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iOS and Android continue chipping away at mobile gaming market, consoles remain strong
Let's face it -- smartphones (namely, iOS and Android devices) are slowly chipping away at the portable gaming market. If you recall, Apple took a nice slice of the market-share pie -- and as you'll notice in the picture above, we're seeing the same trend this time around. According to data from Flurry and NPD Group, iOS and Android are earning a sizable chunk of the revenue in the portable gaming software sphere, with the Nintendo DS's dominant market share dropping from 70 percent in 2009 to just 57 percent in 2010 to accommodate the newcomers. We may be seeing the decrease in relative revenue because the PSP and DS are on the way out to make room for the NGP and 3DS -- however, this chart speaks only of the current-gen portables. But hey, it's easy for almost anyone to spend a single buck on a full-fledged game, right? Head past the break for some more videogame revenue stats, if you please.
NPD acknowledges 'confusion' during industry's 'unprecedented transformation'
The NPD has taken several hits, mostly during investment calls and meetings we've attended over the past year, about its lack of digital distribution sales reporting. This week's quote from EA that the company's data is a "misrepresentation of the entire industry" really pushed the conversation into the public. In response, the NPD reiterated its plans to include monthly digital sales data in its reporting to clients, something the company originally said it was working on in October 2010. "We continue to progress those plans but at this time we're not changing anything with regard to what we're reporting," NPD analyst Anita Frazier explained to us today. "Until we have something new to announce in terms of our reporting, we will continue to report on new physical retail sales on a monthly basis. This represents about 60-70 percent of the consumer spend on the industry. Quarterly we will release a total for our estimate on the consumer spend on content outside of traditional retail and that includes used game sales, full game and add-on content digital downloads, subscriptions, rentals, mobile apps and social network gaming." Frazier expressed that its reporting does not include revenues generated by advertising or promotional offers, but the goal is for NPD to have a comprehensive report for its clients that will cover "consumer spend" on a monthly basis.
Apple takes 4 percent of US digital video market, Netflix reigns
The NPD Group crowned Netflix the heavyweight champion of digital, video-on-demand services in a statement released earlier today. Between January 2011 and February 2011, Netflix accounted for 61 percent of all movies downloaded or streamed over the internet or offered on-demand through a cable or satellite television service. Cable giant Comcast took second place with about 8 percent of the market. Apple, with a share of 4 percent, found itself in a three way tie for third place with DirecTV and Time Warner Cable. NPD used its new VideoWatch Digital tracking service to calculate its latest numbers, which also found digital video now makes up one quarter of all home video volume. "Sales of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs still drive most home-video revenue, but VOD and other digital options are now beginning to make inroads with consumers," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. VideoWatch Digital's results were based on 10,618 surveys completed by US consumers age 13 and older. In the survey, respondents recognized electronic sell-through (EST) services like iTunes had the most "current releases available," but Netflix won the titles for "overall shopping experience" and "value for price paid." [Via AppleInsider]
Gran Turismo 5 moves 560,500 units in December, 1.14 million sold between Nov. and Dec.
Despite not making December's NPD top 10 list, Gran Turismo 5 sold 560,500 units last month in the US and Canada. IndustryGamers got the number straight from the NPD Group -- a number which looks like an apparent dropoff from Sony's late November launch numbers, which heralded 5.5 million units shipped worldwide, 1.25 million of which were in North America alone. And hey, let's not kid ourselves: a good amount of December's "sales" figures are also accounted for in November's "shipped" figures. All of them, in fact -- 1.14 million copies of Gran Turismo 5 have been sold in the US and Canada thus far, a representative from NPD told us this afternoon, leaving approximately 110K copies from the initial shipment still on store shelves. That said, plans for periodic support in GT5 were highlighted by developer Polyphony Digital as recently as last month. Add that to the fact that the 2011 Formula One season is just around the corner, and we'd say it's likely that racing fans will continue to pick up the game as early 2011 progresses.
Black Ops, Madden lead NPD's top 2010 physical game sales
Great news! Remember last January, when you attempted to convince friends of your latent psychic ability by writing down the names of the top 10 best-selling games of the following year, when in all actuality, you were just using your knowledge of the gaming industry and its consumers? Well, you were totally right: The NPD Group's recently unveiled ranking of bestsellers looks pretty much how you'd expect, with Call of Duty: Black Ops ringing in at first place, while Madden NFL 11 and Halo: Reach came in at second and third, respectively. You can check out the rest of the top 10 after the jump, though you could probably fill in the rest of the blanks using raw intuition. Here, give it a try. Yup. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yes, that too. Huh? Split/Second? Nope. Oh, but if wishing made it so.
Apple owns 66% of online music market, Amazon a distant second place
As if Apple's share of the online music world wasn't big enough, financial research firm NPD Group is reporting that iTunes is now responsible for 66.2% of the market for online music purchases. That's up from 63.2% earlier in the year, despite intense competition from Amazon, which is way behind in second place at 13.3%. Remarkably enough, Amazon also saw growth this year, raising its share from around 11% earlier in 2010. The online retailer has been promoting "daily deal" albums that are priced much lower than the same music on the iTunes store, actually selling many of the albums below cost in order to attract new customers. Amazon has also been doing a monthly promotion of 100 albums for $5, which is done with the cooperation of record labels and artists. Despite such aggressive action, the company has yet to make a visible dent in Apple's dominance of the online music market. According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, digital album sales have grown rapidly in an industry where CD sales are plummeting and sales of digital single-song downloads are stalling. Apple's album prices are generally higher than those on the Amazon music store, resulting in higher revenues. Amazon's promotion of their online music store has taken the back seat to advertising for the company's Kindle ebook reader, so it will be interesting to see if they decide to actively promote their music business in the future. [via ArsTechnica]
New NPD report to factor in digital, used, mobile and rental sales
Changes to the NPD Group's reporting practices sent a few waves through the game industry earlier this month. Now, NPD's Anita Frazier has explained some of the reasoning behind the change. Frazier notes that NPD has "long acknowledged" that its coverage of only "new physical sales of hardware, software and accessories" doesn't accurately represent consumer spending in the game industry. Furthermore, with new physical sales dwindling this year, Frazier notes that the old NPD reporting practices "caused unnecessary angst" for many industry followers. In other words, sales of physical game copies simply don't account for all the money pumped into the industry anymore. As such, the NPD will soon release the debut issue of its new report, Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend. While the report still includes data on sales of new games, accessories and hardware, it will also feature data on "used games, rentals, mobile apps, social network games, and digitally acquired content in the U.S." NPD has had plans to track downloadable sales for over a year now, though this marks the first time we've heard of plans to track so many other forms of spending. Depending on how comprehensive the report is, it could have hefty ramifications for anyone looking to follow industry trends.
DisplaySearch: consumers playing a 'wait and see' game with 3DTVs
We've mixed feelings on 3D as a whole, and it seems that the vast majority of consumers do as well. We've seen quite a few lovely implementations, and there's hardly a better way to watch sports away from the field, but those dreaded 3D glasses are likely keeping most people an arm's length away. According to a new report from DisplaySearch, 3DTVs will make up just two percent of all flat panels shipped in 2010. Paul Gray, Director of TV Electronics Research, noted that "while TV manufacturers have bold plans and a lot of new products, consumers remain cautious," continuing by stating that "consumers have been told that 3D TV is the future, but there still remains a huge price jump and little 3D content to watch." In particular, "North American consumers appear to be playing a waiting game," and in Western Europe, the sales of 3D glasses to sets has failed to hit 1:1. That said, the report feels rather strongly about the future, noting that 90 million 3DTV sets are expected to ship in 2014. Of course, if we've only got two or three 2D options to choose from by then, the estimated skyrocketing makes a lot more sense...
NPD changes monthly reporting, removes hardware and software unit sales
NPD's monthly public report on video game software and hardware sales in the US will change this month. The most noticeable alteration will be the removal of hardware and software unit sales. The company will still provide a monthly list of the top ten selling "physical purchases" (i.e. brick-and-mortar retail) on consoles, but by title and not by individual platform SKUs -- meaning multi-platorm games will be clumped in one sum. The company will also continue to provide notes from its analyst, which may contain software sales figures. If this format seems familiar... congratulations, you're a reader of the weekly UK Chart-Track sales data. NPD notes that the company's hardware and software subscribers "are permitted to release sales figures for their respective products." So, if Microsoft and Sony want to share hardware figures, but Nintendo doesn't, ain't nobody who can give out that data but the House of Mario. NPD tried a similar tactic back in 2007, which lasted all of six days. As we said back then: "There's always a hunger for this data and if the NPD isn't going to give it up, people might just turn to less reputable sources."
NPD issues outlook for consumers' holiday shopping habits
The NPD Group recently conducted a poll among American consumers to track their "spending intentions" for the rapidly approaching holiday shopping rush. Of the poll's 2,003 participants, 9 percent said they plan to spend more money than they did last holiday season (down from 11 percent in 2009), 61 percent said they plan to spend the same (up from 59 percent) and the number of people who plan to spend less than they did last year remained steady at 30 percent. A responsible 30 percent. The poll also inquired what hot items would end up in respondents' checkout baskets -- 15 percent of those polled said they were planning on purchasing video games, a 5 percent decrease from last year. We know what you're thinking: "If people aren't buying video games, they're probably buying fragrances, right?" Wrong. Fragrances fell from 19 percent to 13 percent. Seeing as how those two items are consistently all we ask for during the holidays, we're not sure what everyone else is dropping their cash on.
Analyst: Sharp rise in iPad sales estimates
Yet again, more analyst news regarding the iPad impacting laptop and netbook sales. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that estimated sales of the iPad for 2010 have more than doubled to 11 or 12 million units sold this year, with 20 million iPads expected to be sold in 2011 -- which is still conservative according to some other analysts. In contrast, the NPD Group estimates that sales of laptop units in the US rose by only 12% in the first eight months of this year as apposed to a 30% percent increase in sales last year for the same period. On top of that, NDP Group reports that unit sales were down 1% over July and August -- the peak back-to-school season for such sales. Naturally, the WSJ points to the sluggish economy for such a shift. The paper does also note that some shoppers are preferring to buy the iPad, even at a premium price, over cheaper laptops and netbooks, though the iPad represents only a fraction of portable computer sales overall. The article suggests that the competition for consumers' dollars will become even more fierce with the emergence of competing tablet devices from other manufacturers later this year and next year. But for now, there is still no doubt that Apple is leading the way with the iPad. For the full WSJ article click here.
Blu-ray household penetration hits 17 percent
Seems like a long time ago many were wondering if Blu-ray would ever take off and now the latest report from the NPD Group shows that almost one in five households have a player. Sure, many of these are PS3s, but despite what some might be thinking right now, these Blu-ray households rent and buy more packaged media than the other 83 percent. And these young, wealthy families with kids aren't digital streaming haters either, in fact a fourth of them have rented a streaming video in the past 30 days, which is 10 percent higher than those laggards with standard def disc players. So while Blu-ray has failed to keep the home media market flat, it has enjoyed growth in this terrible economy and returned profits to its proponents.
Social gaming numbers on the rise, Farmville likely to go down in history
We've seen console gaming numbers as a whole dip somewhat over the past few months, but gaming numbers on the social networking side have been anything but down. A new report on the matter from the NPD Group asserts that a full 20 percent (that's 1 in 5, if you're counting) of Americans ages 6 and older have played a social networking game of some sort, and we're guessing that number would be far higher if people weren't embarrassed to admit the truth. Unfortunately, the report doesn't dig deep into what exactly they were playing (our Monopoly bucks are on Farmville), but we are told that "10 percent of social network gamers have spent real money playing these games and 11 percent indicate that they are likely to make a future purchase." Curiously enough, the gender split is just about even, with 47 percent of social networking gamers being female, 53 being male and 2.4 percent being unidentified beings from District 9. You heard it here first, folks: the console is dead.
NPD: Android is now top-selling OS in American smartphones
Step aside, BlackBerrys and iPhones, the American consumer has voted with his wallet and picked Android as his favorite flavor in the quarter just gone. NPD's number crunchers have just announced their findings for Q2 2010, concluding that 33 percent of phones sold during the period had Android on board. This marks the first time in eons (Q4 2007, to be more precise) that RIM has not held the crown of most purchased smartphone OS on US soil, with its BlackBerrys accounting for 28% of the market and Apple's iPhone occupying third spot with 22%. Motorola and HTC are the key suspects fingered for Android's continuing ascent, with the "large screen allure" of their handsets playing well with the buying public. Skip after the break for a more detailed breakdown. Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.
DDO jumps to third-most-popular spot in MMO survey
Market research company NPD has completed its annual survey of online gamers with some fascinating results. They surveyed nearly 19,000 gamers of all ages in January of this year, looking at every aspect from hours played per week to what former WoW fans are currently playing. The results are interesting not only for their variety but because it's such an extensive survey from a company that's been doing this very thing for years. Several interesting changes have come about in the past year: former World of Warcraft players are turning to different games than they have in the past, the subscription model is a lot less popular these days, and Dungeons and Dragons Online has knocked Guild Wars out of the comfy #3 spot it enjoyed for the two previous years. Follow along after the jump as we take a closer look at some of the survey results.
Apple brushes off NPD's smartphone report, says it sees 'no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon'
Fresh off NPD's latest Mobile Phone Track report claiming that Android has leapfrogged the iPhone in US sales, Apple is commenting on the numbers -- and as you might expect, they're not exactly taking a congratulatory tone with Google. Speaking to AllThingsD's John Paczkowski, Cupertino had this to say: "This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide. IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis. We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon." The factual accuracy of Apple's words here can't really be disputed, but as Paczkowski notes, the context can: lumping the iPod touch into this equation isn't really fair, since NPD's report is about smartphones, not mobile operating systems (which would've let devices like non-phone Android MIDs into the picture). Besides, this is about the US market in the first quarter of 2010, not global sales, nor is it about Apple's development pipeline. In other words, Apple's not disputing NPD's report here -- rather, they're simply trying to change the subject, as any properly-trained PR department would. There's no question Android still has an uphill battle to dominate market (and mind) share the world over, but the odds that it outsold the iPhone in the US in Q1 remain very real.
NPD: 75 percent of US iPhone, iPod touch users download content, other 25 percent think Opera Mini is a tiny concert
While we can't honestly imagine an iDevice user going about their life without connecting to the iTunes App Store at least once in a blue moon -- if not on a semi-permanent basis -- the statistically-significant NPD Group decided to look into the matter regardless. Sure enough, the org reports that a full three-quarters of iPhone and iPod touch users in the US do indeed download apps and entertainment content from the internet. In case you're wondering, that figure beats the pants off those connecting from their video game consoles (19 percent) or Blu-ray players (17 percent), but both of those are obviously biased towards physical, disc-based media. Before you dismiss these findings as obvious, however, let's read between the lines -- if 75 percent of Apple's touchscreen devices are pulling content from the web, that means the other one-quarter have gone without. If not apps, what the heck are those devices being used for?
NPD: Red Steel 2 sold 50,000 copies through April 3
Based on NPD figures (via Kotaku), Ubisoft's sequel, Red Steel 2, managed to sell 50,000 copies in its debut month of March -- up until the end of the NPD's catalog period, April 3. Admittedly the game was released at the tail-end of the month on March 23, but we'd still classify the sales as "decent." A Ubisoft representative broke it down to Kotaku like so: "Considering that the NPD sales only accounted for 12 days on the store shelves and that NPD doesn't include all retailers we are looking forward to a complete month of sales data to see where we stand." We're anxious to see how it'll do in April and suggest you sheathe your "it's on Wii so it won't sell" sword until the April NPDs arrive.
E-reader statisfaction study shows 93 percent of users are happy, just not you
The wind sure changes very quickly, eh? Just a week ago the University of Georgia revealed that many of its study participants -- Athens residents who were given a Kindle to play with -- weren't happy with their e-reader experience, but yesterday a new study reported something fairly contrasting. Rather than doling out touchscreen-less e-readers to a group of people, the NPD Group surveyed more than 1,000 e-reader owners in late November last year, and found out that 93 percent of them were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with their devices, while only 2 percent "expressed any level of dissatisfaction." The report also reveals that wireless access is the favorite feature for 60 percent of the users, while only 23 percent chose the touchscreen. Compared to last week's report, this probably shows that consumers who actually buy e-readers don't really care about the touch feature, whereas those on the outer circle are mainly waiting for more -- and no doubt cheaper -- touchscreen e-readers. Seriously though, only 34 percent wanted color screens? Those guys sure are easy to please.
Apple's "renaissance" is under way
A few months ago, I walked into a Paradise Bakery & Café in Phoenix -- a place known for its excellent food and free Wi-Fi. Like a lot of places with free Internet access, there were plenty of laptop users. What stood out to me was that all but one of the computers was either a MacBook or MacBook Pro. It's not just me looking through at the world with an Apple-tinged bias. The more places I go, the more I see people using Macs, or at least considering them. The Apple stores in Phoenix are still nearly elbow to elbow with people every time I visit, however the lone Microsoft store in Scottsdale was pretty empty the one time I visited. There's now data to back up these observations. Macsimum News reports that iMacs were the top-selling desktop for the month of October 2009 according to the NPD Group. After the proverbial jaw-dropping moment, there was quickly speculation as to why Macs finally outpaced PCs when it came to desktops. According to The Daily Gleaner, the NPD Group stated that PC sales were down as a result of the impending launch of Windows 7. Or, it could also be indicative that Windows users are finally getting fed up. "If Microsoft Windows is seen as a buggier, less-secure product that is slower, harder to use and ultimately raises costs for everybody, that opens up the market for Apple to gain that high-end segment. . . ," Harvard Business School's David Yoffie said in The Daily Gleaner. "If Windows 7 is not seen as more of an improvement (over Vista) then I think you'll see more erosion at the high end."
