The video game industry experienced another disappointing month in
August, with physical retail sales of hardware, content and accessories
declining again as compared to last year. In fact, this month reflected
the lowest sales for August since 2006. Total industry sales for August
2010 fell 10 percent to $818.9 million compared with last year’s $910.3
million take. Hardware sales fell 5 percent, to $282.9 million, down
from $297.6 million for the same period last year.
Video game software sales slipped an even larger 14 percent, down to
$403.5 million from $471.2 million in August 2009. While all categories
are down in both dollars and units, the portable portion of the
industry is down to a greater extent than is the console portion.
Portable dollar sales across hardware, software and accessories are
down 25 percent versus last August, while console dollar sales are down
six percent.
"Factoring in seasonality and taking into account some of the
incredible games and accessories (for example, Move and Kinect) that are
coming out during the remainder of the year, new physical retail video
game sales are likely to land in the range of $18.6 to $20 billion for
the year," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The 360 and PS3 platforms
both grew in dollar sales versus last year. In fact, the 360
platform contributed more than one-third of total new physical retail sales
across hardware, software and accessories while the PS3 platform
contributed over one-quarter of total dollar sales."
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console led the month in console sales, moving
356,700 units, followed by Nintendo’s Wii console with 244,300 units
sold. Nintendo’s portable DS device led overall hardware sales, with
342,700 units sold. Sony’s PlayStation 3 (PS3) console sold 226,000
units, while the company’s portable console, the PSP, sold just 79,400
units. Frazier said the 360 and PS3 platforms both grew in dollar sales
versus last year and pointed out that the 360 platform contributed more
than one-third of total new physical retail sales across hardware,
software and accessories while the PS3 platform contributed moer than one-quarter of total dollar sales.
Frazier said that while the Xbox 360 achieved significant
year-over-year gains, sales softened versus what occurred in July.
“That said, with [software title] Halo: Reach coming to market next
week, if hardware sales react in a similar fashion to what was
experienced when Halo 3 was launched in September 2007, September could
be a huge sales month for Xbox 360 hardware,” she noted. "The PS3 was
the only current generation hardware system that realized a sales
increase over July. The PS3 has now enjoyed 13 consecutive months of
year-over year hardware sales increases and that momentum is reflected
in the content and accessories categories as well."
NPD’s monthly sales reporting reflects the new physical retail sales
portion of industry sales. Sales resulting from used games, digital
downloads and downloadable content, rentals, subscriptions, mobile
games and social network in addition to retail point-of-sale data will
be reported on later this year. Frazier noted one area outside of
retail point-of-sale that many people are interested in is the arena of
social network gaming. “Our recent report on this topic shows that
nearly 57 million people in the U.S. have played a game on a social
network in the past three months, and of those, 10 percent have spent
real money of their own on buying virtual currency or goods for their
game," she said.
Midmarket News & Reviews 
