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August NPD: Deus Ex Comes Out On Top In Depressing Month For Game Sales

Remember last month? Remember how very few worthwhile games were released? Well, if you needed a reminder, all you need to do is look over the depressing numbers coming out of this month's NPD sales data.

According to NPD, overall retail sales for August are down a huge 23 percent. The only category where sales increased compared to August 2010 was portable hardware, thanks to the Nintendo 3DS price drop. Here are the top 10 games for the month:

  1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360, PS3, PC)
  2. NCAA Football 12 (360, PS3)
  3. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, DS, Wii, PC)
  4. Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd (DS, Wii, PS3)
  5. Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)
  6. Just Dance Summer Party (Wii)
  7. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
  8. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, DS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)
  9. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS)
  10. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3)

On the hardware side, the Xbox 360 appears to have come out on top with 308,000 sales. Nintendo sold 235,000 3DS units, about 185,000 of which sold after the price cut. Nintendo says this is a 260 percent increase for its struggling new handheld, but the Wii and regular DS did not fare as well with 190,000 and 165,000 sales respectively. We're still waiting on numbers for Sony, but the publisher did say that PS3 sales were up for the final two weeks of the month thanks to a $50 price cut.

If that dismal list of titles has you a little bummed out, don't be too worried. NPD analyst Anita Frazier says the bulk of the software decline, at least, is due to Madden 2012, which was released August 30 this year. That falls into the September NPD results rather than the August spot it normally dominates. Frazier believes sales will bounce back in September thanks to a much greater number and variety of games being released.

[via NeoGAF]

Comments
  • Staff
    What in the blue hell is Phineas and Ferb?
  • Uggghhh, this is a depressing list indeed. Atleast Deus Ex is at the top of the list though; it was a solid game and worthy of #1 spot.
  • Resistance 3, Madden, and Gears will make NPD's numbers bounce back for sure.
  • Well, all those games f***ing blow except for Deus Ex. And yes, I'm throwing Zelda under that bus too - that Dreamcast-looking version of the classic is not a good game now, not after better console style games (Twilight Princess, Majora's Mask) and MUCH better "made-for-handhelds" games (Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks) in the series.

    I hope Square/Eidos' game sold REALLY well. F*** Zumba, Just Dance, Phineas & Ferb and Call of Duty.

  • amazing! Call of Duty: Black Ops is still on charts..unbelievable!
  • Can't wait til next month to see how Dead Island sells...
  • The coming months should be interesting in terms of sales for all types of videogames and/or hardware.

  • I am happy for Deus Ex. Wee.
  • Thats because everyone is saving up for the ginormous 2011 holiday season lol
  • Maybe publishers should look at this and say "hey, let's release our game in August next year so we have less competition than in November."
  • I'm not sure if the NPD counts digital sales. I'm pretty sure A LOT of people bought DE: HR on Steam and other digital sites, and so thus it isn't reflected in the charts. Once Steam / other digital sites start releasing numbers, then I'm pretty sure we can get a much better portrayal of how many units are actually sold and were successful.

  • As depressing as those figures and games are it will turn around in the coming months with a slew of AAA titles coming out, I do wish more publishers and developers would release games in the summer though.

  • You know it was a bad month if Phineas and Ferb is #4 on this list.

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  • It came out at the perfect time.  I have only heard good things about it.  Sadly good games that are coming out around now (dead island, space marine) are going to be overshadowed by titles like MW3, and Battlefield 3.

  • september will be diffrent

  • Dunno how "depressing" it is; if there were a number of deserving titles out there and the numbers were low, that would be depressing. In this case I see a lot of fluff and tie-ins, and Deus Ex- which is seemingly doing pretty well.

    Oh, and there's always a football game and CoD on there; it will be interesting to see how much the negative reviews/net-chatter will upset Madden sales (perhaps the NCAA games will eat up some of the marketshare this season).
  • Well that's about to change with the astronomical Gears of War 3 sales. HELL YEAH!

  • No surprise really seeing as how there really wasn't any competition when you think about it. That and I've heard Deus Ex is a really good game.

  • What the heck is Black Ops stil doing in the top 10? MW3 is coming out in a couple months for Christ's sake!
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