Decline PS4 wins the console war against XboxONE, yet it is a hollow victory as Consolesdämmerung is upon us

[BlackAdderBG]

You are reading troll.

 

[J_C]

What the fuck am I reading. PC gamers are jealous of consoles and their 60FPS.

Where have you read this?

 

[Makabb]

Star Wars PS4

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-07-22-hows-xbox-doing

How's Xbox doing?
Well. Well enough?

Microsoft reported its results for the fourth quarter of its 2015 financial year, and while the company made a gargantuan loss, Xbox and the division it sits in made a tidy profit.

It's a crucial time for Xbox as Windows 10 nears launch and Christmas approaches.

Microsoft generated $22.2bn in revenue for the quarter ended 30th June 2015, but it made a loss of $2.1bn because of the eye-watering $7.5bn charge related to its £4.6bn purchase of the Nokia phone business, its recently-announced restructuring drive, which costs $780m, and a $160m charge related to its restructuring plan. That's a lot of costly restructuring.

Earlier this month Microsoft announced plans to cut 7800 jobs over the next several months as part of an overhaul of its phone business. Microsoft's Windows Phone has struggled to compete with Apple and Android devices in the smartphone space, and its September 2013 purchase of Nokia's mobile phone business hasn't had the desired effect.

Xbox, though, appears to be doing well enough to keep the bailiffs from the door. Total Xbox revenue grew 27 per cent based on "strong" growth in consoles, Xbox Live transactions and first party games, Microsoft said.

Xbox Platform revenue increased 10 per cent to $86m, driven by higher volumes of consoles sold, but offset in part by lower prices of Xbox Ones sold. That'll be all those price cuts.

Microsoft said it sold 1.4m consoles in the fourth quarter, compared to 1.1m consoles during the prior year, but it failed to specify how many were for Xbox One and how many were for Xbox 360. Most will be for Xbox One though, given Xbox 360's veteran status.

Xbox financials are included in Computing and Gaming Hardware, as Microsoft calls it, which saw revenue increase $591m or 44 per cent. But this includes Surface, which is doing wonderfully well, with revenue growth of 117 per cent to $888m. That's Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 launching.

Computing and Gaming Hardware is a part of Microsoft's Devices and Consumer division, and there's a "D&C Other" part of that (still with us?) that saw revenue increase $538m or 31 per cent, mainly due to higher revenue from Xbox Live transactions, search advertising, first-party video games, including Minecraft, and Office 365 Consumer.

Breaking it down, Xbox Live transactions revenue increased $205m or 58 per cent, reflecting "increased users and revenue per user". Xbox Live users grew 22 per cent in the quarter, logging nearly 3.5bn hours of gameplay.

First-party video games revenue increased $63m or 62 per cent, most of which is down to Minecraft, which Microsoft bought in November 2014.

The lines on the chart are going up, then, but is Xbox doing well enough for Microsoft? Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Xbox "had an incredible Q4".

The revenue growth of 27 per cent, coupled with "the excitement we generated at E3 with Xbox exclusive gaming content and backwards compatibility demonstrates the building momentum that exists within the Xbox ecosystem", Nadella added, so he sounds happy ahead of the launch of new operating system Windows 10.

"Gaming is an important scenario for Windows 10, and our success with Xbox this quarter gives us a strong starting position heading into launch," he added.

"Our growing fan base is excited for the best games lineup in our history. All of this comes together with Windows 10, when fans can connect with each other, stream all of their Xbox One games to Windows 10, and experience the best virtual reality platform given our partnership with Oculus Rift and Valve."

Nadella added he expects Xbox to continue to grow "both fans and profitability" as it heads into the crucial Christmas period and the launch of Xbox One exclusive Halo 5.

Of course, despite Xbox One's gains, it still lags behind Sony's PlayStation 4 in the console war. PS4 has shifted 22.3m units as of 31st March 2015. Microsoft has yet to report an updated sales number for Xbox One.

 

[Konjad]

 

[Konjad]

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-07-30-playstation-4s-stunning-sales-success-continues

PlayStation 4's stunning sales success continues
25.3m units sold.

PlayStation 4 continues to make huge amounts of money for Sony.

Kaz Hirai, god of consoles.

Game & Network Services, the part of Sony that includes PlayStation, saw sales increase 12.1 per cent year-on-year to $2.365bn for the first quarter of its financial year. That's the three month period ending 30th June 2015.

Sony said this "significant" increase was due to increases in PlayStation 4 software sales and PS4 peripheral device unit sales, as well as foreign exchange rates landing in favour of the Japanese company.

Operating income increased to $160m, which Sony said was due mainly to PS4 hardware cost reductions as well as the increases in software sales and peripheral sales.

Sony shifted 3m PS4s during the quarter - that's up from 2.7m in the same quarter last year. For context, that's more than double the number of Xbox Ones and Xbox 360s combined that shipped in the equivalent quarter for Microsoft (1.4m).

PS4 is now up to 25.3m sales worldwide since launch - a stunning result for a console still not two years old.

Sony expects to sell half a million more PS4s this financial year than it predicted: 16.5m rather than 16m. Sony sold 14.8m PS4s during the 2014 financial year, so sales of the console are growing.

If Sony's projections are correct, PS4 will hit 38.8m units sold by 31st March 2016.

Sony failed to mention Vita or PlayStation 3 sales for the quarter, suggesting they're both negligible.

As for Sony as a whole, sales were flat due to decreases in smartphone sales and mid-range LCD television sales. But operating income increased to $794m due to boosts in Sony's music division.

 

[A horse of course]

PS4 is definitely a better machine, with vastly superior UI and a better user experience (taking and sharing screenshots on The One[tm] is cancer), but I still preferred Microsoft's exclusives, like Dead Rising 3 and Halo HD. Luckily it seems Microsoft exclusives are usually available for the PC after a certain period of time, so PS4 will be the best choice in the long run. I'm waiting for more HD remakes of PS3 stuff I missed.

 

[flyingjohn]

Are there any good exclusives games for the ps4 except Bloodborne ? Its almost gonna be 3 years and all i am seeing from these consoles are remastered version of old games and multi platform games ,seems like a giant waste of money.

 

[Animal]

Consoles are:

Spoiler

 

[A horse of course]

Are there any good exclusives games for the ps4 except Bloodborne ? Its almost gonna be 3 years and all i am seeing from these consoles are remastered version of old games and multi platform games ,seems like a giant waste of money.

I haven't played Infamous Second Son, so I dunno about that. Shadowfall was utter trash. Last of Us is alright but overrated as shit. The Order 1886 is worse than cancer. Uh...are there any more exclusives that aren't basically indie crap? The only other stuff I care about are the God of War/Infamous HD remasters even though I know they probably suck.

 

[Talby]

Bloodborne is the only worthwhile console exclusive of this generation so far. Persona 5 is also coming out later this year for PS3/4.

Second Son is a pretty mediocre open world game unfortunately. The powers aren't much fun and the story is dull, although some of the characters are pretty good. The open world activities are of the "go to this location and press a button/fight some dudes" variety. Saints Row IV is better.

 

[DeepOcean]

Fuck... Microsoft must do something fast or the same bullshit of the PS 2 era will happen again and there will be a ton of exclusive games to consoles that will never be ported for PC. While Microsoft and Sony were fighting each other and there was division on the consoles, we got some ports. I won't miss any of the smash the buttons AAA games out there, Batman, Ass Creed series, the Witcha and all games with shitty gameplay for people who don't like games can all go to console land and I won't miss them but I fear the PC can lose some quite nice games, so far, most exclusives are titles where Sony is directly involved but if we lose a Dishonored 2 or other titles for PS 4...

 

[flyingjohn]

Fuck... Microsoft must do something fast or the same bullshit of the PS 2 era will happen again and there will be a ton of exclusive games to consoles that will never be ported for PC. While Microsoft and Sony were fighting each other and there was division on the consoles, we got some ports. I won't miss any of the smash the buttons AAA games out there, Batman, Ass Creed series, the Witcha and all games with shitty gameplay for people who don't like games can all go to console land and I won't miss them but I fear the PC can lose some quite nice games, so far, most exclusives are titles where Sony is directly involved but if we lose a Dishonored 2 or other titles for PS 4...

The only thing pc looses are the Japanese rpg games,no sane western dev is not going multi platform.Its a recipe for instant bankruptcy.

 

[Ebonsword]

In the past, I have happily purchased a console just because it had one game that I really wanted.

I currently own a Gamecube, a Dreamcast, a PS2, a PS3, two Xboxes (for system link co-op!), and an Xbox 360 - but no PS4 or Xbox One because neither system seems to have even a single title that really interests me.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-07-30-playstation-4s-stunning-sales-success-continues

They're not taking a loss on each unit sold this time around?

 

[Nekronaut]

Its because they can use AMDs mass produced hardware. PS2 and 3 had the IBM Cell Prozessors and some Nvidia GPU that were and still are extremely expensive, but AMD can crank out those APUs on the cheap

 

[BlackAdderBG]

They are not profiting from hardware sales for sure.You need to put assembly,packaging and transport into the cost not only each component's price.

 

[Infinitron]

In case it wasn't obvious who won: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...lusivity-call-of-duty-switches-to-playstation

After five years of Xbox exclusivity, Call of Duty switches to PlayStation
Advanced Warfare Reckoning DLC signals end of an era.

It is the end of an era: on 3rd September, five years of Xbox timed exclusivity for Call of Duty comes to an end.

In 2010 Microsoft and Activision signed a multi-year agreement to bring Call of Duty game add-ons and map packs first to Xbox Live.

The deal meant all add-ons and map packs for Call of Duty: Black Ops and future Call of Duty games would release first on Xbox, but in fact it was an extension of an agreement that began with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map pack Resurgence in June 2010.

"With 25 million members, Xbox Live is the industry's premier online gaming service that establishes the best in cooperative and multiplayer online play for blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty," said Marc Whitten, Microsoft's corporate vice president of Xbox Live, at the time.

"With the release of game add ons and map packs coming first to Xbox 360, Xbox Live is the place to play Call of Duty for years to come."

Microsoft's timed exclusivity for Call of Duty DLC on Xbox 360 was one of the defining features of the last generation of consoles, and secured Microsoft's console as "the Call of Duty player" for many shooter fans for the release of Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2.

While the DLC deal extended through the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013, then Advanced Warfare in 2014, Sony's huge sales success fuelled the company's successful nab of exclusivity for the most popular shooter series on console from the release of Black Ops 3 onwards.

It emerged at E3 that Activision had signed a deal with Sony for 30 days of PlayStation platform timed exclusivity for Black Ops 3 DLC. The deal is such that the multiplayer beta for the game launches on PlayStation 4 before any other platform. On stage, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House proclaimed PlayStation "the new home of Call of Duty".

And with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's Reckoning DLC pack - the fourth and final DLC pack for the game - coming to PlayStation and PC on 3rd September, Xbox's timed-exclusivity comes to an end.

"The partnership with Sony was the right decision at this time," Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg told Gamespot at E3.

"They've been a great partner on Destiny, and they have a ton of momentum with the PS4 and really got behind this thing. They wanted to see that deal on their platform. We're going to make it work."

At E3 Eurogamer asked Microsoft exec Kudo Tsunoda for his company's view on the shift:

"It doesn't change anything," Tsunoda said. "Call of Duty is still coming out on Xbox One this year."

 

[Jaedar]

Fighting over temporary DLC exclusivity. Pathetic.

 

[Talby]

When XBox has timed exclusives: XBox is best bcuz exclusive maps.

When PlayStation has timed exclusives: Who cares about exclusive maps, it changes nothing.

Good to see console executives are using the same arguments their customers do in the fanboy wars.

 

[deuxhero]

http://m.kmart.com/sony-playstation...130502xViglink&aff=Y&PID=6149513&AID=11042397
http://m.kmart.com/nintendo-new-3ds-xl-black/p-018W008147350001P

K-mart is listing PS4 for 200 USD and N3DSXl for 100 USD. Not actually selling it, but you can try your luck with price matching retailers. I'm going to try for a PS4 tomorrow (even though I'm not sure what I could play on it beyond Bloodborne).

edit: Tried and failed. Not because they refused to price match it mind you, but because none of the stores I visited actually had a PS4 in-stock that wasn't bundled.

 

[Astral Rag]

Apparently Risen 3 has been Enhanced™ for the PS console:
http://www.destructoid.com/review-risen-3-titan-lords-enhanced-edition-306876.phtml

 

[Astral Rag]

What porn site statistics can tell us about the worldwide console wars
YouPorn report shows Microsoft relatively strong in the Americas, Nintendo in Asia.

by Kyle Orland - Sep 11, 2015 7:05pm CEST

Determining which console maker is shifting the most units on a worldwide basis isn't all that hard if you do some analysis of quarterly financial reports. But figuring out how those relative sales break down within specific countries is much more difficult.

Console makers' financial reports often don't give regional breakdowns for hardware sales; when they do, the numbers are usually grouped not by country but by regions like North America, Europe, and Asia (with Australia and/or "Rest of world" broken out separately if you're lucky). While public sales estimates from outfits like Chart-Track and Media Create can help in Japan and the UK, country-by-country console popularity can be hard to gauge for most of the world.

That's why our ears perked up this week when we got some interesting data on national game console usage. It came from a porn site, of all places: YouPorn's Gamers Statistics breakdown (link generally safe for work, but with some naughty words in images). The site delivers a host of server and search statistics derived from visitors who access it using a console's built-in Web browser.

While it's fascinating to learn that porn hunters on Nintendo systems search for "zelda" and "pokemon" much more often than others, it's the regional breakdowns that really got us interested.

First, the obvious disclaimer; YouPorn viewing statistics are not a perfect analogue for console popularity. It's possible (and maybe even likely) that the userbase for one system or another is more or less likely to use their console to surf for porn. And it says nothing about whether they're more likely to use the console for, you know, actual games.

Still, YouPorn statistics seem to bear some resemblance to overall console popularity worldwide. Overall, YouPorn's stats show 51% of visits coming from PlayStation, 39% from Xbox, and 10% from Wii systems. That's decently close to the 50%/29%/20% split for PS4/XB1/Wii U sales in our latest analysis. The Wii's poor showing makes sense when you consider that the Wii's younger demographic may be underrepresented in porn site stats (The statistics also seem to lump together legacy systems with their current generation counterparts, so visits from the limited browsers on the Xbox 360, PS3, and original Wii could throw off current generation numbers)

Even with all that said, YouPorn's country-by-country breakdowns are pretty interesting. PlayStation is the most popular porn-viewing console in the vast majority of countries that YouPorn tracks—not that surprising, given Sony's lead in the current generation console sales race. But the Xbox manages to take a majority of the YouPorn traffic in a few key console markets: the US, UK, and Mexico (plus Sudan, for some reason). According to the site's statistics, those are the first, sixth, and seventh largest markets for console porn viewing, respectively.

The Wii makes its strongest YouPorn stat showings in Asia, where owners in countries like China, Singapore, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, and Iran all generally prefer to use the Wii over other consoles to access the site. We'd wager a combination of high-end electronics import restrictions and the relatively low cost of Nintendo's systems are combining to make the Wii a more significant player in these countries than others, but it's hard to know for sure.

Even in big porn-viewing countries where the PS4 is the most popular console, the specific YouPorn traffic breakdowns show a wide variation in the degree to which the PS4 dominates. Sony shows especially strong numbers throughout continental Europe, from a 57/35 percent split over the Xbox in Germany to a whopping 74/20 percent split in Belgium. That gels with recent comments from SCEE President Jim Ryan, who told VG247 that the PS4 has at least 70 percent of the two-console market in every European country, and "frequently greater than 90 percent."

But Microsoft is much more competitive in other big countries, according to YouPorn stats. That's especially true west of the Atlantic, where it edges out the PS4 46 percent to 43 percent in the US and an impressive 56 percent to 26 percent in Mexico. Where the PS4 has an edge in major North and South American markets, it seems to generally be a small one: a 46/44 percent PS4 advantage in Canada, a 50/45 percent advantage in Brazil, and a 49/42 percent advantage in Colombia (Argentina is a massive exception, with an 85/13 percent edge for the PS4).

YouPorn also broke out its console data at the state level in the US, a statistical slicing which we almost never see in official numbers or analyst reports. Here, the Xbox is utterly dominant, winning the relative battle in 40 of 50 states. Playstation takes the edge in some of the most populous states in the country, though, including California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Florida, plus a good chunk of New England to boot.

Those also happen to be the states with some of the country's biggest urban centers (the PS4 seems to be more popular in the Washington DC-suburban states of Maryland and Virginia, as well). We'd love to see a breakdown by metropolitan area to confirm if Sony is actually relatively stronger on the more densely populated side of the urban/rural divide, but the state breakdowns certainly support that hypothesis.

As a result, if Microsoft and Sony were somehow running for president, and electoral votes were based on how many people used each company's consoles to visit YouPorn, Xbox would win the electoral college 347 to 191 (assuming DC goes to PlayStation like the surrounding states). While that particular presidential race seems somewhat unlikely to actually happen, all the PlayStation-dominant states in YouPorn's data are Democratic-leaning "blue states" or more middle-of-the-road "purple states" like New Hampshire, Virginia, and Florida.

Even if YouPorn's data isn't perfect, it provides a good reminder that worldwide sales numbers in the console wars likely obscure some deep country-to-country and state-to-state variations in popularity. Keep that in mind the next time the console makers release a new worldwide sales report or you see developers focusing on different consoles in different parts of the world.

 

[catfood]

Very interesting.

 

[Astral Rag]

and then there are Hard Core PC Gamers like us

 

[Curious_Tongue]

That doesn't apply to RPG fans.