November 2016 NPD: PS4 on Top as Call of Duty Targets Number One

Well thats a depressing top 10

Just always seems to be the same games every month, not saying their bad games, just be nice to see different games sometimes

@kyleforrester87 you should in a sense - 24 percent drop is a big deal, and the AAA execs will do just about anything to turn that around, including Konami-style course changes. With Super Mario on the iPad now and Konami very publicly switching to mobile, that is going to be on every exec's mind when the traditional industry is 24 percent down.

Mind you, PSVR was always going to be a failed gimmick, we knew that. And with so many other games delayed or flopped, this may not be a surprising result. And while there have been a lot of great new PS4 games, I think the remaster trend has to slow down as it makes people feel like there isn't anything new. Yearly franchises are a tired concept, too.

As long as they keep making game's i'll keep buying em, I don't care how many other's do. This come's as no suprise though, gaming feel's like it's been going downhill a while now. Maybe the big corp's will bugger off one day and leave the making of the game's to the people that want to make game's and not money. There might be a silver lining in this for the future generation's of gaming.

The mobile platform is huge for gaming. Sony dabbles in it with mobile games bought on psn store, but shoots itself in the foot when charging so much more then on mobile devices. I just hope they don't go into the buy (in game) to win mode on console games.

I am not concerned about a drop in sales figures. Hardware could be down but as 50m+ have a PS4, Probably 25-30m have an XB1 and the increase in PC gaming (which isn't taken into hardware sales) could attribute to the decline in console hardware. From my perspective, its been a very expensive year for Hardware - 4k HDR TV, PS4 Pro and an XB1s - and could have been worse had I opted for a VR option too. I wonder how many others bought (or are planning to buy) a new TV to take full advantage of HDR and/or increased resolution? These aren't cheap and buying hardware often uses the available cash for Software - an increase in TV purchases may have had a knock on for gaming sales. I know I couldn't buy as many of the games this year as I did last year.

This year has been 'disappointing' for games overall - compared to last year at least. i know we had some 'good/big' releases - Uncharted 4 for example. However most releases have disappointed in someway - Doom with its MP, CoD with its change of Setting, the Division for example - some were disappointed that BF1 took a lot of elements from SW:BF and the campaign - well the latter half wasn't great (so I hear). We also had a few sequels that weren't really wanted - Dishonoured, Watchdogs - not saying these are bad or good but they weren't exactly popular games. We also had 3 FPS games release in the space of a few weeks. We have also had a lot remasters, remakes etc too rather than 'new' games/franchises. I am not saying this year has been 'bad' but just not as exciting as previous years. I know next year is already looking busier for me with Horizon, Mass Effect, RDR2 (possibly), RE7, SW:BF with a campaign, probably a new AC too. I know I may not like Japanese games myself but E3 and PSX both showed a lot of games and many 'new' games too - I know Spider-Man isn't 'new' but it is 'new' for Insomniac. I do feel we have had a mid-term lull but there has been some 'good' if not always excellent games.

Political situations may also effect sales. In the US, Trump became President which may affect some peoples optimism and willingness to spend. In the UK we have Brexit hanging over our heads.

Point I am making is that a number of factors could have contributed to the 'lower' figures for November this year. The XB1s obviously helped MS when that released a few months ago - maybe the people that had planned to buy in November bought early because of release dates and specific bundles becoming available?

@get2sammyb i am actual surprised you haven't covered Treyarch live stream from yesterday, thay've added a new feature called Newton's Cookbook to Zombies. As well Treyarch will be supporting Black Ops 3 for another year in 2017, as well as Jason Blundell reading an official statement when asked about Zombie's, "i am afraid i cannot say anything right now". This is news because this is the first time a COD studio has supported there game for another year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbXgCF5PnDE

@get2sammyb Do you guys know how the sales are of the Last Guardian yet? I was hoping to pick it up here soon. Was really hoping that ICO would be added to the retail scene again for PS4.

Quite sad to see Watch Dogs 2 so low.

I don't see this as a downwards trend, there are so many more factors to consider that simply didn't exist a few years ago. Mobile gaming will attract casuals away from traditional games for a start and then you have the games themselves such as GTA and Destiny which are keeping gamers occupied for much longer than what would have been the normal with regular updates. Then of course you have the fact that this year's holiday releases simply aren't as big as those last year when we had the likes of Fallout 4, MGSV and Battlefront, as opposed to this year's Skyrim (remaster), Watchdogs 2 (disappointing original game) and the excellent FFXV which itself suffered due to XIII doing so much damage to its reputation. I'd love to say that people are tired of playing the same rehashed games every year but looking at the charts that clearly isn't the case 😃.

Finally the last major factor which @BAMozzy touched upon, which is with so many hardware upgrades between the 2 consoles and the clamour for 4K HDR screens, I suspect many simply haven't got the money to buy any more games. I know I fall into this category having just bought the PRO and a new TV, there are a few games I want but I'm not in a position to buy any more.

@Mega-Gazz On the button. But there are some great companies us gamers need to really get behind who understand us better.

With this chart when Cod MW2 released it was a huge deal. News coverage in mainstream media, peoples dads prestiging levels, mums crying over the airport scenes. Now its like "here's another call of duty" and everyone bar @BAMozzy and @Tasuki goes yeah great you enjoy that then I'm gonna carry on with other stuff. The annual cycles are a detriment to the industry.

@themcnoisy Annual cycles are NOT detrimental to the industry. Often its these games that account for the majority of sales. The top 2 biggest selling games of 2016 are CoD: IW and Fifa17. I don't play Fifa myself but I wouldn't say CoD hasn't 'evolved' or 'changed' with each of the 3 developers trying to take the series forward - which may well be upsetting those that wanted it to return to the last gen style.

I believe its upto other developers to catch up and/or offer something that can compete and whilst sales are as high, then there is no reason to abandon these franchises. If gamers are 'bored' or want something different, there is choice out there.

From my perspective, these games are 'relatively' safe bets. They are the 'fish and chips' of the gaming industry. Occasionally you get to eat at a fancy restaurant, but most of the others are McDonalds. Its the same with Movies, Music and TV shows/series. These are the gaming equivalent of the Summer Blockblusters that movie publishers release yearly, that make millions in the Box Office but rarely get recognised at the Oscars which often gives the highest award to a movie that rarely made an impact on the top 10 in sales.

It would be great to think that the money these Publishers make on the 'big sellers' is reinvested into gaming, enabling them to take chances on 'new' projects, new IP's etc. I know though that if I was a major publisher, and seeing profits drop a bit year on year, I certainly wouldn't drop a franchise that continuously sells more than any other game in its genre - Why drop something that almost certainly guarantees 20m+ in sales over the year or drop it and make a game that may sell 4-5m?

Like I said though, these are (at least to me) the games that are propping up the industry and its up to developers to create an alternative/replacement or make something more 'unique' that could also be a much bigger risk financially.

CoD:MW2 was big news because it was controversial. At the time, the portrayal of that airport scene was big news in the same way Mortal Kombat was in the 90's. MKX launched with far more graphic portrayal of violence yet barely a ripple in the media. Its no different from other media either as Movies, Music and Books have had controversial content that by modern day standards make you wonder what the fuss was.

I wouldn't say there's anything to worry about, really. This year has just been kind of meh when compared to last year. Most of the big blockbusters came out in the beginning of the year/last year and are keeping people too busy to keep buying rehashes and annual sequels.

Pokemon printing that money!

A 24% drop should be massively concerning especially since there were some big games this holiday and most of them are great games. It also has to be concerning for Sony that the Pro and the VR clearly aren't taking off at the rate the PS4 did when it initially launched. From the otherside, the Xbox One is basically being given away for free by MS but that hasn't helped the industry as a whole nor has MS really seen much benefit in the sense that despite getting more hardware out there, Halo and Gears have seen their lowest adoption rates of all-time and of recent entries in all its big franchises only Forza Horizon 3 showed an uptick. If December is just as disappointing you have to wonder where things go from here. I understand the frustration some people have had with what some companies have done this gen, I share some of those frustrations, but it's very discouraging that when they do listen and do improve their products and give us legit great games like Watch Dogs 2 and Titanfall 2 they go completely ignored.

Just seem's to me that people are sick of riding that hype train and are fed up being forced to to get off two stop's before the final destination and then being forced to pay up more money to complete their journey. I can't blame them personaly, this has been an average year at best.

I am not worried be because these type of things are cyclical. Mobile and PC gaming are eating into consoles but sales are still good of hardware for this generation. There is still money to be made and therefore people will try and make money. I think, though, that we are seeing stagnation in the AAA industry and this is reflected in sales. Money is tight and people get picker when they are uncertain economically. The latter half of this year largely just had sequels and franchise releases not to mention remasters. These games sold big but they didn't sell as big as publishers wanted. Hype is outpacing delivery.

I think we will see diversification of publishers into mobile games and other areas that offer steady revenue but I hope that this will relieve pressure and allow innovation. Amazing AAA games can be made, we've had a few this year. It is just hard to farm them out annually.

Folks are blaming mobile gaming for the wrong reasons. Super Mario Run isn't taking sales away from PS4 and XBO games. Becoming graphic hogs with 40+ GB file sizes, games with little to no evolution, and splitting the user base with mid-gen consoles...that's what is killing their industry.

It's also why Nintendo does things differently and stay in their bubble. The writing is on the wall, but everyone is like "ooh Purdy expensive graphics!"

The next 6 months will be interesting. With the switch coming out in march that will give a good indication if we need to start evaluating a new console in 2018.

Just recently traded in my vanilla PS4 for the Pro version, which I'm very happy with. This drop is a bit worrying, but I hope to get a good few years of gaming out the PS4Pro, before contemplating another PS console. Same with the Scorpio, which I plan to buy.