14 DAY TRIAL // Do you remember March 2008? Yes, it was just over one year ago in real time, but it seems like an eternity when it comes to videogame releases. In March 2008, we saw the launch of two of the biggest games of last year, Grand Theft Auto IV from Rockstar and Take Two, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl from Nintendo.
The release schedule of March 2009 contained no such potential hits. Sure, games like Empire: Total War will sell well, but nowhere near the level of GTA.
Based on arguments like the one above, it seems that March 2009 will see the videogame industry grow only by a small percentage, as projected by analysts from Wedbush Morgan and EEDAR.
Michael Patcher believes that, for March, we will see sales of 800,000 Nintendo Wii consoles, 400,000 Xbox 360s and 350,000 PlayStation 3 gaming platforms. Killzone 2 will sell well, but it will not be enough to bridge the gap that appeared in the figures posted by Microsoft and Sony. The PlayStation 2 is likely to receive a small boost in sales figures from the price cut to 99 dollars.
The overall industry value in March will be approximately 955 million dollars, which is pretty much the same as that recorded in March 2008. This proves that the world wide economic problems are finally taking their toll on videogames, which were thought for quite some time as being “immune” from the fluctuations of the markets.
Developers are beginning to realize that they should spread their releases more, in order to have fewer games in the overcrowded shopping period that begins in October and goes on until Christmas and bring more videogame releases to barren months, like March and April. At the moment, there's only talk about that and not much action, although, as GTA IV has shown, hits can be released during spring.