These days you have to dig to find anything really construable as bad news about a specific company in NPDs figures, with its analysts doing their best to give each player an attaboy. At worst, youll find bits of overall industry gloom inescapable, really, since thefinally caught up to the industry (albeit belatedly, and after years of unprecedented growth).
And so this months look back at February was another barrel of disappointment from a retail standpoint, with year-on-year declines in hardware sales (-36%), software (-27%) and accessories (-3%) for an overall 25% decline.
But wait, what about digital? NPD says that if you add $90 million for used game sales and rentals, plus digital sales (full games, add-ons, microtransactions, subscriptions, mobile apps and social network games) of $319 million, the total consumer spend for February would be just under $1.2 billion. NPDs tracking of these newer markets has been incremental as it works with industry players to reveal this stuff, so you cant really compare February 2013 with February 2012s total consumer spend of $1.09 billion, but assuming online transactions have only increased over the past 12 months it seems reasonable to wonder, as weve been for years now, whether the downturn (if indeed it still is a downturn)is less than it seems. After all, NPD says its new physical retail sales figures only account for about 50% of total consumer spend at this point.
Wheres Nintendos Wii U in all this? We know Nintendos new console didnt do so hot in January, moving just 57,000 units (well, unless you buy involving holiday speculators, though itd be only marginally better news numbers-wise). Putting a positive spin on Nintendos February numbers, NPD noted they increased 40% (on an average per week basis) over January, meaning Nintendo probably moved around 64,000 units (note that January was a five-week month). Thats still a paucity compared to the Wiis extremely strong post-launch sales, and a fraction what Microsofts Xbox 360 and s PlayStation 3 have been selling in their waning days.
Speaking of, Microsoft says it sold 302,000 units in February and that this marks the Xbox 360s26th consecutive month as the number-one selling console in the U.S. (NPD says its actually the 19th straight month I dont have the numbers in front of me so I dont know whos correct.)
When , I didnt bug him about Wii U sales not because I couldnt have, but because Miyamotos a designer, not a bean counter. And yet wed be foolish to ignore the criticality of sales when it comes to questions like Will X company develop Y game(s) for system Z? You cant ignore the bottom line. If a system fails to catch fire, well, I know a lot of people who loved Segas Dreamcast. Love and wonderful ideas alone wont see you through.
Does that mean its time for a Wii U price cut? Its the conventional wisdom when a consoles in trouble (or seems to be) like Nintendos 3DS, which surged from the gate, then stumbled for months before Nintendos price cut put it back on track. After all, the Wii Us target demographic isnt the 300,000+ that bought Xbox 360s last month the same group, I suspect, fond of bashing the system for not raising the computational bar as Sonys forthcoming PlayStation 4 appears to be. In any case, $350 is asking a lot from that other, ostensibly broader demographic the one that paid just $250 years ago for the Wii with Wii Sports, and that can nowadays pick up a Wii for as little as $130 (or significantly less still used).
Buying a game console early in its lifecycle is an investment, a sign of good faith, an indication that you believe in a companys vision as well as its ability to deliver the kinds of games you want to play. But you have to move systems to stir developers. For all the Wii Us promise and I cant imagine the water cooler conversations at third-party game developers are exactly uplifting just now.
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