Gaming Slowly Moves to Social, Mobile Venues

Gaming increasingly is moving to mobile venues, according to NPD Group. In the first three quarters of this year U.S. video game software, hardware and accessories revenues were down eight percent compared with the same period in 2009, and in 2009 revenues were down eight percent from 2008.

Nintendo posted its first half-year loss in seven years. And Viacom announced it’s selling the once-hot Harmonix unit, developer of Rock Band and creator of Guitar Hero. Harmonix had been pulling down Viacom’s earnings for several quarters, including a $260 million write-off in the most recent quarter.

According to eMarketer, some evidence of a shift to mobile gaming is shown by the growth of ad spending in mobile games, expected to hit $192 million in 2011, up 33 percent over 2010. That isn't much, compared to total gaming spending of about $2.6 billion, but the growth rate is quite high.

Gaming Dollars Flowing to Social, Mobile Spaces - The eMarketer Blog