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MCV 06/08/10 27 TERRITORY REPORT: USA
The land of opportunities? 9.1%
With game sales down in 2010, does the US market still offer the same potential it did in years gone by? Christopher Dring takes a closer look at the NPD figures and speaks to the experts to find out…
THE LAST SIX months have been tough for the US games market. The amount of money generated by video games in the US for the first six months of the year was $6.66bn, a drop of 9.1 per cent compared to the amount spent during the same period in 2010 ($7.33bn).
The biggest contributor to the slowdown has been the sharp decrease in software and hardware sales. Video game consoles accounted for $2.11bn of the market this year, a reduction of 16.3 per cent compared to the $2.52bn generated during the first six months of 2009. Software dipped 7.6 per cent year-on-
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market generate over $21bn before the year is up.
NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier says: “Unfortunately, the industry realised a decline versus the same time period last year, driven by decreases in sales of portable hardware and console and portable software.
Given the strong slate of content still to come, I think we could see total year retail sales come in at $20 billion. Anita Frazier, NPD
year, from $3.80bn to $3.51bn. However, despite the decline the US market hasn’t fallen as steeply as it has in the UK (the games market fell 16 per cent in the UK during the same period). And NPD feels that the major releases at the end of the year could help the US
“Looking at historical seasonality for the industry, total year US revenues could come in anywhere between $18bn and $21bn.
“Given the strong slate of content still to come, and the release of the Move and Kinect controllers – which I believe will spark additional interest in gaming – I think we could see the total year
new physical retail sales come in at around $20bn.
“NPD will also be reporting consumer sales of digitally distributed, rental and used games content to provide insight into those non-POS sources of game sales.”
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Despite the decline in hardware and software sales, it hasn’t been all bad news for the US games market. Accessory sales have in fact risen, up 2.9 per cent from $1.01bn to $1.04bn. Sony also had a strong sales period, with 11 consecutive months of year-
over-year increases in terms of PlayStation 3 sales.
A CLOSER LOOK AT JUNE The figures for June in the US were also encouraging. Total sales of games, consoles and accessories came in at $1.10bn, down only six per cent compared to the $1.17bn generated in June 2009.
The percentage decrease the games market shrunk by in the US for the first six months of the year
$3.51 billion
The amount of money generated by video game software sales between January and July in the US
963,000
The number of copies of Red Dead Redemption sold in the US in June
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