Videogame sales in the US slumped in December as new titles like Titanfall 2 failed to live up to the previous year’s blockbusters, and the industry navigated a rocky shift from retail sales to digitally downloaded games.
All major US game publishers saw sales declines in the holiday period, led by a 30% drop for industry leader Activision Blizzard Inc, Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson analyst said in a note reporting data from market-research firm NPD.
Revenue at Electronic Arts Inc and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc during the period was down 18% and 7%, respectively.
Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinity Warfare came in below the same instalment of the franchise last year, as did EA’s Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 compared with Star Wars: Battlefront, Olson said.
Some of the industry’s marquee game titles disappointed with critics and fans, said Paul Raines, chief executive of GameStop Corp, the country’s largest standalone videogame retailer. For instance, the new Call of Duty looked too much like Microsoft Corp’s Halo, he said.
“The industry has been declining digitally and physically,” Raines said in an interview. “That points to fatigue and lack of innovation.”
GameStop’s holiday revenue fell 16% to US$2.5bil (RM11.16bil), reflecting the continued decline of physical sales as more gamers download the latest titles instead. Before Thanksgiving, GameStop offered the new Call of Duty for US$1 (RM4.47) to consumers that also traded in a used copy of one of 20 other titles. New games typically sell for US$60 (RM268). Many consumers are downloading games through consoles such as Sony Corp’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox.
Raines said new devices, such as Nintendo Co’s handheld Switch game player, will be bright spots in 2017.
Shares of GameStop fell 9.1% to US$22.48 (RM100.41) at 11.08am June 13 in New York. Activision and Take-Two gained less than 1% while EA advanced 1.7%.
Holiday blues
Videogames were expected to have weak holiday season. Mobile games, such as Pokémon Go, have stolen consumer attention from console-based titles. The current generation of console hardware, now in its fifth year, is no longer spurring software sales.
And manufacturers have struggled to get new virtual reality goggles on shelves, disappointing some observers who thought the new technology would drive game sales, according to Joost van Dreunen, chief executive officer for New York-based market research firm SuperData Research.
NPD, which released only physical US retail sales, will report the industry revenue numbers to the public on Jan 18. — Bloomberg
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