NPD has released the U.S. sales figures for October. The recession continued to hit the video games sector, with sales down 19 percent over last year. September sales went against the grain, and it’s hoped that November will too thanks to the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2. But October wasn’t a good month overall.
The PSPgo recently launched in Japan this month and the initial sales figures are in. It seems like the new PSPgo is giving the Playstation brand the boost needed to completely dominate the video game market it Japan.
The games industry seems to have at last stopped the slide which has seen revenues drop six months in succession. While the increase was only slight, with the holiday season just around the corner, things are most definitely looking up. The PS3 won the hardware battle as expected, with only the DS preventing it from managing a clean sweep. Meanwhile, Halo 3: ODST sold massively well, racking up sales of over 1.5 million units.
The PSP Go is now available to buy in North America and Europe, with Japan and rest of the world having at least a month more to wait. The reviews are coming in thick and fast and are, to put it bluntly, very mixed. While most people think the actual hardware is a step up from previous models, the pricing strategy, the switch to downloaded games only, and a number of other factors mean many are advising sticking to the PSP 3000.
In any video game discussion the two titles that are mentioned most frequently as games that all gamers must play are ICO and Shadow of the Colossus. These two games flew under the radar during launch but have since built an army of cult followers. It seems that PS3 owners may now be able to play these two classic titles in high definition with enhanced graphics.
The Tokyo Game Show is finally underway. It feels like TGS will not have any bombshell announcements but there still seems to be a good amount of small chunks of news to come out of the show. Overall a steady stream of bite-sized announcements has already been announced day one of the show.
July was a slow month in gaming with sales dropping for the past five months. However, August looks to be a new month with some indication of the holiday season finally creeping upon us. Almost all of the platforms increased in August from July, with the PS3 taking an exceptional leap. Unfortunately, the legendary PS2 continues its downward spiral.
Just a few months ago we all agreed that the video games industry seemed to be recession-proof, providing retail strength in the face of every other entertainment sector collapsing. But that clearly isn’t the case, and the Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360, PSP, PS3, and PS2 all dropping in July according to NPD.
Game launching within Home on the PS3 is one of the most useful features for gamers. However, it seems like this feature won’t be mandatory for all games and will be up to the developers to implement. This could be a huge mistake, making Home less attractive to gamers.
The signs have been there for the last few months but June finally saw conclusive evidence that the video games industry is not recession-proof. June saw sales fall year-on-year for the fourth month in a row and the largest year-on-year monthly decline since September 2000.
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