14 DAY TRIAL // The good news is that the videogame industry is still growing in the United States, as seen in the data the NPD Group has offered for the month of January. The bad news is that the growth seems to be slowing down, when compared to other years.
In January 2009, sales of videogame hardware and software reached the figure of 1.33 billion dollars in the United States, which is some 13% more than in the same period of 2008. Analysts were awaiting a growth of around 12%. Still, January sales are growing slower than in 2008, when the increase has been of 17%, while in January 2007 the increase was an incredible 47%.
Noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier says that “Even in these tough economic times, the fact that total sales were able to realize a 13 percent increase in revenue speaks to the continued strength of video games as one of the leading entertainment industries in the U.S.”
In the hardware department, the news is rather boring. The Nintendo Wii sold 679,000 console in one month to claim the top of the hardware chart, while the Nintendo DS is a close second with 510,800 handhelds sold. The Xbox 360 from Microsoft managed to hold on to third sport, selling a little over 300,000 units, while the PlayStation 3 closed the gap that had opened up in December, with around 203,000 console sold in the same period. The PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 2 filled the last two spots in the chart, selling 172,300 and 101,200 units respectively.
Nintendo must surely be thinking about the “recession proof” moniker it will receive after these figures spread in the videogaming press, while Sony and Microsoft will likely take the new figures as a sign that the fight for the second spot in the home console spot is still very much open.
In the following days, expect Microsoft to trump up the fact that the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 by 1.5 to one, while Sony will likely counter by saying that the PlayStation brand outsold the Xbox brand. With companies as big as these, the spin never stops.