Tag Archives: Content
U.S. spending on games content down 9% in 2012
U.S. consumers spent a total of $ 14.8 billion on video game content in 2012, down nine per cent from $ 16.34 billion the previous year.
That’s according to a new report from retail monitor the NPD Group, which primarily attributes the decline to a drop in physical retail sales.
While total physical spending on games (new, used, rental) dropped 21 per cent year-over-year, from $ 11.25 billion to $ 8.88 billion, digital spending increased by 16 per cent, from $ 5.09 billion to $ 5.92 billion.
The decline is perhaps unsurprising given that we’re in the late stages of what has been an unusually long home console cycle, although two new gaming platforms launched last year in the form of Vita and Wii U in February and November respectively. The market appears to be crying out for fresh home console hardware from Microsoft and Sony, and its calls are expected to be answered in time for the 2013 holiday season.
Last month, NPD revealed the ten best-selling U.S. retail games of 2012, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 coming out on top. Check out our list of the 100 most anticipated games of 2013.
Direct2Drive Migrating to GameFly, Shedding Some Content in the Process
Not long after GameFly launched a public beta of its Unlimited PC Play client, Direct2Drive has announced plans to brings its games and customers over to GameFly so that everything is handled through one outlet.
Direct2Drive was acquired by GameFly earlier this year, though it was unclear if the digital computer games distributor would continue to operate on its own. This upcoming transition will include new GameFly accounts being made for Direct2Drive customers who don’t already have them; those who do will have their accounts merged, assuming they share the same email address. How this will work and more is outlined in an FAQ posted on Direct2Drive’s website, and a few items in particular should be seen by the site’s customers.
Join 1UP and Nintendo for a Dragon Quest Meet-Up, Get Exclusive Content
Nintendo’s campaign to bring Dragon Quest joy to American hearts leveled up last week with the release of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 for DS. While not quite up to the incredibly high standards of a main-line Dragon Quest adventure, Joker 2 is good fun, especially if you’re one of those people who takes perverse joy in capturing monsters and forcing them to fight one another to the death.
Xbox 360 Live TV Still Planned for 2011, Content Specifics Remain Unknown
The ability to watch television on your Xbox 360 continues to be talked up by Microsoft. It still isn’t diving onto specifics about the content that will be available on the platform, though.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer previewed the functionality at the BUILD event in Anaheim, California today, CNN reports. He stated that the company will work with “dozens or hundreds of additional video content suppliers” to bring as much content as possible to the platform, but we still don’t know the exact method for how the TV service will work. From what we’ve heard, it will make arrangements with individual cable and satellite companies and allow existing customers to watch programming on their 360. While that might sound unnecessary or pointless, Microsoft would be banking on its ability to offer a better viewing experience, in part because of the ability to use voice search with Kinect.
“Having all of that content is right on, it’s fantastic, but it brings a new challenge with it,” Ballmer said of the system’s new search features coming later this year. “Certainly we all know the frustrations of using guides and menus and controllers, and we think a better way to do all of this is simply to bring Bing and voice to Xbox. You say it, Xbox finds it.”
Origin Installed on 4 Million Computers, Adding Third-Party Content “Very Soon”
Electronic Arts rebranded and relaunched the EA Store in June as Origin. It’s a digital platform that sells EA’s games and provides other features like a friends list and in-game overlay. With Steam already comfortably filling this role, many PC gamers were upset to even see EA try to clog the market with a competitor, though that hasn’t stopped four million users from installing the Origin client since June.
EA’s CFO, Eric Brown, mentioned the figure during a UBS conference in London today, Gamasutra reports. EA expects that figure to “climb substantially” as we near the holiday season. That’s all but guaranteed, what with Origin being tied in with Battlefield 3 and it being the only place to purchase a digital copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Another thing that may help to drive installations is the addition of third-party content to Origin. The store is currently home to nothing but EA games — Battlefield 3, The Sims 3, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 comprise the front page whereas Skyrim, Red Orchestra 2, and Serious Sam 3 are the headliners on Steam at the moment. Steam was originally launched to host only Valve’s content like Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike; it has since expanded to largely consist of third-party games and that’s a critical component of its success.
