Part of the NPD results are in and we have an idea of how well some of the platforms performed, as well as how much the gaming industry, Stateside, brought in, along with which software titles topped the charts in April.
Titanfall still came out at the top of the charts for the top 10 selling software titles in April, with Call of Duty: Ghosts, NBA 2K14, Minecraft and LEGO: The Hobbit rounding out the rest of the top five.
Now, let's get to the juicy bits that we all love: hardware sales performance.
It's no surprise that the PlayStation 4 is moving along like a locomotive with a mission. The hype-train hasn't slowed much since launch, and big titles or not, the PS4 is winning the eighth generation console race like Mexicans are winning in obesity.
According to Venture Beat, gamers dumped $580 million into the retail market in April for hardware, software and accessories. The industry sales were up in April by 17% over the previous year.
A lot of this was due to the sales momentum of the PS4, which has been claimed by the NPD to have outsold both the Wii U and the Xbox One.
NPD analyst Liam Callahan commented about the hardware performance, saying...
“Sony’s PlayStation 4 was the No. 1 platform for hardware sales in April for the fourth month in a row, followed by Xbox One,”
Unfortunately, neither Sony or Nintendo rolled out detailed numbers for their console's performance, but the Xbox One was proudly touted by Microsoft as having moved 115,000 SKUs throughout April, which is abysmal.
I mean, let's consider that April is just one month removed from Titanfall's massive March roll-out, which saw the console move 311,000 SKUs. It's been a near 38% drop-off rate in hardware sales for the Xbox One from March to April. As I said... abysmal.
With Sony breaking Microsoft's spirit by destroying the Xbox One in sales, the numbers have obviously caused Phil Spencer to react faster than the NPD figures could be announced, in order to preemptively get back some hype by putting the price-cut into place, along with surgically removing the Kinect from the Xbox One packaged bundle like it was some sort of unsightly tumor growing out of an organic VCR box.
Nevertheless, the NPD has stated that the sales of both the Xbox One and PS4 are still pretty good, with Games Industry picking up additional quotes from Callahan, who stated that...
"Life to date, sales of PS4 and Xbox One hardware have more than doubled the combined sales of PS3 and 360 hardware through their first six months of sales,”
That may not be bad in theory, but the Xbox One is still trailing behind the Wii U's install base like DC trails behind Marvel when it comes to making good movies. Selling 115,000 in April means that it could look worse yet for May, now that the Titanfall hype has evaporated like Putin's goodwill in the Oval office.
Mario Kart 8's reviews have been explosive, along with its eye-popping pre-order sales, and that could mean the Wii U could pull further ahead in the sales game once the June numbers become available.
Looking over the numerical picture, I would have to say that things are definitely getting interesting.
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