The NPD Group has released its latest Games Market Dynamics report on the 3rd quarter spending in the US, and the results are interesting. NPD had previously noted in their usual monthly sales report that US consumers spent $1.3 billion on new physical video and PC game software in the third quarter. NPD tracks other games spending by consumers as well, which NPD defines as used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable add-on content, and mobile games. This additional spending was estimated by The NPD Group at $1.64 billion. The total amount spent on Hardware, content and accessories in the US during the third quarter of 2011 was estimated at $4.2 billion, a decrease of 11% compared to 3Q 2010.
"New physical retail sales had a rough third quarter. Increases in sales from some of these other monetization methods, and full game and add-on digital downloads in particular, only partially offset the decline seen in the new physical retail channel,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “We are already seeing some dynamic changes in the marketplace in Q4 and we are seeing interesting geographic differences from the expansion of our coverage in the UK, France and Germany. Q4 2012 results from both the U.S. and Europe will be issued in March, 2012.”
Even the growth in the non-physical game revenue hasn't been enough to overcome the slide in physical retail sales. Publishers who are primarily dependent on physical retail sales are going to have a more difficult 2012 if these trends continue.
The NPD Group remains somewhat coy about its methodology for gathering this data on game spedning through non-physical retail sales. Here's what they had to say: “The estimates are published in NPD’s report, U.S. Games Market Dynamics (formerly known as the Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend) –released by The NPD Group in December 2011 - and are derived leveraging NPD’s portfolio of physical POS tracking (Retail Tracking Service) and consumer research including the Games Acquisition Monitor, Video Game and PC Game Subscriptions Report and Consumer Tracking Service. It also incorporates consumer spend estimation provided by NPD retail and publisher partners, and calibration with third-party sources.”
