US game sales down 29% year-over-year in July

[Matthew DeCarlo]

According to a recent NPD report, US game sales slipped 29% during July, marking the fifth straight month where sales were down by double-digits. The industry (hardware, software, accessories etc.) earned $848.90 million in July, which is down from $1.19 billion in the same month last year.

Software sales were lower than anticipated by analysts, sinking by 26% to $436.99 million. Hardware as a whole fell 37% to $280.94 million, and accessories brought home $130.97 million, a 12% dip. Nintendo has fared the best, claiming both the first and second spot in hardware sales, as well as the first in software. The company shipped 538,900 units of its DS handset, 252,500 of its Wii console, and took seven out of the top ten software sales positions.

Microsoft moved 202,900 Xbox 360s and held two spots in the top ten software sales, with NCAA Football 10 taking number two at 376,500 copies. Sony's three systems consumed the bottom of the hardware sales list, shipping 122,800 PSPs, 121,800 PS3s, and 108,000 PS2s. They sold 237,400 copies of NCAA Football 10 for the PS3, enough to snag number three in software sales - their only position on the list.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/35826-us-game-sales-down-29-year-over-year-in-july.html

 

[OneArmedScissor]

It must be all those pirates!

Or, the video game industry could stop rehashing the same #*&$, and maybe *gasp* people would be more inclined to buy it!

Seriously, NCAA Football 10?!?

 

[Guest]

Yeah, let's all blame the pirates and forget about the huge lack of quality games these days. Let's ignore the badly coded, unoriginal games being sloppily ported to every console and PC. It's all those damn pirates dragging sales down and nothing else.

 

[waqasr]

I think there are couple of factors involved in the decline
1. Recession
2. Quality games
3. Game prices
4. Some what piracy as well

 

[red1776]

OneArmedScissor said:

It must be all those pirates!
[B]Or, the video game industry
could stop rehashing the same #*&$, and maybe *gasp* people would be more inclined to buy it![/B]

Guest said:

Yeah, let's all blame the pirates and forget about the huge lack of quality games these days. Let's ignore the badly coded, unoriginal games being sloppily ported to every console and PC. It's all those damn pirates dragging sales down and nothing else.

or guest, you could read the whole posted comment and not just be selective about what you want to see

 

[Guest]

its ok everyone is just waiting for windows7 because we think it wont be loaded with antipiracy spyware, but just wait it will but this time microsoft has spent billions in a campaign to lie that it doesn't, so after a few months everyone will upgrade and start buying games that can actually run on their new computers, god bless the WTO!

 

[Guest]

Many IT professionals in the video gaming industry are considering transferring to the medical simulation industry. The gaming and simulation IT skills are the same, so it is easily transferrable. Games for Health Project shows worldwide sales for health-focused games such as Wii Fit, EA Sports Active and Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution have totaled USD $2 billion over an 18 month period. The prospective job growth in the medical simulation industry is strong too. An IT recruiter wrote a great post about this too - www.ITHireWire.com

 

[Darkshadoe]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_economy_33

Its not just the gaming industy. I think wasquar hit the nail on the head.

 

[Darkshadoe]

"The industry (hardware, software, accessories etc.) earned $848.90 million in July, which is down from $1.19 billion in the same month last year."

OK..whos the guys pirating mouse pads? lol

 

[yukka]

Modern Warfare 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Assassins Creed 2, Forza 3, Fifa 10, Pro Evo 2010, Halo 3 ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, Rock Band Beatles, Wolfenstein, Guitar Hero 5, Ghostbusters..

More games to buy in the next 4 months than in the last 4 by quite some margin. They may be mostly sequels but they are quality IPs.

 

[VonDisco]

Yeah March-July time always seems to be very quiet for quality games, then it picks up again after the summer. Can't wait!

 

[TomSEA]

Crap games = crap sales. Get some decent games out there and sales figures will be fine.

 

[Guest]

I've been reading here for a while now and decided my first post will be anonymous.

let's face it guys, there's not a lot of heavy must have titles out. wii sports resort comes with a heavy hand of having to buy one more motion++, guitar hero 5? we're on 5 already? Starcraft II was last year predicted to come out around this time. Sales would have went through the roof not seen since the sale of burning crusade for the pc platform.

Fact is there's just not that many must have titles that got launched within the last few months. We all knew for a while now that Q3/4 was where we were going to get our gaming fix for quite a while. I'd say since Q1 that's for sure after Arkham Asylum got delayed.

 

[9Nails]

yukka said:
Modern Warfare 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Assassins Creed 2, Forza 3, Fifa 10, Pro Evo 2010, Halo 3 ODST, Left 4 Dead 2, Rock Band Beatles, Wolfenstein, Guitar Hero 5, Ghostbusters..

With the exception of GhostBusters, I get the Dejavu feeling for all of these games. I may have overlooked Batman, but only because any game attached to a movie gets an instant black mark on my list.

Oh, and speaking of Dejavu, Blackmesa: Source is expected to release this year. WOOT!

 

[tengeta]

Its not my fault that playing a Dreamcast game for a third time is funner than 99% of these "new" games a first time.

 

[red1776]

i have to ask. i see lots of people complaining that games are two expensive. if thats the case, then what should the price be and how do you arrive at that? i just saw COD WaW is $49.82.....what should it be?

 

[yukka]

9Nails said:
I may have overlooked Batman, but only because any game attached to a movie gets an instant black mark on my list

ah -it's not based on the film. It's a good replayable original story loosely based on the graphic novel and they seem to have put a lot of time in based on the demo. Definately a purchase for me. What's black Mesa source? I like halflife

 

[yukka]

The price of console games seems about right to me. The drop in price soon enough if you want to wait

 

[Tha General]

I haven't bought a new card or a game in general since mid last year, i just don't feel like buying any game right now and play with what i have. As for PC games, i usually buy about 10-15 of them when i go out shopping for a game, in the budget section of course, haven't done that in a while tho.

As to why video game sales are down, there are alot of reasons. One of them being, not stupid so called Recession, but sales drops all the time, but because people are not only out of work ( not due to the Recession ) but also, because people have more important things to take care of as for bills ( not because of the Recession ).

But again there are other reasons also, but things will pick up come holiday time or whatever.

 

[waqasr]

hmmm

i have to ask. i see lots of people complaining that games are two expensive. if thats the case, then what should the price be and how do you arrive at that? i just saw COD WaW is $49.82.....what should it be?

COD WAW should be around $25 IMO. I saw it at that price last weekend.
I own the game (got it free with my video card) but i only play the zombie mods.
There is a reason why that game is going on sale for $25 within 1 year of its release. So basically the price depends on the quality of the game.

 

[LinkedKube]

One of the basic principles of technology is that its suppose to make things cheaper with new innovation, but we'll never get to that point any time soon I dont think, although I do think pc's have come a very long way in that aspect.

The recession is significant, but our debt in the U.S is "something trillion." When its that high it does effect the rest of the world. By the time we get out of this slump. I'll be 50something(30 years from now) and we wont care for game sales.

I remember back in 96-2000 Nintendo and Sony put out great titles at least every 3-6 months, ultimately having 1million+ sales in multiple titles in a year. I know you remember when nintendo sold games like 007, starfox, waverace, mario cart for 29.99 after they sold 1m copies. And now we glorify games that break 1m sales like gta4 and others, when the funnest part about the game is blowing sh&*T up.

Man, where has our gaming industry gone. The last title I bought was mirrors edge, its good, but just too damn short. So I'll stick to my pc titles, like I know a lot of you will.

 

[Guest]

Pirates can't be blamed for console games sales drop, since there still trying to hack those mostly.