There's a lot of stuff we like over here in Blighty: Football related thuggery, laughing at Europeans, crap food; it's an endless list and I've really just mentioned the highlights. But you know what we don't like? Boxes. To show our disdain for these plastic and cardboard prisons we're buying less and less physical media than ever before, even hardware sales are down.
Of course, this is something that's happening everywhere, not just in the UK. According to figures released by UKIE (The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment) sales of consoles, accessories and boxed games were down by another 13 percent in 2011. That's still £2.520 billion in sales, though. 51 percent of annual sales came from the busy fourth quarter, with grim men making foreigners explode and grim men, women, elves, orcs and a whole bunch of other creatures making dragons explode.
The drop was expected, it's hardly like this is the first year it's happened, but it was actually less severe than anticipated. There was growth from the Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS and total software sales of £1.2 billion. With overall consumer spending down, the industry didn't fare too badly according to UKIE. It's worth noting that UKIE does not include DLC, mobile games or second hand games and considering the importance of all three of those things in the industry today, the results could be very different if they were included.
Total UK boxed game sales down 13% in 2011 [gamesindustry.biz]
Contest:
7:00 PM on 01.08.2012 | 
Sure, there's a couple of things, but not for most people..
Or is that just me?
Just you. I'm a sex machine. Soulless and methodical.
@Ibinixer
Shhhh
Steam just had its seventh year of 100% sales growth.
Probably not entirely coincidence there.
though really enjoyed the hell out of this generation for sure :P
Oh you wacky Europeans..
Most of us wish we wernt, If we could put a big engine on the island and move the country elsewhere we would do so :D
We don't consider ourselves part of Europe and Continental Europeans don't want us to be either...
It's no wonder they are too afraid of making anything unique or new for the market. Gamers are a hypocritical bunch. Some of the worst I've ever seen. They scream, cry, bitch, moan and throw temper tantrums when sequel after sequel comes out and publishers don't throw their money towards some new projects.
They then proceed to the checkout line with said sequel in hand, and turn their backs on games like Rage, Warhammer: Space Marine, Shadows of the Damned, Alice: Madness Returns and Child of Eden. The last two of those were sequels, but they were sequels to games unlike anything on store shelves. They were games that were made in a desperate attempt to prove gamers right. To prove that new, quality IP could sell in a sea of AAA shooters.
Unfortunately, they were wrong. They put too much faith in gamers, and if there's one thing I know, it's never, ever, ever put your faith in gamers. They scream and cry that they want new things, and then ignore those new things when it comes time to put their money where their mouths are. And I think this can be directly attributed to the decline in sales we are seeing at retail.
People are buying less games, and the games they do buy are the ones the claim they don't want anymore. Why not go to your local game store and pick up a brand new copy of Shadows of the Damned, a fantastic shooter that barely broke 20,000 units sold, and stop buying the cookie cutter junk that you claim you don't want anymore.
Wouldn't it be great to walk into a game store and see the shelves filled equally with sequels to your favorite franchises AND new IP, instead of 90% sequels, 10% new IP?
Damn never knew how hard was to type on iPod while walking
1. This doesnt give sales of digital items. They could have either stayed the same or went down as well.
2. Worldwide the economy hasnt been doing well. It doesnt surprise me a luxury item's sales have went down
The way this article tries to make things sound is that digital is taking over. It has a long way to go. It eventually will, sadly. But I doubt it will for a good long while
Exactly that, the fact that they refuse to release any digital sales numbers makes me skeptical on just about everything the industry has to say about anything.
The UK is a country in what continent? Europe. America and Canada are countries of what continent? North America. The brits are European by default and mexicans are North American. Bitches love to be arguing semantics.
DAMN YOU GABE NEWELL
The fastest I can get in my area is 12 mbps connection, yet I dont get anywhere near the speeds I get due to living in a rural area.
Considering that there are still huge numbers of people without internet access, I feel that boxes aren't going anywhere.
At least until EVERYONE has interwebz access, anyway.
And fuck, fucking boxes.
"But you know what we don't like? Boxes. To show our disdain for these plastic and cardboard prisons we're buying less and less physical media than ever before, even hardware sales are down."
And yet physical retail and box sales ARE the industry and always sell more than new retail games.
So the majority of people love them.
What if you don't feel like driving to the store or waiting in line for hours on release date?
It's actually more like calling Americans North Americans, which is true.
1. I can choose to resell the game at any time.
2. I can choose to buy the game at the price that I feel is reasonable (I have a choice of which retailer I choose to buy from).
3. I can lend the game to a friend.
4. I don't have to worry about the bandwidth associated with downloading a game.
5. I have a physical copy of the game that I can look at and admire and that has actual value because it's a physical, tangible item.
6. Games that are released at retail will continue to be playable forever, whereas digital games only exist as long as the digital service exists.
7. I get a manual that I can read on the toilet, as well as any other exclusive items (models, art books, etc...) that I can also enjoy in the washroom.
8. Boxed games sometimes become rare and collectable, meaning that they sometimes appreciate in value (imagine if radiant silvergun had been available digitally, you would like an idiot if you had bought it digitally rather than physically).
And where the hell did you hear that from?
Of course the british people are europeans and I never heard anyone saying anything else.
@ EKGProd
So Rage is a new Quality Game... in the sea of AAA Shooters.. Because Rage isn't an AAA Shooter.. oh.
That reasoning only really applies to console games. Any pc game you buy nowadays is usually tied to Steam or Origin so after you activate the game, the box and it's contents are worthless.
Not totally surprising that this happened, and I'll agree with Tarvu, at least from an outside perspective, that its a wonder the UK buys any physical games at all with retailers like GAME in business. I swear, we here in the States complain about Gamestop and some loose things here and there on the retail side of things, but it seems like almost your entire game retail industry is complete shit.