darkSpyro

Ian Sherr is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, focusing on video games and consumer electronics.

I'm afraid I don't know contextually what exactly rose (if it was up from last year or last month) but basically it's pretty good news. Lots of sales, although I can't really ponder the reason why. If anything, you'd think figure sales would be higher closer to game launches.

What is NPD?

Quote: Skylandscaper

What is NPD?

Essentially, sales figures for the video game and toy industries.

Quote:

NPD Group is a leading global market research company founded in 1967 and provides consumer and retail information to manufacturers and retailers. Using actual sales data from retailers and distributors as well as consumer-reported purchasing behavior. NPD has a 25 year history tracking toy and video game sales data.

NPD provides the video game sales data for United States and Canadian territories. The monthly reports are only for the United States. They occasionally release a report for Canada indicating a new sales milestone for a platform or game. Only the Top 10 games are provided with sales figures though the top 20 are sometimes released.

Quote: spyroflame0487

Ian Sherr is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, focusing on video games and consumer electronics.

I'm afraid I don't know contextually what exactly rose (if it was up from last year or last month) but basically it's pretty good news. Lots of sales, although I can't really ponder the reason why. If anything, you'd think figure sales would be higher closer to game launches.

Was Skylanders not winning above Infinity this whole time? I thought Skylanders was always on top? Infinity is lame.

Both games have been even, even though Swap Force is available on two systems that Infinity isn't.

By the numbers swap force has out sold DI by about .65 million units with only .28 million of that coming from systems that DI isn't on and this is from VGChartz.com so it's not biased towards either unit. the totals are 3.92 million for swap force and 3.25 million for DI. So it's not a landslide by any sense of the word however Swap force has outsold it.

Although this site has no information on how much revenue the figures have sold so it is entirely possible that this message is talking about them and they have outsold the skylanders figures.

This is only for Swap Force? Im talking Skylanders in general. All of Skylanders against Infinity, and im sure Skylanders win. You cant compare a brand new game with an older game on its certain numbered series. You have to do all or nothing.

Quote: Chibilove

This is only for Swap Force? Im talking Skylanders in general. All of Skylanders against Infinity, and im sure Skylanders win. You cant compare a brand new game with an older game on its certain numbered series. You have to do all or nothing.

That's a pretty ridiculous viewpoint.

Quote: DutRank

Quote: Chibilove

This is only for Swap Force? Im talking Skylanders in general. All of Skylanders against Infinity, and im sure Skylanders win. You cant compare a brand new game with an older game on its certain numbered series. You have to do all or nothing.

That's a pretty ridiculous viewpoint.

It definitely isn't. Franchise VS franchise in which Skylanders would be greater in sales obviously.

If you are only wanting to do sales of Infinity and Swap Force. Infinity came out 2 months before Swap Force. So the fact Infinity had 2 months advancement over Swap Force and still couldnt win in the end? Also, Infinity attracts all forms of personalities, whereas Skylanders only attracts a few personalities. Disney, in general, has been out way before Spyro. So this cant really be compared. Its like apples and oranges

Not to make this a Infinity vs. Skylanders thing, they both have merits.

Disney Infinity has many less figures. There are 70+ new figures this year alone for Swap Force, maybe two dozen for Infinity. Sure they are more expensive per figure, but you have MUCH less to collect (not counting power discs and sets for either, of course).

Infinity also attracts a much younger crowd. My 5 year old loves Infinity, it works much better for him - open world, little negative consequence for actions and the goal-less Toy Box. He finds it much better than Skylanders because he doesn't have to avoid "dying" or know effective fighting. He can just play. As a side effect, parents are less likely to go all in on the figures, they won't invest as much and just buy the ones their little one kid wants. My son doesn't have them all, I figured out early he was only going to play the boy figures from things he recognized. Saved quite a bit in figure costs.

My older son likes Infinity to play around with the Toy Box, but he prefers Skylanders because it has a goal and you actually have to know what you are doing, particularly on higher skill levels. He knows well the difference in figures, and getting them for him makes a difference in his enjoyment of the game.

As an adult Infinity bores me. I love the figures, but I'd rather fire up Minecraft if I want to build stuff. Creativity is much better done in that game. Marvel Heroes look cool in Infinity 2.0, but the Adventure sets better be much more compelling if it wants to win out. Running around throwing things might be compelling to my 5 year old, but it isn't for me. Yeah, doing it as Iron Man is an improvement, but not enough.

And lastly, Skylanders as a game is much more established. People know what it is. They already have figures that work in it. In general, people resist change.

I think these things conspire to make the numbers what they are. If Infinity is going to win, they need more figures (and more reason to buy them) and a tighter Adventure set design to go along with improving the Toy Box. They have an opening given the Trap Team response seems pretty skeptical in general, but they better not think "Infinity - now with Marvel" is going to be good enough.

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

Quote: DutRank

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

That remains to be seen.

Quote: DutRank

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

How can you say this when the release of the game is 5 and a half months away? Skylanders, overall, outsold Infinity. Every single Disney Infinity pack is available at almost all retail outlet, while Skylanders are almost constantly selling.

He can say that because Skylanders is for Babies.

Quote: Matteomax

Quote: DutRank

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

How can you say this when the release of the game is 5 and a half months away? Skylanders, overall, outsold Infinity. Every single Disney Infinity pack is available at almost all retail outlet, while Skylanders are almost constantly selling.

Because the only reason he still comes here after those hypocritical videos is to, bash Skylanders as a whole and promote Infiniy as a whole.

Quote: Matteomax

Quote: DutRank

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

How can you say this when the release of the game is 5 and a half months away? Skylanders, overall, outsold Infinity. Every single Disney Infinity pack is available at almost all retail outlet, while Skylanders are almost constantly selling.

That's because DI is actually a well stocked product where Skylanders is a complete disaster. I have yet to see Lightcore BB or triple packs 5 & 6. I also have only seen several Skylanders 1 time. It's ridiculous how poorly Skylanders are stocked, pegs full of Zoo Lou everywhere yet I can actually buy the DI character I want wherever I want. And to the kid that said you should compare 3 games to 1, you are clueless SA has been out for 2.5 years, giants 1.5 years and SF .5 years. You want to compare all of that to a game that has been out for less than 1 year? LOL!!!

Quote: IWHBYD

Quote: Matteomax

Quote: DutRank

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

How can you say this when the release of the game is 5 and a half months away? Skylanders, overall, outsold Infinity. Every single Disney Infinity pack is available at almost all retail outlet, while Skylanders are almost constantly selling.

That's because DI is actually a well stocked product where Skylanders is a complete disaster. I have yet to see Lightcore BB or triple packs 5 & 6. I also have only seen several Skylanders 1 time. It's ridiculous how poorly Skylanders are stocked, pegs full of Zoo Lou everywhere yet I can actually buy the DI character I want wherever I want. And to the kid that said you should compare 3 games to 1, you are clueless SA has been out for 2.5 years, giants 1.5 years and SF .5 years. You want to compare all of that to a game that has been out for less than 1 year? LOL!!!

Good to see someone with a non-fan boy mind on the forums.
It's one thing to like a game but to sit there and think it makes sense to compare sales of 3 full games to only 1 is just foolish.

Quote: DutRank

Quote: IWHBYD

Quote: Matteomax

How can you say this when the release of the game is 5 and a half months away? Skylanders, overall, outsold Infinity. Every single Disney Infinity pack is available at almost all retail outlet, while Skylanders are almost constantly selling.

That's because DI is actually a well stocked product where Skylanders is a complete disaster. I have yet to see Lightcore BB or triple packs 5 & 6. I also have only seen several Skylanders 1 time. It's ridiculous how poorly Skylanders are stocked, pegs full of Zoo Lou everywhere yet I can actually buy the DI character I want wherever I want. And to the kid that said you should compare 3 games to 1, you are clueless SA has been out for 2.5 years, giants 1.5 years and SF .5 years. You want to compare all of that to a game that has been out for less than 1 year? LOL!!!

Good to see someone with a non-fan boy mind on the forums.
It's one thing to like a game but to sit there and think it makes sense to compare sales of 3 full games to only 1 is just foolish.

Yep, I even prefer Skylanders to DI (I enjoy both though). DI has been handled way better than Skylanders when it comes to being able to actually buy the toys you want and that is much appreciated, I hope they keep it up with 2.0 and hopefully TT will be better. I think the biggest problem with Skylanders is you have nearly 100 different packaged products they're trying to sell where DI is trying to sell about 30(?). Skylanders would be better off with less characters per game especially since it's a yearly franchise.

I don't think there is any doubt Infinity releases have been handled FAR better than Skylanders releases. Every single one has been dated and communicated well in advance.

Quote: DutRank

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

Where are you getting your numbers? Pulling random figures out of your behind is not good on the internet because it takes all of 15 seconds to prove you wrong.
Giants sold 4.58 million world wide
Swap Force sold 3.92 million world wide
That is a difference of .6 million not 1.5 million so you are either making up numbers or terribly bad at math which I guess is possible

Quote: gta1134

Quote: DutRank

On top of that, even with the inclusion of Xbox One and PS4, Less people bought Swap Force. Giants has sold almost a whole 1.5 million units more than Swap Force. Trap Team will see the same decline.

Where are you getting your numbers? Pulling random figures out of your behind is not good on the internet because it takes all of 15 seconds to prove you wrong.
Giants sold 4.58 million world wide
Swap Force sold 3.92 million world wide
That is a difference of .6 million not 1.5 million so you are either making up numbers or terribly bad at math which I guess is possible

Well, that's not to say that Swap Force can't make up for some of that difference in the months leading up to the next game. Granted, not much, but maybe 10% of the gap. Also, the new gen platform sales are miniscule. It's weird that most of Infinity is on Xbox/PS3 yet on Skylanders it's still the Wii.

I'm going to get Infinity v1 sometime in the next week, since I'm pretty much going for the Marvel experience this year and opting out of Activision.

The big problem with the poor stocking of characters is the simple fact that there is too many characters. In SSA, a wave was 4-5 figures, maybe a little more for Wave 3. Now, Waves are much more than that, so when they have to ship out more figures, they have to send less of the same type of figure. That is what is making the restocking horrible. There are simply too many figures.

Yeah Zookinator I had the same thing ready to post last night but my tablet died before I finished writing up the whole post. The basics of the post were that they way skylanders is made (with so many figs per wave and so many waves per game release) it is now the area of the online retailer to fill in where the brick and mortar stores can no longer keep up. No store will have the shelf space to dedicate to one single franchise for 70 figures for each release and then you stack on that the fact that many want to pick up older figures too and it becomes impossible for a physical retailer to accommodate the line. Infinity is much easier to stock only having around 12 or so figures (no clue how many the number really is but I've saw 12 elsewhere). Which line has the right idea for the number of figures depends on where you stand, if you like diversity it's skylanders but if you like the more targeted individual releases it's Disney.