NCAA Football 12 News Post

US Video Game Sales Plummet -- NCAA Strongest Game in July

11:13 AM - August 15, 2011 by RaychelSnr

The NPD monthly report is out and it's ugly for the video game industry. Game industry sales dropped by 26% in the month, which is a huge collapse, driven mostly by hardware's inability to keep selling with consumers -- perhaps that market is close to being tapped out eh? While the report has a lot of negatives, there are some bright spots for sports gaming.

Most notable is NCAA Football 12's spot at the top:

Quote:


	"NPD tips its hat to digital sales, calling their growth "remarkable" and noting growth in this area "combined with a flat to modest decline in new physical sales should result in 2011 showing growth over 2010." Top of the chart in software sales: NCAA Football 12 (Xbox 360, PS3)."

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Member Comments

# 1 AuburnAlumni @ 08/15/11 11:33 AM

Well, if it had been known just how "buggy" NCAA has been, it might have been even worse.

That being said, that's a huge drop. Especially when you consider kids are still out of school, etc. You wouldn't think Video game sales would be down in the summer..at least in my opinion.

# 2 nate1msu @ 08/15/11 12:53 PM

I think I've spent more hours trying to work around bugs in NCAA than actually playing.

# 3 Wavebird99 @ 08/15/11 01:01 PM

This doesnt mean anything. There were pretty much zero marquee video game titles this summer. Sales will be back to normal during the fall/winter months.

# 4 Clinton56 @ 08/15/11 01:33 PM

yea the quality of the summer titles this year has been low.

# 5 khaliib @ 08/15/11 01:35 PM

I agree with what Auburn said.
If Gamers had any knowledge that the game was so buggy, the numbers would be just as bad.

Also, consider what games really dropped in July along with NCAA for EA to even try and utilize these sales numbers as possitive.

They were the only "Major" video game the Sporting Community was looking to buy, everyone knows that.
July is about College Football release.

I believe the sales numbers are so bad, is because no "Shooters" have been released.

Come October and November, you'll see a spike in video game sales as many Gamers await the release of the highly anticipated shooters.

Battlefield 3 - Oct 25
COD/MW3 - Nov 8

# 6 SGMRock @ 08/15/11 02:36 PM

Like others mentioned above nothing in July that was released was any good other than NCAA so what do they expect.

I could see if there was some big titles released and they bombed but nothing worth noting came out. Later this year you got Madden 12, FIFA 12, BF3, Modern Warfare 3 that should all hit big numbers.

# 7 franko3219 @ 08/15/11 02:58 PM

I do not think this is a showing of "how good NCAA is", but rather how weak game developing has become. It just seems as though there are way too many fantasy/sci-fi type of games out there (Alpha protocol, and I know some people like them and that is great I have nothing against those people, but why do we only see one or two good realistic type of games? Far Cry used to be fun, haven't seen a new one of those in a long time, GTA only comes out once every 4 to 5 years although RRD helped with the waiting of a new GTA. I see the the upcoming games and all I seem to be excited about are the sports titles because I am a sports fanatic, and then Battlefield 3 and that is pretty much it so far. Maybe it is just because I am a not a teen ager anymore, but a lot of the games just do not appeal to me much anymore.

# 8 JayD @ 08/15/11 03:12 PM

To bad the top selling game was also the buggiest game out there. My copy has already been traded in.

# 9 scottyo60 @ 08/15/11 05:07 PM

I think for every poor month like this you have a month like March where it felt everything in the world (sports wise) was released. I can't remember any new games from April-NCAA 12 that I picked up.

# 10 spit_bubble @ 08/15/11 05:11 PM

Double dip!

# 11 1WEiRDguy @ 08/15/11 05:23 PM

too bad they dont count trade ins

# 12 dan04103 @ 08/15/11 06:27 PM

Of course the numbers sucked. Name anything worth anything that came out in the past couple months. Summertime is always low. Then turns ridiculous because every publisher gets $$$ dancing in their heads dreaming of COD type numbers from kiddies and their friends.

# 13 prowler @ 08/15/11 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jdoug312


	Hopefully this'll make videogame prices decrease.

More like DLC will increase.

# 14 TDenverFan @ 08/15/11 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chia51


	This. NCAA got sales due to the casual football gamer not knowing if the NFL would be here this year. NCAA garnered some of Maddens numbers due to all of the lockout talk for the past 'forever' now. Sure 'we' knew that Madden was still releasing later, but for Joe Blow 6 year old, they may not have and they wanted a football game and they purchased NCAA. That's how I see it.

I doubt this helped too much... I think 11 was solid, and good advertising created interest in 12.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1WEiRDguy


	too bad they dont count trade ins

I really don't think 50 OSers trading in the game impact sales too much... I don't think too many people traded in the game

# 15 ultralow36 @ 08/15/11 07:30 PM

Lol at everybody saying the game did good because there was no good games that came...1) ... WHY DO U THINK THERE WAS NOT ALOT OF BIG TITLES WELL FOR ONE NCAA MAKES OTHER COMPANYS NOT WANT to go up agaist it......So of yall really think most people give a crap you traded your game in NO....they dont....

# 16 MaddenFranchise10 @ 08/15/11 08:48 PM

In this economy, I'm not surprised. Gamers tend to be younger, so they may feel the pinch more than others.

I bet in a few months sales will increase when BF3, MW3, and Skyrim come out. And that solidifies another market trend.. sequels are cash cows.

# 17 HokieTokie @ 08/15/11 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee4life


	madden 12 will be the leader on september!

Preorders for MW3, BF3 and Uncharted 3 will be the best sales in September actually......

# 18 JayD @ 08/15/11 11:27 PM

I really wished they had a way to keep count on how many NCAA's get traded in and how soon because I am sure the number would be pretty insane.

# 19 Pokes404 @ 08/16/11 12:38 AM

Guess EA didn't miss my $65 this year. And here I was hoping that loss in profit would cause them go back to the drawing board next year.

# 20 sarlndr @ 08/16/11 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ultralow36


	Lol at everybody saying the game did good because there was no good games that came...1) ... WHY DO U THINK THERE WAS NOT ALOT OF BIG TITLES WELL FOR ONE NCAA MAKES OTHER COMPANYS NOT WANT to go up agaist it......So of yall really think most people give a crap you traded your game in NO....they dont....

NCAA is not COD so I doubt any company was worried about going up against it. It's just summer and this one has been kinda slow.

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