14 DAY TRIAL // December 2011 has been a worse than expected month for the video game industry in the United States and the numbers released by tracking firm NPD Group have shown that hardware has been particularly hard hit, posting a decline of 28 percent when compared to the same period of 2010.
The value shown by the NPD is of 1.32 billion dollars (1.02 billion Euro) and the decline in the value of sales has been underlined by the fact that all gaming platforms, apart from the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the 3DS from Nintendo, have seen significant unit losses.
The Xbox 360 has managed to capture the top position for the hardware chart, with overall December sales of 1.7 million units while Sony acknowledged that it had an increase in units moved over the same month of 2010 but refused to offer actual numbers.
The Nintendo 3DS is also estimated to have had a good month, thanks to the price cut from earlier during 2011 and launch of high profile company made games featuring Mario and other well known characters.
Anita Frazier, who is an analyst working with the NPD Group, said in a statement, “Hardware was particularly hard hit in December. Normally, we see sales increase from November to December on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind December is a 5-week retail month as compared to November which is a 4-week retail month). The 3DS and the DS were the only platforms to realize a unit sales increase versus November, which is highly unusual since typically all platforms enjoy a lift in the biggest month at retail.”
December is usually a growth month for video game sales, when it comes to both hardware and software, but the video game market also disappointed this year, with the market declining by about 14 percent, much more than even the most pessimistic estimates from analysts.