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NPD Charts Show Worst Month For Game Industry Since 2006
According to the latest sales data released by the NPD Group, July was a rough month for the game industry.
“There is no getting around the fact that video game sales in the new physical retail channel suffered its lowest month since October 2006," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Although there was a decrease in each video game category contributing to the whole, the category with the greatest dollar decline versus last year was console hardware, which was caused by a decrease in unit sales as the average selling price for console hardware was essentially flat to last year.”
While NPD did not provide specific number of units sold for the various hardware systems, it did say "“Unit sales of all hardware platforms declined versus last July, and also declined on an average sales per week basis from June 2011. Combined unit sales of the 3DS and the DS were about flat to last year.”
Though the Xbox 360 suffered its first year-over-year decline in sales since December of 2009, NPD said that was more due to how remarkable July 2010 360 sales were -- when Kinect and the new slim 360 were new to the market.
None of the console manufacturers have released numbers -- which is generally a bad sign. Sony's statement only championed strong sales of PlayStation Move and its Sharpshooter peripheral, while Nintendo's statement mostly concerned itself with Ubisoft's Just Dance 2.
On the game side, it wasn't exactly a blockbuster month in terms of new releases. However, EA's NCAA Football 12 did outperform last year's game, perhaps due in part to the uncertainty about the NFL lockout, which resulted in Madden being released later than usual.
July 2011 Top Ten Games
1. NCAA Football 12 – Electronic Arts (360, PS3)
2. Cars 2 – Disney Interactive Studios (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops – Activision Blizzard (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)
4. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game – Disney Interactive Studios (Wii, NDS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)
5. Just Dance 2 – Ubisoft (Wii)
6. Major League Baseball 2K11 – Take-Two Interactive (360, Wii NDS, PS3, PS2, PSP, PC)
7. Zumba Fitness: Join The Party – Majesco (Wii, 360, Ps3)
8. Fallout: New Vegas – Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax (360, PS3, PC)
9. New Super Mario Bros DS – Nintendo (NDS)
10. Mortal Kombat 2011 – Warner Brothers Interactive (360, PS3)
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