Report: Economic downturn has gaming on upswing
The current economic woes that are crippling most industries may actually be having the reverse effect on gaming, according to a new report released by Nielsen on Monday.
The report, which was based on the responses of roughly 2,400 gamers as well as more than three-and-a-half years of historical data, found that in a year-over-year comparison from January to May 2009, consumers have increased the amount of time devoted to gaming by as much as two additional hours per week.
More over, the study also found that among gamers ages 7 through 54, a whopping 42 percent stated that they plan to play -- or are already playing -- more than last year, with a full 35 percent claiming that they are also spending more on video games than before.
So with gamers spending more of their time and money on games, the key question is, why aren't the retail figures for this industry more reflective of this trend?
What Nielsen found is that while retail sales may have shrunk when compared to last year, gamers are spending far more on used games.
This trend will likely continue as gamers, like many others, are more conscientious about how and where they spend their money.
For video game retailer GameStop, this shift has also had a positive effect on sales and earnings as it recently posted that the sale of used software led to the first quarter of 2009 being the best in the company's history.
Sales of used games increased by 31 percent for the retailer over last year, prompting rivals such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy to explore selling secondhand titles themselves.
As expected, Nielsen discovered that males between 18 and 24 were directing the movement of used over new. However, a more surprising revelation was that the report also found that males over 35 and females 13 to 17 made the most significant gains, with monthly increases totaling more than 50 percent from the previous year.
Like others, Nielsen also concluded that the lack of triple "A" titles has been another contributing factor driving gamers to buy used games.
By comparison, last spring saw the release of multiple blockbuster games that all went on to sell quite well, but the same season this year only yielded a few noteworthy entries.
With that in mind, the report also found that video game rentals have risen slightly and are expected to continue in this direction should the recent announcements from rental heavyweights Gamefly and Blockbuster be any indication.
In February, Blockbuster announced that its Total Access subscription service was being expanded to include video games.
This was followed by GameFly's proclamation in March that it would soon be placing rental kiosks on college campuses.
Nielsen also gave the movie industry a nod as the report indicated that DVD purchases and box office receipts were both up slightly among gamers for January through May 2009 over last year's sharp decline.
In particular it appears as though gamers are going out to the movies more often as sales in this segment have risen by 7 percent in this same time period.
