(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.
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.
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.
"The best games of the year and the creative teams behind them were in the spotlight at the grand award ceremony of the German Computer Game Award 2024." - German Computer Game Awards.
Sure buddy... You're trying to tell me it has a deeper story than goat 🐐 simulator 4000?!?!?. I wanna give bg3 a shot but my brain is burnt out on long games
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.