Certainly if you’ve lived through the last few years, you know that the United States – and much of Europe – have been up and down a financial rollarcoaster that seems to fluxuate with no end in sight. One week, we’re doing okay with unemployment down and hiring up and then the next week, we’re back up to the 8% unemployment rate.
What does this have to do with video games?
Well, the latest numbers in video game sales has been low, like 28% down from previous years and those numbers have been steadily dropping by double digits every month. Even the release of Blizzard’s long awaited Diablo III only gave a small light in a very dark tunnel. Why the slump? Why are we not buying games anymore?
One article stated it was because not that many titles came out during this summer, which does make sense. The new releases that were announced at this year’s E3 mentioned games that wouldn’t come out till the fourth quarter, which isn’t until after summer, during the fall and winter months.
Along with that article are the gamers themselves, who state that many titles are just rehashes of previous games. That in itself is certainly true – many of the new releases for the rest of 2012 are sequels to previous games, with many of those being the fourth title in the series itself. And what about the emergence of mobile gaming?
The mobile platform was down as well; Zynga, makers of the popular Farmville and other Facebook games, had a drop in their play sales as well. However, mobile gaming is still extremely popular. This concept apparently caused Sony to develop the PS Vita, which allows gamers to continue playing games from their PS3 consoles to that of the Vita.
WIth game sales down and recession worries still in effect, what does the future hold for gamers? It certainly doesn’t spell the end of PC/Mac or console game; perhaps it is the titles that haven’t enticed gamers this summer, but will the upcoming Halo 4 and LEGO Batman & Robin 2 tempt a gamer’s fate?
