As he probes May's U.S. console retail results, Gamasutra analyst Matt Matthews starts with hardware, asking why console sales figures slumped 20% year on year to $241.5 million for the month.
i blame the lack of original massive selling new IPs.
sure sony have 21 IP's but the really original new ones havent been steller sellers.UC2,gow3,gt5 sequels and seem to be more focused on the graphics and halo,GoW etc.
personnally the best game i have played in years is RDR.
no originality anymore.its like the movie industry..every new movie is a rehash of something else.
cant blame the price.£40 in the uk since the master system at least.
wot does this mean:'It would appear that PS3 sales have increased so much in the first five months of 2010 that the system has generated roughly the same amount of revenue, despite the price cut'
There hasn't been a consistant flow of good games. They are coming out in buunches. GOW3, ME2, Heavy Rain cluster. Followed by Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, Modnation Cluster and NOTHING in between.
I just think the scheduling of the releases is more to blame than anything. When 3 or 4 awesome games come out within 2 weeks of each other, in today's (American) economy you are forced to make a choice. Not every body can buy 2 or 3 games at once.
Games I bought this year:
Heavy Rain God of War 3 Modnation Racers MLB The Show '10 Red Dead
Games I missed that are on my list :
Bioshock 2 Dragon Age Origins : Awakening Lost Planet 2
the industry isn't doing itself any favors with $60 games, 3D this and motion control that. i can see how the hobby could be utterly confusing for a newbie to break into. companies forget that the average consumer is an absolute dope.
i've been gaming for almost 25 years, even i'm starting to get confused and overwhelmed.gaming would be in a much healthier state if they'd just get back to the basics.
Progression needed but you have a point. Between the different skus with different features, going full throttle with motion controls and 3d consumers may get confused. Also the economy really is still in bad shape, so money isn't easily leaving people's hands.
back in the "cartridge" days, game prices got up to $60-$80 each, and suddenly the gaming industry started to stall. Then Sony introduced the $30/$40/$50 tier system and like a nuke, console gaming exploded again. Then this gen, we get hit with every game being $60 regardless of it's true value and gamers rush to the bargin bins... while the professional anal-lists are confused as to why gaming is in a slump.
Good Games at Good Prices. Want me to buy your product, give it a good price. It's a basic fundamental rule of economics.
your trippin games average 50 bucks in the 80s. only a few games went above that. Games stall becuz nothing was new. then in 94 3d game started to hit homes
There are a lot of reasons why it was down over last year. 1. More people out of work compared to last year. 2. People didn't go on holiday last year and spent more on entertainment instead like gaming and saved up on for a holiday this year. 3. The economy is still not recovered and people are spending less and taxes have increased as well as food prices.
There are a finite number of consumers, and with each new console purchase, the pool of possible consumers shrink. The more people who have bought an item, the less people there will be to buy it.
It's a common sense thing. But, I dunno, maybe Americans just don't get it. I can't see any other reason to justify this huge 3DTV marketing blitz to sell more TVs. Obviously, HDTVs will stop selling like hot cakes once a lot of people own them. It's common sense!
only if your near the total population which we aren't even close to. You lack common sense!!! even hdtvs will still need to be sold why? becuz early adopters tvs will start to break down.
Everything isn't gonna be on a high horse forever. You have ups and you have downs. People have less money to spend. Most of us are finding more value in older purchases. I still play my old Total War games and Sins of A Solar Empire for hours. Not many great games worthy of the 60.00 price point (on the console side of things).
I really hope we dont see 70.00 games next gen.
Dev costs need to come down dramatically so that game prices can follow.
No games are getting localized, thats why. The ps3 has about 10 games comign out this month in america, 6 are crap......so why are we suprised sales are down?
I bet more people are buying thing online or at Walmart, which the NPD cannot accurately predict. I started buying all my games online, since it's a hell of a lot cheaper.
"1930s era unemployment?" unemployment in the 30s was 25%, its only 9.5% now. besides, the recession end over a year ago and infact console sales where better last year during the recession then this year when the economy is growing again.
People are more than willing to buy luxury gadgets and toys. Look at the recent Ipad and Iphone sales, those are flying off shelves. the economy is much improved over last year and yet console sales are going down.
This gen console sales have peaked, there are only so many gamers in the world and the people that are hardcore gamers already have their 360s and PS3s and the casusals already have their wiis.
"People dont have as much money" really, recent Ipad and Iphone sales say otherwise. Its because consoles sales for this gen has peaked, look we are already 5 years into this gen, those who are gamers pretty much already have their console.
The recession ended last year, infact console sales where better last year during the recession then they are this year when the economy is growing again, i think thats why the gaming industry is scared right now. Because despite a improved economy from this year to last year, game sales are still sinking.
There will always be products that fly off the shelves. But the Ipad and the Iphone has nothing to do with console gaming figures does it? You're talking about new products that have nothing to do with this article being released.
Games are a different thing, someone only has so much money to spend on games. A person who wants a single product is going to put off buying other products to get that single product.
games need to be 39.99 49.99 like last gen .Plus more innovation more new ISP to much over use squeals .KOF 13 13 FF 13 FF 14 COD Black OP aka COD 7 . There been 5 CODs this gen. COD3 COD 4 WaW MW2 Black OPs that to many.
id say high prices for new games nowadays at least on the wii platform all are like $49.99 any higher than that then it =s usually becuz something comes with the game like a peripheral, controller, etc. i wud think that i could have bought more games if ps3/360 games costed less. $60 + 8.25% sales tax is a bit much... one of the reasons why i own more wii games than ps3 lol. that and dev costs for making a game that must go down $60m-$120m (i dont remember someone plz remind me) dev cost for GT 5 is way too excessive. i wudnt be suprised that the end result for that game dev's end being it costing at $70 just to cover the costs.
So it's the Wii's fault.
the industry isn't doing itself any favors with $60 games, 3D this and motion control that. i can see how the hobby could be utterly confusing for a newbie to break into. companies forget that the average consumer is an absolute dope.
i've been gaming for almost 25 years, even i'm starting to get confused and overwhelmed.gaming would be in a much healthier state if they'd just get back to the basics.
This is the longest console generation.
There are a lot of reasons why it was down over last year.
1. More people out of work compared to last year.
2. People didn't go on holiday last year and spent more on entertainment instead like gaming and saved up on for a holiday this year.
3. The economy is still not recovered and people are spending less and taxes have increased as well as food prices.
There are a finite number of consumers, and with each new console purchase, the pool of possible consumers shrink. The more people who have bought an item, the less people there will be to buy it.
It's a common sense thing. But, I dunno, maybe Americans just don't get it. I can't see any other reason to justify this huge 3DTV marketing blitz to sell more TVs. Obviously, HDTVs will stop selling like hot cakes once a lot of people own them. It's common sense!