US retail sales of video games fell for 7th month

Jul 13, 2012

(AP) — A new report says U.S. retail sales of video-game hardware, software and accessories fell for a seventh consecutive month.

Sales declined 29 percent in June to $700 million.

Sales of console and portable software — the video games themselves — fell 29 percent from a year earlier to $329 million. Sales of hardware fell 45 percent to $201 million. That was offset partly by a 4 percent increase in sales of accessories, to $170 million.

Thursday's report by NPD Group tracks sales of new physical products — about 50 percent to 60 percent of the total spending. Excluded are of used games and rentals as well as digital and social-network spending.

The top-selling was "Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes," from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Interactive.

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User comments : 5

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Bob_Kob
3.7 / 5 (3) Jul 13, 2012
Ageing consoles and shitty release titles. Did they expect us to hand over our money for no effort?
Skepticus
3.7 / 5 (3) Jul 13, 2012
Battle fatigue. there's only so many aliens and fanatic Muslims factions that you can shoot at. I suggest we widen the field of fire to include the Chinese's Tibet region and South China Sea shoot outs, the Israelis protection of settlements against terrorists...etc, for a comprehensive, wholesale, encompassing, satisfying experience of assimilation, bullying, provocation, escalation, murder and destruction.
Oops..! Merely the mention of the God's illegitimate sons, who prefer to operate to their own reading of "laws", surely will earn me a Number One rating...or no rating at all in place of it.
SatanLover
4.5 / 5 (4) Jul 13, 2012
Stop buying EA games and start buying gamed from developers that put hard work in their games. Stop buying Pay2Win games etc.

I hope EA dies, just like micro soft.
Caliban
5 / 5 (3) Jul 13, 2012
Probably symptomatic of weak demand for "consumer" goods across the board, and the effect of induced austerity brought about by prolonged high unemployment and declining wages among the employed.

If it's a choice between McNugget dinners for the whole family for the rest of the month, or an over-priced videogame for Junior, which choice do you think is going to "win"?
btb101
5 / 5 (2) Jul 14, 2012
If you look at the quality of games, the price they are being asked to pay, i am actually surprised the slump did not occur sooner.

very very few games coming onto the market have the levels needed to hold attention of modern gamers. there price needs to drop from the $50 to $20. then the rubbish might sell and the industry be saved.

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