Video game sales drop 25% (digital taking over, too much $?)

[garrett123]

20% at the beginning of the year, now its 25%. so is it $, more games on tablets, not enough good games anymore, or the old games are better?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/1 ... technology

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/enterta ... march.html

this counts games/systems, but not digitaly dowloaded games.
some large anticipated games have sold though

one article says that people dont want to spend $60 on a game, so they buy tablets

it states

"Games cost too much: Gamers are happy to pay $60 and up for the best-in-class experiences like Call of Duty or Skyrim, but they don’t have to pay $60 for B-games anymore. Let alone $90."

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/04/o ... expensive/

[Erik_Twice]

I don't think that comparing this year's March with the previous year's March is enough proof to speculate that people are spending money on tablets but don't have money to spend on "B-list games".

[garrett123]

the article came out in april of this year, its just one theory I could find.

[Breetai]

Here is why:

The economy is shit. I don't care if the gov't, mainstream news or whatever else says we are recovering. It's HARD to find a decent paying job if you don't have one... and a lot of people don't have one. People that used to have one don't have one anymore. Those that do are seeing benefits be cut, and therefore have less disposable income. The really is not a lot of extra money available for a lot of folks to spend on frivolous items like video games.

People buy used instead. In fact, I suspect that there are MORE used game sales going on than ever before. If game companies really do make buying modern used games impossible, it will be a huge mistake. It's kind of like the music, and then movie, industry being very slow and eventually losing out back in the late-90s.

One thing that companies are currently doing right is with the cheap "budget" downloadable games. Stuff like Angry Birds sells because it's very affordable. For those $60 games, people are being more picky about which of those games to by now than every before. Lots of the other game sales are of used games. If used games are cut out, many people will say F-it, mainly stick with cheap downloadables and be even more picky about which 1-2 big budget games they buy per year.

I'm thinking that game sales probably peaked overall in the PS2 era.

Just my view.

[ElkinFencer10]

Like Breetai said, although the economy is recovering, we're recovering from the worst depression in 70 years (I don't care what the media says, that was no recession; it was a damn depression), and it's been the most sluggish economic recovery I've ever heard of. I've always had a problem paying even $50 for a game (since the only current console I have is my Wii), much less $60; that's why I always buy used unless I'm just totally jizzing myself over a game (like Conduit 2).

Also as a side note, it's a sad, sad world when Call of Duty is worth $60 to people but games with even one shred of originality aren't.

[Breetai]

Like Breetai said, although the economy is recovering, we're recovering from the worst depression in 70 years (I don't care what the media says, that was no recession; it was a damn depression), and it's been the most sluggish economic recovery I've ever heard of. I've always had a problem paying even $50 for a game (since the only current console I have is my Wii), much less $60; that's why I always buy used unless I'm just totally jizzing myself over a game (like Conduit 2).

Also as a side note, it's a sad, sad world when Call of Duty is worth $60 to people but games with even one shred of originality aren't.

I'm not seeing it yet. Inflation is still rising at a high rate than income is. Are your pay raises matching the gas price increases?

[ElkinFencer10]

Like Breetai said, although the economy is recovering, we're recovering from the worst depression in 70 years (I don't care what the media says, that was no recession; it was a damn depression), and it's been the most sluggish economic recovery I've ever heard of. I've always had a problem paying even $50 for a game (since the only current console I have is my Wii), much less $60; that's why I always buy used unless I'm just totally jizzing myself over a game (like Conduit 2).

Also as a side note, it's a sad, sad world when Call of Duty is worth $60 to people but games with even one shred of originality aren't.

I'm not seeing it yet. Inflation is still rising at a high rate than income is. Are your pay raises matching the gas price increases?

Recovery from a recession/depression is defined by a positive GDP growth. For the past couple years, America's GDP has grown at roughly 3%, maybe a little less, meaning that we are technically in the recovery part of the business cycle. Now granted, that growth is less than normal post-recovery growth, and none of that takes salary increase or inflation into account. Technically, though the economy is recovering because GDP is rising. That was the basis for my statement.

[KDub]

It has little to with the digital market.
The economy is bad, we are reaching the turning point of a new generation, game prices haven't dropped like they usually do at this point, less A list content.

[Breetai]

Recovery from a recession/depression is defined by a positive GDP growth. For the past couple years, America's GDP has grown at roughly 3%, maybe a little less, meaning that we are technically in the recovery part of the business cycle. Now granted, that growth is less than normal post-recovery growth, and none of that takes salary increase or inflation into account. Technically, though the economy is recovering because GDP is rising. That was the basis for my statement.

I do recall that being the definition... which, IMO, is a false definition. Was that always the definition of "recession/depression"?

[ElkinFencer10]

Recovery from a recession/depression is defined by a positive GDP growth. For the past couple years, America's GDP has grown at roughly 3%, maybe a little less, meaning that we are technically in the recovery part of the business cycle. Now granted, that growth is less than normal post-recovery growth, and none of that takes salary increase or inflation into account. Technically, though the economy is recovering because GDP is rising. That was the basis for my statement.

I do recall that being the definition... which, IMO, is a false definition. Was that always the definition of "recession/depression"?

I don't know when that definition was adopted (they didn't cover that in the two semester of economics I've had to take for my license to teach social studies), but I know that it's the current definition.