Mike Rose of No More Robots revealed that the PlayStation 4 version of Nowhere Prophet is off to a rough start in terms of sales. The founder and director of the UK-based publisher took to Twitter to discuss the game’s performance against the Nintendo Switch version of Nowhere Prophet. According to Rose, the PS4 version’s opening weekend sales were just 5% of the sales on Nintendo Switch. Rose did not provide details on how the Xbox One version stacked up, but he did state that the PS4 version was “not even close to the sales we’re achieving on Switch and Xbox.” Rose’s Tweet can be found below.
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Finally had our first PS4 launch last week!
If you’re wondering whether smaller games sell on PS4 right now
Our opening weekend sales on PS4 were 5% of our Nintendo Switch opening weekend sales haha
aka we barely sold anything at all on PS4
— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) August 3, 2020
In subsequent Tweets, Rose said that No More Robots will release Descenders on PlayStation 4 later this month, both digitally and at retail. However, he also said that the publisher will likely not put any additional games on the platform, moving forward.
There are a number of potential reasons for the smaller numbers. The PS4 is nearing the end of its lifespan, and retailers such as GameStop have reported that gamers have been spending less on the current console generation as the next one approaches. That does not explain, however, why the game is underperforming against the Xbox One version; after all, Microsoft’s platform has a smaller user base.
Of course, it’s entirely possible that PlayStation 4 users are buying fewer games until they know whether or not the PlayStation 5 platform will support those titles. Comparatively, the Xbox Series X promises full backwards-compatibility, while PlayStation fans don’t have any clear answers on which games will be playable on the company’s next-gen console. As such, those that plan on selling or trading in their PS4 at launch might be holding off on making new purchases.
As of right now, it’s hard to say how prominent this issue might be. In his Tweets referring to sales of smaller games, Rose states that he “heard it was bad,” but until other publishers chime in, it’s impossible to say whether or not this is an overall industry trend. Still, it will be interesting to see whether or not smaller games will struggle on PlayStation 5, as well. If that does turn out to be the case, more indie studios could end up embracing Nintendo and Xbox in the future.
What do you think about smaller games struggling on PS4? Do you see the problem continuing on PlayStation 5? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk about all things gaming!
