NPD Software: Modern Warfare 3 Leads Again, Industry Sees Huge Decline

The NPD Group has announced worse than expected sales data for the month of January 2012 on the United States market and blame has been assigned to video game publishers who have failed to deliver any high profile title during the 28-day period that makes up the sales month.

New video games sold at retail, including both home consoles and the PC, have managed to create revenue of just 379.6 million dollars (286.2 million Euro), which is a decline of 37 percent when compared to the same period of 2011.

Initial estimates from analysts indicate a drop of just about 15%.

The main problem, according to the NPD Group, was that January 2011 saw the launch of Dead Space 2, a horror-based shooter from Electronic Arts, Little Big Planet 2, the platformer and creation game from Sony, and the MMO DC Universe Online from Sony Online Entertainment.

Anita Frazier, who is an analyst working with the NPD Group, stated, “As shoppers were not drawn to stores due to new launch activity, this potentially impacted additional software purchases made on impulse.”

The video game top ten is made up of:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – on the PC, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360
Just Dance 3 - Wii and Xbox 360
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
NBA 2K12 - PC, PS2, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP
Battlefield 3 - PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Madden NFL 12 - PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, Wii
Mario Kart 7 - 3DS
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventures - 3DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
Zumba Fitness 2: Party Yourself - Wii
Saints Row: The Third - PC, PS3, Xbox 360.

The NPD Group estimates that taking into account used games, sales, social games, mobiles, rentals, subscriptions and DLC sales, the software sales would see a boost of between 350 and 400 million dollars (263.9 to 301.6 million Euro).