Video-Game Sales in U.S. Fall 4%, NPD Group Says
Video-Game Sales in U.S. Fall 4%, NPD Group Says
Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg
Nicole Johnson, an Ubisoft Entertainment representative, plays a video game while standing in front of an "Assassin's Creed 3" advertisement at the company's booth during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles on June 7, 2011.
Nicole Johnson, an Ubisoft Entertainment representative, plays a video game while standing in front of an "Assassin's Creed 3" advertisement at the company's booth during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles on June 7, 2011. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg
(Corrects PlayStation 3 price drop in eighth paragraph.)
Video-game industry sales in the U.S. declined 4 percent to $1.13 billion in September from a year earlier, led by declines in sales of game accessories and consoles.
Sales of new titles rose 3 percent to $630.2 million, Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group said today in an e-mailed statement. Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS)’s “Madden NFL 12” was the top- selling game for the month. Console sales fell 9 percent to $349 million from $382.9 million a year earlier, NPD said.
The industry has suffered a prolonged sales slump this year amid a relatively weak slate of titles. The biggest releases, including Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts’ “Battlefield 3” and Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI)’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,” are due through December and could turn 2011 sales into positive territory, NPD has said. The research did not provide analysis of September sales.
Nintendo Co. in late July cut the price to $170 from $250 for its portable 3DS gaming system, which allows for 3-D viewing without the need for special glasses. The Kyoto, Japan-based company also lowered its profit forecast.
Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony
Nintendo sold 260,000 3DS systems, an increase of more than 10 percent over the prior month, the company said in a statement. Its home console, the Wii, sold 240,000 units down from 254,000 a year earlier.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), based in Redmond, Washington, sold 438,000 Xbox 360 game consoles, the top-selling video-game player in September, it said. The company a year ago sold 483.9 million game consoles.
U.S. sales of Sony Corp. (6758)’s PlayStation 3 jumped 20 percent in September, as the video-game industry moved into the peak holiday buying period.
Tokyo-based Sony, which cut the price of the PlayStation 3 in August to $249.99 from $299.99, saw software sales rise 52 percent, spokesman Patrick Seybold, citing NPD research, said in an e-mailed statement. The Tokyo-based company did not release its monthly U.S. sales figures.
To contact the reporter on this story: Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at cedwards28@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rob Golum at rgolum@bloomberg.net
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