Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Game Sales Slip Marginally
Thanks to ZDNet/Reuters for their article stating that sales of game software for June dropped 9 percent in the U.S. compared to the previous year, "..reflecting fewer hit titles and a year-earlier tally that was helped by sharp price cuts on game consoles." Hardware sales also fell, and analyst Edward Williams suggests that "..the rate of sell-through suggests that a platform price cut this fall is increasingly likely as the hardware companies try to achieve targeted year-end installed bases." Elsewhere in the article, it's also suggested the hardware manufacturers may "..discount [hardware] more aggressively in order to boost sales of the more lucrative games."
The economy is bad, so people are a bit more concerned into investing a big amount of money into recreation. Why would video games be spared ?
Game companies going to follow the tune of other industries (music/movie) and blame this on piracy on P2P networks?
C:\>
It won't be good to see the current contenders go under. But I WOULD like to be able to afford games now that I will be going to college, and I would also love for another Nintendo (Or maybe Nintendo all over again) to completely revolutionize the market again.
Am I stupid? Hey, look at my sig...
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
Wait until Fall/Winter, when a bunch of highly anticipated titles are going to float out.
Doom III (PC),
Half-Life 2 (PC),
Fable (X-Box),
FF:Crystal Chronicles (GC)
This is the video game industry's chance to get on the "blame everything on P2P" bandwagon, but instead they're talking about hit titles and price cuts. This is one step removed from accepting the blame in their own drop in revenue. Haven't they learned how to play the victim from the other entertainment sectors yet? :)
The last PC game I purchased was Tribes 2. I only bought it because all of us bought it in order to play together.
The last console game I bought was Final Fantasy VI (III in the US) for the Super Nintendo.
Now, allow me to make three points:
1. Most "new" games just don't interest me. Sure, they look entertaining, but they're just not worth the money. I'd like to play them, but I have better things on which to spend my money. $40 buys a lot of pizza.
2. I'm in college. If any one of my friends buys a new game or system, I can play it for free pretty-much whenever I want. Between all of my friends, I've got access to everything but X-Box games. One purchase satisfies 20 people, so only one purchase is made, instead of 20.
3. Most newer games, while they may be entertaining, are usually only thus so the first time through. There's no replay-value. Ergo, when we all leave college and lose access to all those games, we have no desire to acquire them on our own.
Also, having lost access to free games, people tend to either give up on gaming altogether (just not worth the money) or stay a step behind the curve, picking them up at steep discounts in the bargain bin.
Zelda 2 was worth the $50 I paid for it back in the day, considering that I -still- play (and greatly enjoy) it from time to time.
[end_rant]
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
While Summer is always slow for games, the numbers they're comparing are for the same period last year. The difference is basically that there were more spring/late spring releases (which would carry sales into the summer as people are looking for games to fill the slow time) that people were willing to shell out money for last year than there are this year.
Of course, as another poster pointed out, there are a good number of big name titles slated for a fall release, so it's quite possible that some people are holding onto their money (or putting it on pre-orders) for those titles instead of spending now.
-PainKilleR-[CE]
A nine percent drop is not that big a deal. Really. The reason being that June already is a slow month. The drop is due to several reasons (some I've already posted). The first (and biggest) is that we're right in the middle of a console development cycle, with the already existing consoles having been on the market for several years. Console sales also drive game sales. Secondly, June is right in the middle of crunch time for the AAA game titles. Everyone is holding off on buying games to get the huuuuge blockbuster games of Christmas. Thirdly, the games on the market aren't that good. Enter the Matrix is bad and Lara Croft isn't that great either.
Some people have mentioned the economy. Actually the game industry does better when the economy is bad. (More people buy games looking to escape their troubles.) If you look at past revenue figures, the gaming industry has always thrived during hard times. Just look at the past sales number of the past three years in the US. It's not piracy either. Operation Buccaneer and the recent closure of many pirate groups have put the finger in the dyke so to speak, but piracy is something the industry has lived with for twenty years. There hasn't been any discernable increase in piracy that would affect sales this much, especially when it comes to consoles.
If you really want something to gloom and doom about, I'd seriously pay attention to the SEC probes of gaming companies. That has some serious implications. Fact is come Christmas sales records will be broken and you'll forget that you ever saw this article.
"The best-selling game in the month by units sold, analysts said, was Atari's mid-May release "Enter the Matrix'' for the PS2, followed by Eidos's "Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness,'' also for PS2, data showed."
When games of that extreme craptitude are best-sellers, well, no wonder sales are down. Where the hell is Zelda and Ikaruga? Why is it the worst games are always the ones that sell the best?
Because the market has been saturated by non-gamers who wouldn't know a good game from a hole in the ground. If this was the early 80's there probably wouldn't be the crushed remains of 5 million E.T. 2600 carts buried in a New Mexico Landfill today.
--The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. --Tycho Brahe (Penny Arcade)