Tag Archives: anita frazier

NPD’s Anita Frazier reckons 2010 will be a “really exciting year” for the games industry, with Q1 to possibly be the “biggest quarter in videogame history” thanks to titles that slipped from 2009.

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NPD has released PC sales figures for November, and estimates that $51.7 million was spent on software in retail stores, but per usual, does not take into account digital distribution sales.

Yesterday, Anita Frazier tweeted that PC sales for the year were at $1.46B for the year, which is down 6.6 percent YoY.

She also tweeted the top five videogame properties for the year in terms of sales through November, which were Call of Duty, Wii Fit, Mario Bros., Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, respectively.

More through the links.

Overall industry sales were down 7.6 percent versus last November, but still revenues were enough to make this the second-best November in industry history taking into account the incredible year that was 2008.

Year to date, the industry is still up 7 percent over 2007, and it looks like December may help fatten the number with the stellar promotions the industry has planned leased up to Christmas.

“Based on seasonality the industry looks like it will reach $20 billion for the year, which means December would have to be up over last year by 11 percent. Impossible? I don’t think so,” said NPD’s Anita Frazier. “More positive economic news combined with ‘frugal fatigue’ could positively impact industry sales during these last weeks of the holiday season. Breaking even seems more out of reach.

“In order to break even to last year, December sales would have to be up 36 percent over December 2008.

“There was even heavier promotional activity this year than normal, and while they seem to have benefited hardware sales, they don’t appear to have positively impacted software sales since unit sales of software are down even more than dollar sales are for that category.”

Still, second best November on record. That has to stand for something.  All told, retail sales of systems, software and accessories totaled $2.7 billion.

America’s games trade has seen yet another woeful monthly year-on-year comparison, with overall sales down 19 percent in October next to the same period in 2008.

Total sales fell from $1.32 billion last year to $1.07 billion this year.

Hardware sales were down 23 percent, from $496.96 million in 2008 to $380.74 last month. Not so good.

Software fared better, but will still cause winces: game sales were down 18 percent from $698.35 million to $572.73 million.

Peripherals held up. Hooah. Plastic sales dropped only 2 percent, from $120.95 last year to $118.88 in 2009.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier kept a lid on it, however, pointing out that full-year revenues are likely to be flat.

“The video games industry suffered another decline this month as compared to last October. This is the third best October on record, behind October 2007 and October 2008,” she said.

“Based on typical industry seasonality, the industry is on track to generate full-year revenues in the range of $20-$21 billion in the US, which would put it just a bit below last year’s sales of $21.3 billion.”

According to just-released NPD figures, September saw a “modest increase” YoY between September ’08 and September ’09. In fact, last month was the second bestselling September in the US since 2007, which was so high thanks to the release of Halo 3.

“The industry managed a modest increase over September 2008, and generated the second bestselling September on record after 2007 when Halo 3 released and sold over 3 million copies that month,” said NPD’s Anita Frazier.

“On a unit sales basis, the industry was flat. The increase in revenues is driven by a rise in average retail prices in all categories with the exception of console hardware in which the average retail price decreased 8% from last September.

“Across all categories, the Xbox 360 platform contributed the most to industry unit and dollar sales as sales of 360 hardware, software and accessories comprised 32% of the month’s revenues.

“All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August).”

The full note is after the break.

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The US games trade continued its freefall in July, posting a total sales figure of $848 million for the month, down 29 percent year-over-year from $1.19 billion.

Hardware dropped hugely, down 37 percent from $448 million last year to $281 million.

Software was down 26 percent from $592 million in July 2008 to $437 million.

Accessories held up, for what its worth, down a piffling 12 percent from $150 million to $131 million.

Rough stuff. Here’s what NPD analyst Anita Frazier had to say:

“The U.S. video games industry declined for the fifth consecutive month, bringing year-to-date sales to $8.16 billion, down 14% from the same time period last year.”

“In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11% (or more) higher than the last five months of last year.”

“While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including Madden this month, which should help spur sales. The worst comps should be behind us, and looking beyond August we have The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, and of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to look forward to.”

Digital distribution sales are on the up and up compared to retail sales, which took a dive for the month of June.

Sales for Steam increased 97 percent year-over-year and larger titles are planned for the service in the future. Direct2Drive sales increased 56 percent, and VP Jeff Steele expects “more of the same into 2010.”

Microsoft’s Xbox Live also saw a 73 percent year-over-year increase the last six months, but despite all the good news, Michael Pachter says that download sales only make up 5 percent of videogame sales.

“Downloads are probably $1 – 2 billion worldwide this year, compared to a $26 billion packaged goods market. Significant, but not enough to cause a 20% monthly sales decline,” Pachter told IGN. “Perhaps a 5 percent incremental impact in a given month, but not likely that the impact was more than that.”

NPD Analyst Anita Frazier agreed, saying in her monthly report: “While some of the decline in retail sales could be a migration on the part of consumers to acquiring content via digital distribution, our reports on downloads and subscriptions reveal that it’s not yet having enough impact on the console market to be an overly meaningful factor in the retail down-turn.”

Figures regarding digital sales may climb a bit more once more publishers start divulging revenue from download services.

More through the link.

The June NPDs are out and while the figures may show things brightening a bit, there is some bad news too.

This is the fourth month of decline for the industry – down 31 percent to $1.17 billion – and the worst since September 2000 when the decline was at 41 percent. Even with the industry down 12% year-to-date, it could bounce back with a strong back half of the year providing more titles are not pushed into 2010 or later, according to NPD.

Reports show that 4 million new players entered the market since 2008, but some are new retail consumers and some are playing free online games and on mobile devices. The blame for this is being put on the economy, and NPD admits this is one of the first months the belt tightening has reflected sales.

“While some of the decline in retail sales could be a migration on the part of consumers to acquiring content via digital distribution, our reports on downloads and subscriptions reveal that it’s not yet having enough impact on the console market to be an overly meaningful factor in the retail down-turn,” according to NPD’s Anita Frazier. “That said, there are increasing avenues for consumers to game, including via mobile devices, and it’s clear the industry is sorting through how to manage all these opportunities while deploying resources appropriately.”

Xbox 360 was the only platform to have a sales increase over June 2008, and Wii sales while down are still strong.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010 debuted in June and almost doubled the units sold in the first month compared to PGA Tour ’05 and ’07, which sold 272K units each.

This is the first month since launch that Wii Play has not been featured in the top 10 list for the month. However, good news for Nintendo come with Wii Motion Plus, which sold 169K units in its first month at retail, not counting those bundled with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10.

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NPD analyst Anita Frazier confirmed last night that the Tiger Woods franchise has now generated more than $500 million in US sales.

“Tiger Woods video games have sold over half a billion $ at U.S. retail life-to-date,” said Frazier via Twitter.

The news comes in the wake of sobering US sales figures for May, which saw year-on-year revenue decline 23 percent to below $1 billion.

More on Gamespot.

NPD’s claimed that playing games in America is now a more popular pastime than going to the cinema.

The research firm’s claimed that 63 percent of all Americans have played a game in the past six months, compared to 53 percent who’ve been to see a movie.

It’s the end of days.

“Video games account for one-third of the average monthly consumer spending in the US for core entertainment content, including music, video, games,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

“While a portion of that share stems from the premium price of console games, we’re also seeing an overall increase in the number of people participating in gaming year-over-year.”

Full thing after the break.

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As predicted, American games sales were down 17 percent for April compared to the same month last year.

Total sales were at $1.03 billion, down from $1.24 billion in 2008.

Hardware was down 8 percent to $391.63 million, while software dropped a dramatic 23 percent $510.74 million. Tough comps indeed.

Peripherals were down 15 percent to $129.45 million.

“While April sales might appear soft on the surface, it’s important to remember that April is being compared against a month (April 2008) that realized nearly 50 percent growth over April 2007,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

“This year’s performance still represents the second-best performance for the industry in the month of April, besting April 2007, which is the previous second-place holder, by 26 percent.

“Given how strong the growth was in the industry last year, there are still some months ahead where year-over-year comparisons may be difficult, but May should be an easier comparison than the last two months have been.”

Speaking at DICE in Las Vegas today, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said that some 75 percent of gamers say they prefer a boxed product, and 58 percent had never downloaded a game.

But out of those who have downloaded a game, 77 percent said it was just as good as a retail box, she added.

The NPD perennial number-cruncher went on to say that 65 percent of surveyed gamers said they would be more likely to purchase a digital product if it were 10 percent less than retail.

More on Edge.

Tonight’s NPD data confirmed that the US games industry grew 18 percent in October compared to last year, up to $1.31 billion from $1.12 billion in 2007.

“The video games industry grew an impressive 18% year-over-year in the first month of the critical fourth quarter,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

“With 10-months under its belt, the video games industry is still poised to top $22B in annual sales in 2008.”

Frazier noted, however, that handheld sales for the month had shown a decline.

“The sales results are mixed this month, however,” she added. “The console portion of the market made significant gains at 26 percent across hardware, software and accessories, while the portable side of the market stalled, declining 14 percent.

“Year-to-date the portable segment of the market is still up 7 percent.”

Hardware sales were up 5 percent compared to last year to $494.74 million, while software sales climbed a substantial 35 percent to $696.79 million against the corresponding previous period.

Peripherals were down 8 percent, however, to $120.19 million.

August NPD data has shown that the US market grew 9 percent year-on-year last month, the first time monthly growth has dipped below 10 percent in 27 months.

The overall industry took $994.8 million in revenue in August.

Hardware accounted for $384.6 of that figure, a 3 percent year-on-year increase. Wii and DS were still completely dominant over the month, with 360 winning out in its battle with PS3.

“Despite smaller growth this month, the industry is up 32 percent year-to-date and remains on target to achieve annual revenues in the range of $22 to $24 billion,” said NPD analyst, Anita Frazier.

Software sales rose 13 percent to $489.1 million in August, with Madden leading the way.

Overall, Wii was the greatest driver of industry revenue last month.

“Across hardware, software and accessories, products for the Wii platform contributed 28 percent of total industry dollar sales for the month of August,” Frazier added.

Get all the raw NPD data here.

June’s NPD figures have shown US game sales up 53 percent year-on-year, a spike caused by increased sales of Wii and DS, and the release of MGS4.

Total games-related sales hit $1.69 billion last month, up from $1.1 billion in the corresponding previous period.

Hardware sales grew 54 percent to $615.1 million from $399.2 million a year ago. Software sales jumped 61 percent to $872.6 million from $542.2 million.

“The video games industry continues to perform in the face of an ever-increasingly difficult economic environment as many turn to more in-home entertainment,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

“Even if growth slows over the back half of 2008, the industry is poised to achieve record-breaking revenues of over $22 billion for the year.”

NPD analyst Anita Frazier said last night that the lack of a US hardware sales boost thanks to GTA IV has come as a “surprise”.

“I was surprised by this month’s hardware sales because I did believe we’d see a boost in May,” she said. “GTA IV sales remained very strong so you can’t point to waning interest in the title as contributing to slower hardware sales.”

The data showed that GTA IV sold more than 1.3 million units in the US last month, but that combined PS3 and 360 hardware sales sat at 395,300 – only a slight increase on the 375,100 consoles sold in April.

Read more of Anita’s analysis of May’s NPD data on GameDaily. Read the rest of our NPD coverage here.