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US Videogame Sales Have Biggest Drop In 9 Years
alphadogg writes "The recession appears to have finally caught up with the video game market. Sales of video game hardware and software were down by around one-third in June compared to the same month last year. After initially showing positive growth as the US slid into recession, the latest figures mark the fourth month of declines and the largest year-on-year decline in almost 9 years. 'The first half of the year has been tough largely due to comparisons against a stellar first half performance last year, but still, this level of decline is certainly going to cause some pain and reflection in the industry,' said Anita Frazier, a games analyst with NPD Group. She added, 'The size of the decline could also point to consumers deferring limited discretionary spending until a big event (must-have new title, hardware price cut) compels them to spend.' The entire video game market in the US was worth $1.2 billion in June, down 31 percent from the same period last year, according to NPD Group."
June was a dry month for video gaming. Not many good games were released (except for Infamous).
Well, I'm glad to see someone's correlating a drop in sales with the recession. If the history of the MPAA/RIAA is any indication, the game industry will claim OMG Piratez! and ask congress to pass whatever bill they want to make it punishable by death to pirate a game.
My work here is dung.
Watch.. this will turn into a big "See? Piracy is ruining the gaming business" blamefest... It's easier to blame piracy rather than crappy game design.. Of course, I'm sure the economy is playing a part as well. Although, from what I've read, people are reluctant to give up their hobbies, even in the face of a bad economy.
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
Money's tight. And honestly, I'm sick of seeing games priced at $59.99. I can wait until they hit ~$30 and buy them then. I'm long past the time when I HAD to have a game as soon as it releases.
So yeah. Lower the price of the games at initial launch, you'll make more sales....IMNHAAO (in my not humble at all opinion)
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I don't believe NPD keeps track of used game sales, and a lot of gamers will be turning to Gamestop, Ebay, and Amazon to pick up used games there instead of buying them new. I've personally been buying more used and even selling a bit of my collection as there seems to be a lot of buyers out there (and of course, more sellers).
Games are too expensive to keep buying new. I let the suckers do that for me.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Most of the games that are coming out, suck.
Plain and simple. The problem with developers is that they are confusing great technology with great games. They can go hand in hand, but largely speaking -- games need story, innovation, depth. I played Defcon a few years back and was amazed at what innovation was put into such a small game.
Too bad the only thing developers do is give us some form of a shooter lately, and change the graphics and call it amazing. Bioshock had a good story, but that was like 2 years ago already.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
I wonder how many there are like me who started renting games due to so many disappointing releases. Gamefly has saved me far more than it costs with games I might have bought and wound up not enjoying. I've been buying more used games as well. And I'm not even suffering to any real extent from the current economy. It's purely the result of too many "Holy crap, I spent $60 on this turd?" reactions.
seriously ... I'm not surprised. What happened to innovation? Most games now are all sequels to previous games with better graphics or newer engines than the previous release and the principal is still the same. Where is the cutting edge ? Something new that hasn't been done before ? A must have, giving the player full control of the virtual world . I think back on earlier rpg's for e.g. The player was actually allowed to input text instead of choosing from some stupid presets. Think of this with today's technology. In the end its not really the development studios its the damn publishers and other companies funding development studios so they can have their ads on startup screens and rape the profits.
a 1 month sample size? As a gamer, I can say that I had disposable income this month and wanted new games for my 360, but didn't see anything worth my $60. I ended up buying some games that came out last year used from Gamestop. You would also expect hardware sales for the major consoles to be declining, as they've been out for so many years now. There's nothing in those numbers that makes linking this to the recession, anything more than a random guess.
The phrase is a reminder that two events may not be linked, not proof positive that they're not. You don't measure below-average rainfall during a drought, and then say "Let's keep in mind, other factors could be at play than a drought!" A drought IS an extended period of reduced rainfall, by definition. Similarly, there is no question that low sales are linked to a recession, because they define a recession.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Yes, but the industry dropped prices with to move to optical media...and then promptly raised prices again because they added so much more content! I think the industry needs to realize that games don't all have to be 80-hour works of art with 20 different endings, all packed into that $59.95 wrapper. Give us games in the $30-50 range that have maybe 10-15 hours of game play, and I think players will flock.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Here's a suggestion...
Try selling the fucking games for more than 45 minutes.
Seriously, instead of the normal price-dropping sequence, one thing I'm seeing a lot lately (mostly in niche games) is, after the really SHORT period where no one buys a game for $60, they just stop shipping it entirely!
A few months ago, I actually paid $65 for a USED copy of Ar Tonelico since I'd missed news of its release and no one had it! Not gamestop, not amazon... it's nuts.
I've never gotten why people like that comparison metric. I mean I understand wanting to compare to how you did last year but at least to a 6 month rolling average. Games do not come out on rigid schedules, it isn't like "On the 4th day of June each year a massively popular game WILL be released." No, they come out when they are done, particularly in the case of better games. So you have to look at the sales over a period of time, like 6-12 months. If less games are sold for the whole year of 2009 than 2008 then yes, clearly there is a problem for the game industry. However if one month is down, so what? Maybe it just means that something people really want slid a month.
I know as a gamer I don't go around saying "Ok, it is time to buy my May game," I buy games when one I want comes out and I've got time to play it. That could mean I buy 3 games in a month, or that I buy no games for 3 months. It all depends on what is coming out when, and how my time is looking. Currently, I'm having to hold off on purchasing more games because I have too many, I've got a backlog. I bought games that I haven't yet got around to playing. Did that with Fallout 3. Picked it up not long after release since I love Fallout and it was on special. However, other than playing the intro, I haven't got around to it. Not because I wasn't enjoying it, just because I've been playing other things. However I want to play it, and I will, it is just an issue of time.