The yearly financial reports for the video game industry are in and the results are, mixed. Since the release of the new consoles in November of 2013 the numbers have said that people are buying consoles, but have not been buying very many new games. A report from the industry research group NDP found that U.S. hardware retail sales have dropped last month 23 percent to 1.01 billion from this same time last year, while game sales have managed to drop 2 percent to 1.09 billion as well. Overall compared to this time last year, the gaming industry monetary gains have dropped 11 percent to 2.41 billion.
The question is of course, why? The video game industry seems stronger then ever, there has never been more hype behind the new consoles then there is now, and we just have had Black Friday sales. NDP analyst Liam Callahan in a statement said, “despite a decline in dollar sales, hardware unit sales for eighth generation consoles increased by 3 percent over November 2013,” The decline in dollar sales does not seem to be the case because people are not buying, but because Microsoft and Sony has offered customers discounted bundles on the Xbox One and the PS4. These bundles, which finical analyst believes may have come to soon, has lead to a decline in monetary gains despite strong numerical sales.
However, reports have been positive for on-line sales and disc-less purchasing. Spending on games and DLC digitally accounted for over 1 billion in sales last month, a 23 percent increase over last year.
Source CNET