It's a classic case of a story that sounds bad on the surface but doesn't mean much when you dig just a little deeper. Our sister site GameDaily reports that according to figures from the NPD Group, PC game sales in the US were just $701 million in 2008, down 14 percent from 2007.But, as most of you know, the NPD Group's numbers for PC game sales only cover the revenue it monitors from US retail stores. The number doesn't cover the growing amount of revenue generated via games bought via direct download. Nor does that number cover things like microtransactions and subscription sales for MMO games. GameDaily states that the NPD Group will provide more complete data on the PC game industry sometime next week.
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I agree that this means NOTHING. I spent hundreds of dollars on PC games over the holidays (god, $500 at the very least) and maybe only 2 or 3 of those were boxed games. Out of those boxed games none were from major retailers such as Gamestop or Best Buy. I'm certainly not buying less PC games than I used to, it's just that my buying habits have moved to Steam, Impulse, and GoG. When those don't carry the game I want, I go through NewEgg or GoGamer. NPD numbers are obsolete and meaningless.
...bysmittyPosted at 10:28AM on Jan 16th 2009 by bysmitty