Game Sales in UK Hit Lowest for Four Years
Posted by James Newton
Lack of releases, good weather blamed
Those Brits love a good game, but lately it seems they don't like buying them so much: the week ending April 23rd was the slowest sales week the UK's seen in four years.
That said, there was still £13.5m ringing through British tills, which some might say is quite a decent amount, though it represents a 23% drop on the previous week. Unit sales were down as well, with some 640,000 games taken to new homes across the land, 21% lower than sales the week before.
What's to blame for this sluggish performance? Predictably there's no single factor, but it's believed the relatively low number of new releases, impending UK election and, of course, the British weather can all take partial credit. That said, Nintendo need not worry as Wii Fit Plus and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver continue to rake in the money with strong sales performances. And now Monster Hunter Tri is seemingly chomping on the opposition, here's hoping the market will use a First-Aid Med and recover in no time.
[via mcvuk.com]
#1
Peacock said:
It's only one week.
#2
James said:
With the lowest sales of any week in the past four years. That's a bit disappointing.
#3
LzQuacker said:
I blame the British gamers
#4
MasterGraveheart said:
"Those Brits?" I thought Nintendo Life was based out of the UK?
#5
Amorous_Badger said:
I think that us Brits, as a race, should be proud that we don't take gaming so seriously as to miss out on lovely sunshiney days when they come around.
#6
Odnetnin said:
Lol @ tagline.
#7
SMEXIZELDAMAN said:
Good weather go OM NOM NOM and eat all gamez.
Next week you should all buy 3 gamez each and make it an all time high week
#8
Hipster-Dashie said:
Good weather? It was a bank holiday weekend for the weekend just gone, and surprise surprise, it rained!
I want to get WarioWare DIY, but I'm just going to stick with the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta for now. Jetpacks ftw.
#9
LzQuacker said:
@Prosody: Is Monster Hunter Tri to blame for all this? After all, it is chomping the competition
#10
LordJumpMad said:
Silly Brits, Games are for Japanese
#11
MarkyVigoroth said:
This is sounding like that Sega Saturn commercial.
Even so, I support Amorous Badger-san's comment.
#12
Zach said:
Too many accents
#13
Raylax said:
@zkaplan: All better than yours.
#14
Platypus said:
everyone is busy playing Monster Hunter tri.
#15
Klapaucius said:
Is that all games overall, or just Nintendo?
#16
MrHeli said:
yeah..I think I'll give that game a miss this week 'cos of the general election..what a crock
#17
MrHeli said:
i bought my first game aside from VC, for a while, last week..Ikaruga for gamecube
#18
Slapshot said:
The last 6 months have been some of the best months in gaming Ever. Maybe Nintendo has been slacking on the releases but on the other systems and PC its been a whole different story. To say or think there is nothing to buy is just absurd. Ive got 7 unopened games still and cant seem to catch up at all with the releases still coming with Skate 3 and 3D Dot Heroes right on us. The list is so long of all the great releases in the last 6 months. Maybe a downward economy and a week with no air travel further damaging the economy is to blame?
#19
JebbyDeringer said:
There are too many games and people are getting tired. The next Call of Duty will see the same fate as E.T. for Atari!
#20
bbb7002004 said:
People keep track of these kinds of statistics? That small of a timeframe tells you absolutely nothing.
#21
Shane_Gill said:
No games I want have come out for a while, and I'm not paying full price for Splinter Cell. So there you go.
#22
RevolverLink said:
Screw the weather, get back in the house and work on your pale!
#23
Croz said:
I havn't bought a wii retail game since NSMBwii mainly because there hasn't been anything that has looked interesting atleast to me, well not until this weekend with Sin & Punishment 2 out in 3 days! and lets not forget theres still No More Heroes 2 & Galaxy 2 within the next month and half.
#24
outrun2sp said:
Hope they shut game down or sort it out.
They didnt stock Tat vs Cap, Muramasa, snk arcade classics etc.
HMV is my option when it comes to going into a shop to buy games.
#25
Terra said:
...Don't look at me, I've bought quite a few games recently.
#26
shake_zula said:
The only thing I bought last week was the TvC stick from shopto.net, but I returned it after finding it for almost half the price elsewhere, then proceeded to go out drinking with the money instead and now I have nothing :[
@outrun2sp: I didn't know you were British, whereabouts are you from?
#27
FonistofCruxis said:
I've bought quite a few games recently.