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Industry Rebounds In November With Strong Retail Sales
The past two years have been hard for the game industry, as retail sales have sagged since February of 2009. However, the strong holiday lineup of 2011 seems to have jumpstarted the industry, thanks to titles like Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and better home console sales.
Gamasutra did an exhaustive breakdown of the November NPD data, and found signs of hope. Obviously, the record-breaking success of Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 drove interest and retail traffic, pulling in a shock in $1 billion in revenues in 16 days. However, the rest of the market grew slightly faster, thanks to hits like The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim and Battlefield 3. Last year, Call of Duty: Black Ops accounted for 25 percent of the market, but this year Modern Warfare 3 accounted for only 23 percent, despite higher revenues than Black Ops.
On the console side, Xbox 360 performed well, and is now only 1.3 million units shy of breaking its 2010 sales mark, with December retail shopping still to come. PlayStation 3 should also beat its 2010 sales. Wii will come far short of its 7.1 million sales figure from last year, but may actually be able to surpass PlayStation 3's total sales, becoming the second-best selling home console to Xbox.
Also, it appears the death of the 3DS has been greatly exaggerated. After November, the 3DS has sold 2.5 million units in the U.S. With software like Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario Land 3D on shelves for the late Christmas shopping season, it could add to that total nicely by year's end.
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