14 DAY TRIAL // The Microsoft made Xbox 360 home console has managed to once again be the top selling consoles in the United States, with the NPD Group tracking firm saying that the device has managed to sell 393,000 units during the period to take the top spot.
Despite a number of positive expectations from analysts the video games industry has not managed to put in a very good performance for the month of October, posting an overall growth of just 1 percent in order to reach an overall value of 1.08 billion dollars (about 784.2 million Euro at the current exchange rate).
The hardware sector was a bright light in the NPD Group report for the period, with an overall growth of 6% when compared to the same period of 2010, reaching 295.6 million dollars (214 million Euro).
Microsoft must be happy that in this climate its console has managed to sell 20 percent more units than during the same month last year, with the revenue going up by about 21 percent.
Sony has refused to confirm sales numbers for the month, suggesting that the PlayStation 3 has posted flat or even declining sales and continues to sit behind the Xbox 360.
Nintendo has said that it has managed to move 250,000 Wii home console, which is a solid performance but a little low when compared to the high point of the device, while the new Nintendo 3DS has managed to move the same number of handhelds to gamers.
The older DS line-up has also managed to do well and sold another 180,000 units during October.
The main problem with the hardware market is that most players interested in picking up console have already done so and the only way of pushing sales numbers up would be to enact more price cuts, which would drive revenue down.