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Casual Games A Smaller Part Of Software Sales In April 2010 Than Last Year
If you've checked out the NPD sales data for the month of April, you already know that software sales were down in general. However, NPD let us know about a particularly interesting trend for casual games, which were a smaller contributor to overall software sales than last year.
According to NPD, in April of 2009, casual games accounted for 36% of total software sales. This year in April, they only accounted for 25%. Note that NPD's definition of casual games is rather broad, including "Action Oriented Racing, Fitness, Multiple/Other Sports, Music/Dance Games, Party Games, [and] Platform/Scrolling Character." NPD says that "core" content seems to be stronger even in a slow month.
Perhaps this is due to reaching a point in this generation's console life cycle where casual consumers who picked up machines due to early hype have stopped buying games. If that's the case, it's worth wondering whether seemingly more casual-focused initiatives like Sony's Move controller and Microsoft's Natal will pay off when they're released later this year.
Then again, it's also worth remembering that this could be a fluke in a month where software sales are down over 20% from last year across the board.
Even if they didn't make as much money overall, games that fit under NPD's "casual" description were still well-represented on the top 10 sales chart, including Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus, New super Mario Bros. Wii, and Just Dance. Casual games may be a bit less powerful right now, but they're clearly still desirable to plenty of gamers.
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