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NPD: 'Almost' as many kids gaming on mobiles as consoles, computers
Information broker The NPD Group's "Kids and Gaming 2013" report found that children aged 12 to 17 are spending seven hours per week on mobile gaming, up from five hours per week in 2011. The report studied the gaming habits of children aged 2 to 17. While more children still use computers and consoles for gaming, the report notes there are now "almost" as many kids playing on mobile devices as there are on the more prominent platforms. Liam Callahan, an industry analyst with The NPD Group, said in the report that "kids are engaged as less expensive tablets and an increasing amount of hand-me-down phones create greater accessibility to these platforms than before." The report's findings were gathered online from a sample of female adults, aged 21 to 60, that are part of NPD's online panel and house children between the age of 2 to 17. The report is based off the answers of 3,842 children and, in the case of younger children, answers provided by adults on their behalf. [Image credit: Flickr user 'Nearsoft']
NPD: Number of US mobile gamers surpasses core, totals down
There are 211.5 million people playing games in the United States, a loss of 12 million players (5 percent) from 2011's numbers, the NPD reports. Not all of the gaming categories lost players, however: Mobile gamers rose 9 percentage points to take 22 percent, and digital gamers gained 4 percentage points to 16 percent. This makes mobile gamers the largest audience segment, surpassing core gamers, which held the top spot in 2011.The remaining categories – core, family and kid, light PC, and avid PC gamers – lost 17.4 million people this year. This is a "slight decline," the NPD says."Given the long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets, it's not surprising to see a slight decline in the core gamer segment," Anita Frazier, industry analyst for the NPD, says. "It's the revenue contribution of the core gamer segment that continues to outpace all other segments, and remains vital to the future of the industry."People buying games spent an average of $48 on physical copies and $16 on digital games from June to August. Core gamers spent the most on physical games, at $65. Almost 14 percent of all gamers purchased microtransactions or additional game content in the past three months, up from 11 percent in the same period in 2011; 27 percent of core gamers and 23 percent of digital gamers purchased in-game content.
NPD: Xbox 360 ruled a steadily declining video game empire in July
Microsoft must sometimes feel like its lead in the game market is a Pyrrhic victory. The Xbox 360 once again topped the NPD Group's hardware charts in July, claiming a near-majority 49 percent market share of consoles -- but the 203,000 units sold were a steep drop from the 257,000 units that traded hands in June, and a far cry from the glory days that would have given a victory more meaning. Nintendo and Sony haven't shared their own figures, although the analyst group notes that only Nintendo's 3DS and DSi had any kind of increase in the month. The industry as a whole was unmistakably feeling the combined effects of the pre-holiday doldrums and a console generation that's long in the tooth: hardware revenue was down 32 percent in the month to $150.7 million, while the games in question saw revenue dip 23 percent to $260.7 million. If you need a culprit, earlier reports for the second quarter had credited similar shifts to sales of physical game copies declining faster than digital sales could replace them. Hope remains in the usual fall spike; even so, the July figures suggest the big three platforms might be living on borrowed time.
NPD: Nintendo 3DS sales hit 5 million in US, Xbox 360 still claims the console crown
The NPD Group's gaming figures for June have made the rounds, and both Microsoft as well as Nintendo have something to crow about, albeit for very different reasons. Nintendo is the most eager to prove itself and says that the 3DS has hit five million total sales in the US since it reached gamers' hands in the country. The tally doesn't compete with the heady numbers smartphone designers are used to, but it's a milestone for a handheld console whose prospects were dim until a sudden price cut fueled sales a year ago. Before Nintendo lets the 155,000 3DS units it sold in June get to its head, however, it's important to get context from Microsoft's own achievements: Redmond shipped 257,000 Xbox 360 units that month and has had the lead among all US consoles for the past year and a half. We're in the dark on Sony data, although it's important that just 90,000 Wii units traded hands in the same month -- as clear a sign as any that the Wii U can't come quickly enough for Satoru Iwata and company.
NPD monthly reports integrate Walmart data starting next month
Every month, the NPD Group releases a report on the previous month's US sales in the game industry, both consoles and software. While that monthly report is already "projected to 100% of the market," according to NPD Group's David Riley, next month, it'll get bolstered by the nation's largest retailer: Walmart. Despite being revealed this past February, the past several months of NPD reports haven't included Walmart's numbers."Our enhanced retail coverage, including the addition of several new retailers, begins with May data released on Thursday, June 14," Riley told me in an email yesterday. While he couldn't supply a list of all of the retailers involved, he told me, "Yes, it does include Walmart."With any luck, the addition of Walmart to NPD's stable of retailers reporting – which already includes America's largest game retailer, GameStop – will help to thwart claims of NPD being a "very poor indicator of the industry's performance." Then again, between the lack of digital sales accounted for in NPD's monthly report and the urge of publishers to spin poor sales numbers, those complaints likely won't stop anytime soon.
Activision Blizzard leads the gaming industry
Within the last week, articles on a couple different websites has given us a little look at how much of a juggernaut Activision Blizzard really is on the gaming front. The first comes from VentureBeat. Not directly about Activision Blizzard, this article talks a little about the current state of PC gaming. VentureBeat mentions that The NPD Group, a market researching group, has said that online gaming subscriptions generate around $1 billion per year with World of Warcraft leading the pack. I wouldn't use this as proof of PC gaming still going strong as VentureBeat does, but rather that the PC gaming community has shifted toward subscription based multiplayer experiences with consoles taking over single player experiences, for the most part. You can probably thank piracy for that. That bit is a topic for another time, though.Our other bit comes from Gaming Today on Filefront. This one is quite directly about Activision Blizzard, mentioning that they've become the number one game publisher around with a net earning of over $2.9 billion. That's a lot of money! Again according to The NPD Group, Activision dominated both the console and handheld markets. Between the Guitar Hero series still going strong and the upcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King, it won't be much of a surprise to anybody if Activision Blizzard comes out on top again in 2009.
Game sales up 16% in October on lower average price
On the heels of THQ's quarterly report comes some more positive gaming news. According to the NPD Group the gaming industry has posted a 16% jump in software sales. An interesting trend noted by the NPD Group is the average price of games sold has declined by $2.40. The decline in price could be confusing to many gamers, especially those staring down the $60 price tags on new Xbox 360 (and soon to be PS3) games. The decline in price was due mainly to the fact that new release PS2 games are now in the $40 range and six of the top ten software games were for the PS2 (the top ten was rounded out by three Xbox 360 games and one Xbox game). If the revenue is up and the game prices are down this means that unit sales are WAY up. The data pokes in the eye the argument that next-gen software needs a $60 price point to make a profit. If PS2 games are selling for $40 -- and selling well at that -- keeping $60 price tags emblazoned all over our precious games is absurd when gamers are clearly buying $40 merchandise in droves. By selling next gen software at even $50, gaming companies can easily use economics of scale to their advantage. The increased production costs can easily be drowned out by more sales generated by a lower price point. Stop gouging us guys ... you know you can make a profit without that $60 price tag.
