14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group numbers for April came out at the end of last week and the various players in the videogame world have been spinning the data around in order to make it sound like they were the only winners of a period that was not extraordinary for gaming.
Microsoft is emphasizing the way third-party games brought in around 98 million for the month of April, more than for the Nintendo Wii or for the PlayStation 3.
The way third-party publishers profit from someone else's platform is seen as a key indicator of the attractiveness of a hardware platform. The Redmond-based company is also pointing out that, if we look beyond April, at the whole first four months of 2009, the Xbox 360 increased year over year by about 28%, which is more than its rivals could muster.
However, the software giant has admitted that the month has seen sales of just 175,000 Xbox 360 gaming consoles, which is 7% less than in the same month of 2008. But the company has explained that the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, which came with the promise of exclusive DLC for the Microsoft platform, pushed a lot of hardware out the door in that month, so the comparison is a bit unfair.
The company also pointed out that The Godfather II, Resident Evil 5, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica were in the Top 10 of videogame sales, adding that “Xbox 360 is also home to the most top-rated games of any current-generation console, with 139 titles earning a score of 80 or above on Metacritic, while no other console has even 100 such titles.”
When it comes to Xbox Live, the most attractive content for gamers has been the Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3 and the Versus Mode add-on released for the hugely popular Resident Evil 5 from Capcom.