Comments on: Video game industry sales down 17 percent--again

NPD Group says that despite the latest figures showing a year-over-year decline in sales, it's hard to reach the conclusion that the industry has begun to soften.

[Kwasiowusu]

The Wii craze is finally over:
Wii: April 2008 714K
Wii: April 2009 340K
And you can't blame it on shortages this time. The fall in Wii April sales this year has little to do with the lack of new games this year. It has everything to do with the fact that the Wii was still sold out last year, and demand was exceeding supply last year. This year, supply is far exceeding supply, so sales fell.

Year on year comparisons, April 2008 to 2009 % increase/fall:
Wii down 374,000 from last year.
PS3 down 60k .
360 down 13k.

Jan-April 2009 growth/declines in sales as compared to 2008:
Wii
Jan - April 2009 : 2,373,200
Jan - April 2008 : 2,141,200
Up 10.83%%

360
Jan - April 2009: 1,205,000
Jan - April 2008 : 934,600
Up 28.93%

PS3
Jan - April 2009 : 824,200
Jan - April 2008 : 998,900
(Down 17.48%)

In the coming months, Wii year on year comparisons as compared to last year, are going to keep going down. The Wii is gone end this year selling considerably lower than it did last year in the US.

[Kwasiowusu]

Correction:
This year, supply is far exceeding demand, so sales fell

[ducttape36]

maybe, but they are launching the wii motion+ so that may help them a bit.

[blundberg]

Wii's are considerably cheaper and a fundamentally different system than PS3 and 360. I think comparing them is a bit murky. Wii captures the casual gamer who will not invest during tough times. PS3 and 360 captures the more hardcore and quintessential gamer, many of whome could would likely trade a meal a day for a year to buy a PS3 or 360.

[Renegade Knight]

@Kwasiowusu

Your math isn't quite right. When supply exceeds demand. Sales are the most they can be. When supply falls short of demand, you sell less than you could have. The goals is for th two to balance.

What that means is if sales fell, it's not supply that's the problem. Likely demand is falling. Which is what the OP said.

[Kwasiowusu]

@Renegade Knight :"When supply exceeds demand. Sales are the most they can be"

Correct. But then when demand exceeded supply, Wii sales were as high as Nintendo could make 'em. They were essentially selling every single Wii they could make, the moment they hit the shops. That is not the case anymore, so yeah, demand has gone down, hence sales went down.

Wii weekly sales these past 3 months:

February: 188.25K per week
March : 120.2K per week(Down 36.14% from from Feb)
April: 85K per week (Down 29.28% from March)

[Kwasiowusu]

Year on year % increase/fall from 2008 to 2009:
PS2 : 172K 124K +39%
360 : 175K 188K -7%
PS3 : 127K 187K -32%
Wii : 340K 714K -52%

The PS2 peice cut to $100, sent it 's above the PS3, and pretty close to the 360.

[Angmarr]

As I see it, the new - ridiculously expensive - consoles came @ a very bad time. I never migrated to the new consoles from the old, instead I moved to PC MMORPGS and never looked back.

[FearNo1]

Well you are missing out. There are some great games on XBox 360. Besides, you can buy one as little as $199. I am the opposite, I may never go back to PC gaming again. For now, all PC gaming has over consoles are MMORPGs and RTS. Two genres I don't care too much about. I'd like to try MMO but don't want the monthly cost. Supposedly MMOs will be announced at E3 this june.

[Angmarr]

what about FPS? I dont play much, but all my friends prefer PCs for it?

And Dude all the MMOs I play, I only play the Free version (most of them are actually really good) http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/show/all/sCol/rankHype/sOrder/desc

I do miss vs, Fighters like SoulCalibur though = (

[clynx]

Windows Live has taken all the fun out of gaming for me. To much hand holding. To be logged in to save games is absurd.