Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) > Articles
bids
21
21
Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS)
Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days
Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days
Gamespot - August 1, 2007
Submitted by Animate (241) at 5:57PM PST on August 1, 2007
Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix has sold (not shipped) 2 million in its first 4 days at retail. Command & Conquer 3 has reached 2 million sales as well.
EA announced this news in their Q1 earnings, April-June press release. Other info in the article includes a drop in earnings of 4% & 8 new IPs for 2008.
Discussion - Submit a comment
bids
3Sidona posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 10:31AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Laoldar,
My youngest brother currently works for ShopKo and has said that all of the companies except Sony will take back game titles that do not sell. This was said while he grumbled over an excess of inventory that he was stocking in the gaming section.
I do not know if this holds true for all retail outlets and if it excludes third party titles. Also keep in mind that he only sees it go back into the box with a 'Return to Vendor' label on it.[ Elite ] [ Level 14 ] [ Rank: 785 ]bids
1Laoldar posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 10:12AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@welshbloke,
My personal experience is with Wal Mart (Canada). With DVDs, they get a ton of copies of a new release and anything that doesn't sell within the new release window is sent back.
However, for games they seem to just sit around. I haven't personally seen any sent back to the publishers (aside from San Andreas during Hot Coffee). Last year I actually saw a Gameboy Color game there.
Remember, retailers take all the risk for nearly everything they carry....picture frames, lamps, clothing, bedding, TVs, etc. Why would games be that different from the majority of products at a retail store?[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 182 ]bids
1welshbloke posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 10:00AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 daysbids
0Laoldar posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 9:49AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 daysbids
1Laoldar posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 9:48AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@welshbloke,
Why would EA care if it is sold through to customers (at this point)? Their bottom line depends on selling the product to retailers, not necessarily to customers. EA would have the sales numbers in that case (obviously keeping track of their inventory) and that would be the number that will matter to their investors because that's where EA makes their money.
People are missing the point of this article. It's not meant as a sales release for Harry Potter. It's a call to investors that, while earnings are done, they're doing quite well for this quarter.[ Oracle ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 182 ]bids
1Gaara42 posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 8:31AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Alpha,
But since they still have to extrapolate the data (like I said) it is still possible that they under-counted the number of copies being sold at Walmart since they don't get data from that retailer and since Walmart is one of the biggest (I'm pretty sure it is the biggest) seller of video games in the States, that could cause their estimate (which since they don't collect 100% of the data is what the numbers they release are (albeit a really good estimate)) to be off by some amount (either they could under-counted or over-counted, but in this case it seems likely they under-counted if EA's numbers means actually sold in stores and not just to retailers). (Also this doesn't only apply to Walmart but any of the other retailers they don't get data from).[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 8 ]bids
1welshbloke posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 8:08AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Alpha,
NPD data only gives you a snapshot of US sales. As this was a game released worldwide then it would not marry up. The Harry Potter series for example has been selling well in the UK even if it is not doing so well in the states.
I would agree that this is sold into retail as opposed to the end user. Although I fail to see why the emphasis was on "Sales" if this was the case.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 60 ]bids
1jameseyryan posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 4:40AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Alpha,
I agree, I think this has to be a "sold to retailers" figure. There is no indication that this game has sold well enough on any platform to individual customers to warrant a 2M figure and I think that retailers banked on the hype of the book, the film and the current popularity of the Wii and bought a significant amount but now can't get rid of them.
I presume EA gets their money when retailers buy off them so financially they wouldn't really care how much is sold to customers.
Living in Ireland, there is no indication that this should sell well in Europe as I have not seen much advertising for the games at all.[ Elite ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 225 ]bids
4Alpha posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 2:49AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@zukaus, just checked out the transcript. EA clearly says they sold 2 million units. However, there is no clarification if they mean sold in to retailers or sold through to consumers. I know publishers often do refer to selling to retailers when talking about console games. I find 2 millino sell through to consumers unbelievable.[ Guru ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 173 ]bids
2Alpha posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 2:36AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@zukaus, I still find this strange. Even if the Wii version is selling well, it'd have to be selling over a million copies to be making up the difference from what we are seeing from the NPD data on the Xbox 360 and PS2 versions. This would've made it the top game in June, but it wasn't even in the top 20 or so that were disclosed. Given the current international install base of the Wii, I believe its highly unlikely for there to be 1.5 million copies of Harry Potter (Wii) sold (it'd be a huge attach rate). If anything, those huge numbers need to be coming from the PS2 if they are non-US sales.[ Guru ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 173 ]bids
1Alpha posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 2:32AM PST on August 2, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Gaara42, NPD doesn't really undercount. They get data from 60% of the retailers and extrapolate the remaining 40%. They don't just leave out the number of games sold at Walmart and other retailers that report. The error could go either way.
NPD is actually the only firm doing comprehensive data collecting for video game sales so its the only place EA and other publishers can go to get the data. EA doesn't collect this data themselves.[ Guru ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 173 ]bids
5zukaus posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 10:51PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Alpha,
I didn't listen to the conference call, but I did just skim through a transcript of the conference call and it also cites the 2 million Harry Potter number. In fact there's an interesting bit of information dropped in the Q&A. An analyst from Credit Suisse asks for a breakdown on that 2 million number and one of the execs tells him that it's the Wii version that is selling "extremely well". I also just posted the transcript so you can read the whole thing if you like.[ Oracle ] [ Level 30 ] [ Rank: 4 ]bids
1Gaara42 posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:48PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Powertrade,
I did not know that they use NPD numbers for internal documentation and calculation of sales. Would that not open the possibility of error in the number of copies sold since (as mentioned before) NPD does not get data from all major retailers. Is there an article or document which show (in some manner) that they use NPD numbers or is it just generally understood that NPD numbers are used?
I also find in hard to believe that Europe and other parts of the world would buy Harry Potter in numbers so much higher than America, therefore somewhere there either is an error in calculation of copies sold or we are underestimating sales by a wide margin.[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 8 ]bids
1Gaara42 posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:44PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Alpha,
The link you gave says "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -- Two Million Copies Sold in One Week" on its subtitle, so I think the Gamespot article stands correct but that the reporter may now have specified the month in which C&C3 was released (he may have been thinking May but used a vague pronoun causing confusion).
I think that the games have actually sold a combined 2 million copies and sales for regions outside America were underestimated, though sales in America could be higher (due to NPD under-calculating sales (see rationalehere)).[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 8 ]bids
1Powertrade posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:36PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Gaara42, I find it hard to believe Europe bought up Harry Potter 10x more than in the US, because that is what would be necessary to make the 2 million number.
The game sold abysmally here according to NPD. NPD is the only provider of US video game sales data, even for Electronic Arts. The number ERTS uses internally is the number they bought from NPD. So it doesn't matter if NPD's estimation may have errors.[ Guru ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 219 ]bids
2Gaara42 posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:31PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Joe80,
That seems to be so, it seems likely that the rest of the world bought this game in higher quantities than predicted (probably a good amount of sales came from the UK).
There is a possibility that NPD was wrong and actually under-calculated the number of copies sold for certain versions of Harry Potter (NPD does not get data from some big retailers such as Wal-Mart, and their extrapolation (or however they make up for this lack of data) may have underestimated the number of copies being sold at these locations).[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 8 ]bids
3Alpha posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:27PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Powertrade, I think the Gamespot article is incorrect. It mentions C&C3 launched for Xbox 360 this month, which is wrong. The game came out back in May. The actual press release from ERTS just mentions Harry Potter as a strong seller--it doesn't say 2 million shipped or sold. Did anyone listen to the conference call? I think the Gamespot writer may just be mis-informed.[ Guru ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 173 ]bids
1Animate posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:16PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Powertrade, I'm assuming it must be from European sales or maybe worldwide sales?[ Oracle ] [ Level 26 ] [ Rank: 241 ]bids
1Powertrade posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:11PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 days@Powertrade, oh looks like I misread the comment--thought it said "shipped not sold." I don't understand where the numbers are coming from since we know from NPD the PS2 version sold 30k copies and the Xbox 360 version sold 15k copies. None of the versions made it into the top 10 for June--which means less than 140k copies each. Data from the official blog.[ Guru ] [ Level 21 ] [ Rank: 219 ]bids
2Powertrade posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 7:05PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 daysbids
2Animate posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 6:30PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 daysI concur Gaara42. When I added them up before I purchased stock, they were at 134k something. The only Harry Potter OoP not included on the SE is the MAC & GBA versions, and I believe only the GBA might hold a low moderate amount of the missing sales. It should be interesting to see if & how each HP OoP is adjusted. Though I put my money on the versions vgchartz has selling the best, the Wii & DS.[ Oracle ] [ Level 26 ] [ Rank: 241 ]bids
2Gaara42 posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 6:10PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 daysThis is interesting news, it means that several (if not all) of the Harry Potter titles on thesimexchange are currently undervalued. Adding up all the stock prices for the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix gives 135.09. This would correlate to only 1.35 million copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix being sold over the lifetime of all the different versions. With this news that has been proven correct, the only thing now is to see which of the Harry Potter stocks are undervalued and correct the pricing so that it better aligns with this news.[ Oracle ] [ Level 23 ] [ Rank: 8 ]bids
1Animate posted on Electronic Arts, Inc (ERTS) at 5:57PM PST on August 1, 2007. RE: Harry Potter sold (not shipped) 2 million in 4 daysHarry Potter Order of the Phoenix has sold (not shipped) 2 million in its first 4 days at retail. Command & Conquer 3 has reached 2 million sales as well. EA announced this news in their Q1 earnings, April-June press release. Other info in the article includes a drop in earnings of 4% & 8 new IPs for 2008.[ Oracle ] [ Level 26 ] [ Rank: 241 ]
About Us - The simExchange is the video game stock market and the source
for video game sales forecasts.
1
Fair enough. It may very well differ between retailers and how their inventory and buying system is set up.