NPD November Hardware: The Wii Is the Victor

The NPD Group numbers for November are out and they show that the videogames industry saw revenue grow by 10% over the same month of 2007, with the total figure approaching 3 billion dollars. The numbers are impressive, especially when taking into account the fact that the world is in the midst of an economic recession and that the post Thanksgiving shopping period was seven days shorter. The NPD is projecting that overall revenue for the videogames industry will reach 22 billion dollars in 2008 overall.

Anita Frazier, who is an analyst for the NPD Group, stated that “One reason for the continued strength of the industry compared to other forms of entertainment comes from a number of sources. Certainly, the expanded audience for gaming due to the availability of a wider variety of compelling content is a strong contributor”.

The big hit as far as hardware sales are concerned is that the Nintendo Wii sold more than 2.04 million units in one month, more than double the numbers it saw in November 2007. Considering that Nintendo is supposed to be making 6 dollars profit for each Wii, this means that the Japanese company made 12 billion dollars easily.

The Nintendo DS also had quite a good month, with sales reaching 1.57 million units. The Microsoft made Xbox 360 was in a distant third spot, with sales of 836,000 units, while the PlayStation Portable from Sony sold 421,000 units.

The PlayStation 3 sold less than half the units that Xbox 360 managed, with figures of 378,000 in one month. The PS2, despite its age, sold 206,000 units.

Microsoft is surely happy with these numbers, just as Nintendo, but Sony is probably hoping it will implement something very attractive (like a price drop?) to get customers back to its gaming console.

Here is Anita Frazier’s comment on the situation, “It's clear there can be more multiple victors this generation, and while price is certainly a strong factor, particularly as the current economic situation continues to prevail, the most important factor that will drive success in 2009 will be the line-up of compelling games that will keep consumers involved in the industry”.