Video Game Sales Lowest Since 2006

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You know the economy is seriously in the crapper when video game sales are the lowest they have been since October 2006. Thanks to TwistedAegis for the heads up on this one.

Market researcher NPD Group said Monday that U.S. retail revenue from game systems, software and accessories fell 14 percent in May to $743 million, the lowest monthly figure since October 2006. Hardware revenue fell 5 percent to $229 million, while game revenue fell 19 percent from a year earlier to $376 million.
 
Maybe it's just the fact that there's a ton of 'craptastic' games out there with a $60 pricetag and people are getting sick of buying garbage.
 
Maybe it's just the fact that there's a ton of 'craptastic' games out there with a $60 pricetag and people are getting sick of buying garbage.

Aye, I sure as hell am picky before I go splurging $60 on a new game period, regardless if economy is in tank or not.
 
Maybe it's just the fact that there's a ton of 'craptastic' games out there with a $60 pricetag and people are getting sick of buying garbage.

I'm not hearing good things about Dukenukem Forever. Haven't tried the game myself, but so many terrible reviews for this game. For what, $60? Those Gearbox guys screwed it up.

I may have been waiting for this game for over a decade, but I'm not about to go out and buy it, if it sucks.
 
Bulletstorm, Homefront, DNF, BRINK.

A few recent "Triple A" games that have been released to the market. HAH!
 
Don't sales always go down right before E3? I waited to buy a new xbox (my 3rd btw) in hopes of a price drop, i'm sure others did as well.
 
U.S. retail revenue

The NPD does not track digital sales and I reckon that is where a large number of these sales has gone since many people have simply stop buying their games from brick and mortar stores since 2006.
 
Digital sales are doing great on the PC, but what about the other platforms? Steams success in the market can't make up for MS, Sony, and Nintendo's failure.
 
Maybe its the fact that most people have 360s and ps3s who are going to buy them and companies aren't pushing new consoles as quickly as they used to and people were buying far more so the market is saturated. Thus skewing numbers, and also since the economy has been down and things like craigslist become more popular people are selling and buying accessories and consoles used.


It really bothers me that shit like this is "news" not that its posted here but that crap like this hits any sort of headline. No one does any analysis on why things happen they just post shit to get views.
 
The NPD does not track digital sales and I reckon that is where a large number of these sales has gone since many people have simply stop buying their games from brick and mortar stores since 2006.

Amazon and Wal-Mart don't report to the NPD either and I'm sure a lot of sales go through both of them. Still I don't doubt the report, there really hasn't been any exciting huge sellers releases recently. inFAMOUS 2 is great, but that's not going to push a few million units like a big AAA title would.
 
I blame it all on COD and the $60 BS....but mostly COD...

I agree as soon as that got consolized it started to ruin gaming. Not to mention the fact that these console systems technology is over 5 years old now.
 
Digital sales are doing great on the PC, but what about the other platforms? Steams success in the market can't make up for MS, Sony, and Nintendo's failure.

Who cares if consoles are doing well? I really wish consoles would go away, and PCs would be the main focus. Games developed with the PC in mind usually end up being a lot better.
 
Maybe it's just the fact that there's a ton of 'craptastic' games out there with a $60 pricetag and people are getting sick of buying garbage.

This!

I'm not hearing good things about Dukenukem Forever. Haven't tried the game myself, but so many terrible reviews for this game. For what, $60? Those Gearbox guys screwed it up.

I have only played Duke Nukem Forever for about 1.5 hours, but thus far it's great! Reminiscent of Duke Nukem 3D. However, it brings absolutely nothing new to the market, just good ol'Duke!
 
Digital sales like Steam and large retailers like Walmart and Target don't report their sales.

NPD's reports only serve one purpose. To let the likes of GameStop cry at their losing market share, and point the finger at piracy instead of blaming their own failing business model.
 
Amazon and Wal-Mart don't report to the NPD either and I'm sure a lot of sales go through both of them. Still I don't doubt the report, there really hasn't been any exciting huge sellers releases recently. inFAMOUS 2 is great, but that's not going to push a few million units like a big AAA title would.

I'd bet walmart has the majority of the console sales.
 
I'd bet walmart has the majority of the console sales.

Have you seen their PC game shelf? I think up until a few years ago there were still expansion packs for early ID games up there, and I never knew there were quite so many wildlife shooting games...
 
I'm not hearing good things about Dukenukem Forever. Haven't tried the game myself, but so many terrible reviews for this game. For what, $60? Those Gearbox guys screwed it up.

Gearbox just made it ready. They said that they just "finished" everything that was lready in place. Kind of makes sense since they've only had it since... last Fall?

The NPD does not track digital sales

Amazon and Wal-Mart don't report to the NPD either

Yeah, I'd imagine quite a few sales go unreported. Most of the games hot deals lately have been in the digital format. Heck, most of the games I've purchased in the past year have been digital. I also imagine subscription games (WoW) still take a chunk of gaming time.
 
Bulletstorm, Homefront, DNF, BRINK.

A few recent "Triple A" games that have been released to the market. HAH!

Bulletstorm is a console title, right??

Homefront received terrible reviews and was not a blockbuster sales title, Duke's meatcritic rating is 6.5, and Brink has also met with lukewarm ratings.

Face it, since the first of the year, there have been few titles that are compelling enough to purchase, regardless of platform.

The year end titles, COD (no matter what you think,it sells), Rage,Batman, and BF3 may be a shot in the arm.
 
Maybe because the economy is still in a slump and paying $60 for a game is hard to chew for some people? I, for one, have not paid the full $60 retail price for a game in years. I either wait for them to go on sale to $30 or less or just buy it used for that price. Not because I can't afford $60 games, but rather because paying $60 for a game is ridiculous.

Battlefield 3 might be the first game in a long time that I'll buy at release for full retail.
 
..
Battlefield 3 might be the first game in a long time that I'll buy at release for full retail.

I resemble this remark. I have bought some fun little Indie games off Steam, and various back catalog games that they put on sale. Tempted to get Duke, if only for nostalgia sake. For mulitplayer games, I buy more than one copy as my youngest daughter games with me so I don't see a $60 game... I see a $120 game.
 
Uh, pretty much what I was going to say. Crappy games with $60 price tags even for PC and no demos. Video game industry is doing this to themselves...
 
I have to agree that there is a serious lack of games I'm interested in that are on the market now :(
L.A. Noire didn't grab me and that's truly the only new AAA title right now.

A lot of good ones on the horizion though, really looking forward to ME3.
 
.... I, for one, have not paid the full $60 retail price for a game in years. I either wait for them to go on sale to $30 or less or just buy it used for that price. Not because I can't afford $60 games, but rather because paying $60 for a game is ridiculous.

EXACTLY why I don't buy the whole "blame the economy" crap they are throwing out. No matter how shiny you make a game, if the gameplay is crap, it's still crap. People will realize it's crap. It may sell some, but in the big picture, crap doesn't sell.
 
I agree there are alot of crappy games, but the problem for me is too many good ones and not enough time to finish them all. Now married and with kids, I can't get through all of the good games like I used to and am on a game buying freeze until I finish the ones I got.
 
I refuse to buy a game at $60. Steam is your friend (or enemy if you have no self control ;) ). Money's too tight to keep the PC fast enough to play the latest and greatest anyways. Just wait a year or so until the price drops.

The only problem with lagging by a year or two is that sometimes the online community has dwindled by then.
 
The only game I bought this year is Portal 2. All of the other games that I was going to buy turned to out to be poop. Brink, DNF, that Hunted game.
 
EXACTLY why I don't buy the whole "blame the economy" crap they are throwing out. No matter how shiny you make a game, if the gameplay is crap, it's still crap. People will realize it's crap. It may sell some, but in the big picture, crap doesn't sell.

Agreed.

I have paid full retail on only two games in the last 10 years:
1.) Half-Life 2 Bronze Pack in 2004
2.) Civilization V last summer. (I'm a sucker for Civ games)

I've bought a handful of games other than this (maybe 8-10 games total in the last 10 years) but only because they were on sale, and cheap enough to just try out, like when THQ had a $12 sale on Metro 2033...
 
I blame it on game fly. Because of the 60dollar price tag i rent most titles. I did buy duke though. Not a ground breaking title but its good ol duke that i missed and loved. Its a good game
 
Well for one, I'm not going to pay $60 for a game. Period.

I'm especially not going to pay $60 for 80% of the game, and then pay $10 in 10% increments to get the complete game.

And I also can't stand that many of these guys have the balls to charge you full price for a game, and then you have to pay AGAIN to play online. If there is a gaming fee, the game should be free. If the game is full price, then online should be free.

Drop the price = increase the sales.
 
hmm, last thing game i bought was some cheap 360 arcade games back in december. I'll gladly shell out $60 for a game that interests me but there's been nothing lately.
 
I'm not hearing good things about Dukenukem Forever. Haven't tried the game myself, but so many terrible reviews for this game. For what, $60? Those Gearbox guys screwed it up.

I may have been waiting for this game for over a decade, but I'm not about to go out and buy it, if it sucks.

While gearbox did "develop" DNF, DNF was like 85-90% complete by the time they took ownership. I'd point fingers at 3Drealms for jumping the shark.
 
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