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. "

Comments

It was my fault, sorry.

[Rude Turnip]

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.

Re:It was my fault, sorry.

[keltor]

My guy at EB told me a little story ...

The reason they aren't getting that many copies of each 360 game ... cause they didn't sell well enough in the first place.

Next Gen Consoles

[mexter2005]

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.

The more relevant question is...

[__aaclcg7560]

Are there any new games out there worth buying when they're not in the bargin bin already?

Re:The more relevant question is...

[chrismcdirty]

Super Mario Strikers (Gamecube)

I thought it was already March

[Eightyford]

NPD Analysts predict that game sales for February will be much lower than hoped-for

Crazy me. I thought it was already March.

MMO effect?

[__aaitqo8496]

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.

Re:MMO effect?

[__aaitqo8496]

Even prescribing to your suggestion of 5%, that's still a significant amount amount of revenue a company could lose out one. Let's do a little math:

WoW active subscriber base: 6 million
Percent of hardcore players: 5%
Total active hardcore players: 300,000
Cost of a game: $40 (this is very conservative)
Total potential lost revenue: $12 million

If we increase the cost of a game to $50 (a much more realistic amount), the revenue jumps to $15 million. However, I don't think the cost of a game is really a variable here. I think the real problem lies in the 5% assumption. While this may be accurate for those that are hardcore players (and do not much else), another very large subset of players falls into the "doesn't play much else" category: casuals. Why? Becasue they're casual. They only play an hour or two each night, maybe not every night. This is typically because they have additional real life obligations. This would suggest they don't have time to play yet another video game.

I think the percentage of World of Warcraft players that don't play other games on a regular basis is much higher than 5%.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments?

March

[the computer guy nex]

March will be an absolute monster

Fight Night Round 3, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Burnout, College hoops 2k6 for 360, etc.

Gee, never saw this coming.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

WoW

[Scarblac]

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.

New Monthly Headlines...

[rts008]

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.

Game Overload, Time Restrictions

[hattig]

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.

Steam

[glenrm]

I bought Half-Life 2 through Steam and paid for a month of City of Heroes. Does NPD track this these kinds of purchases?

What's coming? (Maybe an Ask Slashdot...)

[wandazulu]

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.

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 /. 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).

In short, you (the game industry) got nothin', and now we all know it.

Re:What's coming? (Maybe an Ask Slashdot...)

[Retroneous]

You own a Gamecube (and a Gamecube only), of course you can't see what's coming.

There were hundreds of titles out just before Christmas, and nobody could have played every single thing that they liked the look of, surely?

The UK's February release schedule is just as bad, but it ALWAYS HAS BEEN. This isn't news for Chrissakes. Every year, the industry suffers a massive downturn in February. Christmas shopping covers Nov/Dec, then January sales cover January, then February has...well, a bunch of crappy Gameboy Advance compilation packs and sod all else. Then March perks up as everyone prepares for the Easter/Summer holidays...

I expect March to be slower...

[EvilCabbage]

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.

Re:My PC game purchases have declined

[snuf23]

Your right, it would have been much more fun to keep playing WoW. Like all that fun I was having with:

1. Running the same content over and over again in hopes of maybe getting an item that might drop
2. Waiting in a queue for an hour to even get on the server to play
3. Sitting around waiting for hours in game for a chance to play a PVP battleground for 5 minutes
4. Doing repetitive faction grinding quests over and over
5. Enabling, disabling, updating my UI addons for every little patch that Blizzard releases
6. Running through the exact same lower level content for the third or fourth time with an alt

I'm sure EQ2 has plenty of these issues at the high end and I'm sure I'll quit when I get annoyed at it. Right now there are tons of quests for both solo and groups, new zones and dungeons to explore, solid combat and a good player community.
Oh wait, I'm sorry SOE is the devil incarnate and Blizzard is capable of doing no wrong.