It’s no secret in the gaming industry that retail sales have been down and have particularly had a rough go of it in 2012. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick was asked during a investors call what he thought is causing this trend.

“You have a very difficult macroeconomic environment, when you look at the things that can generally have an impact on the consumption of entertainment – unemployment data is very concerning, and when you look at the challenges in Europe there are a lot of things that are going to affect the macroeconomic outlook,” said Kotick. “We are also at the late end of the cycle, and the late end of a console cycle is always going to have its share of difficulties.”

Without naming any names, he blamed the quality of games coming from other companies. “I also think you’ve had, unfortunately, a stream of products that are less than adequate from some of our competitors. The demand in the marketplace is for great quality products,” said Kotick. “If you look at the success we’re having it validates that there is an opportunity for great quality products but I think at this stage in the cycle, it’s challenging for anything other than great quality products.”

Black Ops 2: Savior of Activision’s year

Kotick also acknowledged that there are plenty of other competitors for time out there and that certain players are sticking with one game for longer. “There’s also a lot of competition for entertainment dollars – you look at mobile games and what’s happening there and the pricing there that’s having an impact,” Kotick said. “And I also think that a lot of the games we make, like Call of Duty, that are multiplayer games offer a lot of replayability, and when you have the opportunity for replayability in an economic environment like this, you’re going to spend more time playing the games that you have.”

“But I will say that if you look out at the next five years, there’s a lot of reason to be hopeful and enthusiastic, but the next few years are going to be challenging,” he concluded.

Source: GamesIndustry International