Diablo III can't save May game sales
Blizzard's latest becomes the first PC exclusive to top the sales chart since Starcraft II, but total retail sales still down 28% year-over-year.
At the risk of overstating things for the sake of a pun, Diablo III ruled a hellishly bad month of game sales. The NPD Group today revealed its latest figures, revealing that game industry retail sales for the month of May were down 28 percent year-over-year even as Blizzard's latest topped the charts.
So far, every month this year has provided double-digit declines in game industry sales, with February's 20 percent decline counting as the best performance of 2012 to date. Hardware was particularly weak for the month (down 39 percent), with the NPD reporting all platforms except for the 3DS sold fewer systems this May than last. As in April, only accessory sales managed to post gains year-over-year, thanks to both increased sales of redeemable cards and Skylanders action figures.
As for why the industry is in such a slump, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said part of the reason was due to a smaller array of titles for customers to choose from. "YTD 2012, there have been 27% fewer new software title introductions into retail which we believe is a big part of the softness we're seeing in May sales," Frazier said, adding, "A title obviously continues to see sales beyond its launch month, so there is a longer term impact from a narrower array of available new content."
As for what did sell, Diablo III left its mark on the charts as the first PC-exclusive title to take the top spot since another Blizzard title, Starcraft II, accomplished the feat in July 2010. The action role-playing game revival pushed PC gaming to $80 million in sales, a 230 percent year-over-year sales bump. Other new releases to hit the chart included Max Payne 3 (second), Ghost Recon Future Soldier (third), Sniper Elite V2 (seventh), and Dragon's Dogma (ninth).
After the numbers were released, Microsoft revealed that it sold 160,000 Xbox 360s during the month, good enough to make the system the best-selling home console for the 17th straight month. In addition, Microsoft said total consumer spending on Xbox 360 games, hardware, and accessories hit $209 million, more than was spent on the Wii and PlayStation 3 combined.
MAY 2012 US GAME SALES
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total consumer spend (rentals, used sales, digital estimates included): $1.17 billion
Total retail sales: $516.5 million (-28%)
Non-PC hardware: $138.9 million (-39%)
Non-PC software: $255.4 million (-32%)
Total software: $335.2 million (-16%)
Accessories: $122.3 million (+7%)
TOP 10 GAMES FOR MAY 2012
Title (Platforms) - Publisher
1. Diablo III (PC) - Activision Blizzard
2. Max Payne 3 (X360, PS3) - Take-Two
3. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (X360, PS3) - Ubisoft
4. Prototype 2 (X360, PS3) - Activision
5. NBA 2K12 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) - Take-Two
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, Wii, PC) - Activision
7. Sniper Elite V2 (X360, PS3) - 505 Games
8. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts
9. Dragon's Dogma (X360, PS3) - Capcom
10. Just Dance 3 (Wii, X360, PS3) - Ubisoft
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
StarCraft II was a lot of fun, but I really miss Real Time Strategy games, like Supreme Commander, Age of Empires or Empire Earth.
As many have stated before me, IMO the anti-consumer and profiteering practices of DRM and DLC are slowly dismantling the loyal base of gamers. At this point, I almost consider myself an "Indie" gamer (I know it's a bit ***), because that is where I see true innovation and quality. Super Meatboy, Machinarium, Cave Story, Bastion, Braid, Trine, World of Goo, etc.... I find those games to be amazing and worth the effort. Mostly on short side, but I paid no more than $5 for any of them with Steam sales, and find myself revisiting them for the experience and not the gameplay per se. Remember that guys?!?! When gaming was an experience and not just an endless series of revamped maps and punch lines...
a new genre is needed.. move over FPS,RPG,MMO,etc
Wish an epic RPG series like Baldurs Gate/ Champions of Norath was formed.. Diablo 3 was a bore in my personal eyes, played it for a couple of hours.. Diablo 2 was my favourite game years back.. Gaming certainly looks bleak in all honesty.. Im a vivid Fifa, BF fan.. but its just the same old stuff spewed out, I miss days when I actually looked forward to a game coming out like a Child on Christmas eve
i have lost alot of faith in the mainstream gaming industry, it has gotten to get more profit then making a game that is fun to play. My favorite game in a long time is binding of isaac and is really cheap and all those free to play games has even more value then those 60$ games. Diablo 3 is one of the shortest lived rpg games i have played and i dont see anything fun playing the same story again and again to get the same item with a different name. Or play a fps playing a 2 hour story and multiplayer with the same repatative maps and slightly differnet weapon choices again and again.
The game industry isn't what it use to be. I look at the game available for the rest of this year and I am not at all excited about a lot of the games. In fact, I'm more excited for the kickstarter projects I have invested in than the mainstream gaming industry. All my money seems to be going into the kickstarter projects that aren't going to come out until next year than any games for this year.
The_Last_Paladi I'm trying to get the kickstarter gaming projects out to as many people as I can.
so that's where my money is going
ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Is ruling the gaming world with DIABLO 3, PROTOTYPE 2, COD MW3.-:S
And that's why I miss the good old games from the 90's...
I bought Max Payne 3, Diablo 3 and Lolipop Chainsaw.
Stop making the same dribble over and over, safe games are boring.
Well with how awful and repetitive every game is, I can see why game sales are always sinking. Game sales should be sinking because the lack of innovation is so apparent and obvious, it only makes sense.
TOP 10 GAMES FOR MAY 2012Title (Platforms) - Publisher1. Diablo III (PC) - Activision Blizzard2. Max Payne 3 (X360, PS3) - Take-Two3. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (X360, PS3) - Ubisoft4. Prototype 2 (X360, PS3) - Activision5. NBA 2K12 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) - Take-Two6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, Wii, PC) - Activision7. Sniper Elite V2 (X360, PS3) - 505 Games8. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts9. Dragon's Dogma (X360, PS3) - Capcom10. Just Dance 3 (Wii, X360, PS3) - Ubisoft
heuuhh what?i never buy those games..i wonder why?
4love10 Thanks for copy and pasting this! I would have never been able to scroll up 2 inches on the screen and read it straight out of the article! You're such a genius, thank god the internet has people like you.
well Diablo 3 isnt much of a good game if you ask me
Make better games and people will want to buy them its as simple as that. I'm getting tired of wasting $60 on a 10 hour game that feels like it was slapped together without thought.
markvons Are you talking about most fps out there? Ah, who am I kidding. Most fps can't reach a good 10 hours of singleplayer gameplay.
Retail PC sales are a dead metric. No one I know who has this game purchased it at a store.
WOW ACTIVISION BLIZZARD IS STILL AT THE TOP AND EA IS ALSO IN TOP TEN BUT BOTH TITLES R NOT AT FUCKED STEAM
the PC will always be king
What absolutely blows my mind is how stupid these gaming companies are. They release games that last between 4-6 hours and then expect you to play multiplayer or download DLC. WTF is that? What happened to the days of Half Life? What happened to the days of the old Final Fantasies? What happened to D 3, why does it suck so much more than D 1 and especially D 2. Finally, what happened to good strategy games like Command and Conquer and the original Starcraft? Sadly I can answer my own questions and tell you exactly what happened!
First person shooters have become like Michael Bay movies and are nothing more than cinematics, set-piece battles, and terribly unrealistic gaming. Final Fantasy has died, the last great Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy X. Congratulations Square-Enix for killing Final Fantasy for me by trying to turn it first into an MMO (just like Bioware did with KotoR) and then into some sort of weird class, turned based, garbage transformers rpg. D 3 sucks because they got rid of talent trees and decided to release an auction house...specifically I'm griping about the real money auction house, the lack of talent trees, and the pathetic story and gameplay. Finally, EA killed Command and Conquer and Starcraft 2 is no where near Starcraft 1's quality and I blame the gaming sports league s**t for that.
With all that said, I can't believe the stupidity of the gaming industry in asking, "Why are sales down this year?" The answer is simple...because the quality of games that are being released is terrible and they are far to expensive for what they offer. Maybe they need to start offering the single player and multiplayer portion of games seperatly. $30 each so if you want to play both you pay the combined total of a normal $60 game. I should submit that to the industry!
mechmaster525 i agree with you 100% but, you forgot to add capcom in this fiasco. no more survival horror. just pump out actioney crap like the other companies. one of the only truly refreshing games i have played in a long time is the demons souls and dark souls games. Hell, they even issued a proper apology because the game had bugs and asked if we (the consumer) can ever forgive them. the game was absolutely brilliant in all terms. if every game company could be like from software, we would have a gloriously rich amount of games to pick from.
lildozer74 I was very surprised that From Software apologized for the bugs, especially since I didn't notice any. Just goes to show you how much they care about us the gamers and not just their bank account. Other developers should be looking to them as a model of success.
markvons Probably apologizing for blight town
lildozer74 Amen to that brother.... The 'Souls' series is simply amazing... How many hours does that game last?? My first play through of Dark Souls was 50-60 hours. I would pay handsomely for experiences such as those... And as always.. **** EA and the like for pumping out so much nonsense.
mechmaster525 Couldn't agree more.
R.I.P Westwood we still miss you..
mechmaster525
Well, I don't think the game industry, as general, forgot how to make good games.
Skyrim was brilliant. It reached my huge expectations built after playing hours after hours in Morrowing and Oblivion. Impressive, ambitious game. Good plot, good soundtrack, good graphics and good gameplay.
Portal 2 is always a good example of how a game can be simple yet interesting. Amazingly, other companies don't follow their example, perhaps because talent is a rare thing.
Diablo 3 has forgettable plot. I just recently played the first Diablo, filled with nostalgia, and it was obvious to me that the atmosphere of the first game is amazing. The second game lacks the same atmosphere, but not by much. D3, on the other hand, is very cartoonish, very disappointing in this aspect. I only disagree with gameplay, but not by much. D3 isn't that less customizable than D2 as it seems. I just feel that the role your gear play in your character is way to big.
mechmaster525 damn right!
keep tellin' it like it is brother!
mechmaster525 my D2 username is *pinchy-skree (Europe) and I am rolling a regeneration paladin right now.
As for Starcraft 2, I bought it for the crazy custom maps but they ruined the online custom game hosting system with battle.net 0.5.
Not surprising at all. Games are overpriced and poor quality, copying each other and basically boring; those at the top of the gaming industry pyramid siphon off too much funds; excessive advertising yields few additional sales; DRM has too much prominence and further depresses sales; DLC is a costly gimmick; and a tax on fun via monthly fees just drives most sensible people further away from games.
Oh, and the biggest problem: most people don't have the disposable cash to lavish on crap that is both monetarily expensive and qualitatively cheap at the same time. Video games have no real value. They are a luxury, and the basics (food, gas) always trump discretionary spending.
Three cheers for the impending gaming apocalypse which will soon bring down Gaming, Inc.
Well I been gaming for a long time and I can tell you this... game quality has dropped very low...
Very few titles released anymore are actually worth there $60 price tag...
On top of which at this point thanks to dlc, we only get about 50% of the actual game, and then the company tries to sell us the other half of the game in so called dlc packs to make even more money...
I missed the days where the only multiplayer were on the same console or linking pc's together.... This online crap has destroyed gaming.....
Take D3.... what should be a single player rpg at its core, or a game to play with your friends... always has to be connected to the net to play... lets forget not everyones net is up and running 100% of the time... not to mention when Blizzards servers crash or are down... what if I wanna play my game I just dropped 60 bucks on... oh wait I cant be even single player is required to be online...
Or how bout this... you go buy the new game thinking it'll be this epicly awesome game... spend between $60-$150 (certain colectors editions) and in under 8 hrs... boom you just beat it.... wtf was that?!? wheres the rest of the game???
I remember playing Medal Of Honor Allied Assault for hrs... apon hrs just for the fun...
now days fps make me sick by how much crap they got... I remember having levels not a 5 min play zone and then cut scene.. then 5 min of shooting... then cut scene... then 5 min of shooting... ext...
That happened to games that take 15-25 hrs to play through?
that happened to 60-150+ hr rpg games?
that happened to games like super mario bros, zelda & metroid? that was fun challenging and was worth replying.... I hardly ever replay any of todays games because only less then 1% of the current gene games are worth the time or have the fun factor...
I believe if we lost the internet connection and the dlc and started making great games again... sales would be up not down....
ryukoken6791 I agree there is almost zero replay value in most games I've played in the past few years. And forget the DLC give us expansion packs again. I'd rather spend $30 on something that adds to the story and continues the awesome experience I've had with a game instead of $10 here and $15 there for a couple of "new" multiplayer maps and some player skins or a fancy hat or whatever crap they try to make us think we need to enjoy a game.
bOHOO bLIZZARD! yay!!!
One big problem with games these days, in my opinion is that companies are releasing them without taking quality into consideration because "people will just buy it". Just look at how many FPS titles are out there oversaturating the market.I wouldn't be surprised if this genre suffered a heavy blow and declined in the next months (I don't think the genre would suddenly end, but I feel it could be going down a dangerous path...)
Sales slipping now is only the beginning. I think the next several months are going to be pivotal to the future of gaming.
Yeah ok, fewer games released means few games sold. But really, I would by more if games could just focus on being FUN. Games are supposed to be a form of ENTERTAINMENT, not frustration.
The price tag does make me wait a few months for some games (Portal 2, DA2). Although, Portal 2 and DA2 both were more fun than D3.
I'm tired of games trying to suck me in and then turning it into a gear grind. I'm tired of weird game mechanics and ideas.
They are trying to innovate, which is nice... but make the games interesting and less about mechanics and grinding. I don't need another life to worry about.
Diablo = 1990's
dablo is babby game
I have a tip release 28% more games
bloodyrooster There wasn't one sale per game released, genius; and technically sales will need to rise more than 28% to get back to the same level as last year. Gaming is discretionary spending, and in tough economic times, sales will fall.
Im suprised that D3 sold that much. Then again people were so excited about it that they just pre-ordered it without knowing the massive pile of annoyance and dissapointment that it was.
iluvOP Agree 100% there. Game was over-hyped and already aged at its release.
iluvOP yeah i don't think it will sell much more. too expensive/drm/error 37 etc... people are sick of getting ripped off.
most of the sales were probably pre-orders, like you mentioned.
i wouldn't be surprised if torchlight II sells a bazillion copies.
iluvOP Well, most people bought it up because it was made by ZOMAHGAWD Blizzard and they've been expecting a sequel for ages.
F this game
release an offline Diablo 3 and i'll buy it
i dotn know about you, but i wait 6 monh to buy new games now. Or even XMAS specials. Im not payign $60 -$100 for a game.
nyran125 i feel you man. my girl bought me resident evil ORC (she dnt know a thing about games in her defence) for my birthday. I got upset because that 60 bucks could have been spent on gas or other amenities. i took it back latr that day.
lildozer74 While you have a point, you shouldn't have gotten pissed at your girlfriend for trying to make you happy by getting you a game, I mean, she was trying to give you a birthday gift...
When you charge too much for a product people will buy less of it.
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- Publisher(s): Blizzard Entertainment
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release: May 15, 2012 (US)
- ESRB: M
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