Canadian Videogame Sales Take a Dive
The Canadian videogame industry has been hit with its first quarterly drop in sales in seven years, but analysts say the slide can't be blamed entirely on the recession.
The Gamasutra [http://www.npd.com/] noted, the bulk of the decrease resulted from slowing hardware sales: Home console sales were down 14.5 percent while handhelds slipped by an even more dramatic 21 percent, compared to a 7.5 percent drop in home console game sales and only a 1.5 percent reduction in handheld software.
Surprisingly, the NPD says the most obvious cause of the downturn - the recession - isn't at fault here. "It may be tempting to attribute the decline in sales to the current state of the economy," said analyst Matthew Tattle. "However, on closer inspection, the first quarter of 2009 lacked the number of blockbuster titles that drove sales during the same period last year." Among those titles, he said, were Super Smash Bros. Brawl [http://www.guitarherogame.com/gh3/].
Tattle's analysis matches that of PlayStation 3 [http://www.wedbushinc.com/].
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The Canadian videogame industry has been hit with its first quarterly drop in sales in seven years, but analysts say the slide can't be blamed entirely on the recession.
The Gamasutra [http://www.npd.com/] noted, the bulk of the decrease resulted from slowing hardware sales: Home console sales were down 14.5 percent while handhelds slipped by an even more dramatic 21 percent, compared to a 7.5 percent drop in home console game sales and only a 1.5 percent reduction in handheld software.
Surprisingly, the NPD says the most obvious cause of the downturn - the recession - isn't at fault here. "It may be tempting to attribute the decline in sales to the current state of the economy," said analyst Matthew Tattle. "However, on closer inspection, the first quarter of 2009 lacked the number of blockbuster titles that drove sales during the same period last year." Among those titles, he said, were Super Smash Bros. Brawl [http://www.guitarherogame.com/gh3/].
Tattle's analysis matches that of PlayStation 3 [http://www.wedbushinc.com/].
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