The videogame industry was shocked when sales were much lower than expected for April 2010. We could blame low sales on the weak economy here in the US or we could examine another potentially large problem. Namco-Bandai’s Partners’ vice president Olivier Comte feels the industry needs another plan to gain revenue. One such plan is to lower the cost for brand new games.

Over three weeks surrounding GoW III’s release, Nielsen surveyed 700 gamers between the ages of 7-54 who didn’t own a PS3. Results showed buying a specific game such as GoW III was the last reason gamers wanted to buy a PS3. The number one reason? Blu-ray movies. The second top motivator was the PS3′s price drop to $299.

Industry analyst Michael Pachter thinks Nintendo’s stance to put off a successor the the Wii is the one of the main reasons why sales are decreasing. Pachter also states that the Wii game to console ratio falls at about 2 to 1. This means the average customer is not buying more than two games Wii games per yer.

PowerUp Games has announced that, later this month (July 2008), it will be providing a new and unique opportunity for gamers, developers and publishers to meet and discuss upcoming releases.

Through PowerUp.com, gamers will be able to connect with companies that really want to hear what gamers have to say, allowing them to offer suggestions to help improve games before they hit shelves.

“A common issue I see when games are being developed is that the testing takes a lot of resources and simple consumer feedback gets lost in the shuffle,” said PowerUp Games’ owner and industry veteran, Brad Baker, via email…

According to Kotaku, the latest NPD numbers indicate that 2007 was a very good year for the game industry, with overall sales up 43% from 2006. The industry got an especially healthy boost in terms of console hardware sales (worth $5.12 billion, up 73% from the previous year), no doubt partially due to the Wii more »