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2005 Game Sales Set Record
Despite a Holiday slump, 2005 game sales hit all-time highs. Gamasutra reports: "The growth was largely driven through an expanding market for handheld systems. Previously dominated by Nintendo's Game Boy series, 2005 saw the market expand to comfortably support three handhelds: the existing Game Boy Advance, Nintendo's 'third pillar' in the Nintendo DS, and Sony's PlayStation Portable. Portable software sales rose to $1.4 billion, a rise of 42 percent over 2004. The Game Boy Advance, due to its longer lifespan and greater install base, still took the majority of the handheld game market, claiming 52 percent of portable game sales."
Didn't you hear? PC gaming died a few times last year.
I know this will sound fanboyish, but without the DS and its strong sales (along with the GBA), the average would have been a decline. The PSP does not exactly have a strong software line-up. And console sales have been dwindling.
From the article:
"Total sales for the year were over $10.5 billion, an improvement of six percent over 2004's $9.9 billion and narrowly edging out 2002's $10.2 billion."
This does not mean there are more customers now than before. It simply means people are paying more.
The PSP is more than $200 (with $50 games). The Xbox 360 is $400 (with its games $60). And the DS costs more than a gamecube.
Development costs are going up everywhere (except for the DS). So this 'extra money' will probably not counter the increased costs it takes for new software.
In 2006, the PS3 will cost at least around $500 with around $60 price for games. And PS3 games will not be cheap to develop.
The measuring stick for the games industry needs to be actual gamers, rather than how much money is being spent. If everything costed twice as much and there were less gamers, the article would still say, "Games market had grown!" when, in fact, it actually shrunk.