Never Ending Sequels leading to yearly decline in video game sales

The latest sales figures for the video game industry are expected to once again trend lower, when the NPD releases its numbers later this week. Michael Pachter believes that the year over year sales numbers will be down a whopping 34%.

Pachter points the finger at a number of factors, which include a weak lineup of titles that were released last month. Though he also thinks that the extended life-cycle of this generation, and that publishers are doing little to “reinvigorate interest by consumers that have been offered a never-ending series of sequels.”

“In this unprecedented eighth year of the console cycle, we believe there are few new intellectual properties to reinvigorate interest in the games sector/ Consumers have been offered a never-ending series of sequels, and have been offered fewer choices each year for the last several years, with the result being waning interest in new software purchases and an unprecedented three years of software sales declines,” Pachter explained.

“The poster children for limiting consumer choice are Activision, Electronic Arts and THQ, with each company offering 50 percent as many titles as they offered several years ago, with only one new intellectual property launched among the three companies over the last year.”