Nintendo DS, Wii Led 10% Decline in U.S. Game Sales in August
Nintendo DS, Wii Led 10% Decline in U.S. Game Sales
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
Nintendo, whose DS sales fell for five straight months in the U.S., will release a successor model with a 3-D screen this fiscal year to boost demand.
Nintendo, whose DS sales fell for five straight months in the U.S., will release a successor model with a 3-D screen this fiscal year to boost demand. Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Carol Massar reports on the latest breaking news and top stories in today's Business Briefs. (Source: Bloomberg)
Nintendo Co.’s DS handheld players and Wii consoles led a 10 percent decline in U.S. video-game hardware and software sales in August, according to market researcher NPD Group Inc.
Overall sales dropped to $818.9 million last month, with revenue from hardware falling 5 percent and game software dropping 14 percent, NPD said in a statement yesterday. Sales of the touch-screen DS slumped 38 percent to 342,700 players, while those of the Wii fell 12 percent to 244,300 consoles, the lowest since its debut in November 2006, according to the statement.
Nintendo, whose DS sales fell for five straight months in the U.S., will release a successor model with a 3-D screen this fiscal year to boost demand. The Wii, which allows players to simulate tennis shots or golf-club and sword strokes by using a controller, is facing increased competition as Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. release their own motion-sensing devices.
“This month reflected the lowest sales for August since 2006,” Anita Frazier, an NPD analyst, said in the statement. “While all categories are down in both dollars and units, the portable portion of the industry is down to a greater extent.”
Purchases of Sony’s PlayStation Portable tumbled 43 percent to 79,400, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said.
Nintendo gained 0.7 percent to 23,290 yen as of the 11 a.m. trading break on the Osaka Securities Exchange, while Sony added 1.7 percent to 2,523 yen in Tokyo. Microsoft closed 0.3 percent higher at $24.01 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday.
Xbox 360
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the U.S. last month with 356,700 units sold, or 66 percent more than a year earlier, the researcher said. PlayStation 3 sales rose 7.6 percent to 226,000, it said.
The consoles benefited from the release of Electronic Arts Inc.’s “Madden NFL 2011,” the month’s top-selling title with 1.81 million copies for the Xbox 360 and PS3, NPD said. “Super Mario Galaxy 2” for the Wii was third, selling 124,600 units.
Microsoft plans to introduce its “Kinect” motion-sensing accessory with a free game in November for $149.99, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in July. Sony’s “Move” controller, resembling Wii’s wand with a colored ball at the top, will go on sale in the U.S. in September for $49.99, the Tokyo- based company said in June.
Nintendo said in June the 3DS handheld, going on sale by March 2011, will allow users to see 3-D images without the need for special glasses. The product has three cameras and a motion sensor to create the 3-D effect.
To contact the reporter on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net; Clifford Edwards in San Francisco at cedwards28@bloomberg.net
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