Diablo III, 3DS, Kinect, etc.: a point on the sales of the video game in France

Several sources of information to make a small review of the sales of games and consoles in France since the beginning of the year, with - rare thing - quite accurate figures.

At the Cannes IDEF exhibition for professionals in the video game, GameCharts is a rather complete point on the sales of games, devices and consoles in France. Covered by GfK, the figures disclosed by companies in the sector are not complete, but make a small never superfluous point on the status of the game in France.

In terms of games, since January 1, 2012, the best-selling game in France is other than Diablo III. Released May 15 (which only adds to the performance), the hack' no slash of Blizzard sold best 174.000... And are counted here that sales of boxes, and not many digital copies sold! At the second place positions Just Dance 2 on Wii with best 129.000, evidence that music games are more recipe, those dance work well. It is followed by CoD Modern Warfare 3 that closes the podium with 150.000 copies sold on PS3.

Top 10 best-selling games in France since January 1st:

Diablo III (PC) 174.000Just Dance 2 (Wii) 129.000Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3) 122.000Mario Kart 7 (3DS) 112.000Mario Party 9 (Wii) 107.000Super Mario 3D Land (3DS) 96.000Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii) 81.000Battlefield 3 (PS3) 75.000FIFA 12 (PS3) 73.000FIFA Street (PS3) 68,000

Other information obtained, sales of Kinect, for Xbox 360 motion sensor. At the end of the month of may, are France 697.000 players who have purchased the device. Worldwide, Kinect is 19 million passed copies. The Xbox 360 - more old console of this generation - was able to extend its longevity and find a blow of fasting, even if good Kinect games are rare.

In Nintendo, GameCharts tells us that the Nintendo 3DS has just pass the one million units sold in France. An Honourable performance for a portable console whose much - too - soon anticipated the failure on its release in March 2011, in a market where competition from smartphones and tablets is sharp. But he is still the path to both the DS that passed the bar of the 10 million copies sold. As the Big N show console, the Wii, is approaching 6 millions of machines installed in France.

Include for Les Echos that, in relying on data GfK, are a scene interesting progression of sales of games for download, which is necessarily the wrong boxes by signs sales brick & mortar. Thus, we see that on the first half of 2012, living room consoles sales are down 17% in value (CA EUR 174 million), which represents 443.000 past machines (-20% a year). -Side laptops, this is much better, with a decline in sales of 14%. But PS Vita is released and the Nintendo 3DS instead found the form. And despite the phenomenon of Diablo III, value games sales overall are down 10% (EUR 362 million). Georges Fornay, president of the SELL and former CEO of CES France, this is logical given the fact that have to be end-of-cycle and that the economic situation remains complicated.

But in the end, GfK expects to post stable figures for the video game in any year end. The Institute on the release of the Wii U and 3ds XL, as well as on the growth of sales of dematerialized games should represent CA EUR 550 million against 450 million year passed. 60 million euros (+ 100%) should also be generated by sales of pre-payees cards and online Pass. Finally, note that the accessories and peripherals are in progress, they should generate EUR 88 million for the year.