Multiplayer Gaming Blamed for US Sales Decline

[exfileme]

Software sales have decline for the fourth month in a row, and Michael Pachter is blaming online multiplayer capabilities as the culprit.

Multiplayer Gaming Blamed for US Sales Decline : Read more

 

[duckmanx88]

$60 a game in the U.S. and even more expensive in Europe+ Australia(poor Aussies get raped), why would i spend another $60 for another 10 hour campaign when i can spend $60 for 100hr+ multiplayer.

 

[rad666]

"Perhaps then the decline in software sales isn't indicative of the amount of time gamers focus on certain titles, but rather the current crop of new games sitting on the shelf. If they're not appealing, then they're not going home with the customer."

BINGO.

 

[Trueno07]

Or maybe because it's july?

 

[wydileie]

How are they going to pull off charging for an online game already being charged for with Xbox Live? Microsoft will definitely have something to say about this. They won't take this lying down with the publishers trying to charge for gaming on their network.

 

[s4fun]

How much worse can Activision get? Charge for online play when they don't even host servers? What the heck!? Crazy fools!

 

[Rhynn]

"We think that it is incumbent upon Activision, with the most popular multiplayer game, to take the first step to address monetization of multiplayer,"....

Why? to help another companies profit margin? Activision is likely making plenty of money, why should they start charging more to help other companies sell -their- games?

 

[Guest]

Lets see, too much piracy on the pc...so focus on the consoles. Crap, people arent buying enough games on the console...lets charge for updates that were free for pc (dlc). Crap, thats not working either...lets start charging a fee for multiplayer on top of the internet fee, the fee to access the service online (ala xbox live), and the cost of the game.

Make good games, stop releasing crap that isnt done, and charging us for the content that should have been included in the first place, and mabye your sales numbers will go up.

 

[theguy82]

First its the charge for buying a used game. Then they try to screw you over with the always online when playing single player. Now potentially charging for online play?

Way to make the customers happy. Maybe these factors are part of the reason in decline of sales.

 

[jaysbob]

damn, well I guess I'm not buying black ops either. I was looking forward to playing CoD again too. :\

 

[d0gr0ck]

You know, just maybe, some of us go outside and enjoy the summer?

 

[Sykar]

so, you have to pay more for something which should be included as a feature of the game? That's dumb as shit, they might as well release it exclusively as crappy sigle player or allow people to buy the multiplayer only on PSN or XBox live...
Actvision are fools, this kind of behaviour will never be tolerated and I hope, that if they do charge more for the multiplayer, that gamers will see the light and not buy it...

 

[lucky015]

The only thing that could really be done to charge for Multiplayer gaming is to split the Single and Multiplayer versions of games, Which is becoming almost a requirement in the case of disks for the 360.

People just aren't going to spend money on a game they may or may not want to play when they already have games they enjoy,.

 

[frye]

Maybe because no good games came out in June?

This happens every year...

CoD Black Ops will come out in November and the so called "expert analysts" will be all "Video game sales jumped surprisingly in November..."

 

[mauller07]

This guy must be high on crack for the fact that some games are made or expanded by multiplayer dramatically

 

[Tmanishere]

We should all stop paying attention to Michael Pachter. He must be trying to be Activision's whore.

 

[kinggraves]

It's not usually the head that Pachter talks out of I wonder how much he gets paid to point out something completely obvious. Of course multiplayer's been around for years, FPS players have always stuck to one game for long periods of time. This wouldn't explain the decline in sales of genres that aren't so focused on the multiplayer.
Maybe the problem is that FPS gamers are the only people still playing, and that the other genres like Action/Adventure or RPG that used to be cash cows have been abandoned. Developers aren't making games to entertain anymore, they're making them to make money. They're more concerned with the box art than the gameplay. Give me games that I want to play into the ground and then I might come back and buy more, but when all I get is fluff that lasts me 10 hours, pretty soon I just stop bothering trying things out. The industry needs to get back to making quality games now, because people can get lousy games on smartphones for much cheaper.

 

[littleleo]

The current titles SUCK! They are poorly done and way too costly.
Bring back some cool games like Mechwarror!

 

[guantan]

Finally someone saying something besides piracy is the reason for slow sales.

 

[CoryInJapan]

If they start charging Monthly fee's like MMO's im not playing they;re games.End of story.