[quote name='Richard Kain']I hate to pour some rain on this parade, but several prominent analysts are speculating that the downturn in the retail game space may be...our fault. That is to say, the number of bargain-hunters and gamers willing to wait for price drops has drastically increased over the past few years.
Now, I'm not blaming cheap-ass-gamers directly. Here's what I think has actually happened. With the advent of the Wii, a lot of people who weren't familiar with games became regular game purchasers. They had little to no experience with game purchasing, or were lapsed gamers with no familiarity with how the current retail model for games worked.
But since the launch of the Wii, they've become familiar with how retail game sales work. Sites like Cheap-Ass-Gamer, and the internet in general, have helped to accelerate their education. Now a lot of rookie game shoppers have become savvy enough not to rush out and buy the latest titles. All those new game players are waiting for sales and deals.[/QUOTE]
I'm of a different opinion.
I think what has happened is gaming choices have become over-saturated, and companies don't know how to effectively deploy their games throughout the year.
Last year I made one game purchase between January and October - Mortal Kombat. The titles released in that period were few and far between; or at a price point I wasn't willing to buy in at.
During the holiday season of 2011, a billion titles were released. This means gamers have to prioritize on which ones they are willing to purchase. Most gamers are willing to purchase games day 1 if they really care about them. If they don't, they go to the wayside, and then the consumer can become more selective about what price point they purchase at. Had these titles that were more likely to get passed up released at another point in the year, they may have had stronger sales. I know I have passed on at least 3 games that would have been day one purchases for me if they had released at any other time during the year.
This brings us back to over-saturation. "Gaming backlog" isn't a foreign term. Simply put, it's really easy to become over invested materially without enough time to go through the materials. I'm working on a backlog of about 20 games myself. I'm pretty grateful that there aren't a lot of console titles I'm interested in this holiday season, although there are some really great PC titles coming out this year.
How will my backlog affect my purchases? I would likely be a day 1 Wii U buyer if not for my backlog. Now, that might end up being a wait until the console is $50 cheaper, simply because I can't get through my titles.
How can the games industry remedy this? Frankly monetizing the months outside of the holiday season is the best way to do this. Develop a reliable and constant stream of releases that doesn't have these massive rainfalls followed by drought. A constant release schedule gives gamers predictability, and makes them, as consumers, more predictable in their spending habits.
On a personal level I do hope the over-saturation of yearly/bi-yearly sequels go away - especially for titles that aren't all that innovative. Sequels aren't bad, but they can be overdone [Call of Duty compared to Elder Scrolls, for example]. On the opposite side, I'm always on the lookout for a new experience, but they have to be polished in order to stand up to more predictable titles.
ers lose their jobs!
