Do MMORPG's Cause People to Buy Fewer Games at Retail?

Grimwell writes NPD reports that the video games industry isn't doing so hot in 2006. Information on a report found at GameSpot indicates that consoles are down, but PC titles are up, led by MMORPG sales. From the article: "Do MMORPG's benefit the industry by bringing in more actively involved gamers? Or do they bleed money away from other companies in the industry as MMORPG players spend their money on subscriptions and skip out on trying other games that hit the shelf because they already have something to go home to?"

I buy fewer games....

[shinma]

I haven't bought nearly as many games in the time I've been playing World of Warcraft.

The time I have that can be allotted to video games is simply taken up. That doesn't mean I'm not spending just as much money on games now as I used to, just that all my money's going to Blizzard, rather than being spread out.

Not the only problem

[scrabbleguy]

I know that I've been buying less games due to lack of innovation. There's just too many sequels and not enough new ideas. Even Katamari. Playing the first Katamari was great. The sequel and the PSP version were really just more of the same.

That's one reason the DS is doing so well. A lot of things we're seeing for the first time and they're completely great. I'd much rather perform surgery with my touch screen then play something like Blinx 2.

Re:The Second One

[Jugalator]

Not to dispute some of your claim but look at it this way:

10 hours of Half Life 2: 50 usd
10 hours of WOW (if that's how much you play a week) : 4-5 usd

???

How did you come to this conclusion? Do you for example not even include the retail box cost for WoW, while you do for HL2? Also, what's saying someone purchased HL2 during these 10 hours you compare them with? You don't keep purchasing HL2 while you play it, but you do keep playing fixed monthly fees for WoW as long as you play it, regardless how much you play it.

A more fair comparison looks to me like this:
- Half-Life 2 played during two years => $36.
- WoW played during two years => $37 (box cost @ Newegg) + $12 * 12 * 2 = $325.

WoW about 9 times more expensive during this period.

Two years seem to me a pretty reasonable time before become bored over games better than average.

I believe both HL2 and WoW is played even longer by many.

Re:No.

[cowscows]

EVE Online is a free download, and you can even get a two-week trial. It's got a lot of complexity in it however, so you'd need well beyond two weeks to even start to explore it. But yeah, internet spaceships. Awesome.