Video Game Sales Go Up
The video game industry has suffered significant losses though the course of 2009. Game consoles and video game titles have seen a fall in sales since last year’s financial crisis. From January to October this year, there has been a major decline in the sale of video games. For November to December, however, forecast says video game sales is about to spring back thanks to some famous titles.
Independent marketing research group NPD stated that console sales for last month fell down to 23% and 18% down for video game software. Price cuts for the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 did little help to boost the overall video game hardware sales. An estimated forecast states that a total of $20bn to $21bn will be generated this year which is smaller than last year’s $21.3bn.
The effects of this decline in sales have been felt by employees from several video game developers and retailers namely Electronic Arts and Gamestop. Gamestop said they are looking forward to a decline in sales of up to 11% and has also been detached from Goldman Sachs’ conviction buy list and EA announced it will lay-off some 1,500 jobs but the matter of when remains to be seen.
Video game console sales have been fairly up and down due to competitive price reduction and exclusivity of highly anticipated game titles. Sony’s Playstation 3 has reported a rise in sales in Japan and Europe because of the $100 price cut Sony had issued and they are keeping their fingers crossed for next year with the release of God of War III. On the other hand, their new version of the PSP, PSPGo, has not seen any sizeable boost in sales since its launch last October 2009 in the US.
This month’s video game sales has created new hopes as Activision launched their highly anticipated “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” sequel to the successful “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.” Soon to be released titles from several video game companies are also expected to boost title sales for the month of November with Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed 2” and Wii’s “New Super Mario Bros.”
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has given its creators their record sales for this year with profits totaling up to $310 million in the US, Canada, and UK. Activision reported that they sold about 4.7 million copies for within only 24 hours during its November 10 release.
The game title is expected to outmatch the success of Grand Theft Auto IV by Take Two Interactive where it sold 3.6 million copies globally, lesser than the figure of CoD:MW2 copies sold in only the US and the UK. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has a price tag of $60 or £36.55.
This first-person shooter game represents real-life warfare of present time and players can choose to play in single player or multiplayer mode online. It is available on three platforms; XBOX 360, Playstation 3, and PC.
