February game sales disappointing despite AAA releases

Video game sales last month were pretty disappointing according to new statistics, despite the fact that some giant AAA properties were launched in February, including: Aliens: Colonial Marines, Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3.

Last month all British game stores sold a total of 1,854,954 games – representing a near 20 per cent drop from this time last year. You'd have thought that even with the bad press heaped on the new Aliens game, that Crysis 3, or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance would pick up the slack. According to MCV, all the big AAA releases in February accounted for just 275,000 units.

Some of the downturn could also be put down to the beleaguered state of the high street retail business. HMV is in administration and GAME has a much smaller store footprint than it did last year. You could also point the finger at poor Wii U sales, which saw less than 100,000 sold throughout January, making for low sales of its compatible games.

Moving forward, retailers will be looking to March's big name releases to turn the tide. There's Bioshock Infinite to get excited for, as well as strong early sales and review scores for Tomb Raider that could help things along. The EA Games' SimCity debacle won't have helped that game's sales, but Luigi's Mansion 2 on the DS might leave a mark.

KitGuru Says: Did you guys buy any games in February? I don't think I picked up anything. I'm playing the demo for Trackmania 2 Stadium right now. Full speed maps rule.

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