14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group announces that NBA 2K15, the basketball simulation title that was launched by Take Two, is the best-selling video game for the month of October on the United States market, which is somewhat of a surprise considering the competition the game was up against.
NBA 2K15 is a solid experience and benefits from the presence of the superstars of the sport, including Dwight Howard and LeBron James, but the title has not been challenged by a rival series from EA Sports in a significant way and many players have reported significant glitches and bugs.
Second place was occupied by the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. from Nintendo, which shows that the franchise still has a lot of power to draw gamers in and that the Wii U version might significantly boost sales of the home console later in November.
The last place on the podium belongs to The Evil Within, the survival horror title from Tango Gameworks and publisher Bethesda, which was boosted by the fact that legendary developer Shinji Mikami led the development process.
The rest of the top ten includes: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Destiny, Skylanders Trap Team, FIFA 15, Madden NFL 15, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Minecraft.
Video game sales are at the moment down when compared to 2013
The results might seem solid, but lurking just behind the surface is the uncomfortable truth that, when compared to the same month in 2013, the actual value of video game sales declined by 28 percent.
Liam Callahan, an analyst working for the NPD Group, is quoted by VG247 as saying that “Games that launched this month sold 42% fewer units than the games that launched in October 2013.”
One explanation for the decline might be the fact that some big titles were delivered near the end of October and did not have time to create an impact in terms of sales.
At the moment, gamers are enthusiastically adopting the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 as their primary gaming device, but they are failing to actually pick up many titles for them.
This might be because customers are still financially restrained after the crisis and cannot justify spending too much on entertainment.
Another theory says that gamers are spending more time with their favorite experiences and that means they do not have the hours necessary to explore an entirely new title, which leads to a decline in overall sales.
