Posted on 03/11/2010 7:42:02 PM PST by Slyscribe
The video game industry posted another disappointing sales month in the U.S. in February, with revenue down 15% from a year ago.
Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories totaled $1.26 billion, vs. $1.48 billion in February 2009, the NPD Group said late Thursday. Sales of game consoles took the biggest hit last month, with revenue down 20% to $426 million.
“Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Nonetheless, strong new releases, and Easter gift-buying bodes well for industry performance in March.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...
economy soured. people stayed home, game sales soared.
Now economy really bad, even video games are too extravagant for a lot of people.
How long will there even be a middle class with these fools running the country?
I sometimes used to play video games, but frankly I think they went downhill. I like puzzles and inventiveness. And there’s very little of that. The graphics got better and the games got worse. It’s been several years since I even bothered to look if there was anything new worth lookng at.
One out of five adults is unemployed and they’re surprised that $50 impulse items aren’t selling?! Really?!! I can’t even afford to get my old PS2 set fixed right now...
I absolutely love playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 online. That is the only game I play. My kids play several others such as Viva Pinata, Assassins Creed, Halo(3, Wars, ODST)The new Battlefield looks like the next biggie...
If you liked the old LucasArts adventure titles, several of those have been revived by TellTale Games. Still no new Space Quest or Full Throttle, though.
How many game boxes and consoles do people have to keep on buying? Good grief. That’s DISPOSABLE INCOME stuff, and it isn’t a big wonder why sales are down a lot.
Substitute “restaurants”, “travel”, “gambling”, “tax revenue” all in for “game industry” and you’ll have pretty much the same story.
Also, standard price for games this genertion (Xbox 360/PS3) was bumped $10 to $59.99.
If you like puzzles, let me recommend Portal. Great graphics, but very inventive and great puzzles. You can get it for PC/Xbox 360/PS3, and it was just announced for the Mac as well.
The economy is part of the problem, for sure.
As a part-time gamer and full-time dad, I can say much of the problem has to do with oversaturation of the marketplace. 3 consoles to choose from with competition also from PC’s and Macs. Ipods, MP3 Players and Cellphones tend to take away some of these discretionary entertainment purchases as well and with fewer dollars chasing goods, some major player has to be shaken out of this marketplace, eventually.
Thats true too.
Notice how MetroPCS and Boost Mobile are benefitting from the bad economy. Sooner or later, if it keeps getting worse, people won’t even be able to afford those.
If you play online with real people its like a different game every time. One game can last a lot longer than if you had no online.
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