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 Digg.com Facebook Google Bookmarks N4G Gamerblips del.icio.us Reddit Slashdot.org StumbleUpon This was always going to happen, sadly.Most people just don't have the money to shell out on luxury items like games anymore. Hopefully it will force developers to take the quality over quantity approach from now on. I don't think Activision are going to help with £55 COD6 RRP either. Greedy *******s, hope they go broke but that probably won't happen. True, they have the luxury of being able to raise the rrp of their games in the middle of a recession while a large percentage of other publishers/devs are struggling just to stay afloat. 'Industry sees biggest decline in nine years'
And in the middle of a recession, who would have thunked it :wink: ?
Compared to some industries (I work in Recruitment, ouch!) there actually doing not too bad.
Time to tell the Harbinger's of doom to give it a rest, i think. While the economy clearly has an effect on these figures, I believe there's another issue too. There just isn't a large enough selection of top games to purchase right now. Later this year (and early next), on the 360 for example, we're going to see several previously massive titles; Modern Warfare, Forza, Bioshock, Left4Dead and Mass Effect. In fact in the months to come the industry is going to supply us with many new games which I'm convinced had they been spread throughout this year the industry would be in a healthier state. Most of the big hitters take a good 18 months to a year to knock out sequels and we're currently in a quiet period before the storm, so to speak.
As a form of entertainment, relative to say going to the cinema or a restuarant, or going out at the weekend, it's resonably cheap. While I have far less money this year than last, I certainly have the money to buy the games I really want. You could say I'm desperate to spend money on gaming, but right now and for the last six months or more the titles I want just aren't around yet. I think Jensonjet hit the nail on the head, which possibly goes along with what has already been said about the recession.
The decent devs are taking longer to release fewer games, so they can polish them more. That way, when they get released there's a higher chance of a better reception. In these times, devs know that their audience isn't going to buy EVERY new title so they need to take as much time to make sure it's THEIR game the customers buy when they go into that shop.
But we're definitely in the calm before the storm, in terms of big releases. The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 is going to be a massive period, with about 10 "must have" titles in the first quarter alone. I'm sure that'll help the industry's figures. Yeah. I third Jensonjet's comments.
How many games have you all bought this quarter?
In fact, how many games have you bought this year?
There's not been a lot of decent titles, never mind great titles...
It'll be a good forth quarter when all the decent titles come out - not that there's a lot I'm looking forward to (Dragon Age, Left 4 Dead 2, and Dead Rising 2).
Bit grim on the gaming front, really. ...it won't help my bank balance, but I'm certainly going to be happier!
It's amazing that the developers of the big dozen or so massive sellers don't do what Left 4 Dead was supposed to do... and that's release the game with some elements missing, and add them as a free download at a later date. I can't imagine many people would complain if the driving game they're waiting for has an extra few tracks and cars coming in the future. Same goes for shooters, I can't see that it would effect sales if a few maps or weapons came at a later date. I know this kind of thing would have needed to be scheduled and planned for months in advance, but couldn't the industry see what an advantage a AAA game would have coming out a little earlier, in a quieter game-release period! The movie industry does this with several otherwise summer blockbusters scheduled to hit the theatres a couple of months ahead or behind the height of the season. Amazingly the games industry continues to prove how young and relatively inexperienced it is! Perhaps it'll take a new generation of game developers to resolve this issue. Well, I've bought 14 games for the Xbox 360 since June this year and I've bought probably around 30 PC games since last summer, but many of those games were bought with large discounts or second-hand. I'm patient enough to usually be able to hold off for some months to avoid the harshest of the initial release prices and I love a good deal. I agree completely , it always staggers me that, year in year out the big games always get released shortly before or after christmas, and for the rest of the year we're left twiddling our thumbs, or worse again, are forced to go outside. :) Yes, but April - July is always a quiet period for game releases. I think what it means is that it's quieter than usual given the time of year.
Hopefully the big releases coming at the end of the year/early 2010 will benefit from the fact with had bugger all to play for the last 4/5 months. The_KFD_Case, 14 games this year!! Wow, I don't think I've even bought that many games for the 360 since it's launch. While I'm a devoted and hardcore gamer for the time I spend on a game, I'm just way to fussy to care for that many. Fortunately, wanting so few, it's not too much of an economical stretch to buy the games the day of their release. For me, the excitement of 'purchase day'; going to the shop, bringing it home and unwrapping it, is as close to the excitement Christmas morning was for me as a kid. To date I've only bought one game second-hand (although on reflection, a fair few didn't deserve a new purchase, or barely deserved renting), but it just didn't have the same sense of excitement for me. It's why cloud-computing or piracy doesn't interest me much. Although it's sort of only an illusion that we actually 'own' the game, it feels like it's my own prized possession. And if all turns out as planned it'll provide hundreds of hours of entertainment. I guess some us saviour games, while others digest them. I have to say, I'd be in heaven if there were a dozen games every year I wanted. Twelve childhood-Christmas mornings, fantastic! It isnt affecting me, as I have just bought my 37th game yesterday.
But the problem behind this, well they state that its all about sales, but it isn't, The problem is that Game Development company's arent opening there doors to new people wanting to get in. Just like in Starship Troopers, I'm doing my bit. I have more games than I have time to play them - BY FAR.
Not that I'm complaining - it's one of those nice dilemmas to have. It might fair better if there wasnt as many FPS's out there. It seems that every ps3/360 title these days are bloody fps games. I have a couple fair enough but at the end of the day where are all the rpg games?
Where are all the unique games with unique concepts? more games like LBP, more quiz and puzzle games, more rpg's. I'm sick japan not sharing most of their RPG games I think there needs to be more western developers making rpg's. Fahrenheit was one of my favourite ps2 games and Oblivion is one of my favourite pc games. I'm no analyst but couldn't the decline be attributed to the amount of "shovel-ware" not being sold as Joe Bloggs isn't buying games for his kids due to the fact that said Joe doen;t have the disposable income any more? I for one won't be buying MW2 £55! no bloody way Activsion! :x It's hard to have any sympathy when you constantly hear about interesting games that have been in development for years and already had millions poured into them suddenly being cancelled because the publishers would rather go after the easy money of sequels and bad movie tie-ins. Loads of games are shite that's the problem. It'll be all resolved when the price of PS3 comes down!! | 
