The video game industry has witnessed a continuous decline in sales for the seventh straight month. According to the data released by NPD Group, a market research company, sales of video games and consoles has plunged 19 percent in October.
Sales of video games consoles have skidded 23 percent to $380.7 million last month compared to $497 million in October of last fiscal year.
Further, the sales of video game software slid 18 percent to $572.7 million, compared to $698.4 million last October.
Analysts’ upbeat on industry’s recovery
But the Tuesday launch of MW2 is expected to reverse the trend of declining sales. The game has already raked in approximately $310 in North America and United Kingdom alone, thus surpassing the supposedly unbreakable first day sales record of $310 million globally, set by Grand Theft Auto IV in May last year.
The staggering sales figures have raised analysts’ expectations, and they are upbeat on industry’s fortunes in the upcoming holiday season.
Other than this, the launch of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2, and Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros launch is expected to mark strong month for the industry.
"Based on typical industry seasonality, the industry is on track to generate full-year revenues in the range of ($20 billion to $21 billion) in the U.S., which would put it just a bit below last year's sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.
Users’ reactions
The launch of MW2 has stirred quite a lot of readers online. Majority of them have voiced contentment with the game and are confident that industry will recover as MW2 has broken sales records.
A user named rylje24 commented on cnet news, “Best bang for your buck. Makes staying indoors during the winter easier to get through. I have been a gamer for a long time and no other game comes close to this. I am 34 married with a kid...I expect to keep playing when I am in an old age home at 85 years old.”
Another user named ChrisRosko posted his view on the same site as, “Im almost positive that the sales dropped due to the fact that so many people were saving their money for MW2. Guarantee November will be an increase from last year."
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