According to the NPD, Canada had an exceptionally strong sales period for the first three months of 2008. The same does not appear to be true for 2009. In the first three months of this year, the game market in Canada has seen an 8.5 per cent drop in all game related sales for the first time since 2002.

Console sales in Canada appear to be the hardest hit. Home console sales fell by 14.5 per cent and hand held sales fell by 21 per cent. This can be contrasted with software sales which fell by 7.5 percent and 1.5 per cent respectively.

NPD’s Matthew Tattle stated that “It may be tempting to attribute the decline in sales to the current state of the economy, [but] on closer inspection, the first quarter of 2009 lacked the number of blockbuster titles that drove sales during the same period last year.”

In addition to this, I think it is very important to note, that the Canadian dollar has seen significant increases in the past few years. Whereas a few years ago 1CAD = 0.6USD, presently 1 CAD = 0.85USD. This is important because game prices were fixed according to this exchange rate. A game that would cost $50USD in the US would cost $90CAD in Canada. Now that the dollar has increased, it would be expected that the game prices would follow, but this has not been the case.

Considering the fact that 90 percent of the Canadian population lives along the American border, it is not a stretch to imagine than Canadians are taking the short drive to buy their more expensive hardware products with their higher valued currency.

Source: GamesIndustry