14 DAY TRIAL // The much awaited NPD Group hardware and software sales figures for September have finally arrived and while the picture looks less grim for the videogame industry (where are the times when we deemed it recession proof?), there are still signs of trouble.
The Nintendo DS handheld still manages to be the best sold gaming platform in North America, with 524,200 units moved to players in the month of September. The price discounted PlayStation 3, which also got the Slim variant, sold 491,000 units in the same time frame ahead of the Nintendo Wii, which sits at 462,800. The Xbox 360 from Microsoft is more than 100,000 units back, selling 352,000 in September, while the PlayStation Portable is ahead only of the PlayStation Portable in the hardware chart.
When compared to the same period in 2008, hardware revenue went down by six percent, reaching a value of 472,78 million dollars. This bleak result was achieved despite the fact that for much of the month, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 were cheaper than at the same moment in 2008. Still, the increase over the even bleaker figures of August is good news and shows that customers are interested in picking up new hardware as long as it is priced correctly.
Anita Frazier, who is analyst with the NPD Group, said that “Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales. This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease, as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month. This is the first month that the PS3 has captured the top spot in console hardware sales.”
Various analysts have already warned that the growth of September might be reversed during the current month, mostly because the effect of the price reductions is beginning to wear off. Still, the battle for the home gaming top spot seems to be heading up before the all-important November and December sales periods.