$2.87 billion spent on video game content in U.S. for Q3 2012

Video game content spending for the third quarter 2012 (July – September) was $2.87, according to leading market research company The NPD Group.

Sales were down an overall 1% from the same quarter last year, but NPD suggested there was a "positive story for the industry."

That story is the growth of digital format spending. Content in digital format (full game and add-on content downloads, subscriptions, mobile games and social network games) generated $1.40 billion in addition to the $1.07 billion spent in the U.S. on new physical video and PC game software and the $399 million on used and rented physical forms of content.

“When including overall consumer content spending across both digital and physical formats in Q3 2012, there was a positive story for the industry,” said Liam Callahan, industry analyst, The NPD Group.

“Despite declines in physical format spending of 16% from Q3 2011, strong growth in digital format spending, up 22%, helped offset this decline and led to 1% decline in content spending from the same quarter last year.  Mobile App spending, digital full game downloads, and downloadable add-on content were the areas within digital format spending that helped drive this increase.”  

Heading into Q4, industry analysts predict a "much needed boost" in sales led by the releases of several blockbuster titles including Black Ops 2, Halo 4, and Assassin's Creed 3 and Nintendo's new console, the Wii U.