Latest news with #MattPiscatella
Metro
03-07-2025
- Business
- Metro
Video game spending has dropped almost 25% amongst young people
Young adults are spending less and less across the board, but the games industry has been hit the hardest. Gaming has never been the cheapest of hobbies, but it has undeniably become more expensive in recent years, to the point that many have had to cut back their spending. Not only has the price of consoles gone up, with the Nintendo Switch 2's £395.99 price tag considered affordable by comparison, but so have the games. The ninth generation began with Sony insisting it had to start charging £70 for games and now we have Nintendo asking up to £75 for Mario Kart World. Regardless of where you stand on whether such price increases accurately reflect the value of the games, there's no doubt that they're a key factor in why spending on gaming as a whole is seeing a decline, especially amongst young adults. Matt Piscatella, executive director and industry analyst at Circana, has shared a chart on Bluesky collating data on the average weekly spending among adults aged 18 to 24 in the US, within the four weeks ending in April 2025. Aside from gaming, the data covers spending on things like houseware, accessories, and clothing. Compared to the same period of time in 2024, there have been sharp declines in spending among young adults in all areas, with gaming seeing the largest impact – a drop of nearly 25%. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. For what it's worth, video game spending among all other age groups hasn't declined as much, but it's still dropped by about 1 or 2%. This isn't universal among other industries though, with spending on sports equipment and beauty products up this year. Video game spend among 18 to 24's is down sharply."Young grads are having a much tougher time finding jobs. Student-loan payments are restarting for millions of borrowers… credit-card delinquency rates have risen to their highest points since before the pandemic…" — Mat Piscatella (@ 2025-07-01T14:25:35.367Z While this data is specifically for the US, spending habits between it and the UK aren't dissimilar, so it's safe to assume that more or less the same applies here. Even if it didn't, the US is a massive and important market for the games industry, so this should still be cause for concern amongst games companies. This all lines up with past data. Last year, chip company AMD (which both Sony and Microsoft are partnering with on their next consoles) admitted that demand for gaming had become 'quite weak.' Earlier this year, another Circana report revealed that more than 70% of active PlayStation 5 and Xbox players in the US were dedicating a significant amount of time to playing at least one of the 10 most popular live service games, such as Fortnite, Call Of Duty, and Roblox, rather than any new releases. More Trending A big part of this is because they're free-to-play, so there's less of a barrier to entry. As such, anyone who enjoys games but can't justify spending upwards of £80 on new releases is more likely to shift their attention to free-to-play fare. This in turn stands to further incentivise studios into making live service games, which earn their money through microtransactions; a strategy Sony has obsessively chased for years, with very little success beyond Helldivers 2 (which wasn't even made in-house). But even that isn't guaranteed to address the industry's woes, as evidenced by how many live service games have crashed and burned over the years. This is best exemplified by a March report that showed the vast majority of PC players are not only primarily playing live service games, but ones that were at least two years old. With the likes of Counter-Strike and League Of Legends still holding a fierce chokehold on the market, what chance do any new live service games have? Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Over 6,000 people have lost their jobs at Xbox in less than two years MORE: EA thinks Battlefield 6 will be as big as Fortnite as it sets 100,000,000 player target MORE: Soon you'll be able to pay for DLC and microtransactions in instalments
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Yahoo
The Switch 2 pulled off something no console maker has before
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. It's been more than a week since the Nintendo Switch 2 has come out, and it's proven to be a resounding success. Not only did Nintendo have the biggest launch for one of its consoles, but the Switch 2 also broke the record for a console launch in the U.S. and worldwide. It also appears that Nintendo figured out how to deal with the scalper problem: flooding the market. Nintendo announced on Tuesday that it had sold more than 3.5 million units in the first four days since the Switch 2's launch. The company says this makes the Switch successor the fastest-selling Nintendo game system ever. But the record-breaking doesn't stop there. Matt Piscatella, executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana, says the Switch 2 launch in the U.S., with 1.1 million consoles sold, broke the PS4's record for launch sales back in November 2013. And Daniel Ahmad, director of research and insights at Niko Partners, says the Switch 2 is the fastest-selling home video game console of all time, again, beating out the PS4, which took six weeks to sell 4.2 million units. As this is great news for Nintendo and gamers, it turned out to be bad news for scalpers. You may purchase Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle for $499 in-store at Best Buy. Check your local Best Buy locations for stock status. This bundle includes: a Nintendo Switch 2 Console, a full game download of Mario Kart World, a light blue Joy-Con 2, a light red Joy-Con 2 (R), a Nintendo Switch 2 AC adapter, a USB-C charging cable, a Nintendo Switch 2 Dock, a Joy-Con 2 Grip, 2 x Joy-Con 2 Straps, and an ultra high-speed HDMI cable. Key specs: 7.9-inch 1080p LCD touch screen, HDR support, up to 120 fps, TV dock supports 4K, GameChat, 256GB of storage, expandable via microSD Express Deal The last major video game console launch was the PS5 back in 2020, and anyone who was trying to get one had to deal with scalpers. These sellers were using bots to procure dozens of consoles at one time from retailer restocks and then selling them on eBay and StockX, where prices ranged close to $2000 for the $500 system. After the announcement of the Switch 2 in January, Nintendo said it was making preparations to make sure there are enough consoles for anyone who wants one. Among those preparations Nintendo took was shutting down Switch 2 reseller listings in Japan, and creating a pre-order system for its Nintendo Store that required individuals to have a Nintendo Online account that was made a year prior and have recorded playtime hours on it. While there were eBay listings for Switch 2 pre-orders prior to the June 5 launch, with some reaching more than $700, since launch, the price of those sold Switch 2 consoles has dropped considerably. The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller is now available for $85 in stores. It features HD Rumble 2, motion controls, built-in amiibo support, a capture button, a C Button for GameChat, mappable GL/GR buttons, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Price check: Best Buy $85View Deal A quick look at sold Switch 2 consoles on eBay shows most sales range from $600 to $700, with the ones selling for higher amounts tending to come with free shipping, which can range from $10 to $20 depending on the buyer's location. The reselling site StockX shows similar pricing with the current Buy Now price for a Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle sitting at $630—which, with sales tax, shipping, and processing fees—totals up to more than $700 depending on the state you live in. While the $100 to $200 over the $500 retail price seems worth the effort for sellers, there is a matter of fees that the seller deals with. This includes sales tax, which can be zero in a few states but can reach up to $50 in others. There are also eBay and StockX seller fees that can range from 10% to 13%, although both sites do offer some discounts. This also doesn't include payment processing fees. This means if someone bought a Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle at retail, and if they sold that system for $600, they could maybe profit around $40, depending on sales tax and other fees. That's definitely not a way to get rich as a scalper, and those listings won't go up in price as long as Nintendo keeps restocking more consoles, which it has been since the Switch 2 launch.
