Analysts were spot on when they predicted that May’s retail software sales results would drop 17 percent when compared to the same month last year. Of course hardware sales are usually tied to software sales, and it is no surprise that the drop off in software sales was reflected by a 30 percent drop in hardware sales.
It is worth mentioning that Grand Theft Auto IV was released on April 29 last year, and subsequently took in over $500,000 in its first week. Wii Fit was also launched at around the same time, and these two titles significantly boosted the overall results for software sales and in turn hardware sales.
While May is traditionally a slow month for the video game industry, last month was the first time since August 2007 that the video game industry grossed a total of less than $1billion in a month.
According to Gamasutra every hardware category yielded lower sales results than in May 2008, with the exception of the mobile gaming sector which saw growth as a result of continued strength shown by Nintendo’s DS.
It is worth noting that NPD’s sales charts refer only to retail sales, and therefore PC gaming is significantly underrepresented as a result of the rising popularity of digital distribution vendors such as STEAM and Direct2Drive.
NPD Console sales results for May 2009
Nintendo DS: 633,500
Wii: 289,500
Xbox 360: 175,000
PlayStation 3: 131,000
PlayStation 2: 117,000
PSP: 100,400
NPD Top 10 Software sales charts May 2009
1. UFC 2009 Undisputed (Xbox 360) – 679,600
2. Wii Fit (Wii) – 352,800
3. EA Sports Active (Wii) – 345,800
4. UFC 2009 Undisputed (PS3) – 334,400
5. Infamous (PS3) – 175,900
6. Pokemon Platinum (DS) – 168,900
7. Mario Kart (Wii) – 158,300
8. Punch Out!! (Wii) – 156,900
9. X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged (Xbox 360) – 120,700
10. Wii Play (Wii) – 109,800
May 2009’s top 10 selling games managed 2.6million sales, while May 2008 was significantly higher with 3.7million titles sold.
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