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December 2018 NPD (U.S. Hardware) Predictions - Closes Tuesday, January 15th

Oct 25, 2017
995
I haven’t been following along in this thread very closely, can someone confirm for me whether or not we’re expecting the Switch to sell 99,999,999,999,999,999,999 units this month?

Thanks
lmao the switch couldn't even break 100 quintillion units in December. Nintendoomed
At first we were overjoyed. "The Switch won december!" "The Switch has outsold the PS4! "The Switch took China! Every single family owns a Switch!" But it didn't stop there.

They would pile up in large quantities in stores, warehouses, factories. Brand new switches would start to drift out into the oceans, create their own islands. Ecosystems couldn't cope with the rapidly increasing mass of Switches. Fish were choking from joycons stuck in their gills. Giant landmasses would collide with the tectonic plates, ripping apart continents in violent switchquakes.

We thought it would end there.

With smaller revisions, they were now even more lethal. The very air was filled with toxic switch particles. They entered your bloodstream, they clogged up your arteries and ruptured the mitocondria of cells.
A few chosen people were allowed to board spaceships to get away from the barren wastelands that remained. But even the cold vacuum of space could not save them.
Every single cell, every grain of sand, every single flower or blade of grass was now gone, turned into a rectangular piece of gaming hardware with it's own screen, attachable controllers and middling battery life.
The planet's increased density meant that even the moon could do nothing but get drawn closer and finally collide with the former planet. The growth continued. Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and everything else was absorbed.

At the center of our solar system,
What used to be the source of all life,
had been twisted and turned into a grotesque yellow pentagram by gravitational forces, with two bulging black orbs, as if it was the face of the devil, gleefully looking on the destruction of the galaxy.
The Universe did not go out with a bang, or a whimper.
The last thing anyone would ever see or hear, was

"Click!"

 
Oct 25, 2017
532
3 million Switch CONFIRMED


Amazing haha.

There are buyers, assistant buyers, inventory planners, sales planners, merchandising specialists, etc etc. all employed to make those decisions at each retailer. Publishers also have people dedicated to the same things to assist.
I'm not sure if I'm bothering you too much with this, but do you know what the stock turnover rates of all consoles are, in general terms? I have a feeling that for Switch it is pretty high since I bought one for my sister lately and it was already updated with the latest firmware that had recently come out. The games she bought were also all patched up to new versions. Take the Wii U for example and I think I've seen the same box sitting there for over six months at my local electronics shop.

160k views and 1,500 posts with no results yet

1,999,999 Switches will stop it.
 
OP
OP
D
Oct 27, 2017
260
Finally got predictions collated. Haven't looked to see if the results are known, yet, though. Will check for that later, and then put up prediction results. :)

ResetERA Aggregate Predictions - Dec-2018

1. NSW - 2375K (stddev: 292K)
2. XB1 - 1135K (stddev: 131K)
3. PS4 - 870K (stddev: 142K)
 
Jan 10, 2018
420
France
Finally got predictions collated. Haven't looked to see if the results are known, yet, though. Will check for that later, and then put up prediction results. :)

ResetERA Aggregate Predictions - Dec-2018

1. NSW - 2375K (stddev: 292K)
2. XB1 - 1135K (stddev: 131K)
3. PS4 - 870K (stddev: 142K)
We don't know the results yet.
This time, I feel like ERA could have a pretty good prediction result. This all seems pretty accurate. Although some people hinted at/predicted PS4 being lower and Switch higher ?
 
since we have nothing else to do (video games? Pfft don’t be ridiculous).

Software predictions time!

10. GTA V (650k units)
9. Just Cause 4 (650k units)
8. Super Mario Party (700k units)
7. Battlefield V (1 million units)
6. Mario Kart 8 (1.2 million units)
5. COD: BO4 (1.4 million units)
4. RDR2 (1.5 million units)
3. Smash bros (4.8 million units)
2. Celeste (10 million units)
1. Sayonara Wild Hearts preorders (19 million units)
 
Oct 25, 2017
3,560
Oh this thread is just random now? I guess I'll just ask if anyone with numbers has any thoughts about DQXI's performance for the year, namely was it good/bad for the franchise, did it meet your expectation or not, etc. We've got some vague ideas from worldwide numbers and the last numbers we've seen in Japan but there's a lot of unknown in that.
 
Oct 25, 2017
6,151
Oh this thread is just random now? I guess I'll just ask if anyone with numbers has any thoughts about DQXI's performance for the year, namely was it good/bad for the franchise, did it meet your expectation or not, etc. We've got some vague ideas from worldwide numbers and the last numbers we've seen in Japan but there's a lot of unknown in that.
Its performance was decent but it clearly was a missed opportunity (0 marketing behind it and an awful launch window).

There is still the Switch version coming up that could put some good numbers tho, so it is not a definitive statement.
 
Dec 7, 2017
4,471
Spain
Finally got predictions collated. Haven't looked to see if the results are known, yet, though. Will check for that later, and then put up prediction results. :)

ResetERA Aggregate Predictions - Dec-2018

1. NSW - 2375K (stddev: 292K)
2. XB1 - 1135K (stddev: 131K)
3. PS4 - 870K (stddev: 142K)
Are we sure the PS4 is going to be behind the Xbox One and sub 1 million ? Is the sese we get from Matt and Bendji’s takes so fat ?
 
Oct 28, 2017
726
I found this really interesting. Going by this site you get the impression switch has been severely lacking in quantity of releases, but this graph launch aligned tells a massively differently story.
That is very interesting. Surprised it beat the XBO.

Does this also mean that the complete December NPD results are out there?
 
Dec 4, 2017
51
I found this really interesting. Going by this site you get the impression switch has been severely lacking in quantity of releases, but this graph launch aligned tells a massively differently story.
I expected the Xbox One and PS4 lines to be similar. Is it mainly Japanese games that are exclusive to Sony's console?
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,476
I find it surprising that despite the high costs of printing carts, indies (and some smaller games by major publishers) don’t seem afraid of releasing physical versions.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,916
I find it surprising that despite the high costs of printing carts, indies (and some smaller games by major publishers) don’t seem afraid of releasing physical versions.
It doesn't seem very high for low capacity cards. Apparently the packaged manufacturing and licensing and shipping costs for an 8GB card are the same as for a standard BR disc, even if the actual card manufacturing step itself is more expensive. Essentially when bundling that all together Nintendo subsidised the actual cost of the cards themselves.
 
Feb 26, 2018
2,369
It doesn't seem very high for low capacity cards. Apparently the packaged manufacturing and licensing and shipping costs for an 8GB card are the same as for a standard BR disc, even if the actual card manufacturing step itself is more expensive. Essentially when bundling that all together Nintendo subsidised the actual cost of the cards themselves.
indeed. majority of Indie games use 2-4gb card, which are pretty cheap
 
Oct 25, 2017
532
It doesn't seem very high for low capacity cards. Apparently the packaged manufacturing and licensing and shipping costs for an 8GB card are the same as for a standard BR disc, even if the actual card manufacturing step itself is more expensive. Essentially when bundling that all together Nintendo subsidised the actual cost of the cards themselves.
People don't realise that NAND storage prices have been crashing lately. Just look at consumer prices for SD cards and SSDs. Of course the Switch uses a proprietary method for which the market is smaller than general products. I feel the fear was mainly not being able to sell enough games en masse to have top efficiency in production (sharing development and machine cost). But with Switch catching on, I feel prices are lowering steadily. Maybe only the largest cards will cut into profits a bit.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,564
I find it surprising that despite the high costs of printing carts, indies (and some smaller games by major publishers) don’t seem afraid of releasing physical versions.
As long as it's not the larger sizes the pricing is fine iirc. It's the bigger cards that are outrageously expensive.
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,263
It doesn't seem very high for low capacity cards. Apparently the packaged manufacturing and licensing and shipping costs for an 8GB card are the same as for a standard BR disc, even if the actual card manufacturing step itself is more expensive. Essentially when bundling that all together Nintendo subsidised the actual cost of the cards themselves.
Yea, I've read somewhere 8GB = BR equivalent pricing as well, possible from the same place. But good of Mat to confirm that the card pricing is a bit overblown.

I suspect 16GB cards are only marginally more expensive, but if your a pub in 2018 looking at a much smaller installed base with a marginally more expensive physical goods cost, even if its 10 or 15% more, you'd eschew away from physical. It just made sense, you're expecting to sell fewer units of a SKU and it costs more to manufacture. And you likely have to release the game as 16GB card + 8-10GB additional downloads, so it probably didn't make sense.

I think that issue will be much less in 2019 even at current pricing, but I expect with 64GB cards, 16GB could take the place of 8GB in terms of pricing.
 
Oct 27, 2017
59
At first we were overjoyed. "The Switch won december!" "The Switch has outsold the PS4! "The Switch took China! Every single family owns a Switch!" But it didn't stop there.

They would pile up in large quantities in stores, warehouses, factories. Brand new switches would start to drift out into the oceans, create their own islands. Ecosystems couldn't cope with the rapidly increasing mass of Switches. Fish were choking from joycons stuck in their gills. Giant landmasses would collide with the tectonic plates, ripping apart continents in violent switchquakes.

We thought it would end there.

With smaller revisions, they were now even more lethal. The very air was filled with toxic switch particles. They entered your bloodstream, they clogged up your arteries and ruptured the mitocondria of cells.
A few chosen people were allowed to board spaceships to get away from the barren wastelands that remained. But even the cold vacuum of space could not save them.
Every single cell, every grain of sand, every single flower or blade of grass was now gone, turned into a rectangular piece of gaming hardware with it's own screen, attachable controllers and middling battery life.
The planet's increased density meant that even the moon could do nothing but get drawn closer and finally collide with the former planet. The growth continued. Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and everything else was absorbed.

At the center of our solar system,
What used to be the source of all life,
had been twisted and turned into a grotesque yellow pentagram by gravitational forces, with two bulging black orbs, as if it was the face of the devil, gleefully looking on the destruction of the galaxy.
The Universe did not go out with a bang, or a whimper.
The last thing anyone would ever see or hear, was

"Click!"

This was amazing, especially the ending. Thank you.
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,476
It doesn't seem very high for low capacity cards. Apparently the packaged manufacturing and licensing and shipping costs for an 8GB card are the same as for a standard BR disc, even if the actual card manufacturing step itself is more expensive. Essentially when bundling that all together Nintendo subsidised the actual cost of the cards themselves.
I forgot about that. Makes sense shipping would help too since you should be able to ship more units per crate.

That issue is pretty overblown in some circles.
As others have corrected me, I think that has resulted in some particularly large games not getting Switch versions altogether rather than some limited runs or digital only releases...unless you know something. ;p

Going by Nintendo’s financials, it seems they have a larger physical to digital ratio when compared to their competitors. Whether this applies to 3rd parties on Switch I think has just been assumed at this point. But is this data you actually provide in your reports? Or do you just give total numbers? Is any of that public or just what a developer chooses to share?

Lastly, thank you for always humoring us. I don’t say it enough.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,916
I found this really interesting. Going by this site you get the impression switch has been severely lacking in quantity of releases, but this graph launch aligned tells a massively differently story.
Nintendo really did a great job with their APIs and developer support this go around. It'll be interesting to see this graph updated as the years go on, but it's a hell of a feat doing this even at this stage. Developers must be very happy with how easy they've made the process.

It's a far cry from the horror stories we heard from devs during the Wii U days.
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,476
What data are you referring to?
Physical vs digital per title per platform. I assumed it was included, but you mentioned earlier that you don’t release a breakdown by retailer (unless I misunderstood) so I started questioning just how detailed it gets. Seems silly not to include but what do I know.

Basically, given game X sells the same amount of units on PS4/XB1 vs Switch. Is there any trend showing that Switch pushes more physical units? I’ve assumed this to be true, but I don’t recall if that’s ever been confirmed.

I feel like my question gets dumber the more I write.

Edit:
Lol. No wonder I feel dumb. Of course you provide this split since there’s a separate physical and digital report.
 
Last edited:

MatPiscatella

The NPD Group - Video Game Industry Analyst
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
2,028
Carlsbad, CA
Sharing publishers get to see both physical and digital breakdowns of whatever categories they share. Physical only subscribers do not see any digital info at all.

But digital coverage currently only includes PlayStation, Xbox and Steam platforms.