The video game market as a whole is growing, but...

[Cryoakira]

My problem with the analysis of the VG "growth" is how far the data we get are from the reality. Let me give two exemples :

First, because it doesn't include at all the second hand market which, at least in the case of the PS2, is still probably a "beast" moving a lot of money. Of course, this is not direct revenues for publishers, but when it comes to analyse the taste of the public, then we might miss something big. Is the second hand market huge on "casual" games, or "core" games ?
Because basically, around here, we still have something like 100 millions customers which haven't yet come to the "next/new gen" consoles. And what kind of players are they ?

Second, because NPD datas are also very scarce on many markets related to video games, like casual PC market (which happen to be huge and drain a lot of women way before the Wii or the DS did) or MMO RMT and various revenues system...

It's important because frontiers between PC and consoles are fading and you have to consider the market as a whole.
Some seems to think RPG are in decline, while from what I see, it's currently, and by far, the biggest genre, bigger than it has ever been. Some ppl just move from FF to WoW or Lineage & co. MMO but still RPG.

And that aspect is also interesting : how much online play do impact the market (including consoles now) ?