Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

[Jul 14, 2011, 8:34 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

The Washington Post has results from the NPD Group from June, with the market research group reporting sales of videogame hardware, software, and accessories totaled $995 million, a decline of 10% over the same period last year. It should be noted that this does not include digitally distributed games. It also sounds as if the small segment of this that represents sales of PC games did better than the rest of the market:

Sales of software, the games themselves, dropped 12 percent to $469.5 million. When including PC games, total software sales fell 10 percent to $508.9 million.

Doug Creutz, an analyst with Cowen and Co., had expected June sales to disappoint, although he said several titles aimed at hardcore gamers did worse than expected. Those include “Duke Nukem Forever” from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., and “Red Faction: Armageddon” from THQ Inc. Both were hurt by poor reviews, he said.

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17.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:29

StingingVelvet

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Jul 15, 2011, 00:06: I'd really like to see the total numbers/total cash value of internet sales for PC games. Between Steam sales, Gamersgate sales, gog.com, D2D, etc. It has to be several orders of magnitude higher than PC physical sales, and probably actually challenges/exceeds some of the console sales. Seriously, how many Steam bargain bin addicts are there on these forums alone? Some industry insiders said boxed sales were 50% years ago, and I can only imagine the gulf between them has grown since then. I would guess it's a certainty boxed sales are in second now, and that's not even including alternate revenue streams like "free to play" and indie titles.

16.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:28

Esoteric

Veterator wrote on Jul 15, 2011, 00:11: It's bad when the 10 dollar indie games give about as much play time as the full price triple As. Haven't seen a boxed edition of the indies. Indeed. It seems that lately I've been buying and enjoying indie games a lot more than AAA games. Defense Grid, Frozen Synapse, Sanctum, Terraria, Magicka, etc. Don't get me wrong, some AAAs are still really good (Just Cause 2 is incredible! Just got it on the Steam sale), but there's real competition now on who gets our money.

15.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:25

StingingVelvet

Sepharo wrote on Jul 15, 2011, 00:20: I should have updated my post to reflect some research I didn't remember anything said about it around here so I did a search. A few people off handedly mentioned it was linear and you were only one to post impressions. Strange that a game just released in June had little more than a handful of posts before, during, and after that release. Well there's nothing really special about the game that merits a $50 purchase, which I guess reflects in the low sales. I am more saying I disagree with reviews saying it's a bad game... for what it wants to be it's pretty well done.

14.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:20

Sepharo

StingingVelvet wrote on Jul 15, 2011, 00:04:
Sepharo wrote on Jul 14, 2011, 23:25:
Oh yeah they were just shitty.
Try better next time.

RFA is actually a pretty good sci-fi bug shooter, I really enjoyed my time with it. Most reviews and such seemed to bash it mainly because it wasn't an open-world game like the last one.

I should have updated my post to reflect some research

I didn't remember anything said about it around here so I did a search. A few people off handedly mentioned it was linear and you were only one to post impressions. Strange that a game just released in June had little more than a handful of posts before, during, and after that release.




[I'm not trolling I'm just] tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. -TrollinThundr

13.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:11

Veterator

It's bad when the 10 dollar indie games give about as much play time as the full price triple As. Haven't seen a boxed edition of the indies.

12.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:09

Esoteric

Everyone was saving up for the Steam sale, duh.

11.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:06

MoreLuckThanSkill

I'd really like to see the total numbers/total cash value of internet sales for PC games. Between Steam sales, Gamersgate sales, gog.com, D2D, etc. It has to be several orders of magnitude higher than PC physical sales, and probably actually challenges/exceeds some of the console sales. Seriously, how many Steam bargain bin addicts are there on these forums alone?

10.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 15, 2011, 00:04

StingingVelvet

Sepharo wrote on Jul 14, 2011, 23:25: Oh yeah they were just shitty. Try better next time. RFA is actually a pretty good sci-fi bug shooter, I really enjoyed my time with it. Most reviews and such seemed to bash it mainly because it wasn't an open-world game like the last one.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 23:47

kanniballl

Quboid wrote on Jul 14, 2011, 22:44:
I'm not surprised it's only 8%, the size of the PC section in my local Game has shrunk. It used to be most of the store, now it's a lot less than 8% of the shelf space.

You're lucky, for YEARS my local "game stores" have the like 2-feet of shelf space for games. And that space is shared with their old bargain bin stuff like a beat-up box of War Craft III.

If I want PC games the only physical place that tends to carry them near me is Best Buy.




"Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you." -Fry, Futurama

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 23:25

Sepharo

he said several titles aimed at hardcore gamers did worse than expected. Those include “Duke Nukem Forever” from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., and “Red Faction: Armageddon” from THQ Inc.

Oh great, yeah the message to take away from this is that aiming for hardcore gamers is bad right?

Both were hurt by poor reviews, he said.

Oh yeah they were just shitty.
Try better next time.




[I'm not trolling I'm just] tossing stuff like that in there only to get your panties all bunched up. -TrollinThundr

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 23:24

Teddy

Doug Creutz, an analyst with Cowen and Co., had expected June sales to disappoint, although he said several titles aimed at hardcore gamers did worse than expected. Those include “Duke Nukem Forever” from Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., and “Red Faction: Armageddon” from THQ Inc. Both were hurt by poor reviews, he said. Oh Analysts, how I love the skewed world you see, sometimes. "Both were hurt by poor reviews". No, both were hurt by being poor games.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 23:09

elefunk

Riker wrote on Jul 14, 2011, 22:40: Am I reading that right? That only about 8% of physical game sales are PC games? Of course, do you actually expect it to be more than 8%? I mean, first you have the obvious fact that "PC" is illogically stacked up against 6 other competing platforms combined: -Playstation 3 -Xbox 360 -Wii -DS -PSP -3DS But then of course you have the fact that digital distribution has been totally controlling PC gaming for years.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 22:44

Quboid

I go into my local Game store occasionally. I look around, read the back of a few games' boxes and think "Interesting, I must check out Metacritic and see how much it is on Steam." I can't imagine wanting a physical copy anymore.

I'm not surprised it's only 8%, the size of the PC section in my local Game has shrunk. It used to be most of the store, now it's a lot less than 8% of the shelf space.




- Quboid

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 22:40

Riker

Am I reading that right? That only about 8% of physical game sales are PC games?

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 21:32

deadearth

Rattlehead wrote on Jul 14, 2011, 21:22: I think the month of July will have much better sales thanks to that Steam Summer sale. Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 21:31

Darks

They are down because of all the lost sales and returns on Dungeon Siege 3. Plus there really wasnt a whole lot out either.

Re: Videogame Physical Sales Down 10% in June

Jul 14, 2011, 21:22

Rattlehead

I think the month of July will have much better sales thanks to that Steam Summer sale.

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