Ben-DutkaThe industry slipped again in October, but at least the b-ball fans got their fill.
According to the latest NPD results for the period ending October 27, the industry pulled in $755.5 million, which is down from the full $1 billion enjoyed in the previous year. That's a 25% drop, unfortunately.
But NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan noted a slightly brighter future for the holiday season, as several consoles managed to rise in sales: The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, NDS, and 3DS. Callahan calls this a "sign of increasing momentum" and let's also not forget a few important factors: Assassin's Creed III was undoubtedly the biggest game of October but as it launched on October 30, it wasn't included in last month's NPD. And we know it sold 3.5 million in its first week. And oh yeah, Call of Duty: Black Ops II is coming.
As for overall hardware sales, they came in at $187.3 million, a plunge of 37% compared to October 2011's haul of $295.9 million. But at least accessories continue to rise, as they went up 5% in October. Well, by now, most people who want a video game system have one, so the only thing left to buy is accessories (and games). Seems logical enough to me. And as far as games go, NBA 2K13 topped the October charts:
By the way, Dishonored sold nearly a half-million (460,200), which isn't bad for a new IP. …still wish it was a little higher, though. It's just so damn good and hopefully, it'll be on many a Christmas list.
WTF?! Only HALF a million for Dishonored?! After THAT reception across all media, dominated all headlines, metascore through the roof? How is that even possible? Good grief…
<speechless>
Last edited by Beamboom on 11/9/2012 11:42:15 AM
It's a shame but it came out when there was a lot going on. High MetaCritic games usually sell well through out the year. I believe this great game will get it's sales after the holidays are over. I see Dishonored selling well especially after May.
Sadly, this industry is rapidly becoming very sheep-heavy. The masses only want things they recognize and new IPs don't count.
You have to remember, casual gamers outnumber the hardcore by about a 10:1 ratio at this point.
Gamers like to hide in what is comfortable or has sequels. New IP? I'm scared!
Surely there must be more than half a mill true gamers in this world who know to appreciate a release like this!? it's one of *the* essential releases of this whole friggin' YEAR!
I Am Shocked. Seriously. Shock of the week. This is so depressing I wanna cry.
Last edited by Beamboom on 11/9/2012 2:20:08 PM
It seems to me that new IP's have it best when there's new hardware there to go along with them. Looking at many of this gen's most prolific games it would seem the titles that birthed during this gen still carry the most weight today, given that they were rated well.
I wouldn't doubt that something like Dishonored could be as popular as Assassin's Creed if it was Dishonored that launched in the place of AC at it's present time.
Perhaps this longer, more drawn out, generation has somewhat contributed to this lackluster desire for newer IP's because so many have found complacency in the familiar and aren't necessarily looking for new titles to entertain their time on hardware that seems to have most of it's boundaries drawn out for themselves.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 11/9/2012 5:13:12 PM
But look at other new IPs! Look at Amalur who sold, what, 4.5 mill wasn't it? That's almost TEN TIMES as much! And it didn't get anywhere near the same reception as Dishonored!
There gotta be something wrong here. This doesn't add up.
people dont like buying new IPs simply because they dont know what to expect!
especially when you cant afford to buy many, what are you going to do go buy something you may not like or go buy something you know you will?
this is exactly why developers need to get demos out before release so people can actually try it!
cant believe how much demos have declined, i mean not even 2 years ago almost every single game use to get a demo!
now were lucky if 1 out of 20 do!
i mean out of ALL the games releasing in october and november how many actually received a demo?
from my memory only forza horizon, F1 2012, and epic mickey 2s demo released this week.
thats it!
so of course people are going to shy away from new IPs when they can only buy say 3 games a year, and theres 5 they know they will like because their all sequels.
I am interested in how the Vita will be doing after Christmas. I hope we see a huge spike in sales due to the awesome and long ACIIIL and bundle. Also Declassified will sell even if it's mediocre at best.
It would be nice to see the PS3 finally over take the X360 as well. I did my part this fall/winter as I am broke right now. I ordered 2 Black Ops II for my step-son and I and LEGO LOTR PS3. I won't be buying another game until well into January. I have such a huge back log so it will be ok.
I hope Dishonored gets boosted a bit over Xmas, it deserves more sales.
I'm gonna go buy Dishonored as gift at *any* opportunity from today on and up until Christmas. Dishonored across the entire board. No exception.
I don't accept this!
@Beamboom
Nice, that is a great idea. It truly is a special game.
I've been thinking about the video game market as a whole and how it's supposedly slipping.
Compared to what exactly is it slipping? Is it compared to historic highs? I know that year on year comparisons are down – though considering the economic and political uncertainty in the US over the last couple of months, the NPD numbers might be unsurprising.
I think there are three elements to what I am thinking about. The first is the perspective that reminds me that games selling many millions of copies was not the norm in the PS2 generation. But the environment today has publishers less willing to do anything other than taking the safe option – because games that don't sell millions of copies are considered failures.
The second element is the massive popularity of a small number of games such as Call of Duty, and the sheer time sucked into those games. Gamers playing 20-40 hours of CoD a week don't buy other games while they are still playing CoD daily. Such players have neither the time to play other games, or the need to purchase them.
The third element is a combination of gamer fatigue and the influence of casual gaming. Playing one game for a year or more can leave a player jaded and tired. They may move on to another activity, or play some casual games to refresh, either way, that fatigue lessens their desire to play other games on their console. Over time I think this will get better though.
I think that as the shooter bubble bursts, gaming will normalize and publishers may remember that not all games sell 20 million copies. Shooter fans will eventually tire of their chose game or genre and branch out.
Personally I think that the industry needs Call of Duty to stumble badly, and an increased diversity of games from all publishers. At the same current gen console prices need to settle at or below $199 and the next generation consoles need to come at the end of 2013 priced at $399. The lower prices will generate a few more hardware sales, more hardware = more software sales. More diversity and greater number of games = more sales. Players having more time to play other things = more sales.
That's the biggest problem I see with the increasingly better technology. Games cost so much to make on new hardware now versus the past that you have to sell tons to make enough profit, and you have to "sell out" to sell tons.
There's got to be a better way.
Another problem I've seen concerns the fact that some games are launching around the same time-frame of each other.
And with the economy being as bad as it is now, and money being so much more tighter that it ever was, it winds up gamers are having to use more of a "pick & chose" sale method, rather than just having 1 game out at a time where that gamer's whole focus is solely on that 1 game alone.
That's why I think the gaming industry would be much better off if they'd only get together & form some sort of 12 month launch schedule so there's not 2, 3, or more game's that are eating each other out of getting much more immediate launch time sales.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 11/9/2012 5:48:27 PM
A lot! of folks were unable to get past the Published by Bethesda.
The same Corporation thats treated PS3 users like garbage.
How many copies did Dishonored sell on the PS3? My guess not much…
of course itd going to be down from previous years, we really havent had as many games this year as we had the previous years.
nor have they been half as good!
the past few months have been a real strong indication that developers are bored and really want to move onto next gen systems.
before i was really skeptical i thought it was too early to move on.
plus why would you release new consoles when you have big name games like MGS and amazing new IPs like watch dogs?
but i guess were just going to see allot more of what we saw at the start of this gen, allot of games going for both platforms.
dunno if thats going to hurt next gen systems though, i mean theres going to be a large portion of people who are going to say why spend 500+ on a ps4 so i can play watch dogs when i can play it on my already owned ps3?
hopefully the leap forward in tech will justify that, will make people say wow that is so amazing i MUST go get it!
instead of why get a new console when thats all it offers.
but if rumours of late are accurate than sadly that is looking exactly how it will end up.
more of a eh its not worth the upgrade, than OMFG thats amazing!
which is exactly why i really think they should hold back a bit longer.
that way hopefully the market will be stronger so there will be more interest for it, and hopefully companies will be stronger so they can afford it, and the tech more advanced and also cheaper to manufacture.
exactly why im so interested to see what happens with the wiiu.
see how hungry people really are for a next gen system.
i just hope it does not light the fire and trick M$ and $ony to sell their systems early., last thing we want to see is another wii on our hands!
id damage the industry allot more if were having to release another replacement in 4 years time simply because these ones just were too little a upgrade.