(GamesIndustry International) Madden NFL 13 and Mists of Pandaria can't revive flagging retail business
Another month, another terrible report about the performance of video games at retail. The NPD Group has just sent us the data for the September period (technically five weeks from August 26 through September 29), and to no one's surprise, the report showed total industry sales down 24 percent to $848.3 million. Hardware sales plummeted 39 percent to $210.9 million, while software sales (including physical PC titles) fell 14 percent to $547.3 million. Accessories also dipped 11 percent to $139.9 million.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)
I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..
If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"
Microsoft: "why's that"
Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'
Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk
It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
INDIE Live Expo, Japan’s premiere online digital showcase series , will debut never-before-seen games & content updates across more than 100 titles on May 25th.
That's surprising. Given the 360's nearly 40% drop year over year, I expected the entire industry in the US to be down more in line with that figure given how the 360 dominates the US.
Edit below: The 360 is the only example at this point. No other hardware numbers are known yet, but we know the 360 dropped from 438k last year to 270k this year, it's worst Sept in the US since 06. If you've got another example of hardware data, by all means, provide a link. Not that it matters to my point. If the PS3 were down 80% this year in the US, it doesn't have the marketshare of the US so why would I take that as an indication of overall US sales trends? Clearly the 360 being dominant in the US it's a better indicator of the health of the US market than it's competition. And it's sales are the lowest we've seen in years, even though the 4gb 360 is routinely going on sale for $149 currently. At this rate surely MS will get the 360's successor out sooner rather than later.
Dang, I spent more than 300 bucks in new games (admittedly it was a Borderlands 2 Loot Chest and a Street Fighter Anniversary set) in September and it didn't help much. The fact that it dropped so much compared to September 2011, and I can't remember anything that released then concerns me... because either the industry is in trouble or my memory is prematurely deteriorating.
Wii U will perk things up.
Console Gaming is Almost Dead to Me, Just like PC gaming
Wow! The Xbox 360 held about 50% console market share for yet another month. Very happy to see the brand continues to trounce the competition as it approaches its seventh birthday.