Let's talk about the UK games market...

[AHA-Lambda]

Every week we get sales reports from the UK charts and every week we hear people cry foul that the UK market is in a poor state.

And I have to ask why that is?

The biggest reason I feel that this hypothesis has come about has been due to a number of AAA failures this year. However I can't recall any AAA games that have underperformed in the UK that haven't also done so elsewhere too? The only one that comes to mind is I believe Destiny 2 seemed to perform better in the US but was still down if memory serves me right?

I wonder if it is because we get weekly reports instead of monthly?
Or because UK charts don't report digital like NPD does to an extent?
(In the interest of balance many of these declines won't be covered by a rise in digital sales).

It just appears that every week we see people cry that the UK is the problem but I think if anything is underperforming it's AAA titles not the UK, not when the hits and misses seem to tally up almost one to one with other regions.

I would love to hear the perspective of others on this particularly those who follow this closely like Bruno or Nirolak? Maybe I'm wrong but I think the UK market being toxic for AAA game sales is a myth that needs dispelled.

 

[LewieP]

My data suggests market is down quite a bit since the brexit referendum.

Edit: Probably also got people going more digital, and people playing a smaller number of games but putting money into fifa ultimate team etc.

 

[Raijinto]

As a gamer in the UK, the games that have 'bombed' this/last year just weren't sold to me anywhere near well enough and whenever I think about this I always forget a number of these games because of how unimpactful they were. With certain companies withholding reviews till launch or even post launch as well as microtransactions being abundant in a lot of them I am finding myself to be harder to impress and more wary of so-called 'Games as a Service'.

Like Shadow of War for instance, the whole baggage that game came with along with my completely apathy towards the franchise based off of the original (which I got at 50% off anyway on Black Friday), no less than a Mario Odyssey/BoTW style game could've made me a 'day1er'.

Add in indies, digital only games, the Switch this year and something's gotta give and games like Assassin's Creed are exactly the sort of games I can easily give a wide berth.

TL;DR There's so much choice as to what to buy I couldn't care less about the next microtransaction pimping 'AAA' sequel in tired franchise games unless they're really special. Or Star Wars related. Unfortunately.

That is me anyway, obviously I can't speak for the market as a whole, though I think the situation is a tad overblown by some. Between all these 'AAA' bombs and hating Nintendo being in our genetics or something according to some I think there's a lot of needless jumping to conclusions.

 

[Deleted member 7051]

It's not that the UK is particularly toxic but things just aren't stable right now for us and they haven't been for a while. One of our largest dedicated video game stores has been steadily declining for five or six years and they're still closing stores, trying to recoup the costs. There just doesn't seem to be as much money to go into hobbies these days and the rising costs of everything factor into that. I don't think Brexit is helping either. There's a lot of uncertainty right now about where people and families will be in the next five years and maybe that means spending like a thousand or more on video games each year just isn't a good idea.

To be honest, though, there's a lot of exaggeration going on. There are alarms going off because three massive games came out in the same week as each other and cannibalised each other's sales. I'm sure if the sales of all three were combined and examined that way, it wouldn't look as bad as "Wolfenstein 2 has sold half as many copies as Wolfenstein!"

 

[AHA-Lambda]

My data suggests market is down quite a bit since the brexit referendum.

Edit: Probably also got people going more digital, and people playing a smaller number of games but putting money into fifa ultimate team etc.

Click to shrink...

If brexit is now having an effect then that is particularly worrisome, wow! I thought sales had been quite stable since then but ok :o

On the other hand though the trends you mention of more time being spent on less games is definitely a trend we've seen elsewhere too, and would definitely have contributed to the larger trend of some of the AAA underperformance this year, not just in the UK.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

My data suggests market is down quite a bit since the brexit referendum.

Edit: Probably also got people going more digital, and people playing a smaller number of games but putting money into fifa ultimate team etc.

Click to shrink...

I posted this twice in the Wolfenstein thread, UK retail sales are up YoY by 1.2% (on a volume basis). UK consumers are still buying all kinds of crap, just not certain games. Not a lot has changed since Brexit, at least not wrt to consumer spending, even higher inflation hasn't really made much of a difference.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Digital needs to be the same price as in store.

 

[FrakEarth]

Correct me if I'm wrong but for a while now, outside of Christmas and other school holiday seasons, it has been possible to chart quite high on the UK chart without achieving a great deal of sales. That's unhealthy surely?

If we cast our minds back, there was a time when the high street was in a much healthier state. The Dixons group of stores - Currys, PC World, Dixons itself, carried games. Tesco and ASDA had more prominent games displays. Nintendo still haven't reclaimed their place in those shops properly after Wii U, whereas in the US - Nintendo sales in September accounted for two thirds of that market. Toys R Us wasn't having its US Parent facing bankruptcy. GAME hadn't yet teetered on the brink of disaster. Stores like GAME, CEX and Grainger Games have adapted and thrived off of a second hand market. Toys, merchandise and tat have become ancillary to the existence of a functioning game shop in the UK. Digital is posing new risks to the high street.

I personally feel like there is an economic impact or added pressure on the UK games market at the moment too, I don't feel as though business is booming as well as some in the halls of power would like us to believe. I'd be curious to see some long-term figures in hardware and software, because cumulative YoY numbers can be distorted by high profile release windows and marketing around Christmas. Month to month comparisons of one year to the next, trends and averages might tell a more interesting picture of the market. How does October 2017 compare to October 2016, 2015 etc? Maybe I'm wrong and its all rosy and fine.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Digital needs to be the same price as in store.

Click to shrink...

If you shop at GAME it is xD

 

[Border]

I've said it before, but it's kinda annoying how UK sales tend to shape the tone and tenor of sales discussion surrounding a game......only because those are the numbers we get first, and the only detailed numbers we get. I don't think there's much to indicate that UK is really a bellwether territory.....it does its own thing.

 

[Coxy]

Personally I don't buy anywhere near as many games as I used to - because I don't have the time to play like I used to. So I wait till the game is under £30. That's my ceiling now.

 

[FallenGrace]

My data suggests market is down quite a bit since the brexit referendum.

Click to shrink...

Would have been my guess. People are concerned about the future as it is so they are tightening their belts a little. I am in that situation at the moment as I look to try and get on the housing market while seeing what happens with Brexit. The last few months I bought maybe two games on PSN sales for very little. I want to get Wolfenstein 2, I just can't justify it.

 

[Ubersnug]

If you shop at GAME it is xD

Click to shrink...

That's funny for all the sad reasons!

 

[Madmackem]

People are becoming smarter shoppers, couple that with games having a long tale like FIFA destiny cod it's easy for people to wait till games without massive multiplayers to drop in price. I'm a pretty hardcore gamer but I haven't bought a fair few games yet as I know they will drop within weeks, things like wolfs, shadow of war are games I want but I know they will drop in price soon enough.

 

[RulkezX]

Games are still selling , just not always day 1 like in say the US.

Look at Destiny 2, it had dropped too £30 a few weeks after launch , why would anyone buy day 1 ?

The market is still worth 4.22 billion this year and will remain 5th in WW revenue.

 

[ClarkusDarkus]

My self personally has gone all digital, Purely because of the primary account trick, But if it wasnt for that i'd be renting alot of todays games as even though we have the internet structure, I just don't think all these sequels grab the attention here in the UK. It's a mixture of things leading too it i feel.

 

[Criminalpuppet]

Game(The only dedicated UK retails store) is also changing what it sells.

My local store has had a massive refurbishment and they actually dont seem to stock/sell many actual games at all anymore.Its all collectables and gaming merch( shirts/toys ect) and a massive push on PC peripherals for some reason and a very narrow selection of pc hardware.

Their selection is subpar and pricing is a bit... not great so im not sure how thats gonna work out for them.

I cant imagine your able to get hold of any niche/limited releases in Game anymore tbh,less than a 3rd of the store consists of physical games/consoles.


Just for me and the folk i know on PC,we just arnt too interested in the majority of what the AAA's are pushing out in the past few years,or at least at full price.

We still play games but its older MP games,or last years AAA at discount prices. Stuff like shadow of mordor/Wolf2 they look half decent and all,but its just more of the same really compared to their predecessors,defiantly not full price purchases.

Regarding Digital to all the non UK folk,digital is pretty minor here,the prices are ridiculous you only buy digital on console for convenience,its way more expensive than physical.Even on PC steam prices for new games seem to be creeping up over the past 18 months, £40 and £50 for new games on steam seems to be coming more and more frequent even for some of the B tier releases.

Uk has always been kinda price conscious,all the dlc/season passes ect haven't been helping either tbh

 

[spookyghost]

I honestly think the more casual market that keeps Game afloat and buys predominantly AAA titles is shrinking with many of those christmas/birthday sales going towards phones and tablets instead. Consoles simply aren't as big a deal among the gateway generation of 8-13 year olds any more.

That's before factoring in brexit where the first pinch to be felt will surely be in expensive, single use extravagances such as consoles and AAA titles. It's surely had an impact this year.

Anyone who uses the UK as a barometer is crackers though, ut has very different tastes from other markets even before you factor in any economic and social events.

 

[formasymphonic]

Games are still selling , just not always day 1 like in say the US.

Look at Destiny 2, it had dropped too £30 a few weeks after launch , why would anyone buy day 1 ?

The market is still worth 4.22 billion this year and will remain 5th in WW revenue.

Click to shrink...

One thing I want to say about the market in general, is that its very possible that while there may still be a lot of money in it — there is the possibility that the distribution has changed. Where more and more money is being concentrated in fewer & fewer games:

My data suggests market is down quite a bit since the brexit referendum.

Edit: Probably also got people going more digital, and people playing a smaller number of games but putting money into fifa ultimate team etc.

Click to shrink...

^like LewieP says. (Yes AAA has always taken the brunt of the profits but even then there has still been a definite shift to GaaS that may be obscuring the finances portion of the discussion). Personally I have always considered the move to have more people playing fewer games to be harmful to the health of the overall industry, but we'll all just have to wait and see where that goes.

 

[s_mirage]

Regarding Digital to all the non UK folk,digital is pretty minor here,the prices are ridiculous you only buy digital on console for convenience,its way more expensive than physical.Even on PC steam prices for new games seem to be creeping up over the past 18 months, £40 and £50 for new games on steam seems to be coming more and more frequent even for some of the B tier releases.

Click to shrink...

Unless you have solid data to base that on, I'd be quite cautious about drawing wider conclusions from anecdotal experiences. Without sales data it's impossible to judge how popular digital distribution is in the UK, but the PC market is likely almost entirely digital at this point.

 

[Deleted member 14649]

It isn't really the UK 'games market' it should really read the UK 'console games market' as PC games really don't play any part seeing as they are nigh on exclusively digital now.

I can afford to buy each PC game I want, as they generally come in at around or less than £30, if you shop around, but with console games at launch, topping £40 at the best of times, I can see why people have to be more selective, especially when you get 3 big titles at least, launching a week, as it seems to be right now.

My guess is a mixture of market saturation, and also that there appears to be now a divide between games guaranteed to sell i.e. FIFA, AC and COD etc, and the more niche titles, such as Evil Within and Wolfenstein - games that are expensive to make, yet are appealing to a smaller market than ever before. The gulf between the already mentioned titles and everything else is so wide, that you can see why the smaller games don't seem to be able to ship as many copies, especially in proximity to said COD's new game.

 

[spookyghost]

Unless you have solid data to base that on, I'd be quite cautious about drawing wider conclusions from anecdotal experiences. Without sales data it's impossible to judge how popular digital distribution is in the UK, but the PC market is likely almost entirely digital at this point.

Click to shrink...

Anecdotally everyone I know over 30 is almost 100% digital. They have the income and hard drive space to just pop on the store and buy what they want, when they want. Makes sense as extension of the Nexflix/Spotify idea of getting your content immediately and hassle free.

 

[Criminalpuppet]

. Personally I have always considered the move to have more people playing fewer games to be harmful to the health of the overall industry, but we'll all just have to wait and see where that goes.

Click to shrink...

This is undeniable,less games is just bad.Part of the problem for me buying new games the last few years is they are all so similar,with a whole bunch going for the GaaS route at the same time my interest in AAA drops drastically.

EA seems to be going all in with Anthem and is chasing that destiny crowd,how many folk playing destiny will be prepared to make the jump and dump Destiny for Anthem? what about those of us who dont like destiny to begin with and arnt interested in another similar game? Its a vicious circle.

The concentration of all the big devs effort into a handful of titles that all share a lot of similarity is just bleh.So i just spend less on games and stick to the few unique quality titles that exist.I even found myself trying out some f2p stuff recently just to have some new stuff to play,a lot of its samey,but i aint gotta drop £40 on it

 

[chromatic9]

Destiny was 50% down in the US.

I followed the sales and US was always down following the UK, Watch Dogs, 2, Gears 4, Halo 5, Rottr. Dishonored 2, Assassin's Creed all down in the US and there's a bunch more that some could highlight if you dig through the threads. UK was a good indicator but the narrative has changed since US data is sparse now.

Also low sales of Quantum Break shown us how low the US would be. I was so in tune with it I predicted the low US number.

I've also seen articles on BBC stating how UK is leading in buying digital content but obviously it might be centred around mobile but I doubt it stops at console games despite the higher price.

Few weeks ago we had someone posting a link to a game on amazonuk saying how the price had dropped, I looked on amazon fr de us and it was half price in those regions too.

 

[TLSLex]

Physical (high street) retail probably has a lot to do with it. I've reached a stage where I almost exclusively buy from Amazon because if I go to Game they (nine times out of ten) don't actually have the games I'm looking for - I'm not even talking about niche titles here, just some that are a year or two old. Add to that the fact that Amazon is about £10 cheaper at launch and (from my personal experience) far far more reliable in terms of being on time and having good customer service, it's a no-brainer. If you factor in that a customer is more likely to pick up more than one item when they go in to an actual game shop, I'd say that's a contributor.

I still like getting my games physically, but I legit cannot remember the last time I physically went out to a shop to buy a game. I actually think it was Lightning Returns in 2014, because Game had an exclusive deal where they allowed you to purchase the game a day before release.

 

[Shakin' Stevens]

When PS4 released in 2013 the exchange rate meant you could buy full price games on the US PSN store for about £37 compared to physical £45-50 on amazon.co.uk

The Pound has weakened considerably since then, so it's about £46 at today's rate (and US PSN have started adding sales tax depending on where your made-up US address is)

I recently bought GTS digitally on UK PSN using vouchers from CDKeys, it worked out at £42 compared to £44 on amazon for a physical copy.

 

[Shakin' Stevens]

Also, looking at today's PAL chart for the UK,

I think a lot of people know now that Assassins Creed will be less than £30 by mid-December, Wolfenstein will be less than £20, Mario will retain full value.