Video Game Sales Fall for 6th Consecutive Month

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

As the holiday season approaches, things have yet to pick up for the video game industry as sales fell for the sixth month in a row in September.

Research group NPD reports that, in the month of September, sales of video game software, hardware and accessories fell 8 percent to $1.2 billion. Game hardware was hit the hardest, with sales falling 19 percent to $383 million. This month represents the first time that NPD has not publicly released sales for individual consoles (these numbers are still available for those willing to pay) but Microsoft was more than happy to reveal that the Xbox is still selling extremely well.

"Xbox 360 enters the holiday season with four consecutive months as the #1 console in the US, with 484,000 units sold during the month, up 37 percent from last September, a stark comparison to the other console platforms," Ars Technica quotes the Redmond, Washington-based company as saying.

The Associated Press reports that Nintendo sold 403,000 DSes in the U.S., along with 254,000 Wii consoles.

Sony has yet to reveal its console sales for the month of September.

Also down were software sales, dropping 6 percent to $614 million. Halo: Reach, Madden and Dead Rising 2 were the most popular titles of September. NPD provided figures for only Halo: Reach, which managed to sell 3.3 million units last month.

The only category that didn't experience a decline was accessory sales, which NPD says were driven by "Specialty Controllers" like Sony's PlayStation Move. Again, the group failed to provide much in the way of numbers, but did reveal that the best selling accessory was the Xbox Live 1600-point card.

Source: the Associated Press, Ars Technica

Jane McEntegart
73 Comments Comment from the forums
  • joe gamer
    In other news "Video game quality falls for the 6th month in a row, PC gamers still getting the shaft, are searching desperately for lube"
    Reply
  • znegval
    I wanted to buy a specific one (Starcraft II) but $60? Sorry I'll do without.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    What do you expect when every AAA game is a copy of another one with a new coat of paint so they can go on about how realistic it looks rather than how fun it is? Adding "black ops" to the end of the name of a Call of Duty title does not make it something other than another Call of Duty title. There are now 8 of them including development versions. You can only play the same thing so many times before it loses its entertainment value.

    Gamers need a new gimick to get them to by the latest recycled titles. Maybe they want to keep active while playing games?

    Reply
  • Duh! In a time when a LOT of people are out of work, or worried about keeping their job, blowing income on video games is just outright stupid. People save up money, wait for a game they will really really like and buy that. None of us know what is coming in the next year of few, esp in the USA with all the new taxes coming down.
    Reply
  • Ninjamonkeh
    How can system sales be fine , yet software sales be down? Pretty simple really , Gamefly. I use to buy 2-3 games a month, I havent bought a single console game since I joined gamefly. Why should I throw out $60+ for a 12hour game, i put it in my que, beat it in 3 days, send it back for a new one.
    Reply
  • the associate
    What's interesting about console sales is they don't realize that most people who are going to buy one already have...i'm still surprised they sell as good as they do 0.0
    Reply
  • stop complaining about starcraft 2 being $60. Mine over here it costs $109.
    Reply
  • JOSHSKORN
    Try porting Halo, Halo: ODST and Halo Reach to PC and we'll see who comes out first.

    ...Yeah, that's what I thought.

    Oh, and yeah, try making a game with a REAL anti-hack system. For those that say that can't be done, I call BS.
    Reply
  • kriswitak
    Maybe they should stop making terrible games and care about their customers more. I'm sick of buying games only to find out another version will come out, or I'm going to have to buy a 15 dollar add-on to keep up with the game community. Get back to the roots and maybe we will take our chances and buy a 60 dollar game. Until then, my money goes into savings.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    JOSHSKORNTry porting Halo, Halo: ODST and Halo Reach to PC and we'll see who comes out firstHalo is a big seller for the Xbox 360. Microsoft aren't going to try and straddle their cash cow across two platforms and risk losing sales of Xbox consoles.
    Reply