December 9th, 2009
Game group shares dropped 20% after the firm announced that sales were down over 10% during 2009 so far.
Despite a number of highly anticipated releases such as FIFA10 and Call of Duty: MW2 this year the firm have failed to capitalise on this, blaming supermarket discounting and the lower than expected sales of some other titles for the drop in sales.
It’s not all bad news though, Game also stated that they have increased market share this year, so while Game may be performing poorly, others are feeling it more. Game put this down to a number of factors, including pre-owned products, loyalty card offers and specialist staff.
Of course Christmas time is when this industry makes most of it’s money, and this year will be no exception. Currently this year looks to be no different, though sales are still down on 2009, so maybe the period won’t be the big saviour Game will be hoping for.
Time will tell for Game, but recent decline for the Wii and the lack of new hardware on the horizon will come as a worry. The company may have to rely on PS3 and 360 software sales (both of which are still strong) for longer than they would be comfortable with.
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December 7th, 2009
This week in the UK Wii sales hit 6 million, the fastest home console to reach this point ever! I don’t think 6 million is a particularly important milestone but what is important is that Wii is still the fastest selling home console up to this point.
Of course PS2 is still the mark by which all other home consoles are measured, so just how does the Wii stack up against Sony’s all conquering machine? Well just look below at the cumulative sales chart I’ve made for you. This shows sales of each machine (Wii in Orange, PS2 in blue) by quarter, since their launch.
Sales start fairly equally but Wii sales soon accelerate beyond all expectations to take a very good lead, indeed by just the 2 year mark the Wii is over 1m sales ahead of the previous best.
All good so far…
However, this year Wii sales have really slowed down. For 2009 sales are as good as 50% down on last year, this has meant that for the past 12 months the gap hasn’t really changed that much, still hovering around the 1m mark.
So 2010 sales for Wii will be key, can the Wii recover and move on towards becoming the best selling UK home console or will sales continue to fall and leave the PS2 on the sales throne for a little longer. Personally I think the Wii will have a hard time getting there, sales momentum is down, the casual crowd seem to be disinterested and the other consoles are gaining traction in the Wii’s marketplace.
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