Despite mounting concern over the state of the U.S. economy, the videogame industry is on a tear, according to the latest figures released by the NPD Group for March 2008 sales. First quarter revenue topped a record $4.2 billion, hardware and software sales are on fire, and it seems as though each month of the year has its own slate of truly big games.
In this month's column, we'll break down the figures and answer the following questions:
How much have game prices risen in the past two years? How much did those price increases contribute to the nearly $1 billion in software sales in March 2008?
Sony has sold over 800,000 PS3 systems in the U.S. this year. How long did it take Sony to sell that many in 2007? And how soon could the American Wii installed base catch up with the Xbox 360?
Super Smash Bros. Brawl sold 2.7 million copies in March. How well does it stack up to the LTD sales of the previous Super Smash Bros. games?
Hardware Numbers in Detail
Undoubtedly much of the focus for 2008 will be on software releases, but hardware sales in March served as a stiff reminder that those software sales are built on a robust hardware base. Over 1.2 million current-generation consoles were sold, compared to fewer than 600,000 such consoles a year earlier, and each system's sales were up year-on-year.
The figures for March 2008 can be put into various contexts. Let's start with comparing March 2007 with March 2008. Then the Wii and the PlayStation 3, each in their second year on the market, had the greatest growth in unit sales, up 178% and 97% respectively. The Xbox 360, in its third year on the market, was up a more modest 32% when comparing March 2007 to March 2008.
Since March marks the end of the first quarter of the year, we can also compare 1Q 2007 to 1Q 2008. The Xbox 360 has sold just a few more systems in the first quarter of 2008 than it sold in the first quarter of 2007 – that is, the first quarters of the two years are roughly comparable. However, Nintendo sold more Wii's from January to March of 2008 than it sold from January to April of 2007 – four months of last year's sales in only three months this year. Finally, Sony has sold more PlayStation 3 systems in 1Q 2008 than it sold in the entire first half of 2007 – that is, six months of last year's sales in only three months of this year.