Videogame Industry Suffers Massively Multiplayer Sales Decline

John Paczkowski — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:50:09 +0000

If the latest sales data are any indication, the videogame industry may be headed for a rough holiday season. NPD Group reports that revenue from consoles and software plummeted during October, falling 16.4 percent from September and 19 percent year-over-year. It was the industry’s seventh consecutive monthly decline.

“The continued economic turmoil, and in particular the troubling unemployment rate, is undoubtedly impacting industry sales,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Our latest Economy Tracker indicated that although consumers’ general opinion about the economy is improving, their outlook on their own personal situation is worsening. If consumers’ personal outlook continues to erode, they could very well be much more conservative with their holiday shopping this year.”

A somber warning for the videogame industry. Even recent price cuts on game consoles have done little to spur demand.

“Year to date, the hardware category has experienced the sharpest decline in the industry, with unit sales down 10 percent compared to the same time period last year,” Frazier wrote. “Recent price cuts helped spur a one- to two-month increase in unit sales, and this month’s Wii sales reflect that boost, but the other platforms have not sustained the sales momentum after price reduction.”

The videogame industry may be recession-resistant, but it is clearly not recession-proof, as some once believed. Sales data, below.

U.S. Hardware Sales, October 2009

Wii 506.9K

Nintendo DS 457.6K

PlayStation 3 320.6K

Xbox 360 249.7K

PSP 174.6K

PlayStation 2 117.8K

U.S. Top Ten Software Sales, October 2009

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, Sony) 537,000

Wii Fit Plus (Wii, Nintendo) 441,000

Borderlands (360, Take 2) 418,000

Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) 314,000

NBA 2K10 (360, Take 2) 311,000

Halo 3: ODST (360, Microsoft) 271,000

NBA 2K10 (PS3, Take 2) 213,000

Forza Motorsport 3 (360, Microsoft) 175,000

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS, Square Enix) 169,000

FIFA Soccer 10 (360, Electronic Arts) 156,000

New From Activision: Guitar Hero III–World Recession

John Paczkowski — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:35:48 +0000

In a month when some 533,000 jobs were lost nationwide, Americans bought an astonishing amount of videogame paraphernalia–$2.91 billion worth, according to market research outfit NPD Group. That’s a 10 percent increase over November 2007. Shipments of Nintendo’s Wii for the month totaled 2.04 million, while those of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox came in at 836,000. Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 3 ranked a distant third, with shipments of just 378,000 units. Said NPD analyst Anita Frazier, “With $16 billion realized for the year so far through November, the industry is still on pace to achieve total year revenue of $22 billion in the U.S.”

A remarkable metric, given the economic downturn. How is it that gaming is thriving at a time when the global financial crisis is squeezing wallets? “There are a couple of reasons,” Ron Meiners, director of community for the Hollywood Interactive Group, recently told News.com. “One is the traditional value of entertainment during tough economic times. Like the great fantastic musicals in the 30s. Movies did great, because they took people’s mind off of the troubles they were facing. [And] videogames have great value as entertainment. The number of hours of solid entertainment that comes from a videogame purchase is much greater than a movie, for example, for very comparable cost.”

Digital Daily » Anita Frazier

Videogame Industry Suffers Massively Multiplayer Sales Decline

New From Activision: Guitar Hero III–World Recession