSASSIN'S CREED ORIGINS (UBISOFT) - 679,965 (20.4% digital)
05. DESTINY 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 673,551 (38.5% Digital)
06. STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT II (ELECTRONIC ARTS) - 658,814 (21.5% digital)
07. CRASH BANDICOOT N.SANE TRILOGY (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 651,354 (26.5% digital)
08. TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON: WILDLANDS (UBISOFT) - 574,889
09. GRAN TURISMO: SPORT (SONY COMPUTER ENT.) - 484,833 (12.4% digital)
10. HORIZON ZERO DAWN (SONY COMPUTER ENT.) - 456,374
11. FIFA 17 (ELECTRONIC ARTS) - 425,778
12. FORZA HORIZON 3 (MICROSOFT) - 400,118
13. CALL OF DUTY: INFINTE WARFARE (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 381,478
14. RESIDENT EVIL 7 (CAPCOM) - 354,247
15. MARIO KART 8 DELUXE (NINTENDO) - 341,531*
16. SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY (NINTENDO) - 339,719*
17. LEGO WORLDS (WARNER BROS.) - 336,676
18. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD (NINTENDO) - 329,013*
19. FORZA MOTORSPORT 7 (MICROSOFT) - 267,981 (21% digital)
20. FALLOUT 4 (BETHESDA) - 223,557

*Nintendo and Bethesda don't provide digital sales numbers (Not that it'd make a difference to the top 10)


(I looked into the numbers and you can assume around a ~25% digital share, on average, for the games above.)

UzSqXXo.png


https://eraltd.org/news-events/pres...elps-entertainment-outstrip-the-printed-word/

Call of Duty Series UK Retail

[Week 45, 2007] CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE (ACTIVISION) < 215,000 / NEW
[Week 46, 2008] CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 430,000 / NEW
[Week 46, 2009] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 1,600,000 / NEW
[Week 45, 2010] CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 1,800,000 / NEW
[Week 45, 2011] CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 1,773,000 / NEW
[Week 46, 2012] CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 1,386,000 / NEW
[Week 45, 2013] CALL OF DUTY: GHOSTS (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 690,000 / NEW
[Week 45, 2014] CALL OF DUTY: ADVANCED WARFARE (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 730,000 / NEW
[Week 45, 2015] CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS III (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 635,000 / NEW
[Week 44, 2016] CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 328,000 / NEW
[Week 44, 2017] CALL OF DUTY: WWII (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 515,000 / NEW
[Week 41, 2018] CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 (ACTIVISION BLIZZARD) - 260,000 / NEW

Digital sales will not likely make up the deficit and definitely not useless information.
 

SuikerBrood

Member
Jan 21, 2018
15,507
Yea, it's crazy to me. People willing to lose control, proper ownership, selling, trading, lending, borrowing, cheaper prices etc, just so every few hours (sometimes days) they don't need to spend 10 seconds getting up and changing a disc. Madness.

Never sold, borrowed, lend, traded, etc. a game in my life. I do know that my house is filled with junk and adding a massive amount of boxes doesn't help. Heck, I don't even have an optic dvd/blu-ray/cd drive anymore.
 

nib95

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
18,498
Never sold, borrowed, lend, traded, etc. a game in my life. I do know that my house is filled with junk and adding a massive amount of boxes doesn't help. Heck, I don't even have an optic dvd/blu-ray/cd drive anymore.

If you own the Xbox One or PS4, then actually you do have an optic dvd/Blu Ray drive. And you've never borrowed or lended before? In your entire life? Do you not have any friends or family who game or something? And I'm also surprised you've also never traded in or sold a single game your entire life too. You've potentially lost out on a lot of money.
 

SuikerBrood

Member
Jan 21, 2018
15,507
If you own the Xbox One or PS4, then actually you do have an optic dvd/Blu Ray drive. And you've never borrowed or lended before? In your entire life? Do you not have any friends or family who game or something? And I'm also surprised you've also never traded in or sold a single game your entire life too. You've potentially lost out on a lot of money.

I don't own a console.

PC games have been unsellable for years, they have a unique code to play online, so second hand they are worthless. PC games are cheaper than console games most of the time tho, so that makes up for it quite a bit. And.. I wouldn't want to lose a game I've bought. I like my Steam collection. It's one of the downsides to Gamepass for me. I don't want to lose Halo Wars 2 or Sea of Thieves, since maybe I'll want to replay it again. I've been playing games like Warcraft 3, Cities Skylines, etc. for years and years.

I'd only sell shitty games.. wonder how much I'd get for that.
 

nib95

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
18,498
I don't own a console.

PC games have been unsellable for years, they have a unique code to play online, so second hand they are worthless. PC games are cheaper than console games most of the time tho, so that makes up for it quite a bit. And.. I wouldn't want to lose a game I've bought. I like my Steam collection. It's one of the downsides to Gamepass for me. I don't want to lose Halo Wars 2 or Sea of Thieves, since maybe I'll want to replay it again. I've been playing games like Warcraft 3, Cities Skylines, etc. for years and years.

I'd only sell shitty games.. wonder how much I'd get for that.

Thing is, selling and trading in you don't necessarily permanently lose a game, since you can buy it back later dirt cheap if you ever want to play it again in future.

Personally I'll keep certain tent pole titles, but I'll sell or trade a bulk of my games (and usually get back pretty much what I paid for it), and if I ever want to replay them, I'll pick them up on a crazy post launch sale sometime in the future. That way I can comfortably buy dozens of games a year and use recurring money to help towards future purchases. I honestly wouldn't be buying half the games I were day one on a games launch, were it not for trading in or selling.
 

Kunka Kid

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,031
I generally buy all my games physically and went digital for this one. Since it's multiplayer only, it just felt like the type of game I'd like to have installed and ready to go any time I want to hop into a few matches.
 

Duxxy3

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,973
USA
Perhaps not, but the game is going to have a much higher margin, has cost less and has had a lower marketing spend, so I doubt it's all doom and gloom.

I'm not sure shareholders care about any of that. They just want to see growth. If the game sold less and made less (than WW2), then that's not growth.
 

SuikerBrood

Member
Jan 21, 2018
15,507
Thing is, selling and trading in you don't necessarily permanently lose a game, since you can buy it back later dirt cheap if you ever want to play it again in future.

Personally I'll keep certain tent pole titles, but I'll sell or trade a bulk of my games (and usually get back pretty much what I paid for it), and if I ever want to replay them, I'll pick them up on a crazy post launch sale sometime in the future. That way I can comfortably buy dozens of games a year and use recurring money to help towards future purchases. I honestly wouldn't be buying half the games I were day one on a games launch, were it not for trading in or selling.

Gamepass would be ideal for you it seems.
 

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
28,167
There's something going on with UK gamers. Are folks in the UK buying less games overall? Activision said digital sales were up worldwide, and day one users were up. It's hard to believe that digital sales could be up, even if slightly (guessing), and physical sales collapsing. The data from UK physical sales recently and the PR's from Activision and Ubi suggest the real issue is that UK gamers are buying less overall, and therefore becoming less relevant as a barometer for worldwide sales.
 

SuikerBrood

Member
Jan 21, 2018
15,507
There's something going on with UK gamers. Are folks in the UK buying less games overall? Activision said digital sales were up worldwide, and day one users were up. It's hard to believe that digital sales could be up, even if slightly (guessing), and physical sales collapsing. The data from UK physical sales recently and the PR's from Activision and Ubi suggest the real issue is that UK gamers are buying less overall, and therefore becoming less relevant as a barometer for worldwide sales.

Doesn't explain Spider-man and FH4.
 

EvilBoris

Prophet of Truth - HDTVtest
Verified
Oct 29, 2017
16,710
I'm not sure shareholders care about any of that. They just want to see growth. If the game sold less and made less (than WW2), then that's not growth.

That's exactly the thing that the shareholders care about.
We don't know it made less, that's the point. You'll have to wait until we see Actiblizzards yearend financials until we know if the shareholders will be upset.
 

MrTired

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,231
I'm not sarcastic, third time in a row that we get "x game has way less retail sales" and then proceed to not only sell a lot WW but also beat the previous entry.
Which games were that, cause Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed release PR to which didn't mention unit sales being up. Activision mentioned digital sales being record breaking but again didn't mention total unit sales. So which games are you talking about?
 

Dalik

Member
Nov 1, 2017
3,532
Which games were that, cause Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed release PR to which didn't mention unit sales to be up. Activision mentioned digital sales being record breaking but again didn't mention total unit sales. So which games are you talking about?
"Assassin's Creed Odyssey is currently having the best launch-week in the franchise for this console generation based on internal estimates."
You dont need units for that to speak of.

"Activision today boasted that Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2 were the top two best-selling games, in terms of revenue, in North America for 2017." back in 2017 destiny 2 had a enormous drop in retail sales compared to 1 and people were quick to say bomba.


"Across all platforms, the number of players who connected Black Ops 4 online on the first day increased from Call of Duty: WWII"
Ergo, more sales.
 

Deleted member 18161

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,805
I don't see what this is based on other than the usual anecdotal stories. The average is still 25%. The last CoD was 22% digital and the highest we've seen is 38% with Destiny 2. The large majority are still buying physical. Even with a 50/50 split, it's not making up the difference.

That said, the number of threads we've had this year alone look like it's the overall health of the UK market in general, unless RDR2 turns out to be an absolute juggernaut even more than current expectations. I'm not expecting next gen to be a big one here unless software prices and aggressive bundles come back.

I'm not trying to paint any sort of story lol. I'm just saying that before I could pre order new XB1/PS4 games from Amazon for £39.99 after the Prime £2 pre order discount but now they're £50. That combined with digital prices coming down from £70 to £60 means an extra £10 for the convenience of a digital copy is more than fair at least to me.

Combine that with the fact that CoD mp / BR is a very long term game mode I would imagine that makes this type of game more tempting as a digital purchase vs something like GoW or Spider-Man where once you've completed the story campaign / side quests it's essentially useless outside of replays.
 

MrTired

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,231
"Assassin's Creed Odyssey is currently having the best launch-week in the franchise for this console generation based on internal estimates."
You dont need units for that to speak of.

"Activision today boasted that Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2 were the top two best-selling games, in terms of revenue, in North America for 2017." back in 2017 destiny 2 had a enormous drop in retail sales compared to 1 and people were quick to say bomba.


"Across all platforms, the number of players who connected Black Ops 4 online on the first day increased from Call of Duty: WWII"
Ergo, more sales.
Assassin's Creed PR was about Revenue including season pass and mtx. No mention of Unit sales because they are likely down.
Numbers of players don't equal sales. Also they specifically mention day 1 player numbers. Does that mean Day 2 WW2 had better numbers. Probably.

So again were is this UK chart lack of relevance coming from.
 

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
28,167
Which games were that, cause Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed release PR to which didn't mention unit sales being up. Activision mentioned digital sales being record breaking but again didn't mention total unit sales. So which games are you talking about?
Activision said they had more day one players than last year, and that digital unit sales were up. They don't say by how much. It could make sense that for example, worldwide digital sales might be up say 5% and physical down 10%, maybe even 15%. I'm sure if total sales worldwide were up YoY they would have said so. However, it makes no sense that digital sales would be up worldwide while physical sales worldwide are collapsing, compared to just a year ago. The more likely situation is that UK physical sales collapsed *and* UK digital sales were weak too, i.e. the UK's sales tracking is becoming less relevant.
 

Duxxy3

Member
Oct 27, 2017
21,973
USA
"Assassin's Creed Odyssey is currently having the best launch-week in the franchise for this console generation based on internal estimates."
You dont need units for that to speak of.

"Activision today boasted that Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2 were the top two best-selling games, in terms of revenue, in North America for 2017." back in 2017 destiny 2 had a enormous drop in retail sales compared to 1 and people were quick to say bomba.


"Across all platforms, the number of players who connected Black Ops 4 online on the first day increased from Call of Duty: WWII"
Ergo, more sales.

Not necessarily. WW2 actually had a campaign. People that played the campaign were not counted as playing online.

Bear with me hear, because I'm pulling these numbers out of nowhere.

Say WW2 sold 8 million units at launch (digital and physical), but 35% of consumers decided to play the campaign first (and various offline modes). That gives us my made up number of 5.2 million active online users.

In my made up scenario, Black Ops 4 would only need to sell above 5.2 million to top the active online user numbers from WW2.