The past few years haven't been too kind to the economy in general, and the same could be said for the video game industry. While gaming continues to make strides into greater mainstream acceptance thanks in part to the explosion of mobile handheld gaming and social networking titles such as FarmVille, it's simultaneously suffered from faltering overall sales - a sad and constant footnote to otherwise good news.
Research firm The NPD Group reported this week that the trend could be reversing, with the first quarter of 2011 seeing increased spending over the same period last year.
Numbers culled from the NPD's "Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend" report, which estimates retail sales results, illustrated an admittedly slight 1.5 percent across-the-board bump year-over-year, bringing total game content, console and peripheral spending to $5.9 billion. New software for consoles and the PC raked in over $2 billion dollars, while several relatively new options - such as downloadable content, social gaming and digital downloads - earned nearly $1.85 billion.
Anita Frazier, an industry analyst with NPD, cited a strong traditional retail showing as the main sales driver, but alluded to the fact that non-traditional gaming avenues are constantly growing and should be monitored closely.
"While the new physical retail channel still generates the majority of industry sales, our expanded research coverage allows us to assess the total consumer spend across the growing number of ways to acquire and experience gaming, including mobile apps and downloadable content," said Frazier.
So far, 2011 has only seen one new gaming platform released: the Nintendo 3DS. And while its launch was originally touted as record-breaking, sales have since slouched. Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush, said this week that he believes console, portable and software sales all suffered in June - lending a reality check to the somewhat healthier numbers posted this year compared to last.
It's unclear how sales will fare for the rest of 2011. With the handheld PS Vita the only new system on the horizon (Nintendo's Wii U is at least one year off) and future home gaming systems from Microsoft and Sony still only rumors, it's up to the current generation to carry the weight. Can it manage?
