14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group, which watches the United States market, has released its monthly sales charts for video game hardware and software for the month of January 2011 in the United States, with the overall industry seeing a drop in sales of 5 percent when compared to the same period of 2010.
Overall retail sales reached 1.16 billion dollars for the month and hardware sales accounted for 324 million of that number, which is more than 8% down over the same period of last year.
The drop cannot be linked to price drops any longer so it's all a result of falling unit sales.
Microsoft has said that it has managed to sell 381,00 Xbox 360 home console during the month of January 2011, which is an increase of 14.4 percent over January 2010, the only console in the current generation that registered an increase this month.
Microsoft stated, “Some lingering supply constraints coupled with high consumer demand led to continued pockets of shortages at retail. We anticipate this trend to improve through February, but will continue to work with retail and manufacturing partners to expedite production and shipments.”
The NPD Group no longer offers information on exactly how many consoles each manufacturer sold in one month so it's up to companies like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to provide the public with actual figures.
Sony did not say how many PlayStation 3 consoles it sold during January, but the company stated, “As the only system with both stereoscopic 3D and precision motion controlled gaming, PlayStation is delivering a new era of immersive entertainment fueled by the industry’s strongest content lineup.”
Nintendo also declined to offer any figures.
Accessories, including the PlayStation Move and the Kinect, registered a growth during January, seeing an increase of 6 percent to reach a sales value of 235.1 million dollars for the month.