14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group has put out its sales information relating how the video game industry performed in the United States during the month of October and one of the companies which has quite a bit to cheer about is Microsoft, who sells the Xbox 360 home gaming console and publishes titles for it.
Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, one of the most well known public faces of the company, has specified that Microsoft has managed to sell 325,000 units of its home console during the month of October, which is quite a big increase when compared to the 249,700 units which were moved to gamers in the same month of 2009.
This comes as the NPD Group has confirmed that the Xbox 360 is the only gaming device which has seen an increase in sales year over year, suggesting that the PlayStation 3 has not managed to keep the momentum it had gained after the launch of the revamped Slim version.
The overall best selling console was the Nintendo DS.
Microsoft also offered sales numbers for the titles it has published, saying that Fable III, which was developed by Lionhead, has managed to move 580,000 units exclusively on the Xbox 360, while Halo: Reach, which is on its second month on shelves, has also managed a healthy 315,000 units.
The performance of Fable III must be a bit disappointing taking into account the amount of hype the game, designed by Peter Molyneux, generated and the way Microsoft promoted it.
The best selling title of the month has been NBA 2K11 from Take Two, the basketball simulation title which focused on Michael Jordan and benefited from the delay and the cancellation of NBA Elite 11.
The NPD Group is no longer offering hard numbers when it comes to the video game chart and counts all sales for multiplatform releases while when it comes to hardware the company no longer offers detailed charts.