For example, look at the sales of the biggest games for the 2nd Half of 2011 Vs the 2nd Half of 2010 (for the PS3 and 360).
2010
| Title | PS3 | X360 | Total |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops | 8,705,885 | 10,521,267 | 19,225,152 |
| Halo Reach | 7,100,482 | 7,100,482 | |
| Fifa Soccer 11 | 3,812,019 | 2,601,237 | 6,413,256 |
| Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood | 2,725,871 | 2,948,102 | 5,673,973 |
| Gran Turismo 5 | 5,264,164 | 5,264,164 | |
| Madden NFL 11 | 1,801,913 | 2,200,237 | 4,002,150 |
| Medal of Honor | 1,899,789 | 1,835,185 | 3,734,974 |
| Fallout: New Vegas | 1,439,642 | 2,219,169 | 3,658,811 |
| Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit | 1,506,077 | 1,336,847 | 2,842,924 |
2011
| Title | PS3 | X360 | Total |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 | 10,337,498 | 12,572,486 | 22,909,984 |
| Battlefield 3 | 4,465,636 | 5,149,873 | 9,615,509 |
| Fifa Soccer 12 | 4,875,334 | 3,154,704 | 8,030,038 |
| The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim | 2,944,036 | 4,961,513 | 7,905,549 |
| Assassin's Creed: Revelations | 2,825,603 | 2,988,152 | 5,813,755 |
| Batman: Arkham City | 2,755,664 | 2,508,301 | 5,263,965 |
| Gears Of War 3 | 5,074,357 | 5,074,357 | |
| Madden NFL 12 | 1,775,213 | 2,210,185 | 3,985,396 |
| Uncharted 3 | 3,451,198 | 3,451,198 | |
| Saints Row: The Third | 1,290,993 | 1,769,981 | 3,060,974 |
Clearly, individual game sales were actually better for 2011 - the year which was arguably the most packed year for the PS360. Using almost any methods of comparison, the games released in 2011 seemed to be better off than the games released in 2010. And what's even moer impressive is that most of these installments broke records their respective series. For example, these games were the fastest selling games of their series in 2011: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Fifa Soccer 12, Skyrim, Arkham City, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, Saints Row 3, etc. And that's just from the above chart. There were also more smaller games that broke series records (eg. Dark Souls)
Also, 2011 also hosted a lot of successful new IPs like Dead Island and Rage. And lastly, even the smaller games did better in 2011. 2011 had more one-million sellers than 2010. Very few games from 2011 saw lower sales than their predecessors. And for the ones that did, they were usually considered inferior to their predecessors and/or were only lower by a small bit.
So, when people say "Call of Duty is eating into the sales of smaller Games", they're actually wrong. Call of Duty and other Big Games are helping the entire market. I personally don't know why or how this happens. It would seem logical that with more big games in one time period, more games will suffer. One would think that consumers have a finite amount of money and therefore there's only room for a certain amount of big games. But there's clearly a correlation here that suggests otherwise. Software sales have been increasing every year for the PS360. Apparantly, as long as new games are released, consumers will flock to them
I personally thought that a few games from last year would flop simply because the year was so crowded, but that didn't happen. But to my surprise, most of the games I feared for sold extremely well. I guess a crowded season helps other games by encouraging people to go to stores, therefore increasing the chances of other games being bought? Or maybe a crowded season increases the install base of consoles, therefore helping other games sales? I'm not sure the cause of this, but I think the correlation is clear.
- - Also, you can look at the games for past years too. 2009, 2008, 2007, etc. 2011 is the year with the biggest selling games. And 2011 seems to be the most crowded year.
- - I haven't looked at what happens in other parts of the year, but I assume it would be similar.
Thoughts? Is this phenomenon merely the result of an ever increasing installbase? Or is having more games released in a certain time period actually benefit every game?
