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Sales of Video Games Down
Filed Under (Video Games) by Jim on 23-08-2009
Video games sales are not what they used to be. Sale numbers are declining during these tough economic times because people just don’t have the money to spend on entertainment. Ironically, only a couple of months ago video game sales will steadily increasing as overall retail sales were decreasing. Now, in a shocking surprise, video game sales have begun to decline steadily.
When the month of July came to a close, statistics were released saying that video game sales had fallen for the fifth straight month. In the month of July, video game sales brought in $848.9 million, which was down 29 percent from exactly one year ago ($1.1 billion). Also, year-to-date sales of video games reached $8.16 billion, which is down 14 percent from the same time one year ago.
Video game manufacturers and retailers are hoping that the month of August might offer some turnaround for the video game industry because of the highly anticipated release of Madden NFL 2010. The latest installment of the illustrious Madden series was released on August 14 and is one of top ten bestselling video game series of all-time. The statistics for the month of August will not be available until early in September.
Other impending video game releases that could help the struggling industry include The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Guitar Hero 5. The items that caused the largest decrease in industry sales are fewer system sales and fewer accessory sales. The only console to deliver growth over the past year has been Microsoft’s Xbox 360.