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Fourth Quarter Video Game Sales Could Redeem 2010 Yet
Though the video game industry on a whole is down year-over-year through September according to research firm NPD, a new survey from the Consumer Electronics Association paints a brighter picture for this year's all-important fourth-quarter holiday spending.
The CEA study projects an amusingly specific 18.24 million units of video game hardware to be shipped in the last three months of 2010, up from the 17.6 million sold in the same period in 2009 according to NPD.
Video game hardware units beat out other popular gift items in the CEA study, with TVs at 10.74 million, digital cameras moving 14.32 million units, and 12.88 MP3 player sales being estimated for the holiday season.
The primary driver behind this trend seems to be a higher proportion of overall spending going toward electronics. Though consumer spending is predicted to be down by two percent, the study found that people are planning on spending more absolute dollars on electronics in 2010 than last year.
Since 50 to 60 percent of the industry's sales come from the fourth quarter, the trend from 2009 to 2010 could still end up being a positive one. It's worth noting that digital sales and spending on services (i.e. subscriptions) have continued to increase every year, so we're not ready to cry doom and gloom even if this holiday season comes in under projections.
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