U.S. November game spending fell 7% y/y, says Circana
“Game On” is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NEW RELEASES:
This week’s major new release is Capcom’s (CCOEY) remake of “Resident Evil 4” becoming available on Mac (AAPL) and iOS devices on December 20. The remake originally released in March 2023.
GAME SPENDING:
Last week, Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said that U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories fell 7% in November when compared to a year ago, to $5.9B. The decline was driven by a 24% drop in hardware spending and a 3% dip in content. 2023 year-to-date spending was 1% higher than a year ago, at $49.3B. A primary driver of the year-on-year decline in Console & Portable Content was the comparable strength of the new release slate. November video game hardware spending fell 24% when compared to a year ago, to $964M. All current generation consoles experienced a double-digit percentage decline in dollar sales when compared to a year ago, with Nintendo Switch (NTDOY) showing the sharpest drop year-on-year. Sony’s (SONY) PlayStation Portal debuted as the #4 best-selling hardware platform of November with the limited quantities available at launch selling out. PlayStation 5 remained the best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales during November 2023. Xbox Series (MSFT) ranked second across both measures. Year-to-date hardware spending fell 1% when compared to the same period in 2022, at $5B. PlayStation 5 remains the best-selling hardware platform in both units and dollars 2023 year-to-date, with Nintendo Switch placing second across both measures.
On the software side, Piscatella said that U.S. November video game content spending dropped 3% when compared to a year ago, to $4.6B. An 11% decline in Console & Portable Content spending was partially offset by 3% growth across each of the Mobile, Subscription, and ‘PC, Cloud & Non-Console VR’ Content segments. November 2022 featured the launches of both Sony’s “God of War: Ragnarok” and Nintendo’s “Pokemon: Scarlet/Violet.” Activision’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III” was the best-selling game of November, instantly becoming the 2nd best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date. It is the 5th consecutive year that a “Call of Duty” title was November’s best-seller. Other top sellers for the month of November include “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) “Hogwarts Legacy” and “Mortal Kombat 1,” Electronic Arts’ (EA) “Madden NFL 24” and “EA Sports FC 24,” Nintendo’s “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” and “Super Mario RPG,” and Take-Two’s (TTWO) “NBA 2K24.”
INSOMNIAC LEAK:
According to Cyber Daily, the Rhysida ransomware group released a trove of internal data from Sony’s Insomniac game studio following the passing of its 50 bitcoin ransom deadline. The data amounts to 1.67 terabytes and included over 1.3M files, such as images and videos of upcoming projects like the upcoming “Wolverine” game. Among other leaked files were Insomniac’s projected release slate through 2033, which includes multiple other games based on Marvel Comics’ characters, including “X-Men” and “Venom,” as well as plans to launch a new “Ratchet & Clank” game in 2029, according to Cyber Daily. Meanwhile, many internal HR documents, including I-9 employment forms and termination documents, were also released.
Click here to check out recent Media Buzz Sentiment on Sony as measured by TipRanks.
OTHER STORIES TO WATCH:
- Activision QA workers issued a statement opposing a new return-to-office mandate, IGN reports [read more]
- Xbox Cloud Gaming has released on Meta’s (META) Quest VR headsets [read more]
- Sony’s Naughty Dog has ceased development of “The Last of Us Online” [read more]
- Tencent (TCEHY) has closed U.S. video game studio Team Kaiju, Reuters reports [read more]
- Electronic Arts introduced a new logo and brand entity for the Frostbite engine [read more]
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Originally Posted December 19, 2023 – What You Missed This Week in Video Games
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