Holiday Game Sales Not Looking Optimum?

Thanks to Yahoo/Reuters for their report suggesting that videogame sales aren't quite as spectacular as hoped, so far this holiday season. Analyst reports cite retailer concerns over: "soft sales", apparently due to "few 'hot' new titles, slow hardware sales, high software price points, and increased competition for consumers' home entertainment dollars as newer technologies become more affordable." Nonetheless, industry observers are expecting "12.5 percent year-over-year software sales growth for November", but this still will "fall well short of original analyst, publisher, and retailer estimates." Finally, although the article cites "broad agreement that there is no blockbuster title this holiday like last year's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City", the "top title at retail" in analyst estimates was EA's Need for Speed Underground, and other top-sellers include True Crime, Tony Hawk's Underground, and GTA Double Pack.

Comments

Not great news from the sales floor

[GreatDrok]

I work in a major game retailer in the UK and I have to agree that it is looking pretty grim. Sales of hardware have been very slack, a couple of weeks ago we did well but that was the last pay day before Christmas, the week after we sold far fewer. The latest games have so far proven uninspiring. The only game I have really enjoyed (and therefore sold a lot of) is Simpsons Hit and Run. I bought Medal of Honour Rising Sun and am struggling to find much good to say about it. Prince of Persia is graphically nice but somewhat brief. Manhunt just doesn't hit the mark and True Crime is a dead loss. You just have to look at the game returns or trade ins to see what games are worth having. Simpsons Hit and Run doesn't come back, all the others I listed have are already on the second hand shelves.

I think the big surprise is the popularity of the GameCube. For the first time since I started working in the shop I sold more GCs than the other two consoles put together.

Personally, I think I'm going to drag out my N64 and have another go through Goldeneye. Perhaps they should look at putting out an updated version of that for the GameCube or even the other platforms. Heck, even the original version done like the recent Zelda pack would be a great seller. It destroys all the other Bond games.

Re:Games for the Holiday season

[rhuntley12]

Beyond Good and Evil is way underrated as is Metal Arms, along with not being hyped. I also am really enjoying Deus Ex 2 on Xbox, although that load time is harsh. Too many games seem to have been pushed back this year. Ninja Gaiden being a big one for Xbox. There are a ton of fantastic looking games coming out at the start of the year, seems everyone missed the Christmas deadline.

Re:Everyone was expecting HL2 & D3

[PainKilleR-CE]

Like RtCW, MoH was not an HL engine license. In fact, the only games that used the HL engine were HL and the various mods that were released to retail (like Counterstrike). HL itself was a Quake-engine based game, which could explain the similarities between it and other games which licensed newer Quake engines (most recent FPS games licensed the Q3 engine).

As for someone stealing HL2's thunder, well, I just don't think that's going to happen. Doom 3 is probably the only game that has a chance of doing that, as no FPS game has sold as well as HL, yet when Doom came out no PC game had sold as well as it did (until Myst came out).