Despite strong sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, the video game industry swooned again in July, according to a report from The NPD Group.
The video game industry inched lower in July, down 1 percent, to $846.5 million, compared with
$850.6 million in July 2009, despite a 12 percent increase in hardware sales.
Year-to-date (YTD) overall sales are down 8 percent, at $7.5 billion, compared
with $8.2 billion for the same period last year. Software sales fell 8 percent,
to $281.1 million, compared with $313.8 million in July 2009, and sales of
video game accessories slipped slightly to $129.3 million from $131.5 million
in July 2009, a 2 percent decline.
"While video game retail sales show a very slight decline versus last
July, we have to consider the success of Starcraft II this month, which helped
the PC games category to realize a 103 percent increase in dollars over last
July," said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier. "PC games and
video game industry sales combined for an increase of 4 percent in revenues as
compared to July 2009."
Strong sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console led the sharp rise in hardware
sales, with 443,5000 units moved in July, followed by Nintendo's portable DS
console, which sold 398,400 units in July. The company's motion-controlled Wii
console followed in third, with nearly 254,000 units sold. Sony took the last
two spots with its PlayStation 3 console and PSP portable console, which sold
214,500 units and 84,000 units, respectively.
"The PS3 and the Xbox 360 platforms both saw significant increases over July
2009," Frazier said. "In fact, Xbox 360 was the top-selling hardware platform
for the month, driven by sales of the new slim format SKU. It's the first time
since September 2007 [Halo 3 launch] that the 360 was the top-selling hardware
platform."
Electronic Arts (EA) claimed the top two spots in software sales thanks to
its cross-platform NCAA Football 11 title, which saw 368,000 units moved for
Xbox and nearly 299,000 units for the PS3. Sales of Microsoft's Crackdown 2
powered the title into third place, with 208,800 units sold, while Nintendo
claimed fourth, eighth and nine place finishes for its first-party titles.
"The top selling video game for the month, combining platforms, was
NCAA Football 11, at 692,000 units," NPD's Frazier said. "Achieving
even better results this month was Starcraft II [PC], which sold 721,000 units
at retail in July. Lego Harry Potter was the second best-selling game for the
month, with 401,000 units across all platforms. It bested its intro month
sales in June of 355,000, although it must be noted that it was released late
in June. In just over a month at retail, it has already sold enough to
put it just outside of the top 20 games year-to-date."
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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