January 2016 NPD: PS4 Secures First Victory of the Year with 'Impressive' Growth

The ps4 is selling great this is why the Wii u is not a good investment in gaming for fun.

What Sammy said. Plus free online, VC, Wii BC, and off TV play. Great complimentary system to ps4 for Nintendo games. Can't recommend it as your sole system though.

GTA V near the top again. Absolutely stunning. It's crazy to think the already-impressive sales will likely grow this year.

@get2sammyb Nintendo make high quality games I have a new 3ds but I feel that smash and Hyrule Warriors Legends is why I am not getting one also I only get one home console per gen.

@WebHead that is my point I pick only one home console per gen.Also the NX is putting me on the fence of a Wii u.

Wii U is an excellent investment if you are a hardcore Nintendo fan. Otherwise, I have a hard time recommending it. There are just too many third party games that don't get put out for it. If you want GTA, Assassin's Creed, Fallout, Doom, Mortal Kombat, etc, you have to look elsewhere. It's a great secondary machine but where as I could go with just a PS4 or just an X1 and get the good portion of games I want to play, I'd simply be missing way, way too much with just a Wii U. This problem has to be fixed on NX. I don't know how Nintendo plans to do that, but it has to be done.

I'm the only gamer in my family, so PS is all I need. I find Mario appalling. I hate pretty much every game but star fox, Zelda and fire emblem, from what I've seen. I'll hold my judgement until I see the nx.

@Neolit I still feel like infamous second son gets the shaft. Amazing game.

In your eyes, the highest profile games maybe both digital releases BUT in my eyes both PvZ2 and Far Cry Primal are FAR bigger and higher profile games. Its worth mentioning that these 2 are both 'indies' and I doubt that 'indies' are considered 'high' profile compared to AAA releases. I can understand that compared to 'some' indies, these are higher profile 'indie' games.
I doubt these would compete in terms of sales with the top 5 - maybe top 10 of the month. I really can't see a shift either to digital only sales - whilst console manufacturers may want that for their profits, It can't compete with physical sales - Not just for prices.

@BAMozzy
I definitely think it gets overstated sometimes how 'big' these digital games are with the general public. There's a reason they eventually made a physical, retail copy of Minecraft because it was a big hit but they wanted to expand that reach. Yes, Firewatch and The Witness have their appeal and from what I've seen of The Witness, it's a great game, but neither are higher profile than Far Cry, that's absurd. And Street Fighter V, which comes out in less than a week here in the States, is also a higher profile game.

Glad to see fallout staying up there

@get2sammyb So far... That maybe correct as we haven't really had any of the 'big' game releases. Lego: Marvel Avengers is the only one I can think of and that makes it into this list. I think this has had much more coverage than both those 'Indie' releases. Dying Light: The Following, even though its an add-on, in my eyes and across the media, has had a higher profile though than both the Witness and Firewatch. Both of those 2 others have featured heavily across many more internet sites as well as TV advertising (in the case of Lego) and many more videos on sites like Youtube. To me this shows that both Lego and an add-on to a AAA game are higher profile. I bet the 'Awakening' BO3 DLC has generated more sales than both the indie digital games combined and I know a lot of youtubers, twitchers etc have given this more coverage too. Obviously it, like Dying Light: the Following are both add-ons and therefore are in a different category from a 'game' but it shows how even 'add-ons' can be higher-profile than indie releases.
I think even Resident Evil Zero HD remaster has had a bigger media impact. Its true that both Firewatch and the Witness have had a relatively high profile compared to a lot of other indie releases and maybe more than something like Sebastien Loeb Rally Evo and both have scored well in reviews. I certainly wouldn't argue that they have had good media support - higher than 'indie' games would have received on last gen. I think though that is more telling about the media swing and a greater focus on 'indie' games in general. A number of indie games that were 'great' in their category, barely got any press coverage or tried to generate as much hype pre-release. Often the hype came after the game released or maybe reviewed just before it's due out. You rarely got much information and these rarely generated its 'own' feature - often they were lumped together in one 'indie' feature. Even those games that seem to have now been categorised in the same bracket as Indie don't seem to get the same coverage - the games like Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. Its as if the Indie scene is now higher profile and maybe because these are independent are getting more credit than bigger studios making budget games.
The cynic in me thinks that both MS and Sony has generated the higher profile of these games in order to charge more and make more of a profit. 4-5 years ago, these wouldn't really feature at E3, Gamescom etc on MS/Sony's main conference. They don't have to pay a 'publisher' and often these games are made by much smaller studios with far less overheads. As these are 'digital only', both Sony and MS are guaranteeing that ALL sales have to pass through their store and at the price they dictate. Its not like you can go to Game or visit Amazon and pick them up for 75% (or less) than the RRP like you can with AAA physical games.
I know that reviews are a bit misleading too when it comes to indie/budget games. I am certain that if either of these 2 games were released at the same price point of a AAA release and judged in the same way, there is no way that these would have scored as high as they have. I also feel that often indies get an extra point or 2 because they are 'indie' - the size of the studio, the number of developers etc helps bump up the score. The fewer the developers, the higher the score (almost). Also what is considered visually stunning for these is not visually stunning for AAA games. Its visually stunning if it isn't 8/16bit graphics!
I know this has turned into a bit of a discussion about 'indies' but truth is, although I don't have any interest in them in general, I don't have any issue with them at all. More games, more choice etc for everyone. I do think though that if these games released 4-5 years ago, they would barely get a mention - at least not until after review/release.

Big sales must be fun for investors, but I am not an investor, I am a gamer. Tuesday can't come soon enough.

Add another point to the Wii U+PS4 combo. It makes for a very good balance.

I'll always skip this digital-only games, as long as I can. And Firewatch looks pretty lame.

I'd argue that Street Fighter V is the biggest retail release for Sony this month. Far Cry Primal isn't a mainline game, so to speak. It's more of a side game, and while it will sell respectable numbers, I don't think it will dominate. I really don't think it's that big of a heavy hitter.

Anyways, do any of you think that 2015 was the Xbox One's peak year, and that it's downhill from here?

As for Nintendo, they're pretty much going through the motions right now during their transition period. Software sales are all that is really relevant for them at the moment.