The Video Game Industry is Dying!!!

[mrstickball]

johnsobas said:
NPD said DD accounted for 10% of the market for consoles, 18% for PC. I don't think they can account for all of the DD services for PC but it should be pretty accurate for consoles.

Ah. If you add 10% to 2009's retail cume, then you get a number higher than last year.

NPD does not cover:

• Digital Retail Sales (Steam which grew 100% in 2009, D2D, GOG.com, XBLA which grew 40%, ect)
• Subscriptions (World of Warcraft generates about ~3-4 million monthly subscriptions at >$10 each in the US. That is one game subscription. Lets not forget other subscriptions like live)
• Browser based games (Facebook games ring a bell? NPD doesn't valuate the 75 million users that played farmville last month. Using industry RPU averages, even on the low end, Farmville grossed about $25 million USD in December. Thats one game. ONE game.)
• Mobile phone gaming. The mobile industry was worth $4.5 billion in 2008. That was before the iPhone started selling games in droves. Most likely, the mobile gaming market increased to between $5.0 and $6.0 billion.

You add ALL the areas NPD doesn't track, and I would venture to argue that DD gaming made up for most, if not all, reductions in US gaming revenue.

Maybe some people don't want Wiis or 360 video games because they're too busy playing on other formats?