Recently released NPD video game sales figures for February have shown another double digit decline overall by 15% to $1.48 billion for the month. NPD tracks sales in the USA.
This number was greater than analysts expected which has led some to suggest that the gaming industry may be in a worse position year-on-year than was expected.
“Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Nonetheless, strong new releases and Easter gift-buying bodes well for industry performance in March.”
Hardware sales sank a full 20% to $534 million. Among the current generation Microsoft’s Xbox 360 saw the highest sales figures, an unexpected departure from last year’s PS3 dominated numbers.
“The Xbox 360 nabbed the top spot among the three console systems for the first time since September 2007, when Halo 3 was released,” said Frazier. “The PS3 enjoyed a 30 percent increase over last year, even while retail supply is reported to remain constrained.”
According to NPD these figures could be attributed to a lack of Wii supply which suggests, despite the general industry perception, that Nintendo’s motion controlled console may still be top of the pile for the current console generation.
“Our extensive retail channel checks have all indicated that, in fact, the Nintendo Wii is in short supply,” said Frazier. “We believe February numbers reflect entirely on the Wii being supplyconstrained and have little to do with declining demand of the product.”
The top ten selling game titles in the USA for February were as follows:
1) Bioshock 2 (Xbox 360)
2) New Super Mario Bros. (Wii)
3) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)
4) Just dance (Wii)
5) Wii sports Resort with Motion Plus (Wii)
6) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
7) Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)
8) Dante’s Inferno: Divine Edition (PS3)
9) Dante’s Inferno (Xbox 360)
10) Heavy Rain (PS3)
Is February’s sales decline a sign of a more serious problem? Or was it jsut a bad month? Have your say in the forums.
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