Analyst: June Will See 34 Percent Video Game Industry Decline

The NPD Group is set to release the official sales figures for June in the United States before the end of the week, and at least one analyst believes that the decline, when compared to the same month in 2011, is likely to reach 34 percent.

In a note to investors, Michael Pachter, who is watching the video game industry for Wedbush Morgan, says, “In this unprecedented eighth year of the console cycle, we believe there are few new intellectual properties to reinvigorate interest in the games sector.”

“Consumers have been offered a never-ending series of sequels, and have been offered fewer choices each year for the last several years, with the result being waning interest in new software purchases and an unprecedented three years of software sales declines,” he then reports.

For the analyst, overall sales will be of only 305 million dollars (248.2 million Euro) and the video game chart will include Pokemon Conquest, LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Lollipop Chainsaw and Spec Ops: The Line.

Pachter believes that one big problem is that publishers are releasing too few titles and adds, “The poster children for limiting consumer choice are Activision, Electronic Arts and THQ, with each company offering 50 percent as many titles as they offered several years ago, with only one new intellectual property launched among the three companies over the last year.”

The figures that the NPD Group has reported have been on the decline since November 2011 and most industry watchers believe that the only way to push hardware and software sales up again is to have a solid launch period of next-generation devices.

The Nintendo Wii U, which currently lacks a price, will be out before the end of the year while Sony and Microsoft have failed to offer any official information on their next platforms.