http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9910&Itemid=59

By Kris Graft

 A new report quantifies how retail sales figures greatly underestimate the real reach of videogames. Monthly sales figures from the NPD Group are an extremely helpful tool for game companies and the media, but they don't paint the whole picture, according to a report by research firm Interpret.

Factors such as social gaming, game rentals, used game sales and the sharing of games mean that videogames are reaching more eyeballs than retail figures indicate, AdAge reported.

"In 2007 ... 27 percent of games last purchased by gamers were purchased used or previously owned, which has a fairly significant impact on reach," said Michael Dowling, CEO of Interpret, which releases the quarter Gameasure report.

Some examples provided by the report: Call of Duty 4 has sold 3.68 million units in the US, but Gameasure found that reach is actually 10.65 million, 2.9 times greater than retail sales suggest.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has sold over 5.29 million in the US, but reach is actually 14.13 million. The reach of Guitar Hero III is actually more than 2007's top-selling title Halo 3, a game that 5 million people bought in the US, but 12.2 million gamers have played.

The AdAge report also noted a recent Next-Gen study: "Next-Gen just announced their research saying that we can expect to see 480 games released in fourth-quarter 2008, or a game every 276 minutes. You can bet a lot of these will be picked up as rentals or used, so it is important for us to be able to quantify that overall reach," said OMG Digital's Dario Raciti.

 

It's an interesting point, and to some degree, worth thinking about.

It's a lot like how, you can't gauge a movie's success just by it's box office totals since a lot of money is made in dvd sales. In much the same way, I wonder the impact of rentals on video games and the success of a brand.