Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Anime DVD sales down, manga still OK

(from ICv2, commentary also available at ANN)

It seems that anime DVD sales have dropped 20% in 2007 (the number of releases also dropped by a similar amount, so I wonder if the direct statistic is that bad). Manga sales are apparently still strong, but no longer enjoying that ridiculous rate of growth that shocked everyone a few years ago.

This certainly comes as no surprise. Geneon, Bandai, ADV... those were the surprises. I'd hesitate to guess what this statistic would actually mean, though. The video industry as a whole is certainly in massive flux and anime is even worse.

Blu-Ray has one the HD format war, but I'm skeptical as to whether that's going to lead to any kind of resurgence in the DVD market, like it was back it's heyday. I just don't see HD driving as many sales. It's simply too expensive and complicated for similarly wide adoption.

And I still think that the digital distribution model is really the future anyway, but that's a can of worms people need to figure out: how do you make money on something people can find for free.

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