Video Game Sales

Price Cuts

The Nintendo Wii kind of caused a raucous in video game console pricing. Coming in at $249, the Wii touted pure entertainment, which it has backed up with fun games utilizing the unique controller. Nintendo took some of the spotlight from Sony and Microsoft, who seemed to be forced to slash the prices of the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 respectively.

Microsoft lowered the Xbox 360 price by $50, hoping to keep its second place market share while Sony cut its models by $100. Microsoft can rely on 360 exclusive games like Halo 3 to keep them selling consoles. On the other hand, Sony needs to find other ways to recoup something of the $100 cut. To do that, Sony has announced plans to sell their expensive ‘Cell’ chip making plant to Toshiba, who will use the technology in other products. Still, both Microsoft and Sony have a little catching up to do.

Video Game Sales’ Record-Breaking Year

So far this year, the video game industry has racked up sales of $10.5 billion. The same time last year saw only $7 billion. One of the main reasons is high-profile games, which led to more console systems and accessories sold.

The Nintendo Wii has had excellent video game sales, with 5 million units sold since the launch. The Halo trilogy finally concluded with Halo 3, giving the Xbox 360 the number one spot in September. A perennial favorite, Madden ’08, boosted sales of all systems and generated revenue with 3.4 million games sold. Another game that popped in some good numbers was Guitar Hero III. Whether consumers bought the game by itself or the combo packages (game and guitar), 1.4 million copies were sold in the first week alone.

Non-Traditional Console Games

Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution pretty much started the, well, revolution. These games weren’t your typical shoot-em-up, cute character, or fighting game. Now, video game companies are seeing the value of the party-like atmosphere to sell games. Scene-it breaks the video game market with a console version of their popular board game. Buzz recreates the game show mold on the PS2 and SingStar follows in the footsteps of Karaoke Revolution by letting gamers take a break from the controller to sing.

The Nintendo Wii has countless non-traditional games. With games like Boogie, Carnival, Wii Play, and other games that get people together, the Wii should bring in more mainstream consumers to the video game market.

Fourth Quarter, First Quarter Predictions

PlayStation 3

The fourth quarter is in full swing, which will last through Christmas. After that, the first quarter (January, February, and March) will commence and the video game industry will try to gain back any lost profits. The usual games that sell during the holidays will still sell like Madden, NBA live, and Guitar Hero. Halo 3 will continue to do well and the PS3 might nab some more sales from those looking for a Blu-Ray player this Christmas.

Gift cards will drive first quarter sales because some big titles (Splinter Cell, Gran Turismo, GTA) are being released the first couple months of 2008. Since hardware was sold during the holiday season, the need and want for games will surface.

Best Sellers

• Guitar Hero for all systems
• Call of Duty 4 on PS3
• Halo 3 for Xbox 360
• Assassin’s Creed
• Rock Band

Sleeper Hits

• Orange Box for 360
• Guitar Hero on the Wii
• Uncharted for PS3

We All Win in the End

There are hardcore gamers and there are casual gamers. Video game sales will continue to increase this year because video game companies are catering to both sets of players with ease. They seem to have found a balance to satisfy all gamers better with high-profile games and non-traditional games. Some people purchase both kinds of games, which lets the companies design and develop better games or unorthodox games that they may not have wanted to do in the first place. When that happens, all gamers win.