Posts Tagged ‘video game market’

Games industry to balloon to $64.9 billion by 2013

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

A new report issued by Strategy Analytics, Inc. this past Thursday forecasts that the global video game software market will continue it’s growth in the coming years. According to Strategy Analytics, 2009’s revenues are in the $46.5 billion ballpark, and will continue to grow to a massive $64.9 billion by the close of 2013, indicating a 40 percent growth rate over 4 years.

new-playstation-store-frontThe report predicts both physical game software (console, handheld, and PC) growth, and digital download activity, IGA, sales of virtual goods, and subscription services. The online games revenues sector is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 18.7 percent, reaching $24.8 billion by 2013, accounting from more than 38 percent of total video game software recenues.

“Strategy Analytics predicts more revenue growth from online sources instead of from traditional physical game sales as broadband adoption continues, which is similar to other media sectors. More gaming devices and games are being connected online and new online revenue models are appearing on the market,” said Martin Olausson, Director of Digital Media Research at Strategy Analytics.

The big winner in Strategy Analytics’ research is virtual goods sales in social networking based games. As to be expected, the Asian market is expected to lead this consumption, however North American and European markets will experience accelerated virtual goods sales growth.

Jia Wu, Analyst in the Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies (DMS) service and author of the report, added, “New online revenue streams, such as in-game dynamic advertising and sales of virtual goods, will spur rapid growth in online game revenues in the coming years.”

The Strategy Analytics “Global Video Game Market Forecast” is available from StrategyAnalytics.com and includes information on online gaming revenue streams, electronic sell through, subscription services, IGA, and virtual goods sales data. The report also includes country specific data from a wide range of markets including Argentina, China, Demark, Germany, Mexico, Russia, the UK and USA.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »

 

NPD reports that industry growth slows: Madden still drives it into the end zone

Friday, September 12th, 2008

According to NPD’s August numbers, the North American video game market only grew 9% year-over-year (August ’07-August ’08), indicating a slowed growth from previous months.  Software sales were however strong with EA’s Madden NFL 09 leading the pack; Nintendo pulling some equally strong numbers.
While 9% isn’t a massive growth rate when talking about widget sales, a 9% growth rate in the video game industry is still a commanding figure: $1.08 billion ’08, and a paultry $994.76 million in August ’07.  Hardware however, only clocked in at a 3% growth rate; $384.59 million ’07 – $394.53 million ’08.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out that this is the first time in 27 months the industry has seen only single-digit percentage growth.

Like the July numbers, software sales managed to beat the average improvement, rising 13% year-over-year from $489.06 million to $550.67 million.

The Nintendo DS and Wii took the top two spots respectively in the hardware sales slots, while Xbox 360 leapfrogged over the PS3, the PSP managed to beat both.

The cold hard facts:

August Hardware Per-unit Sales figures

  1. Nintendo DS – 518.3K
  2. Wii – 453.0K
  3. PlayStation Portable – 253.0K
  4. Xbox 360 – 195.2K
  5. PlayStation 3 – 185.4K
  6. Playstation 2 – 144.1K

While August wasn’t a great month for strong hardware growth Frazier comments, “The PSP and PS3 systems achieved the greatest percentage gain of all now-gen systems. The sales acceleration of these systems, combined with the recent Xbox 360 price cuts should fuel future growth of this category.”

I’m quite sure the folks in Richmond are quite happy about this.  Microsoft recently lowered the price of the entry-level Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard drive, to $199.

August Software Units Sold Figures

  1. Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360, EA Tiburon/EA) – 1.0M
  2. Madden NFL 09 (PS3, EA Tiburon/EA) – 643K
  3. Madden NFL 09 (PS2, EA Tiburon/EA) – 424.5K
  4. Wii Fit (Wii, Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) – 394.9K
  5. Mario Kart Wii (Wii, Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) – 328.7K
  6. Wii Play (Wii, Nintendo EAD/Nintendo) – 200.2K
  7. Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360, Project Soul/Namco Bandai) – 174K
  8. Too Human (Xbox 360, Silicon Knights/Microsoft) – 168.2K
  9. Madden NFL 09 All-Play (Wii, EA Tiburon/EA) – 115.8K
  10. Guitar Hero: On Tour (NDS, Vicarious Visions/Activision) – 111.2K

With the days growing shorter and cooler, combined with the media blitz concerning all things football, it’s shouldn’t really come as a shock that Madden is dominating the charts.  Regarding the slow growth over the month of August, sure, it IS the first time the sector has seen a single digit for the past 27 months, but I’m not quite sure it’s time to panic.  While there were 453k Wii sales, the DS clocked in at 518.3k, clearly indicating that gamers were on the go during the month.  As retailers begin to gear up for the coming holiday season, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a report coming out of Port Jefferson extolling the rise in gaming consoles and software sales in the coming months.

And the PS2…are they really still making games for an outdated platform?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in industry news | No Comments »