John-ShepardYeah, not much happens during the summer.
But even less is happening in the gaming industry this summer. According to the July NPD tally , the US game business came in at $548.4 million, which is a 20% drop-off compared to July 2011. It's also the single worst month for the gaming industry in this country since October 2006.
The top seller for the barren month was EA's NCAA Football 13 ; it was also the only new release to crack the top 10. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes was #2 on the list, and that was followed by The Amazing Spider-Man , Just Dance 3 , and Batman: Arkham City . As for hardware, the numbers were down 32% to $150.7 million, but at least accessories showed a minor improvement, up 8% to $136 million. Subscription cards and those unbelievably popular Skylanders action figure packs helped that number, apparently.
So will the industry rebound in the fall? Well, probably, but maybe not to the extent some believe. NPD analyst Anita Frazier had this to say about the end of the year:
"Based on year to date sales, and taking into account the release slate for the back five months of the year as well as the anticipated launch of the Wii U, annual sales for the new physical channel should come in around $14.5 billion for the year."
If that prediction comes true, it would be a 15% decline when compared to 2011's total retail haul of just over $17 billion. See, too many big titles got pushed out of this year, which makes the first quarter of 2013 awfully interesting but still doesn't do 2012 any favors.
Well at least maybe it means people (kids) are getting outside more and staying active. I personally have not been playing many videogames during the summer due to outside things and currently the Olympics.
For all the criticism the olympics receive, one of the good things it does is inspire kids to go outside and run a bit.
The Olympics are just an impediment to my 24 hour news cycle.
lol @ World!
Well, not at him exactly… err… you know…
Last edited by PoopsMcGee on 8/10/2012 12:17:32 AM
Lol World, the Olympics have come and are almost gone… didn't think about them at all. Sport is not a great interest to me; but I feel one is not alone here… life is too busy as it is to keep track of more, let alone the Olympics…
When time permits, I find the winter Olympics more exciting – faster, harder and more spectacular…
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Last edited by Qubex on 8/10/2012 12:45:27 AM
That's because nothing came out in July. I mean I know summer is quiet but usually there's at least one good title that releases in July or end of June.
I think we had inFamous 2 last summer.
Well this summer we had Star Wars Kinect! We got last summer SOOO beat.
Not surprised one bit, and I expect it get worse.
Why? I recently read that close to 100 million people in this country are on federal welfare.
That tells me that purchasing video games isn't a priority in the USA.
Shame really.
True, nearly 100 million people are on some kind of assistance program. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening at a rapid pace.
Sometimes I really do worry about the state of gaming. The demand from gamers is a good thing for driving creativity, but a bad thing for driving up the cost of making games.
Consider this: If we still had the PS2 and Xbox1 but there were just more games at a lower cost, there might be much more profit involved.
These days you can sell 2 million copies and still go broke. Even our current hardware is barely profitable at the very end of their lives.