The big exclusives also have difficulty with 45,000 sales for God of War: Ascension and only 26,000 for Gears of War: Judgment. All sales of console games is down 13%, sales of consoles down 22% and sales of portable consoles down 33%!
However, looking good, there are fine performances in this early 2013. First Tomb Raider, which is the most successful beginning of the year in France since Wii Fit Plus in 2010. Then there is also the large annual series enjoy a better life in 2013 than in 2012: in the first 4 months, Call of Duty: Black Ops II is 17% better than Modern Warfare 3 last year, and FIFA 13 is downright 38% better than FIFA 12 (for PS3/360 sales only). It also highlights the success of Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 which is almost sold both in France and Japan (126,000 sales during its last appearance in the top 20 Japanese Media Create).
The couple PS3/360 in shape
Thus, further exploring statistics GfK once again shows that the fall of Nintendo in recent years appears to be the primary cause of the decline in physical market, rather than the theory of the crisis or the rise of the market dematerialized the institutes so hard to measure. Or even the fact that the generation lasted 7 (and still takes) a particularly long time. For if we take into account the sales of PS3 and 360, so we get to 3.28 million games sold in early 2011 against 3.25 million in early 2013, a paltry 1% decline in two years. PS3 sign of his impressive longevity even continues to grow and these two consoles now represent 56% of the market - albeit over a period which is not to the advantage of Nintendo, more used to sell at the end of the year.
Best French sales January-April 2013
GfK figures provided by JDLI.
These results show that the downward trend in the video game market depends mainly on physical leakage of new customers attracted by the Wii, and the failure of Nintendo, at least for now, to win them back with the Wii U . The big plus traditional public, who played mainly in PS1 and PS2 before, seems to always present, especially on PS3 but also on Xbox 360 and continues to buy games.
The highly regarded The Last of Us seems to have meanwhile pulled it off: if Sony refuses to disclose figures, while evoking an official announcement could be made soon, the echoes of distribution speak a similar start that of Tomb Raider, "a very nice surprise" gives us a representative of the mass distribution. Much more confidential way, there is even the good performance of Ni no Kuni, niche game that manages to be positioned in the top 10 sales of the PS3 in terms of revenue (€ 1.46 million), just behind Bioshock Infinite.
So, the arrival of the PS4 and Xbox One end of the year is a more logical that an important test as some analysts seem to evoke. Because there is little evidence in the present context, these types of media buyers will not answer this. They will just gradually, as each new generation, while the PS3 in particular seem to have a bright future ahead of her. In the first three months of the year, even the best-selling console in France, although since overtaken by a 3DS that do not compete directly. The issue of new consoles has therefore about the opposition between Sony and Microsoft, although probably more for the place that manage to take the Xbox One rather than who will be the winner. In a country where the PlayStation brand remains very popular, this time with no delay against Microsoft and a less disproportionate than the PS3 price, the PS4 has a boulevard in front of it to win against its direct competitor.
Nintendo issue
So naturally, the real mystery is whether Nintendo will bounce back and will accomplish the feat again attract an audience that, for once, seems to have disappeared in recent years. Asked during the IDEF, Stephan Bole, CEO of Nintendo France, hastened to want to talk about things that are fun to know the 3DS, before leaving us time to start with the Wii U. For portable, although the situation is improving. Even if the console is not yet able to rise to the level of the DS a few years ago, she finally experienced a real growth worthy of its status as a young machine with an ecosystem (sales of consoles, games and accessories) up 31% since the beginning of the year and 60% over the last three months. The machine also has exceeded 2 million copies sold in France.
A dynamic owes much to strong games recently emerged as Luigi's Mansion 2 whose success is undeniable, especially the new Animal Crossing has managed to surpass the 60,000 sales in ten days and that Nintendo put very large, suggesting a potential 2 million copies in the future, in France alone. That would be roughly as much as New Super Mario Bros.. DS. As http://www.gamekult.com/actu/marche-francais-la-next-gen-vite-A110312.html&rurl=translate.google.com.au&sl=fr&u=http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/130612/index.html&usg=ALkJrhj95OrdmRQS_8jSUxAEesNuOhM-6g">shown a few weeks ago by Satoru Iwata at E3, the new handheld console from Nintendo is becoming more and more through these innovations that are changing endless Mario, from a market share of 29% in the first quarter to 39% in May, before the release of Animal Crossing. Particularly successful in France, since always the month of May, the machine simply a market share of 33% in Germany and 26% in the United Kingdom where she is behind the Xbox 360.
Market share of console sales in France
Harvested from the graphs presented by Satoru Iwata at E3, based on GfK figures.
The problem for the PlayStation Vita and Wii U undergoing paltry sales, as shown in the table above. Even the old PSP continues to outsell these two new machines in France. Stephan Bole told us they sold 160,000 Wii U since its release - no news however for the Vita, which did not exceed 200,000 sales at the end of 2012. Side games, the best-selling of these first four months of the year on Vita is Need for Speed: Most Wanted with 10,656 copies sold and the only new top 10 is Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time with 3906 sales, while we Persona 4 Golden found in the ranking value, with a turnover of € 108 579 (which is less than 3,000 sales). The Wii U is doing slightly better with 23,119 units sold between January and April for NSMBU while Lego City Undercover and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate are the only other games to be over (slightly) 10,000 sales. Other innovations such as Need for Speed: Most Wanted U Sing Party or not even enter the top 10.
It will be still waiting to bury the two machines, and the end of the year looks good this time as an important test, especially for the Wii U, the performance will be crucial for both the finances for Nintendo the overall market. Moreover, finally, that the next machine from Sony and Microsoft probably also wait several months to emerge as major consoles on the market.
Might as well copy the whole thing :P
