i regret not pre-ordering the 360, could've auctioned them online and use the profit to buy a 7800sli setup.

"...game sales fell 18% in November compared to the same period a year ago."

And let's look at November 2004:

1. Halo 2
2. GTA San Andreas
3. Half Life 2

Mystery solved..

I haven't seen a great original title for PC in some time. There really isn't anything all that new. There are some semi-new releases I'd probably enjoy (CoD2, for example), but they require periods of time (read: hours) where I can concentrate without one of two cats jumping up to stare at what's moving on the screen from a foot away, or my wife asking me a question causing me to die at a critical point in said game forcing me to start over from a previous spot or killing half my online teammates in the process.

I'll still buy games for my PC...but I got a Gameboy Advance SP for Christmas, which is letting me enjoy new games and some classics I've loved, and is also letting me pause. The screen is also small enough that it doesn't attract that much interest from the cats. And most of my game purchases won't be recorded, because they're used items from Ebay or a local shop that sells used product, so I don't have to pay full price.

Well I don't think the problem are sequels, as they've been released for many years now, why would 1/5 of all users just up and decide they are suddenly sick of sequels?

Yeah I'm thinking the xbox2 factor. It'll correct itself after PS2 is released, I'm fairly certain, in Sony's favor...

Talking of PC titles, the problem is right there in the list of games.

All but two of the titles are sequels

A good friend of mine is working for Streamline in Holland making a XB360 live game called Hoopworld. Microsoft are ploughing, and I mean PLOUGHING money into them, I think entirely because it's a very original game. This is one instance where I support M$.

Guild Wars may have been the last original game I've seen for a while, but a good start would be for the industry to stop churning out repeated, sequelled crap on the same old tired storyline and with half-finished plots, lousy QC and unsatisfying finales that clearly leave room in the storyline for the "next installment" (of regurgitated material)

To echo the sentiments of the ars article, games have mimicked hollywood's habit of stickign with safe titles that they know will sell. The same games get published with a newer sheen of gloss put on top. The breakthrough games will come from smaller/independent developers.

Let me go out on a limb here. It could be because people are tired to get screwed over by less than half finished games, that requires alot of patching the next many months after release. And alot of the games simply don´t even get that treatment.

I have been gaming for about 20 years now. And tho the extreme HW we got now, the games have never in history been so poor.

Also did anyone notice games up to xmas..all crap and smallish. Since the games scheduled for xmas was forcedpushed out earlier in the year by the publishers.

Perhapse its the $50 and $60 dollar price tags that are turning off the buyers. I personally wait till I can find a game for <$30 before I buy it. Just picked up Quake 4 DVD Special edition from gogamer.com for $29.90 + $1.99 shipping. The huge prices on lackluster "JAFPS" (just another first person shooter) games is why I think sales are dipping.

It's those dam torrent users.

Is this console and PC games total, or just console games?