To video game publishers, Mark Weiner is both a dream come true and a nightmare.
The 23-year-old San Francisco Bay Area operations analyst likes to pounce on the latest blockbuster releases. He spends dozens of hours a week playing a wide range of titles.
"I am passionate about games," he said.
This should be good for game companies such as Activision Blizzard Inc., Electronic Arts Inc. and Ubisoft Entertainment, which publish many of the titles Weiner likes to play.
But it's not welcome news. By buying used games and renting new releases from GameFly Inc. in Los Angeles, Weiner has cut the amount he spends by nearly half.
Weiner of Saratoga has lots of company, according to a report released today by Nielsen Co., which found that players are devoting more time on average to games, but many are doing so on the cheap. They are scouring the used bins or renting titles instead of spending $60 to buy a new game.
"Used game purchases have picked up in 2009," the report found in its fourth annual survey of 2,400 gamers, "and this has increasingly come at the expense of new games."
The game industry has held up better than many other forms of entertainment during the recession as consumers cut back on their discretionary spending. That's because many see games as a good value since most titles feature dozens of hours of play.
But it hasn't been immune to the recession. U.S. game sales have declined on a year-over-year basis for three straight months since March, according to NPD Group, a market research firm.
Still, for the entire year, the game industry is expected to grow 7.2% to sales of $55 billion worldwide this year, up from $51.4 billion in 2008, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Meanwhile, box-office and movie DVD sales are projected to grow just 1.1% this year to $84.8 billion, while music is expected to tumble 7.7% to $28.4 billion worldwide.
Part of the reason for the sluggish game sales this year is the dearth of blockbuster titles and the wider availability of used games from retailers such as GameStop Corp., Best Buy Co. and Amazon.com Inc., said Michael Flamberg, director of client consulting at Nielsen.
"The used game market is thriving this year because gamers want to get more value out of their purchases at a time when there aren't as many releases," Flamberg said.
