Video game sales down 16% in the U.S.

[Justin]

Gamers just aren't feeling the market right now -- at least in the U.S. -- with sales declining in recent weeks, and NPD citing that the video game market has dropped a massive 16% in the previous month. Calculating hardware, software, and accessories, NPD claims the worst of it is actually over and that the holiday season will be a boon to the market.

That is great news for companies like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, who have seen a 25% decrease in hardware sales from a year ago. Game developers have it just as bad, with software sales down 15%. Only one segment of the video game market has actually increased -- accessories. That's an interesting footnote in an otherwise dismal period for the gaming market, as it can be interpreted in many ways.

Strong accessories sales may indicate that gamers are satisfied with the titles they already have, so they are more likely to buy additions for their games and consoles. On the flipside, they may just be displeased with recent releases and are spending their money elsewhere. Neither situation will keep manufacturers and developers happy, though, as they bank on a substantial improvement across the board over the next few months.

Sony has already demonstrated this with the hefty price drop in the PS3, and Microsoft has continued to nurture the Xbox's evolution. Meanwhile, many big-name developers are in heavy preparation for the coming months.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/36186-video-game-sales-down-16-in-the-us.html

 

[TomSEA]

Once again for the hard of hearing - crap games equal crap sales. Looking at Metacritic ratings, in the last several months there have only been 2-3 games that have scored higher than a collective score of 90. And even those are niche games like Street Fighter IV.
This has been one of the driest years for good games I've seen in quite a while. After all the Mass Effects, BioShocks, Fallout 3s, CoDs, GTF IVs, Team Fortresses, etc., it's just been a crap year. All the good game releases have been small, indie releases like Plants vs. Zombies & Braid.
I'd suggest the gaming companies start paying more attention to the games they're producing than the bottom line. They'll get their $$ if they start putting out something good.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

Maybe if games didn't cost $60 each, people would actually have enough money to buy them...

 

[gingerbill]

all the good game's have sold very well though , the quality products like fallout 3 and mass effect and left4dead have sold by the bucket load . Also there hasn't been a big title realesed in the last couple of months , but there are some big title's coming up in the next few months that are bound to sell millions i.e marvel 2 , dragon age origins and halo:ODST. I agree with tomSEA that alot of the good game's have been small indie titles.

 

[bullzi]

I gotta say I haven't been gaming as much as I used to. Money being one problem and there just haven't been that many ground breaking games out lately.
Seems like we're changing the face and graphics of games, but not adding any new special features.
Hopefully CODMW2 will put some pep in the gaming communities step. We shall see..