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May Game Sales Down 20% – This Is Why

By Dillon Skiffington (Editor in Chief) on 14 June 2011 in News with 320 Comments

NPD has reported that game sales are down 20% this May compared to last year. Shocking? Many websites seem to think so, but it really isn’t. Sure it is the worst slow down since October of 2006, but its the releases that matter. Yes the Wii did receive a price cut but that has nothing to do with game sales really.

Just check out the difference in line-ups from last year to this year (All averages are as reported by Metacritic):

May 2010

  • Lost Planet 2 – 69
  • Skate 3 – 80
  • Split Second – 83
  • Red Dead Redemption – 95
  • Alan Wake – 83
  • Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands – 75
  • UFC Undisputed 2010 – 84
  • Blur – 82

May 2011

  • Brink – 70
  • LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean -73
  • LA Noire – 89
  • Dirt 3 – 88

“This month’s story really is about a light new release schedule as compared to last year,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. She continued, “Overall, the Xbox 360 platform has contributed 34 percent of year-to-date revenues (across hardware, content and accessories) generated by new physical retail sales, gaining 7 share points over last year.”

The big difference in our eyes is not only the difference in the amount of games being released and the quality of them at that but it is instead this. Red Dead Redemption exceeded expectations, it snuck up on us, word of mouth will do a heck of a lot to boost a game’s sales. Whereas this year, LA Noire, another Rockstar game failed to meet expectations and therefore didn’t sell as well as expected.

On top of this was the underwhelming reaction to Brink compared the the great variety of games that were released this time last year.

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