Some of you may consider 2016 to be largely disappointing, but for the video game industry, it was an excellent year. A new report from the Entertainment Software Association and the NPD Group shows that revenue on computer and video games was up in 2016 over the year prior. The increase was small, but still worth celebrating in an industry that's growing as large as video games.
If you lucked out on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas deals, don't you fret, Amazon has got you covered. At 00:00 PT on 30th December, that is, midnight in the Pacific (3 AM Eastern), Amazon will be letting loose a barrage of sales, from 50% to 75% to 80% off on loads of items on its shelves. Digital shelves, that is. Amazon Digital Day cometh and while it will naturally be limited to digital products, this day and age that is exactly what buyers want.
As the all-knowing PayPal foretold, the Steam winter sale for 2016 has begun. Like all the sales before it, this one brings plenty of discounts on much of Steam's catalog. The sale will last until January 2nd as well, giving you plenty of time to consider your options.
Some companies have already started their Black Friday sales, but Microsoft isn't one of them. The company's deals won't be available until November 24, but they have been detailed ahead of time, giving you a chance to figure out where your money's going. In addition to expected items like discounted Xbox One consoles and Surface tablets, Microsoft is also offering deals on things like a year of Office 365.
This afternoon Apple reported their 3rd-quarter 2016 earnings, showing iPhone unit sales to be down. Down both compared to the quarter before this one, and down compared to this same quarter last year. Apple suggested that iPhone revenue was down 23% year-over-year, and down 27% sequentially. While Apple sold 40.399 million iPhones this quarter, and that's completely nuts by almost any standard, they're still down from 51.193 million units sold in Q2, 2016, and down from the 47.534 million units sold this same quarter last year.
Samsung and Apple remain the world's biggest brands when it comes to smartphones so naturally every quarterly report is about those two butting heads and fighting for numero uno. While that is still true to some extent, the world is slowly starting not to revolve around those two. Market research company Kantar divulges some interesting figures in the battle among smartphone makers, and while Samsung and Apple do remain at the top, not only is the gap between them narrowing more than ever, they aren't the only ones up there anymore, too.
The PC market just can't seem to catch a break. After 2015 was practically declared the worst year for PC sales, it seems that 2016 might be even worse. At least if figures for the first quarter are omens of things to come. While differing slightly on specific numbers, both Gartner and IDC agree on one depressing thing: PC shipments have substantially declined last quarter compared to 2015's opening quarter. While both do see some hope near the end of the year, that salvation might come a bit too late for the ailing market.
There's a big event that's just around the corner, that people all over the place are excited about. Details are being kept quiet, so that nothing is revealed too early. But we've found information that might just spoil the news for you. No, I'm not talking about Star Wars, I'm talking about the upcoming Steam Winter Sale.
With the holiday season come the inevitable sales. Black Friday and the following week traditionally have some of the best sales of the season, but it's always good to keep your eyes open all the way through the end of the year. For those that didn't get in on Microsoft's Black Friday deals, they've got a nice little surprise in store.
Over the summer, Amazon created a lot of hype surrounding their newly-created shopping holiday, dubbed “Prime Day.” They promised “more deals than Black Friday.” Well, while it's possible that they might have been technically correct, shoppers didn't seem to think that there was anything worth celebrating. However, the real Black Friday is around the corner, and Amazon is changing up the game this year.
Both PlayStation and Xbox have their own membership perks, but Xbox Live members have one thing to gloat over their PS counterparts. While PS Plus subscribers do get bigger discounts during sales than non-Plus gamers, Xbox Live Gold subscribers can gloat of regular exclusive deals meant only for the elite. And some of them are new titles even. That all changes today, with Sony announcing a PlayStation Plus Specials, a very exclusive program that puts newer titles in the hands of its own PS faithful with deep, but time-limited, price cuts.
When you want to buy something gently used, you might turn to a site like eBay, or take your chances with Craigslist. Recently, Facebook began venturing into this territory, formalizing the buy and sell experience via groups. A novel idea, but ultimately a contained environment within your Facebook experience. A new discovery shows Facebook is trying to peel those ‘for sale’ groups away from the shadows and bring them to your main page, showing you a list of all items for sale in groups you belong to.
