Curmudgeon Gamer
18 December 2007
November 2007 NPD
It's that time of month again, with NPD releasing data and me burning a weekend looking at numbers. The results are here.
The guys on NeoGAF picked up what may be an inaccuracy in the numbers NPD provided to me. I might have to fix the graph showing original Sony IP sales, since the Resistance: Fall of Man number appears to be YTD, not LTD.
Now I'm going to enjoy a little time with actual games and not sales numbers. The Burnout Paradise demo is quite slick (and just annoying enough that I'd be tempted to buy the game instead of continuing to enjoy the demo long term). I'm enjoying Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror on the PSP.
Oh, and a copy of Deep Fear for the Saturn arrived. I think I'll give that a try. The audio I've heard (MP3 link) is hilarious. Could be fun.
The guys on NeoGAF picked up what may be an inaccuracy in the numbers NPD provided to me. I might have to fix the graph showing original Sony IP sales, since the Resistance: Fall of Man number appears to be YTD, not LTD.
Now I'm going to enjoy a little time with actual games and not sales numbers. The Burnout Paradise demo is quite slick (and just annoying enough that I'd be tempted to buy the game instead of continuing to enjoy the demo long term). I'm enjoying Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror on the PSP.
Oh, and a copy of Deep Fear for the Saturn arrived. I think I'll give that a try. The audio I've heard (MP3 link) is hilarious. Could be fun.
--jvm at 13:55
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20 November 2007
October NPD
Another month, another set of graphs. I stuck my neck out a bit more than usual with the comments at the end on what we could expect to see in November. I might regret that.
--jvm at 11:47
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23 October 2007
September NPD graphs and babble
Another month, another piece about videogame sales.
I keep the official article as emotionless as possible, but I'll let go here a bit. Going over Sony's numbers is grim business. The PS2 is slowly fading. The PS3 is not growing, but shrinking. The PSP is moving hardware, but the software market for it is essentially moribund.
I've said it before -- perhaps not here -- but I don't understand why they abandoned the simple, cheap, easy-to-develop-for model that brought them such success on the PS1. With its ease-of-development, it's no surprise that developers don't mind putting their bigger games on the Xbox 360. And cheaper games find an easy home on the Wii -- although sales could be better for third party software.
Each hardware manufacturer has had its own unique hardware problem this term. Microsoft has had hardware failures. Nintendo has had supply problems. Sony has had high hardware costs.
Extended warranties appear to have fixed Microsoft's problem, for the time being. Nintendo is gradually increasing supply. Sony -- it's clear that the June price adjustments weren't enough. I'm not convinced that the new $400 model will do the trick either.
I keep the official article as emotionless as possible, but I'll let go here a bit. Going over Sony's numbers is grim business. The PS2 is slowly fading. The PS3 is not growing, but shrinking. The PSP is moving hardware, but the software market for it is essentially moribund.
I've said it before -- perhaps not here -- but I don't understand why they abandoned the simple, cheap, easy-to-develop-for model that brought them such success on the PS1. With its ease-of-development, it's no surprise that developers don't mind putting their bigger games on the Xbox 360. And cheaper games find an easy home on the Wii -- although sales could be better for third party software.
Each hardware manufacturer has had its own unique hardware problem this term. Microsoft has had hardware failures. Nintendo has had supply problems. Sony has had high hardware costs.
Extended warranties appear to have fixed Microsoft's problem, for the time being. Nintendo is gradually increasing supply. Sony -- it's clear that the June price adjustments weren't enough. I'm not convinced that the new $400 model will do the trick either.
--jvm at 10:15
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[ 3 ]
19 September 2007
Next Generation NPD
My writing on NPD's monthly videogame industry data moved this month to Next-Gen.biz. It also grew into two separate articles.
Hardware part.
Software part.
Comments, as always, are welcome.
Hardware part.
Software part.
Comments, as always, are welcome.
--jvm at 10:05
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[ 0 ]
27 August 2007
JohnH on difficult games, jvm on NPD
JohnH had a rather lengthy article on Gamasutra this past week called Game Design Essentials: 20 Difficult Games. Since he wouldn't post about it, I figured I would. Apparently it was a hit on Digg and melted Gamasutra's servers at some point.
Also, my July 2007 NPD analysis for Gamasutra went up this morning. I ended up taking the weekend to get things right instead of hacking something together on Thursday night to have ready for Friday morning. My gut tells me that ended up being worth it.
Now I'm going to do what I missed out on this past weekend: playing a videogame.
Also, my July 2007 NPD analysis for Gamasutra went up this morning. I ended up taking the weekend to get things right instead of hacking something together on Thursday night to have ready for Friday morning. My gut tells me that ended up being worth it.
Now I'm going to do what I missed out on this past weekend: playing a videogame.
--jvm at 21:21
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25 July 2007
Game Price Trends since 2004
Someone recently suggested I look at game prices, especially since the advent of $60 PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games. The results are up today at Next-Gen.biz. I used mostly public data on the top 10 and top 20 lists since June 2004, with some additional data provided by NPD.
To my mind, the upshot is that Wii games are holding the $50 floor while $50 and $60 Xbox 360 games are filling in the top 20, pushing the average price of the top-selling games higher. PlayStation 2 games are getting pushed out, removing the main downward pressure from console games. Only the Nintendo DS presence in the top 10 and top 20 is pulling game prices below $50.
Additional bits that didn't go into the article:
Edit: Fixed link. Blogger's WYSIWYG interface hates URLs with ampersands.
To my mind, the upshot is that Wii games are holding the $50 floor while $50 and $60 Xbox 360 games are filling in the top 20, pushing the average price of the top-selling games higher. PlayStation 2 games are getting pushed out, removing the main downward pressure from console games. Only the Nintendo DS presence in the top 10 and top 20 is pulling game prices below $50.
Additional bits that didn't go into the article:
- NPD was very helpful providing more data. While I didn't get everything I wanted (understandable), they did take a sample spreadsheet from me with a formula in it and apply the same to months for which unit sales data is not public. I especially need to thank David Riley of NPD for his patience and effort helping me.
- The public NPD data on the top 10 and top 20 is easiest to get from this page on GameDaily.
- NPD apparently revises their lists, but the published lists don't reflect this. For example, Bully for the PS2 placed #9 in October 2006 according to published charts. It actually placed #3 on the October 2006 list I got directly from NPD. There were some other very minor changes here and there, mostly transposing two games (say #2 and #3 switching).
Edit: Fixed link. Blogger's WYSIWYG interface hates URLs with ampersands.
--jvm at 08:25
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24 July 2007
NPD fun while on vacation
Over the grumbling of family, I stopped my vacation for a few hours and worked on the NPD data released yesterday. The results are up at Gamasutra today. I hope I'll have more time in future months -- there were some things I didn't get to do this time around.
As usual, comments are welcome.
As usual, comments are welcome.
--jvm at 12:36
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