Economic Slowdown? Gaming Industry Suffers Not

You may remember when we reported that analysts were expecting the gaming industry to have huge sales this holiday, specifically Guitar Hero, despite this economic crisis plaguing the U.S. Turns out they were right (duh). Not only has the gaming industry not fallen into a slump, but it has in fact increased a whopping 18% in fourth-quarter sales compared to last year.

Here is a breakdown of stats according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier:

  • Sales of console game systems, software, and accessories rose 26% compared to October 2007
  • Portable game sales dropped for October, but total sales for the year are up 7%
  • The Wii had its biggest sales month (803,000 units) since December 2007
  • Xbox 360 (371,000) and PlayStation 3 (190,000) had higher sales compared to the same time period last year
  • The PS3 had its greatest year-over-year monthly sales increase ever at 57%
  • Fable II was the best-selling game of October (and rightfully so) with over 790,000 units sold
  • The gaming industry is poised to top $22 billion in annual sales, making 2008 a new sales record

Source: USA Today

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  • http://www.awayfromkeyboard.guildcafe.com John Landis

    It’s not all roses everywhere though. I read in USA Today (I think) that Midway’s stock is way WAY down. That may change with the release of MK vs. DC, but who knows.

  • Abaddon

    It’s funny,the moderate slowdown in the 80′s ultimately led to more people buying vcr’s and it’s considered a tangent cause for the victory of VHS and the reblooming of videogames,seems like this is kind of a crisis-proof sector at some point.
    Small studios will suffer further,since this generation is very expensive to work for.

    I can imagine a scenario next year where Microsoft gobbles up EA,or strange alliances are formed.And I don’t know if I like that insight.

  • Tomonoatmeal Cookigaki

    Midway’s stock would be down even without economic crisis. Midway has huge problem and that is that Midway did not hire Cookigaki.