News

Over $14B spent on games in US in 2012
Posted: 06.02.2013 04:37 by JonahFalcon Comments: 5
According to the NPD, over $14B was spent on videogames in the United States. This actually represents a decline in sales of 9% compared to 2011, when gamers spent over $16.3B.

The study noted that gamers spent $8.8B on physical software, which includes used and rental copies, which was down 21% from $11.25B in 2011. However, where physical sales dropped, digital sales, including games, downloadable content, mobile games, social network games and game subscriptions went up 16% from $5B to 5.9B.

NPB analyst Liam Callahan noted in the report, "When including all other forms of content spending outside of new physical games, the 2012 U.S. games market was more than twice as large as the total spending on new physical games alone. There were divergent trends when looking at content spending in 2012 as a whole, with a decrease of 21 percent in spending on physical content while digital content spending grew 16 percent; both formats combined for a total decline of 9 percent for the year."

Let us know what you think.
Source: GameSpot

Comments

By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Feb 06, 2013
SiyaenSokol
Wow, people sure do love their games in the US.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Feb 06, 2013
nocutius
It's a big country :)
It would be interesting to see the combined numbers for EU as a comparison.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 06, 2013
herodotus
Like to have Australian figures posted, as we are the Land of the Price-gouged. I'd bet anything that if games dropped by 50% in price here (which would make them equal to everywhere else in the world - except Russia) the number would quadruple.
By Hammerjinx (SI Veteran Member) on Feb 07, 2013
Hammerjinx
I'd like to think that too, hero, but honestly I think a lot of the titles that ship big numbers would only shift a small amount more if you halved the price, leading to less revenue over all. Some titles would definitely benefit from a drop in price, but the overall money spent nationwide would prolly be about the same imo.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Feb 07, 2013
herodotus
I still think that with a fist full of cash, a young 'un entering EB Games will buy three console games instead of just one for the right prices. ou only have to look at a store at Sale time to realise this. Everyone has a budget.
But you're right, in that it might only last 6 months or even a year just for the pure novelty of getting things cheaper. But the money many would save and spend elsewhere would offset losses in the retail industry (assuming wholesalers dropped theirs as well).
Regionalisation - I loathe it.