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dakranii
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Analyst calls out Wii, casual game competition and music game fatigue for industry slump
November 3, 2009 by RawmeatCowboy Filed Under: Wii

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter has an idea as to why the industry's sales have fallen flat. Well actually, make that three ideas. He's summarized his reasons in the bullet points below.

1. Wii Weakness: Since few publishers outside of Nintendo significantly benefited from the Wii boom, few will be significantly hurt as the platform stalls.
2. Casual Games Competition: Again, few publishers significantly benefited from casual (though Ubisoft was the non-Nintendo leader for casual female gamers on the DS).
3. Music Games Fatigue: The genre is past its prime. While it still accounts for 9% of YTD 2009 sales, it is down 40% vs. 2008. ATVI is obviously the most impacted by this (as ERTS is only a distributor for Rock Band).

I can agree with points 1 and 3, but I'm not too sure that point 2 makes much sense. I haven't heard any talk at all about a negative aspect of the casual gaming side of things, other than hateful cries from 'hardcore' gamers.

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Lockdale
November 3, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Most casual games made by third parties, don't really sell well. I mean look at all the crap that's being released...those games aren't pushing units. However, since they are so cheap to make, those companies who have them don't take a big hit. Therefore 3rd parties are not hurting from lack of casual sales as Nintendo is.
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Tendonin
November 3, 2009 at 3:37 pm
It's funny how much pull Wii has over the industry. When it falls, the industry's entire performance falls. If the HD twins aren't filling in the gaps, then might there just be some validity to that "Blue Ocean" and "Disruption" stuff after all?
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Necrochild313
November 3, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Casual gaming actually helped revitalize the industry, remember how bleak the outlooks were during the GC/Xbox/PS2 era?
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