No one wants them
US video game industry sales plunged faster than a
performing team of free fall parachutists of elephants who have forgotten to
pack a key ingredient to their act.
NPD Group said that sales in October, dropping 19 percent
from a year earlier, and 16.4 percent from September. The beancounters think that the record-breaking
performance of Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the coming
holiday season, means the industry's fortunes for November will be a little
better.
The industry only made a pathetic $1.07 billion in
October compared with $1.32 billion in October 2008 and $1.28 billion in
September 2009. NPD analyst Anita Frazier said that while sales were down
precipitously in October, it was still the third-best October sales report
turned in by the video game industry. She said that the continued economic turmoil, and in
particular the troubling unemployment rate, is undoubtedly impacting industry
sales.
Although consumers' general opinion about the economy is
improving, their outlook on their own personal situation is worsening. If
consumers' personal outlook continues to erode, they could very well be much
more conservative with their holiday shopping this year, she wrote.
Nintendo, which has seen sales of its once-high-flying
Wii dip and perceptions that the console's glory days may be over, the numbers
were a spot of good news. In October, the Wii took back first place among the
consoles--respectively the Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Sony's PlayStation 3.
In October, Nintendo moved 506,900 Wiis, beating out the PS3 (320,600) and the Xbox (249,700).