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Video Game Sales Up 32% in March

Posted by Zonk on from the based-on-sales-of-what,-again? dept.

Reuters is reporting that video game sales were up 32% in March. The story attributes the increase in sales to improved console supplies, Gran Turismo 4, and some handheld Sony is hawking. From the article: "Citing figures from market researchers NPD Group, analysts also said Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation Portable handheld gaming unit sold 620,000 units of hardware in the month and 1.1 million pieces of software. The PSP was released on March 24."

28 comments

  1. Need I state? by Deltaspectre · · Score: 0

    Correlation != Causation

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    1. Re:Need I state? by Propagandhi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think that little idiom is all that applicable in this situation.

      Video game sales are up because more video games are being sold (duh). More video games are being sold because a new system (the PSP) has been successfuly launched and those who buy it also buy games for it.

      In this case, I think it's fair to say that the increase in sales is a result, at least in part, of the PSP's launch and the sales that said launch has generated...

    2. Re:Need I state? by Deltaspectre · · Score: 0

      Forgive me, I misread sales as profit =/ And that little doodle dandy would generate some profit eh

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    3. Re:Need I state? by meehray · · Score: 0, Troll

      Too bad the games selection for the PSP blows. Though I'm sure it's just for the time being.
      The selection for DS-specific games still blows after all these months. *sigh* Still dragging to drag out Mario DS for as long as possible!

    4. Re:Need I state? by Pofy · · Score: 1

      >Correlation != Causation

      What? So you are saying that piracy is only a factor when sales goes down, not up?????

    5. Re:Need I state? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My UID is prime... is your's?

      is your is... what?

  2. End the Q4 release cycle! by Inoshiro · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe with the fact that launching things which are promoted seems to be the key to sales, not just being released around Q4, we'll start to see fewer pump-and-dump games coming out just in time for gift shoppers to buy...

    One can hope :/

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  3. XBOX by kushboy · · Score: 1

    Microsoft has acknowledged the Xbox is in short supply, which some retailers fear may continue through the year as the company prepares to launch its next-generation console, most likely around the holidays.

    A friend of mine insists that the XBOX will never die because games on XBOX 2 aren't backwards-compatible. While I'm sure it will at least end up like the N64 lives on today, does anyone think it will outlast the XBOX 2 longer?

    I personally don't see it lasting forever once the next generations come out...and when they make Halo for XBOX 2.

    1. Re:XBOX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Who the hell cares?

    2. Re:XBOX by Rabid_Llama · · Score: 0

      i love you.

  4. I rate this article +1 obvious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sales were up because of new a system!

    (1) Because the PSP was so expensive, people who really wanted one are likely to have saved their money in the preceding months. This was the behaviour of most gamers I know (and most of them bought PSPs). Simply reverting to normal spending habits would have been an increase in sales over that period. The calm before the storm makes the storm seem that much more intense.

    (2) People buy several games whenever a new system comes out. It doesn't help that many retailers (Amazon.com, EBGames.com, etc) were only offering bundles. Nobody could buy the system + 1 game of their choice, they had to buy the system + 2 games they didn't want + whatever game they wanted.

    In summary: when sales are down next month, don't be suprised. It's just the ebb and flow of the market. I expect another peak when the first wave of "killer app" games come out for the PSP - when games like Gran Turismo 4 hit that might actually be worth buying the system for. And another when Sony eventually drops the price below the magic $200 price point (which admittedly might not be for a while).

  5. Pffft. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow, Sony sold a whole lot of underclocked bricks whose top speed is 333MHz. Holy cow, that PSP is innovative! Pffft.

    1. Re:Pffft. by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Amazingly those 333 MHz produce graphics close to Dreamcast level yet my 400MHz PDA can't even run Quake at 320x240 well.

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    2. Re:Pffft. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not true, the launch psp is clocked @ 222mhz cap. read this. there was a nicer looking article about it, but it lacked specificity.
      -e

    3. Re:Pffft. by UWC · · Score: 1
      Everyone's assuming that it's underclocked for power consumption purposes, right? Hard for me to begrudge it for that. Plus it's to some degree promoting efficiency by developers if they want maximum performance.

      It'll be interesting if they decide to unlock the CPU and bus speeds later on, and maybe release games that require a specific battery or a newer low-power revision of the processor in order to play them. I'll wager the games will be impressive if they do unlock it. Increasing CPU speed by 50% for developers that are used to the 222MHz could result in some very nice looking games. Memory constraints would still exist, though, I guess.

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    4. Re:Pffft. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      -1 Fuckhead Troll.

    5. Re:Pffft. by PocketPick · · Score: 1

      Amazingly those 333 MHz produce graphics close to Dreamcast level yet my 400MHz PDA can't even run Quake at 320x240 well.

      The dramatic performance difference has to do with the inner properties of the hardware in the PSP. A PSP contains 1 CPU core, 2 Graphics cores, 1 Media core, 1 Sound core and firmware which is optimized to incredibly high levels for an assortment of polygon crunching and rendering tasks.

      That, coupled with fast data-transfer rates across the Bus and other hardware capabilities, makes outperforming a standard PDA in the game department fairly easy.

  6. Am I the only one reading this the other way? by MMaestro · · Score: 2, Interesting
    analysts also said Sony Corp.'s new PlayStation Portable handheld gaming unit sold 620,000 units of hardware in the month and 1.1 million pieces of software

    If those numbers are right, that means people only bought one or two games to go with their PSP...

    Keep in mind it was/is nearly/completely impossible to buy a PSP without the bundle so you're really looking at about 50% of the people either picking up the PSP as 'early adopters' and probably not using it much due to the sheer lack of use so far (1 game, 1 movie, and unrefined hacked software doesn't make a iPod, GBA:SP or DS killer). The other 50% probably doesn't use their PSP much either for the same reasons...

    Not to mention dead pixel issues, returns, broken systems, systems resold online...

    1. Re:Am I the only one reading this the other way? by iamatlas · · Score: 1
      Confessions of a nintendo fanboy:


      I bought a PSP the day they came out... and 7 games. I play constantly, and when I'm not my brother is using it, and waiting for EB Games or Gamestop to get more in stock so he can make some trades to subsidize his own purchase.

      I also own a DS, and love that too. Owning both, I don't think that "x is a y killer" or that "y is an x killer" They are both fantastic consoles, only at this point the DS needs more A-list games, and the PSP needs more compelling content to match the graphics. The PSP I can forgive, this being only the 3rd week of its launch. The DS, I cannot understand its lack of more than 2-3 quality games 5 months in.

    2. Re:Am I the only one reading this the other way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      "Keep in mind it was/is nearly/completely impossible to buy a PSP without the bundle"

      Um, I can't recalling a single physical store (including EB, Gamestop, Target, Wal-Mart, Bad Buy, etc.) forcing customers to buy a bundle. In each of those cases, you could just buy the PSP (which, yes, is in Sony's "bundle", which is the only way it was released in the US) without being forced to buy a number of games or accessories.

      The same can't be said of many online retailers though...

    3. Re:Am I the only one reading this the other way? by UWC · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Thinking about Sony's official "bundle", the only really superfluous bits that came with it were the movie and maybe the headphones, though the little inline remote can be handy but could be sold as an official accessory. The slipcover and screen cloth are invaluable and should be included with even a barebones bundle, and the memory stick is necessary, though I guess the Playstation/PS2's memory cards prove that you can get away with charging people $25 extra for something completely needed by modern games in the name of "choice". What amuses me is that the PS2 memory cards are STILL $25--with the occasional $20 sale price--each for 8MB of flash memory, 4.5 years after US release. I have to wonder what kind of profit margins they have on those things.

      And I got mine at Best Buy, no extra game purchases required. Ended up with Wipeout and their last copy of Lumines, and only 2 stuck subpixels that don't bother me at all. Got their last copy of Metal Gear Acid a few days later, after someone had apparently returned it, unopened of course.

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    4. Re:Am I the only one reading this the other way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      yes, you are

      >If those numbers are right, that means people only bought one or two games to go with their PSP..

      this ign article http://psp.ign.com/articles/604/604548p1.html says that 30% of DS buyers on launch day DIDN'T EVEN BUY A GAME. psp's 1.77 games/system ratio on launch day absolutely kills DS's .7 games/system (on launch day)

    5. Re:Am I the only one reading this the other way? by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      The bundles that were referred to were made up by retailers, not Sony. Some had stupid restrictions like "you need to buy two games and an additional accessory but not any two games, no, one 'A' list and one 'B' list game!". They probably felt pretty stupid when only three people bought their PSPs...

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    6. Re:Am I the only one reading this the other way? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Again, that was pretty much an online-only deal, as no B&M stores that I saw had such a setup.

    7. Re:Am I the only one reading this the other way? by UWC · · Score: 1

      I'm not entirely sure, but I think Circuit City might have had something like that going in their physical stores. I wonder if they rationalized that everywhere else would sell out, so people would have to resort to the forced bundle if they wanted a PSP anywhere near the release date.

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      Honor Among Slackers. A veri
  7. seems like by Sv-Manowar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    it seems like these few months will be the last surge before a drop leading up to the release of the new generation consoles

    Of course the PSP sales will stay steady when the PS2 and Xbox sales start dropping to make way for the new releases.

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    Business Voyeur
  8. End of the Warcraft effect? by supabeast! · · Score: 3, Funny

    My hypothesis is that this is directly due to the majority of early World of Warcraft adopters hitting level 60, getting bored, and moving on to other games. I certainly have.

  9. my fault by Allison+Geode · · Score: 1

    yeah, i got a raise in march, also, it was my birthday. seeing as how i have no life at all, and dump most of my expendable income into gaming (and have friends who did the same, as birthday presents)... yeah, thats gotta explain the increase.