Spending on video games in the U.S. declined 10% compared to the first half of 2021, down to $26.3 billion, tracking firm NPD reported today.

Why it matters: The market is cooling, due in part to temporary factors like a lack of major game releases and constraints capping console supply.

Details: Most major categories dropped when comparing the first half of 2022 to 2021.

• Game content spending is down 10%.
• Hardware spending is down 9%.
• Accessories are down 14%.
• Subscriptions were the only major category with a spending increase, but NPD hasn't made the exact figure public.

Mobile gaming has also been taking a hit.

• Tracking firm Sensor Tower says spending on mobile games was down 10.7% in June, compared to the same month a year ago.
• The drop was on Google Play, with a slight increase on Apple platforms.
• Yesterday, Sensor Tower reported that for the first time spending on non-gaming apps overtook spending on games in Apple’s U.S. app store during the second quarter of 2022.

Between the lines: It's unclear how much inflation has played a role in curtailing the desire to spend money on games.

• But the lack of major releases since a winter bumper crop is striking.
• Older games dominated NPD’s top 10 game list for June with only one new release, Nintendo’s Mario Strikers: Battle League, cracking the top 10 (in the third slot).
• February’s Elden Ring keeps topping the charts, including in June. It is NPDs best-selling game for the last 12 months, outpacing the most recent Call of Duty.

The bottom line: The numbers underscore the myriad impacts of a pandemic that had temporarily intensified the public’s appetite for games and continues to complicate the ability of people to create and sell stuff to play.

• It’s no surprise that one analyst is expecting a small but rare contraction in the gaming market this year, before a return to growth.

Fun fact: NPD’s Mat Piscatella tells Axios that June saw the sale of one Nintendo DS, a system discontinued by its manufacturer many years ago.

Get ready for a massive week for people who want to play games as animals. We've got a cat game and a deer simulator coming right up.

Saturday and Sunday, July 16 & 17

• The Games 4 Change Festival continues on Saturday, with sessions on Minecraft, games as a means for health equity, and a talk by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell about the future of gaming and education. (To watch virtually, sign up here.)
• The first in-person TwitchCon since 2019 is held all weekend in Amsterdam.
• TennoCon, a showcase event for popular free-to-play game Warframe, is being held virtually.
• For esports fans, we recommend a skim of Juked's handy calendar for the weekend’s events.

Monday, July 18

• A quiet day

Tuesday, July 19

• As Dusk Falls (PC, Xbox) and cat adventure Stray (PC, PlayStation) are released.

Wednesday, July 20

• Space Western TombStar (PC) is released.

Thursday, July 21

• Deer Journey (PC) is released.
• Sea of Thieves (PC, Xbox) Season 7 begins.

Friday, July 22

• Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium (Console, PC) and Live A Live (Switch) are released.

🍿 Nintendo is purchasing Tokyo-based animation studio Dynamo Pictures and will rename it Nintendo Pictures. The company will use the studio “to focus on development of visual content utilizing Nintendo [intellectual property].”

🛹 The next Skate game will be called Skate, not Skate 4 and will be free-to-play, publisher EA has announced (via IGN).

🇷🇺 Russian tech companies are calling for the creation of a “national game engine,” following the exodus of foreign gaming and tech companies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, PC Gamer reports.

💰 Sony PlayStation’s $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie is officially complete, the Destiny studio tweeted today. Sony had previously indicated it expected the deal to close between September and the end of the year.

I did it for Activision, Take-Two, EA and Ubisoft. Now it’s Nintendo’s turn.

• I’ve read through the company’s new, 88-page annual report more closely than is probably healthy.
• For the other publishers, some key changes were notable. Same here, but so are a few things that haven’t changed.

Without further ado:

• Pay for top Nintendo execs remained the same for the year ending March 31, 2022, as it was the year prior: President Shuntaro Furukawa’s compensation is 318 million yen ($2.3 million); Donkey Kong/Mario/Zelda lead creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who serves as company fellow earned 252 million yen ($1.8 million).
• Company headcount increased from 6,574 to 6,717 (a rise in workers in Japan compensated for a drop in the U.S., where Nintendo closed its San Francisco satellite office).
• The average minimum salary dropped from $88,276 to $81,705.

Labor notes:

• In a section about risks to the company, Nintendo added “labor disputes such as strikes” between difficulties in recruitment and disruptions from terror attacks.
• In a conspicuous non-change, Nintendo, which along with a contracting firm is subject to a current National Labor Relations Board complaint, repeated the following language used in last year’s filing: “Labor unions do not exist in the Company but have been formed at some of its consolidated subsidiaries. Labor-management relations have been good, and there are no particular matters to be noted.”

My favorite edit:

• 2021: “As a company that creates entertainment to bring smiles to people’s faces, Nintendo…”
• 2022: “As an entertainment company that creates smiles, Nintendo”
• I think Axios Gaming’s copy editors would approve.