NPD: September video game sales drop 8 percent

[Mojo Jojo]

From Reliable News :

NPD: September video game sales drop 8 percent

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY (AP Technology Writer)
Originally Published: Thursday, October 14, 2010
Updated: Thursday, October 14, 2010

NEW YORK (AP) — In grim news for video game companies, market researcher NPD Group said Thursday U.S. retail sales of game hardware, software and accessories fell 8 percent in September to $1.2 billion.

Game hardware sales tumbled 19 percent to $383 million as fewer people bought Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles. Only the Xbox 360 sold more units during the month than it did the same time a year ago. Citing NPD figures, Microsoft said it sold 484,000 of the consoles, up 37 percent year-over-year.
Nintendo, meanwhile, sold 403,000 of its handheld DS systems in the U.S., and 254,000 Wii consoles. Sony would not disclose how many PlayStations it sold during the month.
Software sales were also down, dropping 6 percent to $614 million, though analysts were expecting a slight increase. Microsoft blockbuster "Halo: Reach" sold 3.3 million units, but it wasn't enough to lift the category. Other top-selling games included "Madden NFL 11" from Electronic Arts Inc. and "Dead Rising 2" from Capcom USA.
Jesse Divnich, an analyst with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, said he had expected software sales to grow 3 percent. Part of the decline could be attributed to "Halo." The game is so popular that the rest of the industry was afraid to go up against it and did not launch big titles last month, he said.
NPD Analyst Anita Frazier said while retail sales showed a decline, "it's important to remember that there is a growing volume of content being sold digitally, or otherwise outside the traditional retail channel."
That means more people are downloading games and buying extra content — though most video games are still sold in brick-and-mortar stores.
Game accessories were the only category to see an uptick, boosted by Sony Corp.'s new Move motion controller. Best-selling accessory was the Xbox Live 1600 point card, lets users pay for movies, games or extra game content through their Xbox 360 consoles. The Network Card for the PlayStation 3 came in second. Both cards cost $20.
Despite the sales decline, shares of GameStop Corp., the world's largest video game retailer, rose 43 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $19.25 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed down 43 cents at $2.23.

 

[TheForce]

I'm not a real gamer enthusiast but I do own the PS3 and XBOX360. I also own about a dozen games and have game pass monthly rental from Blockbuster.

Here's my take on the Game industry- Two main reasons I feel Gaming is not going to expand much-
1. Cost- Games are too high to generate good sales. They need to lower the price to $14.99 or thereabouts and the sales may increase 5 times. All the games I own I paid under $20 for. ( used or wait for the sales.)
2. Not enough creative themes. Look at what we have today:
1. Combat themes
2. Race car themes
3. Sports themes

Wii may open up some new themes for me but the other platforms could use some variety. Hopefully the Kinect and Move will spur this limitation into new territory for XBOX and PS3.

 

[Derwin0]

A lot of parents may be holding off game purchases for Christmas. There's a couple that my kids want that will wait until then.

 

[Zookster]

I hear you. I just had a birthday in September, and since there was nothing that I wanted that had come out since Madden 11, I saved my gift cards for a couple of purchases in Oct.

I agree with Don Landis, games are expensive, but there are a lot of ways around the prices, including waiting 6-12 months for the price to drop, renting (e.g., Gamefly), or sticking with one retailer (I use Amazon) and taking advantage of pre-order bonus credits, trade-ins, and frequent buyer rewards programs. It's all a matter of priorities. There are some games that are worth a $60 day one purchase to me and others I wouldn't pay more than $20. As far as creativity, I think Move and Kinnect will help a lot, but for me personally, I find a lot of fun and unique titles on the PSN (I'm sure Xbox has many too), and those games usually only run me $5-$10.

 

[Ramy]

I think everyone is waiting to buy games for Christmas.

 

[kikenovic]

Its TVs fault, I don't have the same amount of time to play.
Up until the recent release of Sonic 4 (which is not that great btw) my Wii was just collecting dust. On the 360 I've only been playing Madden.
I agree Amazon is great for buying games, even without the rebates, no shipping and no tax is awesome.

The lack of new consoles of course adds up to the problem. As a customer I love not having any new consoles lurking around. I remember how crazy it was back in the 90's.

 

[meStevo]

Our Wii hasn't been turned on since November. I expect Kinect to basically replace it as an occasional 'well lets try some weight loss video game gimmic again' platform.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

October video game retail sales slide 4 percent

From http://www.reliablenews.com/e41066-october-video-game-retail-sales-slide-4-percent:

October video game retail sales slide 4 percent

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY (AP Technology Writer)
Originally Published: Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, November 16, 2010

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories slipped 4 percent in October as demand for most gaming consoles declined from a year earlier, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.
Overall game sales were $1.07 billion last month, down from $1.11 billion in October of last year, NPD said on Tuesday. Year-to-date sales were down 8 percent at the end of October, at $10.57 billion.
"Keep in mind that these sales only reflect new physical retail sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement. "While down, there are revenues being generated from digital distribution, used game sales, rentals, social network games and mobile applications to name a few."
Hardware sales tumbled 26 percent to $280 million from $381 million a year ago. With the exception of Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, every gaming system saw a decline in unit sales, NPD said. The Xbox sold 325,000 units, up 30 percent year-over-year, Microsoft said.
Sales of game software, meanwhile, climbed 6 percent to $605 million from $573 million. The basketball blockbuster "NBA 2K11" from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. was the month's best-selling title. It was followed by the shooter "Fallout: New Vegas" from Bethesda Softworks and "Medal of Honor" from Electronic Arts Inc. The number doesn't include "Call of Duty: Black Ops," which went on sale Nov. 9 and shattered the entertainment industry sales record held by its predecessor, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2."
Sales of game accessories jumped 18 percent to $142 million.
Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo of America, said in a recent interview he expects Nintendo to do well during the November-December holiday sales period.
"Last year, we sold close to 50 percent of hardware on (the holidays)," he said. While Nintendo is not planning to cut the price of the $199 Wii, Fils-Aime added that some retailers are doing this on their own as they work to lure shoppers into their stores.

 

[Heavie]

It's funny they seems to base game sells on the hardware. It's will come in time when hardware will decrease, because everyone has the hardware and the game will have to sell on it's own.

This is my opinion, so don't beat me up. I feel console slows down video game improvement. For example xbox360 launch in november 2005 and now with kinect launch november 2010. You will be looking at 8 -10 years on a console. Already there are plenty of games that's pushing the hardware to the limit. Soon the ideas of the developers will become limited, because of the hardware.

At one time a lot of these games that is released on console would be pc exclusive, because console hardware specs was limited and could not handle the games. PC games pushed for newer and faster video cards, cpu and memory. Newer and faster pc hardware push for better games from the developers. But now making game, for a 5 year old xbox360 or a 4 year ps3. Developer knows not get to crazy with graphical ideas, because they know both console limits.