Nintendo Wii takes biggest hit in July
NPD’s sales reports for the gaming industry are out for July, and while many on Wall Street see a corner turned with the general economy, video games may be digging a further ditch for themselves.
Last month, the industry generated $848 million in sales, according to NPD. That is a 29 percent drop from the same month in 2008. Analysts were anticipating just a 15 percent drop.
Console sales took an even bigger hit, with sales dropping 34% from July 2008. Nintendo’s Wii, once enduring months of outages and incredible demand. had sales slow 54% from July 2008. Playstation 3 sales for July, which haven’t been stellar to begin with, also dropped 45% from last year. Only Microsoft and the XBOX 360 saw signs of growth, jumping 10 percent. Even that was not enough to satisfy Wall Street expectations.
Actual game sales also saw a 26 percent year to year drop last month.
Though there are expectations the industry will see growth again come fall, that is in part due to fueling speculation that gaming companies have to cut the prices of their consoles for the Holiday season in order to move inventory. The Wii, as an example, has not budged from its $249 price point since the console’s launch. The industry is also banking on some big titles, to boost the bottom line in the second half of the year.
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I think people would rather enjoy the good weather than play games at the moment. In the winter months I think it will rise again.
The economy ISN’T coming back, though… at least not yet. The idea that the economy is starting to rebound is complete and utter BS. It’ll come back eventually, yes, but if its coming back, why are people still losing jobs everywhere?
Healthcare is the big issue now, presumably with the ills and woes of the economy occuring in tandem with and/or in the background of the current issue. That is, there are people screaming and bitching like mad mobs about it at town hall meetings and whatnot. Yeah, that looks great.
More reason for me to play vidjagames!
Treleus : So true I haven`t brought one game this month because my DS games been keeping me busy lately also I`ve been watching alot of CNN … can u beilieve all the deaths happening this year ?
I get games often. I’ve got Halo: Combat Evolved the day before yesterday.
But I think Stephen and Treleus has some point there. It will probably go up again when teh winter comes. And all kida want games and stuff like that for christmas.
But I don’t really give a shit about all this down and up stuff.
Ups and downs as usual. Wonder what big results will come of this. I like Sony’s systems, but I wonder if Sony Computer Entertainment is on its last legs.
Interesting. I always considered Video Gaming to be a “comfort food” of sorts. The economic downturn should have been an ideal time for video games sales to grow, not shrink. (Unless games these days are becoming stagnant rehashes or earlier titles.)
As for a “corner turning”, don’t be so sure just yet. Oct is typically the month when the market drops.