UK & US Sales and Charts

[OCH]

2 hours ago, Nag said:

the thing that's never actually correct, like weathermen.

 

Be honest, who wouldn't want a job wherein you get paid to guess?

[DisturbedSwan]

20 hours ago, mfnick said:

Or the fact people have got enough to play on Xbox thanks to Game Pass without buying other games as well. 

 

Yeah, it would be safe to assume that a lot of folks with Xboxes who are subbed to GP don't tend to buy new releases physically.

 

We haven't got any specific figures for Game Pass in the UK unfortunately but it's sitting at 23 million subs worldwide as of 20/04/21, which is just under half the estimated number* of XBOne's sold worldwide. 

 

*-VGChartz isn't a reliable source but as Xbox doesn't give sales numbers it's all we've got.

[HandsomeDead]

I think you could be falling into that piracy fallacy there where every pirated game is a loss of a sale, where really the sale was likely to never happen anyway.  I'd say something similar exists with Gamepass.

[one-armed dwarf]

'I will wait for gamepass' is the new 'I will buy it pre-owned or on sale'

 

At least that's what I think, I don't believe the stuff about it hurting sales.

[Maryokutai]

Maybe not in that sense but I could see Gamepass de-valuating games for a lot of people in the long run. If you're getting "free" games on a monthly basis, how willing are you to spend 60€ on something new if you could just browse the GP library and find something to play for no extra cost? Of course this will have zero effect on hype/mainstream games like FIFA, COD, the next GTA and such, but if you're craving a Japanese action game with RPG elements, chances are you'd rather download Nier from GP instead of buying Scarlet Nexus. What if Xbox is moving towards a future where you only have Gamepass games, big mainstream hits, and nothing more on the platform because the "free" games overshadow the rest?

 

I mean it's hard to say, in the grand scheme of things Gamepass hasn't been around too long but I still look at the service with a certain amount of skepticism.

 

Edit: probably should have posted this in the Gamepass topic.

[one-armed dwarf]

But is that same scepticism not also warranted towards selling/trading in games? ?

 

The thing for me is i don't see how GP is 'worse' than the ways we've already used to cut costs on gaming. To me GP seems like a middle ground has been found and is maybe a better alternative in fact

[DisturbedSwan]

1 hour ago, HandsomeDead said:

I think you could be falling into that piracy fallacy there where every pirated game is a loss of a sale, where really the sale was likely to never happen anyway.  I'd say something similar exists with Gamepass.

 

I wasn't really saying anything either way, just according to the figures we've got quite a low number of Xbox owners buy new releases physically. 

 

It's quite possible, but I don't have the data to back that up. 

[Maryokutai]

25 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said:

But is that same scepticism not also warranted towards selling/trading in games? ?

 

Kind of a different scenario though. Especially as there isn't some layered class hierarchy because every game can be (re) sold, but not every game lands on Gamepass. 

 

But I think we'll have to postpone this discussion to the end of the current generation. I think that's when we'll see how much (or how little) GP will have changed the landscape.

[HandsomeDead]

I think the industry does need to reassess the value of it's games.  On one hand you have bloated budgets where they need to sell 5 million at £50+ to break even and yet also have a game with a considerably lower budget from Japan still also asking for £50+.  This is working less and less now.

 

I don't mean to devalue the creative work that goes into a Japanese RPG for example but their budgets are probably closer to a high end indie game than a AAA game and they need to adapt to that, rather than frown at services like Gamepass which put more games in more people's hands.

 

Especially when it comes to the Japanese industry who are notoriously traditional.  If Scarlett Nexus fails to find it's potential market it's solely on them.

[DisturbedSwan]

Just now, Nag said:

Last physical game I bought (I think) was Cyberpunk... look how that went.

 

I've just decided to suck it up now in regards to pricing and embrace digital, what with that and Game Pass sticking a disc in a console feels weird now.

 

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.

 

I think I'll be much the same for me when I (eventually) get my XSX.

[mfnick]

1 hour ago, Nag said:

Last physical game I bought (I think) was Cyberpunk... look how that went.

Surely that’s good you bought it physical then? Otherwise you’d be stuck with a shit game and wouldn’t be able to sell it on. Cyberpunk is a bit of a outlier since you could actually return that easily but normally you’d just be stuck with a shit game with no way of making any money back. 

[mfnick]

Like I say that’s a one off. Any other time you wouldn’t have been able to get a refund on a digital game that easily. You’re fault for leaving it so long too lol.

[Nag]

Can't do a lot with physical when your in lockdown...?‍♂️

[mfnick]

Ebay? 

[Nag]

Don't use it... or any other selling sites.

[DisturbedSwan]

Off topic but eBay is easy enough to sell on, shitter on there recently though as they’ve stopped allowing you to use PayPal and you have to use their own payment system to get paid. Which takes longer and they take way more of a cut.

 

CeX was open throughout the recent lockdown I think, I bought a game click & collect from my local and you could sell like that and get paid via BACS straight into your bank account. 

[DANGERMAN]

12 hours ago, DisturbedSwan said:

Off topic but eBay is easy enough to sell on, shitter on their recently though as they’ve stopped allowing you to use PayPal and you have to use their own payment system to get paid. Which takes longer and they take way more of a cut.

 

 

they take more of a cut, but now Paypal don't. For the most part it's better for the seller now, based on what we've seen at work, but I've definitely seen some sellers complaining it hasn't worked out as well for them (depends on the category I think)

[mmmark]

16 hours ago, DisturbedSwan said:

CeX was open throughout the recent lockdown I think

They were trading online only.

[DANGERMAN]

1 hour ago, mmmark said:

They were trading online only.

you could drop things off/pick things up, you can trade stuff in online too I think?

[DisturbedSwan]

2 hours ago, mmmark said:

They were trading online only.

 

Not sure about last year but the 2021 lockdown you could use click & collect at the door, I bought a game this way. You could also sell like this and receive the money into your account via BACS transfer but I never tried it.