We are told that the popularity of video games has continued to grow year after year but the actual sales of games seem to tell us a different story as the  UK retail market is down 25% compared to this time last year.  Publishers are obviously very concerned by these figures.

Retail sources have confirmed that the year’s major new game releases are well down on those released in the same period last year, shifting between 10,000 and 48,000 copies during the first week on sale. By comparison, triple-A games which are the games which are high quality and big budget, from early in 2011 sold between 35,000 and 80,000 copies.

MCV reported that an unnamed published, commenting on its struggling triple-A title, has said: “We are trying to understand it, but everything is selling well below what it should. It is an absolute nightmare. I’m not making half the money back I’m spending on marketing.”

In fact if the figures are correct then we are seeing the lowest sales since 2004 which seems unbelievable.  What could be causing the slump.  Obviously the difficult financial climate is making it difficult for people to splash out, plus we didnt see any big releases in January in comparison to January 2011 which saw games like LBP2 and DC Universe released.

It will be interesting to see how sales perform over the coming months, if you want to help stop the slump and help the industry, there is only one thing for it, buy more games.