• Nielsen Wire, Tuesday, July 7, 2009 12:49 PM

How are video games faring in the global recession? Analysts will point to declining year-over-year sales, but a new study from The Nielsen Company, called "The Value Gamer: Play and Purchase Behavior in a Recession", shows that there is more to the story. For example, the number of hours that gamers are playing is at an all time high; they have also increased their purchase of used games to record-breaking totals, as well as subscriptions to video game rental services by mail. "Taken together, these trends point to gamers' continued engagement with the category even as their budgets have come under pressure," says a post on Nielsen Wire.

"Primarily, we believe mainstream gamers are playing more of the broadly appealing games (i.e. Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Rock Band) pushing their hours of gameplay up," said Michael Flamberg, director of client consulting, Nielsen Games. "The social aspects of these games have engaged them. We don't believe hardcore gamers are driving up the usage averages we've observed. Second, gamers may be looking to stretch their entertainment dollar further through playing games they own more. The importance of value for them is evident in the findings on used game purchase."

Nielsen offers three contributing factors to explain why game sales have been soft. They are: an all-time high in used game purchases, an uptick in subscriptions to video game rental services by mail, and a weaker line-up of new titles this spring vs. last spring.

Read the whole story at Nielsen Wire »