Analyst expects NPD slump to continue

please tacman you need to get a clue

Thank God Rockstar / Take-Two has started avoiding the fall season with Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire release dates being testimony to that !!!

@dz99ls A lot of children want the big titles, which M rated games, they need parents to buy it for them, and they'll be more likely to do that during xmas, try and keep in mind as a publisher I want to try and sell my game to as many people as possible for the highest price possible. Adults don't get games for xmas at all.... yeah right. I said sell for full price, around November, an August game has usually dropped in price. So you nullified nothing, and since you obviously don't know a thing about basic business, or maybe no one loves you enough to buy you an xmas gift, I'll leave it at that.

@tmacman Adult gamers dont need their mommies to buy our games for us. Nearly EVERY one of the big releases are "M" rated games so that argument is balls. Also last time i checked if a game is released in august that doesnt mean its not available for sale in november.

@MJ12-Conspiracy "I don't think console sales are the answer, I think everyone who's interested in Wii already has one or are in the process of getting one soon, I think the same is true for XBOX 360, It's the PS3 that needs more sales" Couldn't be stated better Majestic-12.

Nothing says 'recession' like a duck on a motorcycle.

I mostly play PC and PS3, and i can't name one decent game that has come out this year. We all know the economy sucks, but to be honest developers and publishers suck too. All game genres are so tired right now.

I blame ms 8months into the year and still no exclusive, this developers/publishers need to spread out their AAA releases throughout the year, am thinking a AAA exclusive every quarter at the least, now all the big games are cramped into the last quarter gamers are will ether not have the money or time to play all of them, hence leading to less sales and developers thinking their games don't sell

I don't understand why so many game studios just write the summer off. A solid 2-3 months almost barren of new releases with any excitement surrounding them. I think it is a big mistake for some games to wait until the Fall-Winter rush because they get drowned. I can see why the established AAA franchises do it, but I think some stuios are not taking advantage of time when their games could get really noticed.

If game makers want to see sales rise they are really going to have to swallow their pride and lower the price of games, even if the price was lowered to $50 instead of $60 I think many gamers would appreciate the gesture. Day one DLC doesn't cut it, nobody wants to pay $60 and turn around and spend another $25+ on DLC because the dev was too lazy to put it all on disc or that the publisher was greedy and forced them to break apart their game and sell the parts off as extras. I don't think console sales are the answer, I think everyone who's interested in Wii already has one or are in the process of getting one soon, I think the same is true for XBOX 360, It's the PS3 that needs more sales.

@dz99ls What holiday happens in Q4? Christmas. What do a lot of people love to get at Chritmas? Video games. When are you probably going to sell the most copies of your games at full price? Around Christmas. Until someone creates another super holiday, we're stuck with it.

Ncaa sells almost a million and there is still hardly no one online playing it.

if developers and publishers would get a clue and not pack Q4 with all the major releases this wouldnt happen

its all those suicide dudes on walstreets fault... plus the fact that ea hasnt made a really good sports game this gen and its year 6? why in the would would they keep buying the same thing over and over?

The economy still sucks hard and sales are expected to slump? what a frakkin surprise.

@vadicta - So true. NPD needs to get with the program or go away. I hope no one is actually relying on their numbers for anything important.

@endorbr - I was thinking the same thing, I know a ton of games coming out late this month and through the fall that should change this trend.

Well, of course it will. How can the numbers the NPD give us get higher when they're continuously getting less information from less venues. They don't count Wal-Mart, online retailers or digital distribution. The NPD is no measuring stick for the game industry.

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A lot of the years big titles are coming out in the next three months so Q3 and Q4 sales numbers should be a lot better.