Report: Aussie Games Sales Down 19% Year On Year

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Report: Aussie Games Sales Down 19% Year On Year

Post by Dan @ 12:12pm 31/07/12 | 25 Comments

NPD Group's tally on Australian videogame retail sales for the first half of 2012 is reportedly AU$465.6 million, according to MCV Pacific -- representing a 19% drop from the AU$578.6 million figure from the same time last year.

Andrew Milgate, an analyst for NPD Group, told MCV: "Console Hardware suffered the largest dollar decline, due to the average price of hardware dropping $51. This lower price led to a growth in units for HD consoles, in particular PlayStation 3 which saw a double digit increase."

This console hardware price drop has been mirrored, albeit lightly, by a slight decrease in the average price for console Triple A games as well.

The primary reason given by NPD analysts for the decline is a general lack of new software releases compared to 2011, with MCV pointing out that correlates with the top 10 Aussie sellers for the first half of 2012 being predominately games that launched in 2011:

1. Diablo III, Blizzard Entertainment
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Activision
3. Mass Effect 3, EA
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda
5. Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, Activision
6. Battlefield 3, EA
7. Max Payne 3, Rockstar Games
8. Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Ubisoft
9. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Sega
10. Saint's Row: The Third, THQ

For reference however, Australian games retail appears to be faring better than the US, which according to Gamasutra is down as much as 29.7% on the same period last year.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 12:15pm 31/7/12

A wonder how much of that is due to people wising up about our stupid prices and getting them from UK and whatnot?

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Mosfx
Posted 12:19pm 31/7/12

Yeah I wonder why...
Steam must be milking it big time too!

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casa
Posted 12:42pm 31/7/12

Someone needs to ELI5 the reason why we pay such retarded prices for games. I have noticed on some AF programs lately (such has Hack and the Project) it has come up, along with music prices for Aussies being twice that of the states and most EU countries.

As of the 3 games in that list I purchased, they were all from overseas distributors. Surely that is another reason why?

last edited by casa at 12:42:03 31/Jul/12

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trog
Posted 12:45pm 31/7/12

Is this retail as in bricks-and-mortar retail?

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fpot
Posted 12:47pm 31/7/12

This is just a total guess but I think the reason they charged stupidly high prices for games and stuff is because the public was willing to pay it. I remember being shocked when I found out new release titles in the USA were $50ish and not $100ish like they are here.

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casa
Posted 12:52pm 31/7/12

From this day forward, today will now be known as the day fpot didn't take a shit on my posts for no reason and responded normally! Thanks (though surely there is more to it).

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fpot
Posted 12:53pm 31/7/12

I am still waiting for the day one of your posts doesn't use the yawning smiley.

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badfunkstripe
Posted 01:04pm 31/7/12

I'm buying more and more games online. I would have mainly bought games that didn't come out this year. Besides Max Payne 3, i don't think i've got any new games this year.

Let's remember, as developers have been saying. The end of the console life span makes it more risky to launch anything new. So it's stagnating releasing similar games, sequels ect.

I also think most games i've been looking forward to this year are yet to launch.

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trog
Posted 01:05pm 31/7/12

This is just a total guess but I think the reason they charged stupidly high prices for games and stuff is because the public was willing to pay it. I remember being shocked when I found out new release titles in the USA were $50ish and not $100ish like they are here.

Some number of years ago USD$50 was close to AUD$100!

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fpot
Posted 01:06pm 31/7/12

That last Steam sale was the first one I ever paid attention to. It was really fucking awesome I bought 16 top games for fuck all money. Apart from new release titles that I must have straight away (rare, GTA5 will probably be the next one) Steam sales are the only way I am going to buy games from now on.

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Dan
Posted 01:14pm 31/7/12

disclaimer: I am not an analyst, so I intentionally didn't attempt to insert my own speculations into the OP, but my guess would be that factors like the state of game releases, the console end of lifecycle and the rise of overseas importing and international digital purchases, are not significant factors in this decline.

I haven't been able to scrounge up figures, but my general feeling is that the severity of the sales declines in recent years is much more largely attributable to general consumer confidence and macro economic forces, which is the US is particularly glaring with their unemployment numbers.

Not saying that those other factors are having an affect, just that my guess would be they are a much, much smaller piece of that 19% pie than most cranky Australian games consumers might think.

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TiT
Posted 01:21pm 31/7/12

another factor is that games havent been that great this year.... really i am still playing games that came out like 2 years ago like HON

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Eorl
Posted 01:36pm 31/7/12

Casa the government is currently running an investigation into the software pricing scheme for Australia, and some submissions have come to light which you can read over here. While it doesn't say why we pay up to nearly 362%, it at least gives some hard evidence.

One of the reasons that prices for video games are nearly double what they are compared to overseas could be due to how the Australian dollar was below USD years ago, and now that it is closer to parity it hasn't been adjusted due to a large customer base so comfortable paying for the higher price tags. This isn't obviously the ONLY reason, but it is probably one of many.

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casa
Posted 01:52pm 31/7/12

I am guessing this was when boba contacted EB Games Australia to notify them of their pricing error.

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Raider
Posted 01:56pm 31/7/12

you expect retarded prices and people to buy them = you expect a loss of sales when people download online via proxy's.

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Trauma
Posted 03:03pm 31/7/12

Gee I wonder why...

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eski
Posted 03:21pm 31/7/12

NPD figures didnt include digital sales last time I checked, using these numbers to predict overall gaming sales trends seems like a bad idea.

On the subject of AU software price disparity - we use mapping software at work that runs around AU$4500 per license if you buy in AU, the same software costs US$1995 in the US, but they refuse to let people import. I've asked the AU distributor repeatedly to explain the disparity and they come up with the lamest reasons. Last time they didn't even bother, they just said - "Oh, that's what we're told to charge in Australia".

I guess it's nothing new, most people who purchase Adobe products would feel this pain.

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trog
Posted 03:22pm 31/7/12

On the subject of AU software price disparity - we use mapping software at work that runs around AU$4500 per license if you buy in AU, the same software costs US$1995 in the US, but they refuse to let people import. I've asked the AU distributor repeatedly to explain the disparity and they come up with the lamest reasons. Last time they didn't even bother, they just said - "Oh, that's what we're told to charge in Australia".

As has been pointed out elsewhere, its cheaper to fly to the US and buy it and bring it back when its that much. Is there anything in the license saying you can't do that?

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eski
Posted 03:32pm 31/7/12

Hehe, yeah, I've joked about that with my boss, but the AU and US versions are slightly different, and won't activate or update when used overseas. The code in each package is different and needs to connect to the infrastructure of the regional distributor in order to function. They've got it all sewn up in a neat little package :S

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blah
Posted 03:36pm 31/7/12

That 19% drop definitely went into Gabe's pockets.

Also yawn face is the best, if everyone used it then casa is not so special.

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 03:37pm 31/7/12

They're gonna lose a shit load more money now that Blizzard are doing two different kinds of downloads for the new WoW expac. Why walk to a store when you can just pay online and have it ready for launch day.

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mental
Posted 03:39pm 31/7/12

I'm still playing Skyrim, haven't really checked out anything else for quite awhile.

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Raider
Posted 06:27pm 31/7/12

that's dedication mental, it just seems like an endless grind... i got all my dragon armour and used enchanting / alchemy to make it ridiculously imbalanced and can basically 3 shot dragons on master.

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mental
Posted 06:31pm 31/7/12

Starting again with different styles of characters, plus loading up on mods, playing on expert (the first giant spider at bleakfall barrows took me an hour to kill!)

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