14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group, which tracks sales of both video games and consoles for the United States market, believes that, in order for the markets to grow significantly, devs need to develop and use new technology that has surprising uses for potential customers.
Anita Frazier, who is an analyst commenting on monthly data for the NPD Group, said, “While technology is cool and really enabling of a lot of new experiences, it’s really about the consumer and what they can do with it.”
As the video game industry has progressed, it has also been influenced by technology that exists outside of it, with players now expecting to get instant gratification from their gaming experiences, something they can already do when using other services like Netflix, Skype and YouTube, with Frazier saying there is an “expectation for instant gratification … for convenience, productivity, and value as well.”
The analyst has also talked about the impact of social games, which are usually played on platforms like Facebook and have a pricing model linked to micro transaction and free to play, saying that figures from the NPD Group do not show a significant decrease in traditional gaming for those who also enjoy social gaming.
In fact, it seems that most of those who play traditional titles like Call of Duty, Need for Speed or FIFA 11 at times aim to get a smaller experience and two thirds of them use social games for it.
Overall, the NPD Group claims that, in the United States, the video game market will increase in overall value during 2011 as the economy will expand, with both hardware and software sales seeing a solid expansion when compared to both 2010 and 2009.
The firm did not make any predictions about the impact of the two newly announced devices, the Nintendo 3DS and the Sony made PlayStation Portable 2, could have on the handheld gaming market.