Video game industry is in a bit tailspin even with the new Wii U console on the market. The industry has had slow sales in the market and will be hoping to receive massive gains when the holiday season gets into full flight.
The NDP Group says that industry is still not seeing the yields that saw boom in the industry years ago. According to the Escapist magazine, NPD numbers only look at retail sales and not digital sales.
Tthe Washington Post reported that NPD's analyst Liam Callahan said that the "sales figures represent new physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories, which account for roughly 50 percent of the total consumer spend on games." With digital sales, micro transactions, subscriptions and apps, he said, the industry's sales could be over $3.1 billion.
The industry's manufacturers are finding it hard to even grab the resources needed to create the devices. Nintendo has had well publicized struggles as it drags behind Microsoft and Sony and officials of the company have came out earlier in the year to talk to about the company's woes.
"Manufacturing costs are expensive, and we priced the machine at a level customers would accept. It's important for us to develop a healthy business next fiscal year by combining sales of hardware and software," said Nintendo's Senior Managing Director Yoshiro Mori.
Sony had similar comments saying that there is a challenge trying to come out with the next batch of gaming consoles.
"We do have a challenge to manage the next generation of consoles, particularly in terms of dev studio resources. The more platforms you have, and the amount of rich content you have to deliver on all the systems you are supporting clearly puts pressure on decisions made across the studio network, which is something we are battling with," said Playstation UK's Feral Gara.
Smartphones like the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III are looking to make a push into traditional gaming markets along with the likes of Apple's iPad line.
Rumors are flying that Sony's next console nicknamed the "Orbis" and Microsoft's Xbox 720 are set or a 2013 release and the industry will be pinning its hopes on these speculated devices.
