UK SOFTWARE SALES MONITOR Your weekly guide to the UK games software market
WEEKLY MARKET VALUE:
£8.96m No. 1
Week ending July 13th, 2012 8 £10.2m 4
432,107 Units
£9.9m 484,005 Units
£8.96m 410,429 Units
12 Total UK Software Sales Source: UKIE/Chart-Track and Intent Media
LOOK WHO’S TALKING
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The UK games market value fell by £1m over the last week, dropping by 10 per cent to £8.96m. Further decline means the market could see an all-time low in the next few weeks if it falls below the £8.5m recorded in May.
Unit sales also fell, down by six per cent to 410,429 units. The majority of sales are still being driven by Sega’s London 2012: Official Game of the Olympicsand Warner’s LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes.
Week Ending June 30th
Week Ending July 6th
Both declines can be partly attributed to a lack of new releases – except Inversion, which failed to enter the Top 40 in the All Formats Chart. There are almost no new titles this week either, with the only launch of note being Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance for 3DS.
Week Ending July 6th
Instead, retailers will need to rely on continuing sales of LEGO Batman 2 – again, No.1 in the UK Charts – as The Dark Knight Risesdrives interest in Batman. London 2012 and Amazing Spider- Man should also continue to be strong sellers.
TV – A MEDIUM IN CRISIS
Generation Media looks at the year-on-year decline in TV advertising for video games and consoles
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0% -21% -21% -26% -30% -48% -58% -56% -70% January February YoY % Change in Individual TVRs Source: BARB July 2012
10 July 20th 2012 www.mcvuk.com March April May YoY % Change in Brands on Air June YTD 2012 Individual TVRs -61% -48% -23%
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Data for the first half of the year has now been fully consolidated, and it has revealed that games and consoles TV advertising has declined markedly. The chart (left) demonstrates the market’s year-on- year change in individual TVRs (green bar), the year-on- year change in the number of campaigns (red bar), and the total number of individual TVRs by month (green line). Games and consoles TV advertising suffered its sixth consecutive month of decline in June, with 48 per cent fewer ads being viewed, due to a lower number of campaigns. In June 2011, there were 40 TV campaigns on our screens. This year, there were just 28. This means that year-to-date (January 1st to June 30th), the market has declined by 48 per cent. Again, this was driven by fewer campaigns (112 vs 86). The fact that the weight of viewing has declined at a faster rate to that of the number of campaigns, indicates that the weight of each campaign has also significantly declined.
In 2011, games and consoles TV campaigns averaged a total of 121 individual TVRs. In 2012, this figure has fallen by 32 per cent to just 82 TVRs.
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