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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)
Sent from your iPad.
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.
I realize that the issues are probably mostly economic (lack of capital both to produce and buy games), but here's my spiel: I just don't see the point. First of all, the games shouldn't be that expensive to produce. At >$50 a pop, if I find that I don't like it, it's just a waste of money. Maybe if prices came down, I'd experiment more. But now, I'm more than happy to buy games that are a few years old to save $20 when I know that I'm only going to play it for a month or so.
Second of all, what good games have come out recently? I realize that it's a hugely subjective topic (I recall a topic on Slashdot a few weeks ago on graphics and video games), but honestly, all I want in a game is good gameplay and a nice multiplayer environment. And all my friends play nothing but Melee, I don't see why I'd bother playing anything else. That's how it usually ends up anyways; no matter how many games I have, Ijust end up playing one over and over again while the others gather dust. So why bother buying?
And to add to the cost, so many consoles (especially the Wii) require buying extra peripherals, which will also end up going to the wayside. It's just not worth it anymore.
I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
How long before they raise prices to $70-80 and up? I mean, it's obviously the best, no, the only way to make more money. Oh yes. The only way indeed.
I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
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.
With 1.5 million forced house-sales in the US one should be able to imagine that people have less money to spend on more critical things, like food. So I am not really suprised with this.
Personally, I haven't bought any games recently because I'm still catching up on all the great games that came out recently!
I'm re-playing FEAR 2. I'm playing FAR CRY 2 for the first time. Need to start and finish DAMNATION. Need to finish the LOST: VIA DOMUS crap-heap. Recently beat PLANTS vs. ZOMBIES. All whilst still playing TEAM FORTRESS 2.
My laundry list for games to buy is long, but I'm waiting until I finish these! I want to play TRINE, I want to buy and re-play all those LUCASARTS games that just came out again on Steam, I want to start another MMO like the new Star Trek Online or Knight of the Old Republic MMO.
This is actually a great time for games, for me personally.
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.
Stop trying so hard. The word with the obvious spelling is the right choice.
captcha: souped
Sorry to offend your sensibilities. I blame way too much network tuning and programming.
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
Diablo 2 ... Baldur's Gate 2 ... Diablo 3 ... the new Monkey Island
Ahh back to the golden age of gaming where every game wasn't a sequel or a remake of an older game.
I agree that the piracy card will be played and that we'll see some more fire aimed at Gamestop and that darned used games market. I find myself playing some old games right now... Grand Theft Auto III, Aerobiz Supersonic and Third World War. Pedantic... but the word you want is "cue". I don't understand why this is confusing... these words are not homophones. I suppose it all boils down to overthinking while typing.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
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.
Looking further would invariably produce "it's the pesky pirates".
It's a very human trait to look for the culprit outside of oneself. I.e. it's pirates. Not that I make sequels of games nobody wanted in the first place or that customers don't accept the rental system (aka SecuRom) DRM.
Produce games that people want and stop including crippling DRM that people loathe and they will buy. I just recently bought a few old games for a total of less than 50 bucks. Yes, on Steam, and yes, it's a bit hypocritical to rant about rented games when buying from Steam. But Steam offers pretty much what I want at the "price" of having it tied to my account. I can accept that. That's about as much DRM as I can live with. I don't resell games. But I expect my games to work whenever and however I want them to. Steam offers that.
Gimme what I want and I'll buy. Don't and I won't. Simple as that.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Stop trying so hard. The word with the obvious spelling is the right choice.
captcha: souped
Nah, there are just so many idiots making the "Piracy is killing our bottom line" excuse that we've decided to make them stand in line.
They should make a game of your post.
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
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.
To me, when someone says this, it implies that they either are unreasonable picky, have a very narrow taste in games, or just haven't done any looking around. If you are the first, well then there's nothing I can do for you. If you are one of those people who has decided that anything less than perfection is failure then you will be continually disappointed in life. That is just how it goes. If you are one of the second people that is fine, but then don't whine about it. If you only like like a narrow selection of games just know that about yourself, and don't say that games "suck" just because they don't all cater to your narrow tastes. In the case of the last kind of person, well then just spend a bit of time on the net doing some research and downloading some demos.
However, I'll even help you out. Here are some games I have picked up recently that are worth it. Now please note not all of them are new releases, just games that I have recently purchased:
Street Fighter 4. This is an arcade style fighting game. One of the very best ever. Great visuals, great sound, fun to play, just an all around great game. Supports online play too so you can play vs other people remotely.
Aztaka. This is a side scrolling action-RPG in the style of Zelda II and such. However it is extremely well done, modern visuals and game play and the like. Also makes very good use of the mouse for various game aspects. It isn't that long, but it is good fun and not too expensive.
Left4Dead. Zombies and guns, what more do you want? Seriously though the game has excellent gameplay and wonderful coop play. Either with friends (and it has a system making it easy to play with your friends) or with random people or just with computer controlled characters, it is a great shooter.
Command and Conquer Red Alert 3: Classic Westwood RTS game. It is a fantastic addition to the series. Gameplay is smooth, difficulty curve is good and most of all it is just damn fun. I particularly like the RA game world because it doesn't take itself seriously, it is a goofy take on modern warfare. Also the cutscenes are top notch, they got actors who really did a good job at playing it.
Assassin's Creed. Sandbox world exploration and melee combat game. As the name implies, you play an assassin. You go around, stab people, climb buildings, hide in bales of hay, and so on. A fairly well done double story line and just flat out fun gameplay.
Those are five of the more recent purchases I've made that spring to mind. There are plenty more games I can recommend that are a little older (but still in the last year or so). There's also a few that have come out that I've not yet bought because I haven't had the time to play everything I have.
There are plenty of games out there, you just need to spend some time looking or asking around. Metacritic is a good starting point, they aggregate reviews so you can get a feel for how the response to a game is over all and thus if you maybe want to spend time looking at it more in depth.
If you don't mind using a controller rather than a keyboard (I never really enjoyed using a keyboard), you can find a lot of these games for the 360/PS3 a lot cheaper. You can buy Left 4 Dead for ~$30 used easily if you have a few gaming shops nearby, and same with Fallout 3. The thing I hate about Steam (besides all the things about PC gaming) is the fact that their prices are so expensive. For example, the Orange Box which I can pick up for about $15 costs twice as much, and if you just want to play a certain component it costs almost as much as the collection itelf (Portal, while a pretty fun game, isn't worth $20). About the only benefit is you get the SDK so you can mod some things but thats still $15 more.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
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.
I'm sick of seeing games priced at $59.99. I can wait until they hit ~$30 and buy them then.
How do you work around "DNAS Error -103: This software title is not in service" once the publisher has pulled the plug on, say, a PS2 game's matchmaking servers after a year or two? Or do you stick to single-player or sofa multiplayer? And how long do you expect to wait for Nintendo's Earthbound to become affordable again?
Sequels were developed differently back then, typically by nearly the exact same team that worked on the first. Now we have sequels being outsourced to other developers, see the Call of Duty series for a prime example, and BioShock 2 for an upcoming one.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
While a lot of good points are made in this discussion, the central point is mostly missed. Reading headlines in the past few days, I've seen that manufacturing is down, sales are down, homes are being repossessed, people are out of work, hell, I am out of work. I've been working reduced hours since the new year, they finally laid be off 3 weeks ago, and no one knows when things are going back to normal. The wife has been working reduced hours since last thanksgiving. Money is tight, in my house, and in every house that I know of.
I'm quite certain that a lot of slashdotters have pretty secure jobs, and they can continue to purchase such trivial things as games. But, the economy really does suck.
There will be an article coming out in a few months, revisiting this same subject, but it will be "Game sales are down for the second half of 2009". Many of these same posts will be made, "Well, they haven't RELEASED anything in the last half year that's worth PLAYING!" But, a more people are going to put two and two together to make at least one (probably correct) conclusion: "The gaming industry has also been hit by the recession, they've had layoffs, fewer people are investing money in gaming, overpaid executives have been let go - people don't have the time or money to waste on gaming."
Those of you who haven't felt the recession in your wallet yet just MIGHT consider investing money in the economy, rather than wasting your money on some new game. Of course, it's your money - do with it as you please. But, when YOUR job is outsourced to China or India, you may wish that you had spent more wisely.
My two cents, anyway.
Me? I'm not dangling at the bottom of the food chain, yet. But, I seem to be slipping downward right along with most of America.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Didn't treat us PC gamers like Dog Shit we would be buying more games. I can say that while I once looked forward to buying the "big gun" games (Far Cry, Bioshock FEAR,etc) at release I know refuse to buy any game that isn't in the bargain bin.
Why? Well besides the fact that they started charging $60+ a pop which is just insane in a dead economy, the biggest reason is this: I am using a 64bit OS, namely XP X64. Despite all the horror stories about incompatibility I have found even my old Win9X era software runs quite well in 64bit. Of course with 4Gb of DDR2 going for around $40 and graphics cards with 1Gb of RAM going for $50 32bit simply didn't cut it for me anymore. So what is the problem you say? Well, while the games all run beautifully, with nary a glitch or hiccup, the &^%$^&%$&^%$ DRM doesn't work in 64bit!!!! See how in the video above how the poor guy sticks the retail disc in the drive only to get "Please insert disc in drive"? That is pretty much every stinking game for me. Meanwhile the pirates get the games prerelease with no DRM and no bullshit. And they wonder why sales are down? Maybe if you would quit kicking me in the balls I might buy more of your damned product!!!!
So now thanks to their wonderful DRM I simply don't buy release games any longer. I have found so many companies are putting out alpha quality code that even if you can find a crack at release often there will be a patch released quickly that you simply have to have to actually use the game, and who knows how long it will be until the patch is cracked? So instead I wait until the game hits the $30 and below shelves, with $20 and below being the magic number for impulse buys. I have found by that time they have released pretty much all the patches they are gonna so I can just Alcohol the game onto DVD along with the patches and crack required to actually play the product I PAID FOR so that when I feel like going back and playing again I have all the required files in one place.
Maybe we will get lucky and this recession will teach game companies to stop acting like giant douches with crap like Spore style limited installs, DRM that is nastier than any trojan (and if you have ever had to clean a PC that is infected with Starforce+Safedisc+SecuROM you know how nasty they can be) and in general treating their paying customers like dog shit who should be grateful for any alpha quality code they deem worthy of dumping on us. Sadly instead they will just scream "Piracy!" and treat us paying customers even more like shit, probably screw the console gamers with nasty DRM tricks that kill Gamestop, and generally spit in the faces of those that actually try to support them by buying their products. Meanwhile the pirates will laugh their ass off with their release day PC games and modded consoles and think those of us that pay are total idiots. And with the way game companies treat us they kinda have a point.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
All of the gamers I know play games as much as ever, and while the economy has affected many of us, gaming for the most part isn't a very expensive hobby, so very few of us are spending less for that reason. What we ARE doing is spending it in different places.
The numbers can be explained by:
1. The huge popularity of MMOs. Most people are active in an MMO put around half of their gaming time into it, at ~15 bucks/month. That means for the other half, you're more choosy as to what you're willing to buy - and it does also mean you're spending less over all. Very few $50 games are played for more than 1-2 months, but MMOs are usually good for several... a few years in some cases.
2. Webgames and Flash games becoming popular. These ARE profitable games, but there's no buying involved, as they're usually ad-supported instead. Time spent on these games is time when SALES are down, but PROFITS are not.
3. The fact that "US" is in the title. I've been seeing a lot of innovation from KOREAN MMO developers, but basically none from US ones - everything over here is yet another WoW clone, which means I've spent a grand total of 0 on US online gaming this year, and a good amount on Korean. Regular games are slightly better off, but even there, Japan seems to be making most of the games people are actually playing.
4. The fact that It's no secret that EA destroyed most of the US gaming industry, and it never really fully recovered. People were buying mediocre crap when there wasn't anything else to buy, but as translations get better and better, we're simply taking our money elsewhere. (See also: US car industry)
5. Indie gaming has become a significant part of the market... and likely not a part that's being polled for this article's numbers. Again, when the overwhelming majority of the big gaming companies suck, we don't stop gaming, we just take our business elsewhere.
The industry is doing fine, it's just a few crappy US companies that happen to be 1)Huge and 2)Failing. No one will miss them if they finally collapse, and once they do, new companies will replace them - ones that actually produce games we want to play. In the meantime, the rest of the world is supplying us just fine - as well as the US through indie and other side channels.