Slashdot Mirror
February Game Sales Flop
Some financial news from the gaming industry today; NPD Analysts predict that game sales for February will be much lower than hoped-for, down eleven percent from last year. Take-Two Interactive, the publisher for studios Rockstar and Firaxis, posted a loss of $29.1 Million in their first quarter, which ended at the end of January. Not everything was doom and gloom. Newly linked Bioware/Pandemic did great in 2005, with more than 28 million games sold. From that 1up piece: "Neither company has laid out much of their plans for the next-generation consoles, though BioWare's brief showing of their planned Xbox 360 trilogy Mass Effect suggests the companies are poised to be just as ambitious on the coming consoles as ever before. "
Well, they don't call this month Febturday for nothing.
My game consumption was down to zero in February because all the local retailers were telling me that they'd be getting the Xbox 360 in regular stock come March. I put a permanent freeze on my PS2 game purchases as a result. Then March came and I bought the 360 and a couple games, with a couple more purchases likely to follow.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
We're seeing the effects already. The analysts were right!
The fact that we have two different next-gen consoles coming down the pipeline can't possibly be helping game sales. That, and the quality of the games.
Are there any new games out there worth buying when they're not in the bargin bin already?
NPD Analysts predict that game sales for February will be much lower than hoped-for
Crazy me. I thought it was already March.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
I know that console and PC gamers tend to be different breed, but could the huge success of WoW be a contributing factor to declining revenue in the game industry?
Blizzard's intent is to continue thier current subscription by introducing long-lasting content. With 6 million users, does anyone else think that this could have a definitive effect on other games (both PC and console).
It's not called Warcrack for nothing.
Game sales for February were possibly down in part because: there weren't many good games released that month? Or was that the point? /stayed at a Holiday Inn last night
VOTE!
March will be an absolute monster
Fight Night Round 3, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Burnout, College hoops 2k6 for 360, etc.
RF Online. I am so sorry I did. (and I can't get a refund after using the key).
Other then that BF2 + Special forces (because my other disk was stolen).
TBH I have stopped buying games. I have budget for 2 MMO games. At the moment its COV. But looking for another to play as well.
I wonder if this has anything to do with cramming every single AAA game title into November's release schedule?
It's like the other 11 months of the year don't matter.
This is nothing special, half the gaming market is now addicted to World of Warcraft, and has lost contact to the physical world. Analysts expect this effect to become smaller in a few years, though the market will probably never go back to what it was, considering the number of starvation casualties expected.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
My big purchase for February was Cubivore. Used. Waiting on two things at this point: Spore and a Revolution. I may pick up Chibi-Robo, but my schedule hasn't been game friendly lately.
How does their first quarter end in January? I don't know of any insustry where the fiscal year begins in November.
There has been nothing released in the recent months that has been a "must have". No one wants to buy your shitty games, take that as a hint and try something new and innovative game companies. Oblivion will probably be a big seller, but there's been basically nothing for the PC. I can't speak for consoles as I don't own one. That and with all the current and upcoming MMO's, its not really surprising.
I guess we might as well get used to seeing this from now on:
every month= game sales down, **AA crying that movie profits are down and music sales (CD's) are down, none of them can get a clue I guess, a lot of are tired of DRM, high prices, and slipping quality and us sheep are looking for better pastures.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
I've got too many games from last year (and before) that I haven't got around to playing seriously.
Why would I buy more now?
Let me get through those games, or at least get my money's worth from them. Then I'll think about new games. By that time the Revolution will be out anyway, and I'll only have time for games that provide immediate fun.
I'm growing increasingly bitter towards them. Yes, Dragon Age is still supposedly coming for the PC, but other than that, it seems as if they have completely abandoned PC gamers for X-BOX land. Jade Empire will never be coming our way, and it seems as if the same will be true of Mass Effect - even though it's a first-person oriented game.
I bought Half-Life 2 through Steam and paid for a month of City of Heroes. Does NPD track this these kinds of purchases?
Onward to the Aether Sphere!
Since I started playing MMOs. I played City of Heroes for almost a year, then moved to WoW. Played Wow for close to a year, jumped over to City of Villains for a few months and now I am playing EverQuest 2.
I still play other games besides the MMOs, but my purchasing frequency has gone down. I probably buy a game every other month now, rather than 1-2 a month two years ago. It also takes me longer to wear out a single player game because of time spent with MMOs. I've barely scratched the surface on Civ 4 and am only about halfway through Quake 4. Both games I've had since Christmas.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
As a GC owner, I'm looking forward to Zelda Twilight Princess, but other than that, I can't think of any other game I'm supposed to be looking forward to or is making any kind of movement on the Excite-o-Meter. DNF? I gave up looking forward to that years and *years* ago. Shenmue 3 (yes, I played and loved 1 & 2)? Who knows if that will ever see the light of day.
/. have been along the same way; lots of retro talk, but no buzz (planted or not) about anything. Anything! We're in a stasis; the 360 is here but there's nothing exciting coming down the pipe, the PS3 has been delayed, taking whatever launch titles we were hoping for with it, and the Revolution...well, that thing is so nebulous I can't even form an opinion of it (controller notwithstanding).
The malaise stretches across the board: Nobody's talking about a new GTA game (GTA: Akron maybe?), no Dooms or Quakes or Half Lifes, or even Katamari Damarcys; no AAA titles to make me even inquisitive.
Comments on
In short, you (the game industry) got nothin', and now we all know it.
How about Galactic Civilizations II? Three editor's choices from GameSpot, GameSpy and IGN. Yes, I work for Stardock, but it's still a cool game. :-)
during February, I bought:
1. Sims 2: Night Life - for my PC, as an upgrade to Sims 2: University
2. Sims 2 - for my xBox, since it's different in the console version
and guides for both (games at EBX, books at Barnes & Noble).
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I won't be able to afford new games until at least April!
Well, I did get the game legally, but I didn't exactly buy it because I got it for free when Drengin.net transitioned into Totalgaming.net. But I would've bought it anyway if I wasn't getting it for free.
... but companies that track new game purchases will almost certainly not count the money I spent, because it went into second hand games and private purchases on eBay.
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
Also Crysis, BioShock, Gothic 3, Heroes of Might and Magic 5, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Spore, Dreamfall (Longest Journey 2), Disgaea 2, Half-Life 2: Aftermath, SiN Episodes, Neverwinter Nights 2, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Hellgate: London, Sam and Max 2, Unreal Tournament 2k7, and Rise of Legends.
Just to name a few, mostly for PC.
Are sales in general down, or just sales of the cookie-cutter crap that the big studios have been pushing out? In Australia, February was a great month for games - Ico finally got a re-release, along with We Love Katamari and Shadow of the Colossus. Shadow was the most-sold game on the platform in the week it released, and Shadow and Katamari are sitting at #3 and #4 on the charts this week too. I know that Australian sales are a drop in the ocean overall, but this trend seems to be going on throughout the PAL territory.
Down here in Australia, we're two weeks away from the Xbox 360 launch (23rd March it hits shelves). The console itself is going to set us back AU$649.00 and games are an average of AU$120 each.
One hundred and twenty fucking dollars? Give me a break. I had a hard enough time justifying a game at $80 or $90, but to bust out a three figure pricetag is just ridiculous. I've got a "good" job, my wife and I have plenty of disposable income and we're both quite enthusiastic gamers but we've just been priced out of the market quite frankly.
If people with a few grand a month to basically throw away are being put off by the cost of this "next gen" crap, what's that going to do for the guy who will need to spend two weeks of his income just to pick up the console and a couple of games?
I really do hope the 360 launch flops down here, it sure as hell deserves to.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Half-Life 2: Aftermath
Plus Metroid Prime: Hunters is supposed the be the DSes Quake
Both ET:QW and MP:H, judging by their reviews, have the potential to be the FPS of the year.
Supreme Commander might turn up soon too if we're lucky.
I quit!
...here I come!
I predict that the Saturn and Dreamcast will flop, Nintendo will dominate the handhold market, Microsoft will eventually enter the console business, and Duke Nukem Forever won't make it out in 2002!
(Silly me, I always thought that predictions had to be made before the fact, this changes everything!)
Sendou Wave Kick!!
Sequel Round 3,Sequel Advanced Warfighter, Sequel: Oblivion, Sequel, Sequel 2k6 for 360, etc.
I don't care about that shit. You don't care about it. No one does.
There are some games I want to buy, but haven't because I'm shit outta money. None of them are in the list you mentioned. Those games are Animal Crossing and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. One has the unique feature of WiFi play (and also a nice touch-screen interface to a game that sorely needs it), and the other is the only law simulation I know of.
I'm also looking forward to Brain Training, and I'd probably get Elektroplanton if I didn't have Garageband on my laptop right now.
All those other games? Yea, I've got some form of them in my collection already, and those are free.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
as soon as Duke Nukem Forever comes out, game sales on all platforms will soar to new unexpected heights. Guaranteed. In related news, DNF is expected to ship with new Phantom consoles.
Did you actually look at the release lists for February. Not much of any actual interest was released in February. Fight Night Round 3 and Grandia III, and maybe Brain Age if it was actually released in Feb, are the only things I can recall. It's a bit of a slump month, nothing to see here. Look forward to March, where it's just started, and I've already purchased 2 games (both DS of course, but there's actually something to look forward to this month).
just some guy
Agree. See my name XD
"Hm. I'm entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows." - Captain Picard
**AA will blame it all on piracy. Everything. Every time. It doesn't matter if they've just released less CDs in the same proportion, or they just had two months of crap movie releases that noone wants to watch, or whatever. It's those damn pirates. Why, surely our latest movie with bad acting, bad directing, and a cliched script that's a verbatim clone of a prescribed recipe, why, it must have been secretly a great success. Surely millions, nay, _billions_ of people were just dying to see it, and only piracy kept them from going to the cinema.
/. last year, IIRC. Well, ok, phrased less stupidly, but that was the gist of it. Someone was dead surprised that people talk to each other.)
(To be fair, though, they do occasionally have candid moments when reality and common sense hit them upside the head. A la the "whoa, people SMS their friends that the movie was crap. Who would have guessed it? We were so sure everyone takes _all_ their information _only_ from our marketting." kinda interview that was linked to on
The games industry also has other scapegoats. E.g., it was WoW. Surely the only reason why noone bought our game is that they were playing WoW. E.g., we didn't astroturf enough message boards, publish enough screenshots (surely 1000 wasn't enough), and buy enough ads-disguised-as-reviews. Surely that's the only thing the competition did better. E.g., it's the PS3. Verily, the only reason why people didn't buy our game is that they're waiting for the PS3.
Basically both will blame someone else, but the games industry members still point the finger at each other too. The game industry still doesn't have an *AA kind of cartel, so they don't have to be careful about stepping on each other's toes. So Nintendo blames Sony, Sony blames Microsoft, and all 3 blame Blizzard. The *AA on the other hand, acts as a block, so whatever arch-nemesis they have it _must_ be something from outside the block.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
...but then I returned it because I got bored with it, having seen everything it had to offer in just three days. So I guess that doesn't technically count as a sale.
You must think in Russian.
... but not the finish-in-one-week variety. I play MMOs like EVE Online, and have been for about three years now, as well as the odd other MMO that comes out here and there. I can't tell you how much persistent games like these have cut into my purchases of games such as Black, that latest Star Wars RTS, etc. I'm just not interested in playing a game that I can potentially finish in a low single-digit number of weekends, then shelve or trade in for a few measly bucks at EB and get another of the same.
Lets see, the most recent game I've bought since maybe Half-life2 has been Dungeons and Dragons Online. Technically, one can powerlevel like mad in that game and max their character out in days, but the fun of it is in playing with good groups, taking your time, and enjoying the experience. I've been playing it for now over one week, have seen a tiny percentage of what the game has to offer in total (I work for a living, thus cannot spend 8 hours a day playing games as much as I'd like to), and have had nothing but fun.
Most people I've talked to who've bought Black have become bored with it within HOURS, much less days. And they wonder why people aren't rushing out to buy it.
Anyway, my main point is that I, and presumably a bunch of other folks, are thoroughly playing games and enjoying their experiences in games such as EVE, WoW, DAoC, EQ2, the list goes on. These statistics only ever describe boxed copies sold, but it'd be interesting to see them combined with subscription-based games.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
If, by the end of the month, anyone who owns a 360 doesn't have Ghost Recon Advanced Warfigher, they are obligated to raise their hand when someone asks, 'Who here has had their head stuck in a hole?'. I am in no way a GR fanboy from the past, but this game really *is* next gen, and the buzz behind it is just starting and will be huge.
"I guess we might as well get used to seeing this from now on:"
The number of geeks having sex are down. Apparently confusing condoms are to blame.
Lets see: Rainbowsix Lockdown SWAT 4: Stetchkov Syndicate Star Wars: Empires at War Battle for Middle Earth 2 And, those are just the ones that I can think of, off the top of my head. Jan was an ugly month, but Feb was a great month.
do you work for EA or something? At any rate, Penny Arcade's response is certainly luke warm at best. No campaign multi-player co-op you see. Hell, I'm more excited about God of War and GT 4 hitting greatest hits then Ghost Recon:AW. I guess it is hard to imagine someone with a 360 without it though, there just isn't that much out right now. The EA sports games in particular disappointed me what with their shacky framerate. I haven't been impressed with a sports game since Sega's first Dreamcast NBA game. Well, I guess there was Fight Night Round 2.
I don't know, I was kinda hoping for more from the 360 launch. Not that I expect miricles, but I miss those little touches in launch titles where you can see the programers playing with the new hardware. Like the big sprites in Revenge of Shinobi or transparecies in Super Mario World or the water effects in Dark Cloud. I Didn't see a lot of that on the 360. Just higher res and more polygons. King Kong was pretty amazing, but not any better (or worse) than the PC version.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Never thought of that before