Yes, it’s finally time to talk about that bastard of a year, 2011. What better way to ring in the new year, than with news that our little hobby shrunk by 8% compared to 2010? Video game sales are down in a big way through the year, although the data shows something interesting. Gamers are shifting their purchases from physical media like game consoles and software bought in, ugh… stores, to pure and holy digital downloads. While sales fell across the board, download sales fell only slightly, while retail sales took most of the hit. VentureBeat has the considerable story.
Maybe you don’t care so much about sales, but the only real human activity is economic activity, and the dollar is power. Video game sales represent how far we’ve come in our efforts to pave the world in digital, and how far we’ve yet to go before everyone lives inside a game.
This is world conquest.