The GAME Group have reported that single platform titles are performing well; they reveal ravenous demand over the Christmas period.
These included Nintendo Wii’s Mario Kart and Wii Fit, PS3’s LittleBigPlanet and Xbox 360’s Gears of War 2 and Fable 2. We may face economic downturn, but collapse of rivals lifted GAME.
”The wider economic environment has led to challenging trading conditions, albeit that the UK also experienced significant changes to the competitive landscape with some competitors having limited availability of stock or ceasing to trade.”
”These events gave some upside to the performance in the UK business during the latter part of this key trading period,” said GAME.
The big multiplatform sellers were Call of Duty: World at War, FIFA 09, Fallout 3, Need for Speed: Undercover and Guitar Hero World Tour.
”GAME experienced exceptional consumer demand for a number of single format games, including Mario Kart and Wii Fit on Nintendo Wii, LittleBigPlanet on Sony PS3, Gears of War 2 and Fable 2 on Microsoft Xbox 360 and Brain Training and Professor Layton on Nintendo DS,” they said. Even Nintendo DS can muzzle in on the action still.
Here’s a snip from the ’Christmas 2008 Trading Statement’:
Sales for the 6 week period ended on 10 January 2009
o Total Group sales increased by 16.6%. Group like for like (‘lfl’) sales were up by 5.4%.
o Total sales for the UK and Ireland increased by 16.3% with lfl sales up by 10.0%.
o Total sales for International increased by 17.3% with lfl sales down by 3.0%, both on a constant currency basis.
Sales for the 50 week period ended on 10 January 2009
o Total Group sales increased by 24.2%. Group lfl sales were up by 9.5%.
o Total sales for the UK and Ireland increased by 22.7% with lfl sales up by 11.4%.
o Total sales for International increased by 28.1% with lfl sales up by 5.0%, both on a constant currency basis.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz