It was a rough year at retail for the United States video game industry.
According to the NPD Group, consumers spent 22 percent less on new video game hardware, software and accessories during the year than they did in 2011: that's $3.73 billion fewer dollars being contributed to the economy through retail video game sales.
There are several factors contributing to this, not the least of which is a quick shift to digital entertainment. Game players are spending less in stores, and spending more on their phones, tablets, computers, and the digital storefronts on their consoles.
But there's another invisible threat: what analysts are calling "gamer fatigue," as the current generation of video game consoles comes toward the end of its lifespan, and players anxiously await what's next.
Add to that the fact that far fewer games were released this year (29% fewer, in fact), and it's not hard to see why 2012 was not friendly to the industry.
Still, the biggest games continued to sell by the truckload in 2012, though even they may be declining.The top 10 retail video games in the United States in 2012:1. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (360, PS3, PC, Wii U)
2. Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, Wii U)
3. Halo 4 (360)
4. Assassin's Creed III (360, PS3, PC, Wii U)
5. Just Dance 4 (Wii, 360, Wii U, PS3)
6. NBA 2K13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, Wii U, PC)
7. Borderlands 2 (360, PS3, PC)
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)
9. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSV, PC
10. FIFA Soccer 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, 3DS, Wii U, PSP)
(Source: The NPD Group)
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1 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas PS2 Rockstar Games 19.87 million
2 Halo 2 Xbox Microsoft Game Studios 7.87 million
3 Madden NFL 2005 PS2 EA Sports 3.41 million
4 ESPN NFL 2K5 PS2 Sega 2.87 million
5 Need For Speed: Underground 2 PS2 Electronic Arts 2.36 million
6 Pokémon Fire Red with adapter GBA Nintendo 2.08 million
7 NBA Live 2005 PS2 EA Sports 2.02 million
8 Spider-Man 2 PS2 Activision 1.78 million
9 Halo: Combat Evolved Xbox Microsoft Game Studios 1.34 million
10 ESPN NFL 2K5 Xbox Sega 1.26 million
It might be interesting to see what original IPs on both PC and Console sold well, not just limp along with various pundits critically acclaimed indie game recommendations, which is frankly rather subjective.
Vice versa, publishers aren't dumb, if the solution would be, release more games and make more money, there wouldn't be a reason why they won't do it. If they release fewer games, then because the market crashed and it makes no sense to release more titles, nobody would buy them.
But this copy paste argument can be change with "familiar" even a "rework". "Refinement of the sucses formula". It still the same argument but with a much more positive flavor. Me a 40+ Play blops2 and have a lot of fun online. So it isn't that bad. Its even good and getting a even better game. I prefere Blops over MW there choices are more my preference but I enjoyed Mw2. MW3 I just played a little because BF3 took most of my time.
But this doesn't include digital storefront sales at all, does it? And if that is the case, I wonder how these numbers would look with the inclusion of Steam, XBox Digital Sales, and PS3 Digital Sales.
I'm sure many PC gamers are pretty much exclusively digital distribution now.
If I look at the still existing shelfs for PC games at game retailers here in germany (still the largest PC gaming market in europe), I would say no, at least not here. But it may be different in the US.
It`s a generation question I guess: whereas I bought 10 PC-games between 2010-2012 via Steam and maybe 30 via retail, my Son (now 18) bought 130+ games via Steam and nada via retail. As long as Steam doesn`t release its numbers, this whole charts thing is becoming more and more pure speculation.
I think PC games numbers are low here, compared to console games, but not necessarily because of Steam, they are low for over a decade now. Steam leads to lower sales for sure, but it's not that PC games are exclusively on digital distribution here. I am pretty sure, it's still not over 50%, otherwise the shelf space would be smaller.
Even here in Germany many people have moved to digital distribution over the past years. There might be still more people as in the US rather having a box in their shelf, but their numbers are shrinking. I think thats because of a variety of factors. Overall acceptance due to the general shift in the market and the now standard appstores from the mobile area, as well as lower prices through sales and other factors.
Today you can get an AAA title for a few bucks just some months after its initial release, years ago you had to wait until someone put it in a collection or the "Green Pepper" version came out.
There are too certain games made in Germany that sold trice as much copies over Steam as in retail.
I am not aware of Steam sales numbers, not to speak of region specific sales data. Can you give me a link? PC is surely the platform with the most digital distribution, even here in germany, but even here, in general console games are outselling PC games by a wide margin, and on consoles digital distribution isn't at least as important as retail, regardless of games in mobile appstores (that doesn't generate any revenue close to retail by now).
"Today you can get an AAA title for a few bucks just some months after its initial release, years ago you had to wait until someone put it in a collection or the "Green Pepper" version came out. "
That's because the market is much to much frontloaded nowadays.
Unfortunately I'm not sure I can be more specific about the game(s) I mean. They're PC exclusive though.
"That's because the market is much to much frontloaded nowadays."
Frontloaded? Not sure I can follow you :) I say though that its mainly because of (foremost Steam sales) digital distributions flexibility. As far as I know retail still doesn't catch up as fast. However that is rather based upon subjective impressions around various communities and people I know then on solid research. Then again... there are no solid numbers to compare anyways if you do not get publishers data on both retail and digital sales of any game.
But of course you are right with the lack of data making e.verything I say to speculation
This industry needs more transparency. We know what every other entertainment medium does almost instantly, while gaming still sticks with the archaic reporting of the NPD Group.
I also agree that 2012 was a very quality year for the games themselves. This may have become the watershed year that the "Indie" title finally gets accepted as what they are, games, just like the $60 discs that release at stores.
With a non physical product as games, I'd bet that in that market even more is being bought online / downloaded.
After all different analysis, I've yet to see a global games-industry report. How much has been made in 2012 globally, where was this money made, and by whom?
I'd be very interested in those figures, if someone could point me to them :)
Here's my most recent blog on this topic.
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/01/11/the-impending-console-hangover
The #1 'traditional' game being played on PC or Console right now really isn't Call of Duty. It's actually League of Legends. Even World of Tanks by comparison is dwarfing CoD BO II.
So yeah.... is the "Sky Falling for Video Games at Retail". Most likely.... but we've seen this story before.
A F2P signup isn't the same as a $60 sale.
For every $60 game sold there could be a few players playing that game in a household. Never mind the used game market.
Then of course just because you sign up for a F2P game doesn't mean you actually do more than check it out for a minute or even play it.
And since the game is free they would have a ton of new accounts checking it out all the time.
Also the numbers I see touted for number of players on at any time are they worldwide or just the US? Is the game in Asia? A CoD is a western game. And probably doesn't much of an audience in Asia.
For all I know LoL has a huge Asian following. And thus maybe we are comparing apples and oranges a bit.
Not take anything away from LoL. I just don't swallow the kool aid without dotting i's and crossing t's.
also if you want to talk about free games. Stuff like Minesweeper or Hearts are pretty popular. Club Penguin was quite popular with the kids. Not sure it still is.