The NPD Group has released its April sales report for the US games industry, and the numbers for retail are not pretty. Total video game sales fell off a cliff, dropping 32 percent to $630.4 million. Software sales alone really nosedived by 42 percent, totaling $307.2 million (including PC retail titles), while hardware fell 32 percent to $189.7 million.
Forza Horizon 5 managed to set a new Forza franchise record when it comes to launch month sales, according to the latest NPD report. Shin Megami Tensei V also set a new dollar sales record for the franchise.
Damn the pokemon power. Still going so strong! Crazy stuff. Only Cod and battlefield could beat him. Unbelievable. Crazy success of shin megami tensei! Cod still the king. Like or not.
Forza Horizon 5 is a beast, just a phenomenal game from top to bottom. The fact that its available on Gamepass yet still near the top with games like COD, Battlefield & Pokemon which everyone who wanted to play those other games had no choice but to buy them. In other words even with over 10mil playing FH5 via Gamepass it still sold enough to be near the top with industry heavy hitters...that says alot about the greatness that Playground delivered, its the best racer there is imo.
It has potential but it’s multiplayer is broken. I’ve honestly have never been so disappointed in a Forza game.
The Pokemon sales do not include downloads, which is estimated on other consoles to be a majority of sales.
Forza, 4th best selling game behind those big names!
Key word 'Selling'. That is big since its included with GP...Cant keep and excellent game down.
CoD always wins, I my self find the series fun, just let down by Zombies this year. Hopefully they can make up for it with additional content during the seasons.
Call of Duty "will" always win. I don't get all the hate it gets from people then day one the same people purchase it and on Xbox there is no other franchise to compare to Call of Duty.
My favorite part of the call of duty is driving around wherever I want in a mclaren with friends…
Kinda feel bad for Forza. It actually deserved to be 1 or 2. But launching with Battlefield, CoD and Pokémon is like asking to come last unfortunately
But I was told Game Pass killed sales? That was the narrative in the UK article about Forza's initial sale numbers.
Without gamepass it could have beaten cod and battlefield.
Even though I have Gamepass for another 2 months. I bought Forza horizon 5 as its class.and deserves all the sales it gets.
Stuff like Halo and Gears am glad there on GP as I didn't have to waste me money on them.
Games like forza shouldn't be on gp day one. This just shows that. Much less halo or forza and gears, but ori and other low profile games could.
@ocelo
"Without gamepass it could have beaten cod and battlefield."
please Bro what are you smoking are where do the rest of us get it? ..... Thanks for the laugh.
I think some of you are missing the point. Sure its nice that Forza sold alot even though it's on Gamepass but ANYTHING thats part of a subscription does NOT NEED to sell well individually/physically, no it needs to drive up subs and keep the subscribers happy longterm= thats the whole point. From Playgrounds point of view, they are 1st party so they got paid either way, from Microsoft point of view they'll take your money but they would rather you were a new longterm subscriber. Game sales no longer are just about traditional sales methods for Microsoft. As stated before gamepass increases spending within the Xbox ecosystem with gamepass subscribers playing 40% more & spending 20% more compared to people who just a buy their games.
https://www.google.com/amp/...
Exactly. Thats why it's not on 1, 2 or 3... And that those 10 millions that play the game didn't buy it. That's one of the problems. No matter how good it's just a rent...
Hahaha,
Ori is hardly a low profile game. go check Metacritic. Not to mention IMO(as well as judging from MC score) it beats the pants off of most higher budget games. 2 mill sold for WotW, and countless GotY nominations and wins.
What makes it low profile?
Software730. Forza is a system seller like halo and gears. Gamers buy the console to play it. Ori, age of empires flight simulator and others aren't. They are niche games. Gamers don't buy consoles to play those.
Nope, you said "Low profile games". That is a big difference from a system seller..it seems more like an attempt to downplay something.
Metroid is not really a system seller. but not low profile at all.
Returnal is not a system seller. But not low profile.
Your choice of wordplay was obvious and suspect.
2 mill sold is better that some "High Profile" games, and hardly something to make it seem needed to be diminished.
I'm pointing out that ilu used the wrong game to make a not good point to begin with.
it definitely hurts sales, but MS is clearly ok with that tradeoff. I picked it up on Steam and it was well worth the price of purchase.
I mean this isn't really a good indicator, or a bad one for that matter. Coming in 4th for a debut game normally is a bad look, but considering the 3 games that it launched against, it's understandable. Without a number we won't know for sure.
I guess the argument that Xbox Game Pass keeps Gamers from buying video games was wrong. Forza Horizon 5 Is a very good game. It definitely deserves all the praise it is getting. Congrats to Playground Games.
Not really. For that to be true it would have to be much higher in the charts. This was the first must have since the launch of the console and its also on last gen consoles and pc. Don't know anyone that says it's great to be 4... There talks about 10 millions played the game... If only half of those or even less got the game.... Amazing game, scores. Did they get the game? It's easy to see the majority didn't. Thats GP for you.
Kind Sir please go find someone else to debate with. Im a grown man with kids, Im not on vdieo game websites to debate my opinions, or yours. HAVE A WONDERFUL REST OF YOUR DAY.
Lol, it was only outsold by COD, BF, and Pokemon.
I'm sure there are better articles where you can preach about the evils of GP.
This one ain't it.
@OG_TK_Cole
"I guess the argument that Xbox Game Pass keeps Gamers from buying video games was wrong"
I not sure many will agree with the comment. You got another Xbox 1st party release that's sold really well in say they last 5yrs or since Game Pass released? Both Sony and Nintendo have no trouble selling there 1st party games but Game Pass is a thing because Microsoft can't sell there's.
It certainly proves that it doesn't stop people buying Forza Horizon. Whether that means that it disproves the idea that games in general won't sell well is another matter entirely.
Epic Games Store is contributing to PC digital sales decline across all platforms (including Steam), according to NPD Analyst Mat Piscatella.
its a little ridiculous to say out loud but i do feel the same way lol
I used to buy games on Steam all the time. Got a real good gaming PC too, but once Epic started buying off a bunch of games i wanted to play (Control, Heavy Rain, Shenmue, etc) i started to get really annoyed and started playing console more, and i definitely havent bought as much as i used to on PC. Got Control for PS4 but it was unplayable on there... torrented it, but that has the same issues as buying on EGS in the sense that you dont get all the Steam features. Never actually finished it even though i love Remedy
Its just annoying lol i do hope EGS dies soon
EGS won't be dying soon. Youl actually switch platform simply because of a store? Steam are ripping of devs epic are not. Its selfish to boycott as the devs will get a higher share of your purchase to go towards other projects
The levels of pettiness that comes with PC gaming shows no ends. They will moan about G2A putting developers out of pocket with unofficial licences but moan when Epic gives more cash to the developers than what their rival Steam will... They then throw their toys out of their pram all because they will have to have two launchers, with two friends lists and have games on separate launchers... ON THE SAME PC! End of the world stuff apparently.
It's funny because PC gamers go on like consoles are for kids but most of the hardcore PC gamers across like man babies.
If Steam is ripping off devs then so is Sony, MS, and Nintendo. They all charge the 30%.
Very few of Epics paid exclusive 3rd party games have had sale information released, why? Probably because they didn't do well, chances are they could have made more on Steam. They're also taking the same % that other companies take, it was just a PR move.
KyRo
People don't like the Epic Store because it's bare bones and they're paying developers to keep there games off the competitions launchers, they're the only ones doing this and no one has an issue with Origin, Uplay or other launchers in general. How you turned that key point into a rant about the PC user base i don't know, this is not good for the community because Valve or EA ect could easily do the same thing and ruin any competition from smaller companies.
@Casepb
Not applicable. Console Publishers have to support their platform so a higher cost of entry (30%) is not illogical, whereas Steam is just a digital store available for free to anyone that wants to download it and start spending money. Also, Valve doesn't have to develop and support any hardware platforms and the risk that comes with it, they only need to worry about their digital store.
Edit @axecution, agreed most people don't have a clue what their talking about, I don't buy games off epic by princable, why I stopped aying unreal tournament from their launch, consoles charge just as much as steam so how is steam the bad guy? I mean if steam was so bad u still wouldn't get devs making games in UE4 and publishing solely on steam still, steam offers developers Far more utility to the store page than epic could ever dream of, steam supports mods (steam workshop) what other launcher had any features like steam? None at all. Steam had better services better user interface better social abilities better dev tools better network servers Al over the world all these thing cost money if epic asked for 30% that would be a rip off because they don't offer nothing compared to steam
No console gamer can even critise steam cos the PlayStation store and xbox store and rip off £70-80 for a standard game no thanks.
Disagree all you like but no store offers anything close to what steam offers, am not even a steam fan boy I use every launcher, but I didn't buy games for Windows Live on princable (am not paying to play online) and I won't buy off epic because they don't actually make games they just made a shitty launcher and bought exclusives and expect me to just run to them to buy games. PC gaming had remained open because of the community stance. If consoles players actually stood up and didn't sub, playstation now and xbox live wouldn't be a thing but like everything on consoles people buy what they told like sheep, so slate anyone who critises steam man babies when in fact most people r shitty consumers and buy what they told
Steam is charging for their market share and far superior, feature rich browser. Epic is just throwing around unreal 4 money and it will eventually run out.
I predict that the epic store will make more changes in the future.
so it's not that big of a deal to me. it being said, it's their platform to support.
everyone spends their money how they want to.
Epic also recycles some of their profits into dev grants. creating more new projects that are given chances to be successful. so it's not that bad for pc gaming actually.
@ FishTank
Sony has the largest stake in the company. Microsoft has a couple games.
NetherRealm's entire list of games also consists of Epic partnerships.
so long as these top performing companies make yearly partnerships, Epic will continue to expand.
@DevilOgreFIsh
Tripe. Epic is 48% owned by Tencent, the rest (controlling shares) owned by Tim Sweeney.
Yeah lets all hope that there’s less competition. cos that works in everyone’s best interest.
/s
Sounds really petty to hold a grudge against a digital retailer. Who really doesnt shop around to find what they are looking for? Some stores get the lock on things but that doesnt keep me from buying.
I think that at least for me personally, there are a few things that kinda negatively impacted the PC gaming marketplace.
1) Epic Game's aggressive timed-exclusive deals. Not much needs to be said as this has been talked to death already, but Epic taking all these 3rd-party games as a timed exclusive really hurt the chances of picking some of the games up. I was really interested in a few games, but unfortunately took the Epic year exclusive route and I lost interest in it either because I didn't care for it anymore or that the Epic deal rubbed me the wrong way.
2) Alot of ports released on PC this year ran like dogsh*t, some that come to mind immediately are Red Dead Redemption 2 and Monster Hunter World Iceborne. These games had easily 8+ months to be worked on for PC to make sure it runs smoothly. When they released, it was downright unplayable and broken for majority of people. There is absolute no excuse for that.
3) Publishers getting greedy and making poor decisions. Bethesda is a huge offender here, as several of their games released in 2019 had microtransactions in a single-player game such as RAGE 2 and Wolfenstein Youngblood. Not to mention they are charging a $100 year 1 pass for Fallout 76. It's is utterly stupid and that needs to go away. Other offenders include the Epic Games Store timed exclusivity (which I already mentioned).
4) Delays. Some games were delayed from 2019 to 2020 but that is to be expected.
I'm certainly not speaking for everyone here, only for myself. Some of these things did impact my spending on PC and I actually decided to go back to some older games instead. I'm hoping 2020 will be a better year.
I would say #2 on your list is because of Denuvo. RDR2 probably has so much going on just to protect it from being cracked that it hurts performance. It's one of the reasons I buy most games now on console. I used to buy so many games on Steam before all this denuvo mess. For me it started with Batman Arkham Knight.
I know it isn't just Denuvo. It is also just lazy ports.
Very good post and reflects my views too. I'd add Blizzard's fall from grace to the list though. Granted that started a lot longer but it was painfully obvious throughout most of 2019.
Omg yes, how'd I completely forget that I dunno. They're just as bad as some other publishers. I think the reason why I forgot was because I never buy anything from Blizzard.
I think this is why i preferred the late 90's and early 2000's of PC gaming, we had Game Spy and Wireplay, both with simple interfaces that allowed you to chat in lobbies and go in servers of games you own easily, and no restrictions with who you can play with.
That and games that had multiplayer would have their own MP interface, like Worms 2 had a lobby where you could create your own room & game and stuff.
Now we are starting to have different places to buy our stuff meaning multiple services running at the same time. I wonder if that means it introduces cross play issues?
Well, it sure helped me save a couple of bucks as I didn't bought any of the games that they got the exclusive rights to.
December 2019 NPD video game report reveals that the industry is still waiting on the transition to the next generation of consoles.
How is it that Matio Kart8 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are on the list for XBox One best selling games for Decenber 2019?
Hardware and software sales dropped for April. Are we ready for next gen consoles?
Call of Duty still ranks high in the top 10
I like to think it's because of all the corporate shenanigans going on in the industry right now and this is somehow going to teach them the error of their ways, but it's probably just the absolutely terrible economy in general.
Dismal numbers.
Time for a new generation, the hype has left this one.
It's the diablo 3 effect! People are saving pennies for D3 in less than a week!
-caddad