Sat, May 15, 2010 | 06:30 BST
Pachter: Slow April game sales suggest “something is terribly wrong”
Before particularly nasty natural disasters, there’s this phenomenon where animals somehow see it coming and find high ground atop a hill or something of the like.
See that hill over there? There are analysts gathered atop that hill. The end times are near.
“The April sales results are baffling to us,” Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter told IndustryGamers. “The dollar sales level of $399 million is the lowest since May 2007, when this generation was barely underway, and is the weakest April result since 2005, when console software sales totaled only $6 billion for the full year. The sequential decline of 54% is the greatest in the 11 years that we have been tracking monthly data (except for December-January declines), dwarfing the previous record of 42% set in March-April 2002.”
“It’s easy to blame the lineup, which was quite light (Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell Conviction was the only AAA title, and it was an Xbox 360 exclusive), but the results suggest something is terribly wrong.”
But, as videogames have taught us, when something goes terribly wrong, we simply need to hide behind cover for a couple seconds and wait for things to get better. Or at least, that seems to the conclusion Pachter’s reached.
“We do not believe that core gamers suddenly shifted allegiance to Facebook or iPhone games in April, nor do we believe that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 online play increased dramatically during April. As we cannot explain the reasons for the shortfall, we can only conclude that April was a fluke, with many core gamers enjoying recently purchased games and looking forward to new releases coming out in May.”
See? A bit anti-climactic, we think. If something goes “terribly wrong,” we want fire and tornadoes and the movie 2012 with all its special effects and none of its plot.
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Posted in: Charts, Financials, Hot, Retail
Tags: analyst, April, michael pachter, NPDs, splinter cell conviction
8 comments
#1
Dannybuoy
15/05/10, 7:41 am
I for one haven’t bought any games since GOW3 and heavy rain. Not only have my video games budget been slashed (spending it on stuff for the incomming baby) but I’ve got too many goddam games to get finished. Also nothing really exciting for me has come out of late. Modnation racers is about it for me. But I’m not buying that until I’ve finished the huge backlog of games I’ve got. I may be alone here but I’ve kinda found the games Market has stagnated a but recently, nothing really that exciting to follow. Red dead redemption looks good but am waiting to read reviews as I’m worried it’ll become the same boring game as GTA4.
#2
alimokrane
15/05/10, 7:43 am
Captain obvious as always…. stop quoting the man…. April has ALWAYS been a slow month.. check NPD for the past God know how long
#3
Merf
15/05/10, 8:03 am
I’m no analyst but aren’t games simply keeping their powder dry in April as there isn’t anything decent new out there and May is looking a touch expensive ?
#4
Gekidami
15/05/10, 8:31 am
Lack of decent releases explains everything Mr. Pachter.
#5
Dr.Freeman
15/05/10, 8:55 am
maybe bcoz everyone r watin 4 alan wake n red dead
#6
Hunam
15/05/10, 9:29 am
I think it’s just down to the constant stream of high scoring AAA titles that we get these days. There are a LOT of games coming out this year, almost saturated but if there is a month where not a lot comes out, people can either buy an older game or, what has actually happened, is save and wait for the big games like Red Dead or Wake or all the other quality games coming out in May.
#7
AHA-Lambda
15/05/10, 10:11 am
strange i actually bought quite a bit in april
I got:
splinter cell conviction
blazblue (released in US ages ago tho)
gow collection (released in US ages ago tho)
GTA episodes (released on 360 ages ago tho)
hmm guess splinter cell is the only AAA title in april and its exclusive (well the pc version will sell like ass cos of the drm and…well cos its on pc O_o)
#8
Gheritt White
17/05/10, 10:32 am
It’s Spring, ffs – a time when a young man’s fancy turns to love. Maybe we’ve all just been going out on dates and whatnot.