Video Game Sale 2011: Down 8%

[videopho]

No surprise here but 2011 was a banner year for me personally coming from a PC gamer.
I guess no new console hardware put a hurt on sale for sure.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsav...deo-game-sales-drop-21-in-dec-off-8-for-2011/

 

[PrincessFrosty]

For retail that is, because a lot of those people such as myself buy mostly (or exclusively) digital download, I have 240+ games on steam now.

 

[Red Storm]

For retail that is, because a lot of those people such as myself buy mostly (or exclusively) digital download, I have 240+ games on steam now.

Same, I don't even remember the last time I bought a game retail.

They need to clearly identify what sales they are talking about in the title. In this day and age it's very misleading to say "Sales down 8%" with so many people buying their games digitally now.

 

[Skurge]

Yeah, steams and other DD places have been growing in sales for a few years now, while retail dropped.

 

[Arkadrel]

8% less game sales....

but...

NPD said that total game spending in 2011 – including used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital downloads, social games, mobile games and downloadable content – was between $16.3 billion to $16.6 billion, down about 2% from a year ago.

money earned only down 2% in total sales amounts.


wait a minuet....

That must mean each game developer that made a game this year,
earned more money than last year, on avg pr game.

*shock*

that sounds like horrible news



*** that said, with how our economy is doing, Im not suprised, there is a 2% drop in money spent on games.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Retail sales.

Digital distribution probably increased by a lot. Also, the vast majority of retail video game sales are consoles, console games, and accessories. It's the end of the current console cycle and there have been price drops so I'm not surprised that sales are down a bit.

 

[ApexBoost]

Agreed, especially in PC gaming. Steam reported a double in sales in 2011 over 2010.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kelvrick]

Blizzard games are probably the only ones I buy retail.

 

[biostud]

2 retail games bought
~10 steam games

 

[Clinkster]

Misleading title; should read retail sales.

Which should be no shock to anybody.

 

[Texashiker]

I guess no new console hardware put a hurt on sale for sure.

I think the sales are hurt by 2 things:

No new ideas

No innovation

Look at the games there were released during 2011, the majority of them were the same ole thing, just redone and rebranded.

There was Skyrim and Witcher 2, but the majority of everything seemed to be the same thing that was released years ago.

Take a look at dead island, why didn't it have a versus feature like left 4 dead?

Valve released portal 2 during 2011. I think the lack of another major expansion to the half-life and left 4 dead series hurt sales. There was 1 year between left 4 dead and left 4 dead 2. But here we are over 2 years after left 4 dead 2, and no new games.

 

[BladeVenom]

Steam is doing better than ever.

 

[nyker96]

I love steam!

 

[coldmeat]

I don't know if anyone mentioned it yet, but Steam is doing pretty good and isn't included in retail #s.

 

[zinfamous]

IT'S BECAUSE OF PIRATES!!!11!!


caps

 

[Concillian]

Why is this stuff always putting games sales in a bad light?

Revenue is down less than # of sales. Gross margin is UP several percent and my guess is that as a result, profits are flat to slightly up. All while the digital download sector is seeing large gains.

News flash, old tech sees less growth than new tech... shocker!

This news story is kind of like a news story that mentions the sales numbers on autos with carburetors is at an all time low.

 

[Red Hawk]

I think the sales are hurt by 2 things:

No new ideas

No innovation

Look at the games there were released during 2011, the majority of them were the same ole thing, just redone and rebranded.

There was Skyrim and Witcher 2, but the majority of everything seemed to be the same thing that was released years ago.

Take a look at dead island, why didn't it have a versus feature like left 4 dead?

Valve released portal 2 during 2011. I think the lack of another major expansion to the half-life and left 4 dead series hurt sales. There was 1 year between left 4 dead and left 4 dead 2. But here we are over 2 years after left 4 dead 2, and no new games.

There you go again pushing your "PC gaming is stagnant" opinion. There has been innovation. The campaign multiplayer in Shogun 2, co-op puzzle solving in Portal 2, the push for 3D gaming, low-budget indie games like Bastion, etc. And why is Valve only releasing one game every couple of years a bad thing? They're being productive, they just see no reason to aggressively expand their work force. PS Gabe Newell stated that Portal 2 sold better on PC than on either console.

Anyways, yeah, the PC gaming market isn't shrinking, it's just continually moving more and more towards digital distribution rather than retail.

 

[Texashiker]

There has been innovation.

There has been innovation, just very little of it.

 

[wuliheron]

Total game sales down 2%, Retail sales down 8%, but Steam still kicking butt. Definitely sounds like if people can't download it they don't bother buying it. The same thing is happening with movies which more people are streaming online these days despite the lower quality picture. Its that instant gratification thing.