Gaming in America is diminishing.

[Hyro-Sama]

According to the NPD group, one of the more well known market research groups and one that is used by many big companies, all areas of gaming in America are in decline. The only exceptions currently seem to be mobile and online gaming. Their market research shows that at least 2/3 of the country is still playing video games but 5% of population have dropped the pastime since 2011. See the source for more info.

Source (gamasutra)

NPD survey direct link (only a basic summary is available without NPD subscription)

 

[RupeeClock]

It's either the end of console-life drop-off (before Wii U launch), or the chasm left by all of the Call of Duty game buyers, not buying anything else.

 

[FAST6191]

Although NPD seem to have moved beyond the stupid binary categorisation that somehow gained traction I can not help but feel their new one is not a great step up.

I will have peruse the data further (given the real stuff appears to be behind a paywall of sorts that might be hard) as some of this seems to be a combining management speak and stats master class. That said I can see a drop of some form happening although a 5% drop from an entire medium is perhaps a bit strong (such a thing might well tank another industry).

 

[Midna]

Hmm, good. Maybe once video games become obscure and uncool companies will stop trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator to drive the money machines.

 

[ferofax]

Hmm, good. Maybe once video games become obscure and uncool companies will stop trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator to drive the money machines.

Lowest common denominator? Explain. Do you mean the thinnest slice of the bunch, the niche gamers, or the casual gamers at large?

 

[FireGrey]

It's the end of the current gen's life and it's not for mobile/web devices.
Easiest explanation.

 

[dickfour]

When even my mother in law buys a wii a major drop off in inevitable. The fad is over for a lot of people and it's on to the next thing. Btw I hear social networking is also on the decline along with voice, and email.

 

[Sterling]

I'm not surprised. Looking how many people who bought a Wii and how many of those people almost never use it it was bound to happen sometime. With iOS, and the various mobile app platform's (Android and such) popularity and easily accessible games it was only a matter of time. My only concern is with the video game companies. They might decide it would be better to move on to the mobile platforms, and it may not happen for a couple years, but I'm still concerned about it.

Then again, it may spur companies to put quality above quantity if their userbase is smaller. Most corporations know that brand loyalty means a lot. Nothing makes a brandboy better than a quality product. Apple can attest to that (c'mon, don't hate blindly). They were first, it's true, but they also put out a solid product and everyone ate it up. Maybe if a company decided to produce a long lasting game that had great DLC and updates then the console may keep their dwindling crowd. Bethesda, Gearbox, and a couple other companies already follow this mantra. Even Activision provides great support for Call of Duty. I know more people who spend the majority of their time in the shit (lol?) than they do in the rest of their 360 library.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

It's either the end of console-life drop-off (before Wii U launch), or the chasm left by all of the Call of Duty game buyers, not buying anything else.

GBAtemp blames CoD again. Color me shocked.

It could be anything from the economy to just general statistical ebb and flow. I wouldn't really say this is a huge issue, I don't see this really signaling a decline of US gaming.

 

[Valwin]

To me is just the casual gamers that are moving to IOS after they finally got sick of home consoles.

 

[RupeeClock]

To me is just the casual gamers that are moving to IOS after they finally got sick of home consoles.

Crap loads of people have smart phones now anyway. They're simply the largest potential market, and people are always happy to splurge a buck on something they reckon will amuse them on the public transit to work.

 

[Bladexdsl]

Well what do you expect when there's only fucking shooters, sports and racing games being released; peeps ARE getting sick of them. There's absolutely hardly any variety these days.

 

[RupeeClock]

It's either the end of console-life drop-off (before Wii U launch), or the chasm left by all of the Call of Duty game buyers, not buying anything else.

GBAtemp blames CoD again. Color me shocked.

It could be anything from the economy to just general statistical ebb and flow. I wouldn't really say this is a huge issue, I don't see this really signaling a decline of US gaming.

No no, it's not blaming CoD.
After a steep rise you will likely see a steep descent if it doesn't maintain that ascension.

CoD achieved HUGE sales, if it doesn't repeat that success that factors for a large part of the decline in sales over the months, along with the fact that the latest instalment was released a while ago.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

No no, it's not blaming CoD.
After a steep rise you will likely see a steep descent if it doesn't maintain that ascension.

CoD achieved HUGE sales, if it doesn't repeat that success that factors for a large part of the decline in sales over the months, along with the fact that the latest instalment was released a while ago.

Well it has been achieving those huge sales, CoD breaks records every time. Plus there's a lot of people who play CoD but there's not many people who ONLY play CoD. Even the "non-gamers" who play CoD still play a few other things, from Assassin's Creed to Madden.

In general I just see people attributing CoD to everything in the gaming industry when it's hardly the most influential source in this current generation.

 

[shakirmoledina]

Gaming diminishing?

Is it this

Spoiler

or this

Spoiler

or maybe this

Spoiler

 

[Gahars]

A 5% decline?

Spoiler

Repent! Repent, all you sinners!

 

[Rydian]

No no, it's not blaming CoD.
After a steep rise you will likely see a steep descent if it doesn't maintain that ascension.

CoD achieved HUGE sales, if it doesn't repeat that success that factors for a large part of the decline in sales over the months, along with the fact that the latest instalment was released a while ago.

Well it has been achieving those huge sales, CoD breaks records every time. Plus there's a lot of people who play CoD but there's not many people who ONLY play CoD. Even the "non-gamers" who play CoD still play a few other things, from Assassin's Creed to Madden.

In general I just see people attributing CoD to everything in the gaming industry when it's hardly the most influential source in this current generation.

I don't think you get his point... he mentioned that the most recent CoD entry was a while back. People can't buy a game before it comes out, people tend to buy a game most when and shortly after it comes out, and after a game's been out a while sales fall off because most people that want the game already have it.

Somebody who already owns a game has much less of a reason to buy it (barring occasions broken games, serial bans, alternate consoles, etc.), so once the latest entry in the series has been out for a while the hype died down.

"Hey dude are you going to get the new CoD game?"
"You mean the one from a few months ago that I already bought and beat?"

 

[jefffisher]

From what I remember not a single new wii game has come out since 2011 so maybe that accounts for the %5 decline; it'll probably go right back up or if not higher in November with Wii u, Halo 4 and Black Ops 2.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

I never did understand how Call of Duty sets records every single year. How is it able to beat it's own records every year? It just seems fishy to me. It also seems weird to me that Activision always has the balls to put on the box of the game "the greatest game ever sold" or something along those lines.

Anyways, 5% ? Big whoop. That's pretty much just people getting to the age where they no longer have time for gaming anymore because of either jobs, or family related stuff.

 

[MasterPenguin]

It's pretty much like how they've been saying PC gaming is dead.. Which they've been saying for over the past decade.

Nothings changing lol.