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My Profile Top News Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day. Subscribe You are here: Home > News > Technology > Article Home Business & Finance News U.S. Politics International Technology Internet Entertainment Sports Lifestyle Oddly Enough Health Science Special Coverage Video Pictures Your View The Great Debate Blogs Weather Reader Feedback Do More With Reuters RSS Widgets Mobile Podcasts Newsletters Your View Make Reuters My Homepage Partner Services CareerBuilder Affiliate Network Professional Products Support (Customer Zone) Reuters Media Financial Products About Thomson Reuters Crucial holiday season arrives for video game industry Wed Oct 28, 2009 3:47pm EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page [-] Text [+] By Gabriel Madway SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The holiday season is crunch time for video game publishers, who are pinning their hopes on a slew of big releases to make up for lackluster sales this year. Price cuts from home console makers Nintendo Co, Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp had been expected to help boost software sales, but the results have been less than heartening so far. Overall industry sales in the United States -- the world's largest games market -- are down 13 percent this year, according to research group NPD. But some of the biggest releases -- such as the latest in the Call of Duty shooter franchise -- have yet to hit store shelves. As game publishers led by Activision Blizzard Inc report quarterly results starting next week, Wall Street will be keen to gauge consumer sentiment heading into the industry's most important selling season. "There's a dark cloud hanging over the industry because of the recession, and people wonder if consumers are going to be there this holiday season," said Jesse Divnich, an analyst with research group EEDAR. He estimates software holiday sales in the U.S. from October through December will be down 1 percent from last year. The overall, global video game sector is estimated to have $50 billion revenue in 2009. Analysts say the music and fitness categories -- including games such as the wildly popular "Guitar Hero" -- have helped fuel growth over the past few years, bringing in millions of casual players to augment the core of hardcore fans. But music title sales are flagging, and the most anticipated new holiday titles are sequels that appeal more to the industry's traditional core of shooter and sports aficionados. "High quality content is selling well, the weakness is in lower quality, casual games," said Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey. The biggest release on the calendar is undoubtedly "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," published by Activision Blizzard and set for launch November 10. Hickey said it could be the "biggest video game release of all time" -- surpassing even "Grand Theft Auto IV" from last year -- and selling 12 million units by the end of the year. "Grand Theft Auto" racked up more than $500 million in worldwide sales in its first week when it was launched in April of 2008. HOLIDAY CREED Ubisoft's "Assassins Creed 2" also arrives next month with big expectations, along with "Left 4 Dead 2," distributed by Electronic Arts, and the newest "Super Mario Brothers" offering from Nintendo for the Wii home console. "When you look at where companies are placing their bets, yeah there are some new titles coming out but it's really keeping current franchises alive," said Patrick Pugh, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Continued... View article on single page Share: Del.icio.us Digg Mixx Yahoo! 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