US videogame sales remain uninspired

[Guest guest]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/101015/technology/us_it_internet_videogames_sales\

_npd

US videogame sales remain uninspired

Fri Oct 15, 1:12 AM

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Sales of videogame gear and software at stores slid anew

in September, data showed, but the significance of the drop was difficult to

assess given a trend to downloading titles online as digital content.

Revenue from videogame hardware and titles tallied 1.22 billion dollars, eight

percent less than the 1.32 billion dollars taken in during the same month last

year, according to data released on Thursday by NPD Group.

" While industry sales of new physical retail sales show a decline versus year

ago, it's important to remember that there is a growing volume of content being

sold digitally, " said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

" These numbers reflect the largest channel for hardware, software and

accessories sales, but there are content sales happening elsewhere. "

Sales of videogame consoles totaled 383 million dollars, a 19 percent drop from

the 472 million dollars logged in September of last year, according to NPD.

Science fiction battle videogame " Halo: Reach " published by Microsoft for play

on Xbox 360 consoles was ranked as the top title, with 3.3 million copies sold

not counting those bundled with hardware.

The one area in which sales rose was videogame accessories.

Sony's freshly-released Move motion-sensing controllers for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

consoles credited for helping drive accessories sales of 180 million dollars, a

13 percent increase from the same month in 2009.

Points cards that can be used for buying digital content at Xbox 360 Live and

PS3 online game play networks were the most popular accessories, in that order,

according to NPD.

" We continue to examine industry sales that occur outside the traditional retail

channel, and the success of these items at retail, points to the growing

importance of sales via digital distribution, " Frazier said.

[Guest guest]

Its probably also declining due to the economy and also the games are just the same old stuff over and over again no matter what superficial changes are applied to them. I'm also wondering about these downloadable games. What happens is the computer or game system loses the data from a crash, virus or whatever? I suppose they'd have to download another copy and just hope the internet stays up or accessible.

PS It could also be because a majority of the games out there just plain stink.

In a message dated 10/15/2010 2:28:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, no_reply writes:

Sales of videogame gear and software at stores slid anew in September, data showed, but the significance of the drop was difficult to assess given a trend to downloading titles online as digital content.Revenue from videogame hardware and titles tallied 1.22 billion dollars, eight percent less than the 1.32 billion dollars taken in during the same month last year, according to data released on Thursday by NPD Group.