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March Game Sales Trend Downward
kukyfrope writes "This is the third consecutive month video game sales have declined from their marks in respective months from last year. March 2006 sales are down 18% from their marks in March 2005. Are gamers saving for expensive next-gen systems or are there a limited number of games worth buying?" From the article: "The estimate also reflects $122 million in sales contribution from new platforms (Xbox 360, PSP and DS) representing year-over-year growth of $58 million (the PSP and DS were available last March), which was unfortunately more than offset by a steeper decline in sales of current generation software (-33% or $157 million)."
Probably because Wal Mart controls modern game design (or so I've read... somewhere).
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Dearth of games while developers switch all their production teams to the next generation of consoles that aren't out to much of the market yet.
...seriously, this is exactly what happens during this time. I don't see how this is surprising.
News at 11.
Shhh, busy playing Oblivion. Talk later.
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
As long as the 'Game Sales' keep on counting just the amount of game boxes sold in stores, and do not include ;
- MMO Subscription fees
- Online game purchases via Steam, Direct2Drive etc digital downloads
They will get continuous slide well into future, and lots of 'OMG! SKY IS FALLING!!!oneone!!1111' articles. Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics, as always. 5 Million people paying 15$ a month to Blizzard (in addition to all the other MMOs collecting subscription fees) must show somewhere - that's 75 million dollars a month, WoW alone - and there are plenty of others out there.
Actual gaming dollars spent is not changing, however it's shifting towards online services & downloads. If you have stock in brick & mortar games retailer, you should dump it now. It's a deadend business destined to go only down.
(Grossly overpriced 'next gen' console games are not helping either. XBox 360 looks fine, but 70 euros (inc VAT) per game for 'quick action' style title that you enjoy at best a few weeks = no FCKING way. Never)
"Dude, that's brilliant, blame PIRATES!"
"But wait, we already have ridiculous goat-choking copy protection in games!"
"But dude, PIRATES!"
(assorted "Oh, yes, pirates!"; "Of COURSE!"; "Brilliant!")
"But wait, couldn't it just be that our games all suck a-*THROTTLE* *CHOKE* *GAG*"
The problem with your idea is that it makes sense.
You know I'm in the "not buying lots of games anymore" dept too, but what I think people overlook as they enter that stage is that for every one of us that moving on to other things, there's someone who's getting their first job at McDonalds and having $50 to $100 a week of free cash, which means they're now buying 4 games a month and a lot of DVD's and CD's (instead of us).
It's not like we were the last generation of people to ever have time to play games, there will always be someone to take our place. What is really indicated by this kind of article though is that either:
Never fear, come next spring sales will be up again.
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Are you saying that you are the last generation in existence? Just because your generation is getting too busy with school doesn't mean there isn't another younger generation ready to take its place.
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