Uh-oh. After working so hard to sell their Wii consoles, Nintendo is reportedly scaling back their production.
According to news outlet Nikkei, this is because two Japanese companies involved in the manufacture of the Wii are facing heavy losses. The two companies—Mitsumi and Hosiden—are reportedly facing a 50 percent decrease in net profit. continue reading…
Image from NPD
Once touted as ‘recession-proof’, the gaming industry can’t seem to catch a break. After a hopeful September with a 1% increase, industry sales were considerably down again in October.
According to consumer market research group NPD, the October numbers fell by 19 percent to $1.07 billion with software down by 18 percent or $572.73 million). Meanwhile, hardware was down by 23 percent or $380.74 million despite the recent price cuts to game consoles. continue reading…
Even with the late Michael Jackson and the return of the Beatles, album sales are down for 2009.
It seems like nothing can help album sales, down by 11.1% in the third quarter of this year in comparison to the same period in 2008 based on Nielsen SoundScan’s figures. The drop in overall sales came even with the upsurge of sales for Michael Jackson’s music after his sudden death and the Beatles’ remastered release of their music.
The Jackson and the Beatles’ catalogs brought in about 6.3 million in sales this quarter. Moreover, top-selling artists who released high-profile new albums this year still managed to make their marks like Green Day, Eminem, Dave Matthews Band and U2.