2010 US game sales drop 2% to $24.7 billion - Report

I thought 2010 was supposed to be a great year for games. At least that's what I heard (I mean read) everyone say at the beginning of the year including myself. Now they say 2011 is gonna be a great year. Then everyone will say the same thing about 2012 when 2011 ends. And on it goes ... !!!

Use your brain instead of buying it the first day it comes out for £60 wait afew mouths, or days its still the same game as it was just cheaper. Or just play Dreamcast games.

Its isnt so bad if you consider the fact that we are in a recession

...wonder if they are accounting for digital sales.

WE'RE DOOMED!

i haven't bought that many games this year. there have been a few i've wanted but they all have dlc and i will wait til they release the complete game. i'm kinda surprised the iPhone/Pad/etc. is doing so well. i have a few friends that are addicted to some of the games they have on theirs.

@MarineXXII On paper you're right, it sounds ridiculous to say ONLY billions were spent, but what we need to realize is that there are so many factors that number leaves out. For one, it leaves out the cost of making all the games, which is a substantial chunk of change. So even if we spend billions, it doesn't mean the companies make nearly that much in profits. It only counts as profit if the revenues outweigh the costs. It also disregards how much of that money is going to be poured into projects for next year.

Just goes to show that the gaming industry is brilliant. Even during a recession, billions are spent on video games.

@ monson21502 It's all about the games. People will go to whichever console has the games they want. To this day, the Xbox continues to offer the least appealing games to me. I've never owned one and I don't plan on owning one anytime soon. Not to say it's a horrible system, just not completely my style. Plus I don't really like the controller.

I'm not shocked. Most people are still hurting from the economy. Also, most games are still too expensive, due to the cost it takes to make them...

Billions.....BILLIONS WAS SPENT ON VIDEO GAMES! What more do they want? The universe perhaps? World domination? Damn

This just means that were in a recession. Starcraft II was $60 and people still bought it and CoD sales are mostly in 360 and ps3 and bombed hard on PC. It just means were in a recession. / Its time that software must lower in price and console and boxed PC/Mac will be on top

That's still a lot of money since we're still in a recession. Entertainment industries sure can profit during these times.

Oh god not 24.7 billion! Lord we have a crisis! People aren't spending enough money on games. Time to layoff people and raise bonuses.

@akiwak You misunderstood the article. They were referring to console GAMES not the consoles themselves. The Newzoo report is software, not hardware. Though honestly, I had to reread it to make sure because it was very poorly worded in that second paragraph. On a different note, just a 2% drop isn't that bad considering the poor economy and the number of people out of work. Though if they hadn't included the social gaming in the average it would have been much gloomier.

Gaming isn't just what it used to be... *sigh* When I was your age, we played games using controllers with buttons.

Ummmm, these guys are idiots. The one thing they forgot to take into consideration is that all systems also got price reductions, therefore customers did not have to spend as much. When that is taken into consideration of course less money was spent because people PAID less!!! 2011 should see and increase since now both 360 and PS3 now have motion controls. The price reductions we'll see in 2011, should be offset by sales of the motion controls.

360 and kinect tried to save the consoles. but with that combo why would anyone buy a wii or ps3 now?

Seeing as how there were maybe 10 good games released this year, tops...I'd say that the gaming industry still had a fantastic year.

consoles are for kiddies. pcs are for men.

It says they sold 24 billion but on the picture it says 24 million, who approves these articles?

hopefully more good games will hit next year instead of getting delayed like they did this year. lord knows most people have their fingers crossed for skyward sword which i doubt will be out next year considering zelda games have a history of always being delayed.

@metalkid9 i agree but you have to remember the least profitable was consoles according to this report which doesn't come to anyones surprise considering these consoles have been on the market for a couple years now anyway. not to mention they oversaturated the market with so many motion control systems. the wii was hit the hardest since its main draw was motion gaming and now that the competition joined in one of the wiis main sell factors is gone. while not many people are gonna go out and buy a new console just to play motion games when the motion controls are bundled seperately. this was only ment as a stall tactic while they get the next gen consoles ready. they want to make a profit on their systems while they can before they release the new ones which will be in about give or take 2 years for nintendo and 3 for sony and microsoft

I suppose game-makers are going to see this as a sign to go completely digital. It does cut out the middle-man, e.g. retailers, though for digital transactions, sales will actually be dependent on how many customers bought the game - and not how well the game-makers will be able to persuade the retailers to purchase as many copies in advance. In case you don't know, the revenue from physically packaged copies that the game-makers get are obtained from retailers - not the customer at the end of the marketing chain. (In other words, game-makers can get away with making high revenues by duping retailers into thinking that their physically packaged games will sell well.)

Hehehe, 29%? FAYUL!!! lol im sorry, but that is truly a failure.

Too many game companies are afraid to risk making a new IP therefore less innovation and more of the same leads to counter-productivity.

Too many sequels and mediocre games. Gaming just isn't the way it used to be in the 90's.

Steam FTW

Long Live PC Games! PC Games rules!

Not surprised, not many good games came out this holiday except for a few like Gran Turismo which flopped, and Donkey Kong etc. Next year should turn this around though as all the amazing games that were SUPPOSED to come out this fall got delayed.

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