UK Games Sales Drop 40% Year On Year

TSA Staff 20 Comments

The UK games industry – at least in terms of retail sales – is massively down year on year.

Picked up by MCV, sales were down 40% for June compared to the same month last year, with just 2.1 million games flogged on the high street.

In terms of revenue, sales of videogames generated nearly £50m, which is down from nearly £80m twelve months ago. The best selling title in June was Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, which actually came out in May.

LEGO Batman 2, which we’ll be reviewing very soon, was the biggest release of the month.

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20 Comments

  1. What about January, February, March, April and May? Did those months suffer a 40% drop too, or is it just June that grabbed the headline?

    • I do hope it was June that grabbed the headline, because it would be very bad news if it weren’t…

  2. I don’t think it’s that bad if you consider the games that were released last june compared to this june.
    Infamous 2
    Fear 3
    Duke nukem forever
    Legend of Zelda: ocarina of time 3D
    Operation flashpoint: red river
    Red faction: armagedon
    Transformers: dark of the moon
    There were so many big games released last june and the biggest game we have this june is lego batman 2, with nothing much else released along with it. So considering that I don’t think it’s that big of a drop.

    • Agreed – As with any stats, its not what they are actually portraying but how they are reported on that make headlines.

      For example;

      This year has seen a 100% decrease in the time i have spent at my local pub.

      ..Because i quit drinking.

  3. I guess we need COD to come out twice a year then lol

  4. Not overly surprised by this, the whole industry is a mess at the moment.
    Just the element of online passes alone has made me more determined than ever to rent games than give the greedy gits my money. I believe the only two games I’ve bought new this year have been Witcher 2 and Max Payne 3.

    • Oh and Resi Revelations

    • But of you rent the game you then have to get the online pass so this doesn’t make sense.

      • I think he means he rents them for the short singleplayer campaigns & to hell with the multiplayer.

      • Exactly :)

  5. Global recession, coming towards the end of the consoles (for this generation) and the industry is still finding its feet with regards to monetising franchises beyond the initial sale. Grim as it is, some of it really makes sense.

    Thankfully, the industry itself is making more money than ever before (or at least compared to a handful of years ago). Just that it’s now spread out more thinly across more companies. Or at least the article on BBC said so, which I’m inclined to believe.

  6. The last game I bought for full retail price was Diablo 3, before that I think it was Uncharted 3.

    I rarely buy games on release any more unless it’s something huge I can’t wait to get my hands on. There’s a huge back-catalogue of games that I haven’t had time to play, and more further that I can grab for cheap online. Add to this my Steam collection that’s bursting at the seams and the likelihood of me picking up a new game on release decreases further still.

    The current generation is too old to see constant purchases of new-release games. Consider many people’s financial situation; more people will choose to pickup that AAA title from 6-18 months ago they missed out on for cheap than the brand new £39.99 title released last week.

    It’s great for us as consumers because there’s a wealth of quality available at lesser prices as the majority of people just can’t keep up with the plethora of great games as they are released. However this impacts the industry as in this story. The industry needs the new console platforms to stimulate full-price game purchases, however it remains to be seen when they are released just how many people can afford to make the jump to the next generation straight away.

  7. i think iv only bought 3 games this year in total. compaired to last year were im sure i had bought many more by this time in the year

  8. It could be due to the lackluster of AAA games out this year. Well for me anyway. I for one only bought one retail game this year, max payne 3 and once i completed that i traded it in due to the multiplayer not being as good as uc3. I cant seem to get enough of uc3 multiplayer, that could be the reason i’ve not been buying much.

  9. The last game I bought at full price was LA Noire…more recently I’ve only bought Gravity rush, but that was from the PSN. I agree with all the other comments here, it’s just because of a massive lack of compelling titles. The only games I wanted this year have all been pushed back into 2013, besides Assassin’s creed and little big planet vita, although Sony smash bros. is on my maybe list…

  10. Recession is a factor and i guess full game downloads are taking some of the retail sales.
    I’m definitely feeling the pinch this year and have been a bit more discerning with my purchases.

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