Has video game retail become an entirely ‘hits driven’ industry? – Gamasutra

Is the video game industry, in particular the brick-and-mortar side of the business, becoming more “hit-driven”? That’s the claim that Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter made in his most recent note on March’s retail sales.

It’s a temptingly straightforward thesis, but one that probably deserves some scrutiny. To explain a bit more about Pachter’s thesis, he explains the hit-driven business as one in which “gamers [are] willing to pass on an abundance of catalog titles in anticipation of the industry’s premier franchises.”

That is, while some middle-tier games languish on shelves, gamers are content to play the games they own until a truly big game comes along.

I think there is another aspect to this phenomenon: the increasing concentration of sales of these popular games immediately after launch. Activision Blizzard, in particular, can be seen doing this with the last few years of Call of Duty releases…

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