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THQ CEO Believes Game Industry Is Healthy, Notes Problems With NPD
Conventional wisdom right now seems to be that the game industry (along with most of the world's economy) is in a decline over the last couple of years. However, THQ CEO Brian Farrell begs to differ. In a recent interview, he explained why reactions to game sales based off of NPD reports could be flawed.
Speaking to GameSpot, Farrell noted that although he's "a big fan" of NPD -- the market research group that reports video game sales figures monthly -- he believes that people who rely on NPD data alone may not be getting the full picture. He explained:
"So let's look at what NPD doesn't do now -- no DLC revenues, no MMO subscription revenues, doesn't track iPad/iPhone revenues. And so, again, I'm not being critical of them, but it's just a lot of investors or people who look at the industry and see the NPD box product sales are down. Where our point of view is more people are playing games than ever before. And we as an industry need to come up with a different way to look at the industry to capture all those revenue streams. Our Steam business is going through the roof, but that's again not reported as part of NPD. So I think the industry is a lot healthier than just what NPD is reporting."
Lack of NPD coverage is a specific problem for a few THQ products mentioned elsewhere in the interview. Their recent releases WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 and UFC 2010 Undisputed both were packed in with a one-time code to access multiplayer features, forcing gamers who bought used pay an extra $10 if they wanted to go online. On the other end, their upcoming MX vs. ATV game will retail for a lower-than-usual price of $40 while offering à la carte DLC to flesh the game out. The extra revenue from these two products wouldn't be reported under the current NPD system.
Looking ahead, Farrell says he expects the industry to be in a good place in 2011: "...We think 2011 should be a stronger year for the industry. And I think with our lineup, I think it's going to be a particularly good one for us." Do you share his enthusiasm?
[via Joystiq]
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