Console industry down by 6% to $1.18 billion
The US gaming industry ended 2007 with record retail sales of nearly $18 billion. This week, though, the NPD Group provided a sobering reminder that market growth is not guaranteed. Today, the industry-research firm released its US retail sales data for its January 2008 reporting period. While software sales for the month were up 11 percent to nearly $611 million for the month, hardware sales fell by a quarter to about $378 million. Combined with modestly declining accessory sales, the overall industry was down 6 percent for the month, posting $1.18 billion compared to January 2007’s $1.25 billion take.
Despite that, the month contained indications that the industry actually grew. That’s because NPD’s January 2007 reporting period was actually five weeks long as opposed to this January’s four-week span. NPD analyst Anita Frazier noted that the numbers are much rosier when that adjustment is taken into account. “At the top-line, on an average sales per week basis, January 2007 was actually up nearly 18 percent as compared to last year,” Frazier said. “And the big winner was console software which was up nearly 50 percent when compared on a level playing field to last year.” However, even on a week-by-week basis, hardware sales were still down 6 percent from last year. Frazier blamed that slide on price cuts made to the consoles, and speculated that hardware shortages in the wake of stellar December sales contributed to January’s slide. That assertion was backed up a statement from Microsoft saying the Xbox 360 was suffering from temporary shortages.
Source: Gamespot
Comments(35)
of course hardware sales are down, everyone who really wants the ‘next gen’ consoles already has one. the only people buying them now are the poor people who just now saved up enough money or the people who weren’t bored enough to buy a console when they first came out
is this supposed to be bad news for me?
Ya, this seems kind of stupid to me. Do they actually expect to sell a whole lot of consoles every month, that just seems stupid. And they are still making profits even in this month, I wonder how much there consoles really cost them to make :/
pointless really, after crimbo and new year alot of people have not cash to spend on consol’s and games, i did read game sales were doen also in Jan, but there was not alot out. Im sure it will pick up as 2008 will be a good year for games (providing Killzone 2 is released)
yay for copy paste
Matt
i remember reading somewhere that microsoft actually loose money on every 360 sold, but the amount they make from software sales is offset against this.
This generation of consoles is destined not do that well – it offers noting other than graphical enhancements from the generation before and the development time required to get software running multi platform is greater than the potential rewards in many situations.
360 – Nothing you can’t get on a PC.
PS3 – Uncharted is the only thing worth playing.
Wii – The gamecube versions were actually better and (unbelievably) easier to control.
Add to all this the looming global recession and people wont take the plunge. This year, as last, the PS2 will be the strongest selling console.
This is just a journalist making up a story because they’re bored.
hurra urraa
more PC, more PC
All Aussie need to know on the news on “War on music piracy ”
Aus Gov considering a three-strikes policy against computer users who download songs illegally. Under the three-strikes policy, a warning would be first issued to offenders who illegally share files using peer-to-peer technology to access music, TV shows and movies free of charge. The second strike would lead to the offender’s internet access being suspended; the third would cancel the offender’s internet access.
Hopefully they fail …
@all
“Frazier blamed that slide on price cuts made to the consoles, and speculated that hardware shortages and this was backed up by microsoft”
What!! They haven’t figured out a way to blame the “pirates”. Maybe progress is being made………
How about the PC gaming industry? Soared much lower than this
“of course hardware sales are down, everyone who really wants the ‘next gen’ consoles already has one. the only people buying them now are the poor people who just now saved up enough money or the people who weren’t bored enough to buy a console when they first came out”
yeah, but the poor are like 85% or more of the population. Its definitely still too expensive for them. When I was a kid, the popular consoles were the SNES and Sega Genesis which were in the range of $99 to $150, and my parents barely could afford to buy me one. Yeah, salaries have gone up, but rent went up 2 fold.
I quit smoking to pay for my PS3, now I’m actually saving money.
I skipped my wife’s birthday and christmas present to afford my PS3. Now I’m paying almony and child support. Seemed like a good idea at the time…..my brain on drugs.
“Microsoft saying the Xbox 360 was suffering from temporary shortages”
Is that because they had to use their stock to replace people’s machines suffering from RROD? Apparently the 360 failure is 16%.
One thing I know is that the PS3 sold faster than the 360 in the UK. In fact the PS3 sold faster than the PS2. The PS2 sold 1 million units in 50 weeks. The 360 took more than 60 weeks to do the same. All we need now is for game developers to lead their multi platform games on the PS3 rather than the 360 because the results are much better. EA and Epic are doing this, Rockstar should have done it too…
@al bundy
Where the heck do you live with 85% of the people being poor?
Here in the US, we have no poor, even our lowest inccome people have video game consoles for their children. So being poor has no effect on console purchases, but good luck with that 85% of your country.
@Peter Parker
What does this acronym mean in your comment: “RROD”?
I don’t know about other people but to me a keyboard and mouse gives you much better control over games. Plus PC games get all these mods + trainers that add a lot of replay value.
they need to move these console games to pc so we can download it for sure
@matey9
Silly fool. How can you say that a mouse and a keyboard are easier to use than some of the great controllers that have been created for console games??
Have you ever tried to play Guitar Hero with a mouse and a keyboard?
Dumb n00b.
@Wendal Martin
RROD is Red Ring Of Death. This happens (from what I understand) when the 360’s motherboard/CPU/GPU/Memory fails due to extreme heat in a concentrated area.
M$ rushed their console out because they wanted to beat Sony at any cost. Sony delayed their launch until the console was ready. The failure rate of the PS3 is extremely low. The 360’s failure is much higher than 16% (as I have just found out) with a possibility that all consoles will fail.
Source:
http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/jake_inside_source_reveal_the_truth_about_xbox_360_red_ring_of_death_failures.php
yeah the failure rate is definately higher than 16 percent,my first two 360s died (RROD) and the one I currently own started to act up by slightly warping discs from the heat so I opened my 360s case to expose the insides and get more air to it.It runs even louder now but it no longer warps discs or gives me disc read errors.
consoles are for children and uneducated adults.
PC’s will always keep the smart players while consoles will always be for the “bored on a saturday players” ok?
Soc-
Can we please stop with all of the “tar baby” comments?
It is enough already.
Doesn’t it make sense that with the price drops in the consoles etc that the sales totals will also drop….how many units does their figures represent as to last year….price drop…less turnover…same amount )or maybe more) units sold….
Makes one think how these very very very clever people manage to think
More consoles will be sold if Nintendo Wii production is increased. Though demand exceeds supply, many are waiting for prices to drop.
@21 – I agree, I’d more fun playing many PC games than several console games. Reminds me of the time when Best Buy would have aisles stocked with PC games. Now, very few PC games are sold by them. It’s another thing that they’ve found HDTVs more profitable than games.
@ Peter Parker
The failure is at 16% for consoles owned.The new 360s with the falcon chipsets have a 10% failure rate,if not less.It’s great that the falcons brought down the failure rate and it’ll only go down as ms sell more falcons.Also,to the other ppl who said it’s still higher then 16%,well ur wrong.The first 360 u owned which red ringed was the originals(Zephrys) and ms don’t send new 360 replacements they fix 360s that RRoD and send it out.That’s why some ppl get the red lights more than once.It would be better if ms just sent ppl falcons than there would only be a 10% chance of it failing.Oh n 2 the ppl who want a 360 it’s pretty safe now on 10% failure rate,and when the jaspers come out it should be below 5%.
most rlslog viewers have no life so that’s why they like to argue
*see above for examples*
uhm maybe this has happened because everyone has an xbox and ps3 and everyone is waiting for a wii which almost isnt available unless you get it in a bundle, im shocked that sony is still in this ‘war’
@Jr
Sony did the right thing by delaying the PS3 until it was ready. Look at the state of the 360. The PS3 is a great console and it’s one of the cheapest and best Blu-ray players on the market.
By the end of the year, I bet that the PS3 will have outsold the 360 worldwide.
As of 01/01/08, the PS3 had sold 10.49million units whilst the 360 sold 17.7million. Not bad for a console which had been out for 13 1/2 months which many people thought was too expensive.
As for the Wii, I have never seen one on sale for the RRP of £120. EVER. However I saw loads in stock in a local shop on Thursday evening selling for just under £200. They weren’t flying off the shelf and I’m not convinced about this shortage of units.
I´ve been defending the PC as the best option to play games for years, passing on the opportunity to get an n64, gamecube, xbox, ps1 and ps2, loyally sticking to PCs(sometimes hoping there would be emulators to run ps2 games). Sure, modding PC games is cool, but just on some games like GTA for example, but thats it. Next gen consoles are strong for online gaming, so that makes PC games lose even more edge. After realizing the time and money I keep spending in upgrading it´s components, installing it´s games, and waiting a great deal of time for decent games to show up, I´m through with PCs. I´m getting a console, any console, although at the moment I´m inclined towards the PS3 (Wii is to childish, Xbox360 not so sure with the hd-dvd going down), cause even though it´s expensive, I´m getting a bluray player along. Maybe a used one to cheapen cost. Yeah, they´re expensive, especially if you live in a third world country like me, but I think I won´t regret it. Besides, right now, the only decent games I´ve played for PC could be counted with my fingers, but those console games I´ve played at my neighbors home are way cooler, like Gran Turismo, god of war, resident evil or devil may cry (which came out for PC after a long time and sucked, cause you couldn´t aim with the mouse without a patch). And I only played these game for a few moments and still managed to get hung up on them, even started to like those Zelda games for gamecube. Yup, PC gaming is dead for me, I´ll limit my PC for downloading movies and stuff, and nagging on posts like this.
i agree with Human_Bean, i own a ps3 (450.- with a game) a own a xbox (370.- +modded) and a wii (250.- +modded) makes 1070 .. i don´t have to run windows vista nor do i have to participate in hardware upgrading my pc .. i call myself winner
people that comment on the 360 saying about the failure rate has come down, it should be zero, who wants to buy a game consol in the hope that it would never fail. I have box 360 and PS3 and I have never been a “fanboy” towards one consol but now LONG LIVE SONY AND PS3
Whoa! What exactly is this thread instigating? From the looks of things it’s trying to create an extra war at consumers for not being suckers and spending alot on ‘next-gen’ consoles when you can still be happy with a ps2.
But yeah, it’s a no brainer the ps3 will be the console of choice over the next few years but it’s just not essential yet.