Ben-DutkaAs if you didn't see this one coming.
Activision's latest blockbuster, Destiny , owned the U.S. sales charts in September, according to the NPD results .
The game was #1 in new, physical software sales and once again, the PlayStation 4 led the next-gen charge. Sony also confirmed that PS4 was the most popular platform for playing Destiny , and all of this proves analyst Michael Pachter wrong, as he expected the Xbox One to outsell Sony's machine during September.
Hardware sales jumped 136 percent to $432.7 million, well up from the $183.4 million posted in September 2013. Of course, it's important to remember that the PS4 and Xbox One wren't out yet at this time last year. Software sales were down 36 percent year-over-year (from $754 million to $481.2 million), but the NPD reminded us that Grand Theft Auto V released in September 2013, which really skews the numbers. Added NPD analyst Liam Callahan:
"The launch of Activision-published and Bungie-developed Destiny in September 2014 proved successful in a number of ways: year-to-date through September data it is the top-selling video game on a unit basis, making it the most successful launch of the year so far as well. But an even more prestigious feat was the fact that Destiny had the best launch month of all-time for any new IP in video game software."
Here's the top 10 list for the month, and remember that this only includes physical copies. The NPD doesn't yet have a way to track digital sales but if they're going to continue to be accurate in the future, they had best figure it out.
Related Game(s): Destiny
whatever happened to Pachter anyway? I only knew him from Gametrailers and he doesn't have a show there anymore it would seem.
Good for Sony. I wondered a bit too if MS would gain any sort of advantage because one could assume that a very strong Bungie-fan base existed on the Xbox brand, thus helping sales a lot for Xbox goers and Destiny.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/16/2014 10:05:04 PM
Gametrailers was sold off by MTV and Spike Etertainment to Defy media resulting in a vast number of layoffs the site did a decent job covering and explaining this and many an emotional goodbye was said with a few of the long time team members breaking down on camera.
Then there were those such as Pachter and Megan Rugh, I don't know if you watched their programs regularly enough to know her but she was the brunette with the glasses who loves Assassin's Creed, neither of them were directly tied to Gametrailers.
Megan was a Spike TV staff member and was a sort of inbetween/consultant for the two she just truly loved games and enjoyed doing videos with them. Then there was Pachter who is not directly tied to either of the two companies and simply did his Pach-Attack show as a free service for those interested in that side of the industry, despite many people's beliefs he was never payed a dime for any of that, he lived a short drive from their studio so it wasn't that much of an issue to send a small crew to his home or office to record the show.
The new Defy media studio is MUCH further away and Pachter simply felt to continue their relationship would be unbeneficial for both parties time-wise so cut ties.
Pachter is currently in works with Geoff Keighley to produce a new web-show on a different site.
Probably more info than anyone needs but I have been a regular on the site for years and watch a number of their side projects and Twitch streams so get word directly from the mouths of the GT crew so had decent insight and thought I would share it.
Last edited by Shauneepeak on 10/17/2014 4:57:50 AM
Michael Pachter swims daily in the pure existential essence of moron. He might get it right on rare occasions, but if you swing at every ball pitched, your bound to hit something.
And I bought my copy of Destiny digitally (as I have been doing for all my games on PS4) so my sale isn't included there in those numbers. Really, digital sales should be included now-a-days.
Edit: And congrats to Sony for making good decision on which 3rd party game to put marketing efforts into. In comparison, Microsoft chose Titanfall earlier this year…
Last edited by SaiyanSenpai on 10/16/2014 10:30:39 PM
Exactly. About as accurate as psychic.
PlayStation is console for shooter now? No wonder it's sold millions…
Destiny was advertised HEAVILY for the PS4. So heavily, in fact, that it almost SEEMED like a PS4 exclusive. There were articles about it and everything…
It always has been. Playstation doesn't exist in its own dimension.
Look at the sales charts across all platforms over the years. The popular shooters are popular on all platforms, and all regions. COD is big in Japan too.
Sure, there are minor differences, but the overall picture is clear. We are gamers. Period.
I never saw an ad for it coming out on the X1. After doing some reading, it seems part of Sony's DLC exclusivity deal was that they alone could put out ads saying Destiny was coming out on their machine. MS tried to get around that by advertising a "Destiny" cologne but that was all they could do.
That article that was posted about Pachter's comments was totally lazy.
Really no way to track digital sales? You would think that would be the easiest. All of our purchases are registered to our PSN and XBL accounts does Sony and Microsoft not keep track of those figures? Or do they simply not make this information available to research groups? You would think Sony and Microsoft would want to flaunt their sales figures so this confuses me.
I've always wondered why Pachter mattered in the first place.. was/is he the ONLY game-industry-specific analyst out there?
Not that I had any doubt but I am glad his crow is served cold. This was expected. What I am interested in is how this last quarter will play out. Let's see if Sunset will set the XBox361 on fire or if Master Chief will leave the Box calm, cool and Collected? What else does MS have in store for this year? Nothing that strikes me to the point of even remembering. Or am I experiencing early bouts of senility?
Last edited by FatherSun on 10/17/2014 10:13:44 AM
I find it incredible that Minecraft is in the list without counting digital sales. I'm beyond stunned there.
Deep down, I believe Xbox fans everywhere where hoping Pachter's predictions were true.
I'm an Xbox fan and didn't care if his predictions were right or not.
yeah those numbers and chart stats are at all surprise to me atleast all pritty mucht he latest and greatest games
happy gaming
"A price cut is imminent." – something Pachter (and other analysts, to be fair) repeats every month until it eventually happens