The NPD Group is considered one of the most reliable sources of statistics for the video game market in the United States, and its Analyst Mat Piscatella had posted some interesting comments on Twitter today.

First of all, Piscatella commented on the “solid” Xbox One X sales numbers coming from the United Kingdom, mentioning that he will have to increase his own forecast for the console in the United States.

In other news... solid One X numbers out of UK, Seems like MS is shipping more than I’d originally predicted, will have to push my One X forecast for the US higher.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 13, 2017

Secondly, he talked about Star Wars Battlefront II, first commenting on the controversy about loot crates, in response to those arguing that the trend is being pushed by publishers against the developers’ will. Piscatella mentions that some of the most aggressive microtransaction ideas he has heard of came from developers, while he also heard of publishers pushing back against them.

Some of the most aggressive mtx ideas I’ve ever heard have come from devs, while some of the most adamant pushback on mtx I’ve see has come from people at pubs. This idea of the big bad publisher and victim dev is, in my experience, a myth. https://t.co/5UZAESFVAr

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 13, 2017

That being said, Piscatella’s main takeaway from the controversy is that consumer interest in Star Wars Battlefront II is very high, and he should “probably” increase his forecast for the title as well.

My main takeaway from all this noise? Interest in BFII is very high and I should probably increase my sales expectation for the title.

— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 13, 2017

Piscatella has worked in the video game industry for about fifteen years, including executive-level tenures at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Activision, where he worked respectively as Vice President of Sales Planning and Analysis and Business Intelligence Director.

One thing is for sure. It’ll be certainly interesting to see the sales results for both the Xbox One X and Star Wars Battlefront II. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until mid-December to have some firm intelligence on the topic.

Posted: Nov 14, 2017 9:40 am
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/npd-xbox-one-x-star-wars-battlefront-2-sales/