14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group has released the data for hardware and software sales on the United States market, showing that the videogames industry has declined no less than 19% when compared to the same period of 2008, with sales reaching 1.07 billion dollars. As analysts predicted, the overall economic situation is impacting videogames hard as even at reduced price points, customers are not prepared to spend their money on entertainment products.
The Nintendo Wii has been the best selling gaming console, with 506,900 units sold in one full month. Its price, which has been reduced to 199 dollars, has surely helped the Nintendo device retake its crown from the PlayStation 3 and the Christmas period seems good for the Wii. Second place went to the Nintendo DS, which has sold 457,600 units and is trouncing the PlayStation Portable from Sony that has only sold 174,600 devices in the same period.
The PlayStation 3 home gaming console from Sony, which has dominated sales in Septembers, following its own price cut, sits in third place with 320,000 units moved to gamers, just ahead of the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, which sold about 250,000 units. The nine-year-old PlayStation 2 continues to post some good results, managing to actually get 117,800 consoles to those who prefer older videogames.
Anita Frazier, who is an analyst working for the NPD Group, stated that “Hardware sales were down 17 percent in units for the month, with the Wii and the Xbox 360 decreasing the most compared to October 2008. Compared to last month, which was a five-week month as compared to four weeks this month, Wii, PSP and NDS sales increased on an average sales per week basis, while the PS3 and Xbox 360 declined.”
The big take away from the current figures is that the increase in sales volume, generated by the recently announced price cuts, is at the moment not making up for the loss of revenue they created. The other important observation is that news of the Nintendo Wii's demise has been widely exaggerated.