Is the gaming industry in trouble? Not by a long shot, but July 2011 represented the worst month the industry’s seen since October 2006. What went wrong? Many things, get the full quencher below the break.
“There is no getting around the fact that video game sales in the new physical retail channel suffered its lowest month since October 2006,” said the NPD’s Anita Frazier. “Despite the very rough month, new physical retail sales are down just 4% year-to-date and based on seasonality trends observed over the last 10 years, which have been remarkably stable year-in, year-out, industry sales in this particular channel are poised to land in the flat to -2% range once the total year is completed.
Although there was a decrease in each video game category contributing to the whole, the category with the greatest dollar decline versus last year was console hardware, which was caused by a decrease in unit sales as the average selling price for console hardware was essentially flat to last year.”
According to Frazier, “New physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories accounted for 69% of the total consumer spend on the industry in Q1.”
Across hardware, software, and accessories, PS3 and Xbox 360 were the biggest contributors of physical media compared to last year. All other platforms saw declines.
“The platforms that contributed a greater portion of new physical retail dollar sales as compared to last year were the Xbox 360 and the PS3. The other platforms all declined in their contribution to sales compared to last July. This same statement holds for year-to-date sales as well.â€
Hardware saw declines on all platforms compared to last July, with the same statement holding true for year-to-date sales as well.
Xbox 360 Decline
“This was the first month that the Xbox 360 saw a year-over-year decline since December 2009. This is more of a reflection of robust sales last July, which was the biggest month for unit sales of the 360 in 2010 outside the holiday months (November and December). Last year’s sales of the 360 hardware platform were driven by the introduction of the Kinect-ready slim form factor SKU.â€
NPD Software Top 10
1 NCAA Football 12 (360, PS3)
2 Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)
3 Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)
4 Lego Pirates of the Caribbean (Wii, NDS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)
5 Just Dance 2 (Wii) (120,000 – per Nintendo)
6 Major League Baseball 2K11 (360, Wii NDS, PS3, PS2, PSP, PC)
7 Zumba Fitness (Wii, 360, PS3)
8 Fallout: New Vegas (360, PS3, PC)
9 New Super Mario Bros DS (NDS)
10 Mortal Kombat 2011 (360, PS3)
A weak month overall, but I’m sure things will fare better once we hit the closing months of the year.
well, at least zumba was not first………
Zumba’s now sold more than 3 million……can you believe it?
just goes to prove soccer moms really are taking over the world!