Forget nuclear devastation and sweet-faced girls who morph into psychokillers. Off screen, the real villains of the game publishing industry are more menacing. Console sales are down. Hit titles are rare. Piracy and rampant second-hand sales, meanwhile, lurk like demon monsters, gobbling up revenues.

Platitudes about the industry’s supposedly recession-proof characteristics – weeks of fun for less than the price of dinner out – are toast. Moody’s Investors Services on Tuesday added its voice to the woeful chorus surrounding Japanese game software publishers when it downgraded the sector’s outlook to stable. This follows a ropey run of data. North American sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories fell 25 per cent year-on-year in June based on volumes, according to NPD, a consultancy. In Japan, a nation of gamers, software sales dropped 47 per cent over the same period, according to Enterbrain.