Network now...NEWS
Madden an August Champ
Research firm NPD Group said Thursday that the U.S. games industry in August raked in $1.1 billion in retail sales, a 9 percent year-on-year increase.
While results were still strong, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said that it was the first month of single-digit growth in 27 months.
But she assured, "Despite smaller growth this month, the industry is up 32 percent year-to-date and remains on target to achieve annual revenues in the range of $22 to $24 billion."
Year-to-date, the games industry (software, hardware and accessory sales) are $8 billion.
In typical August fashion, the latest Madden NFL game, released August 12, was the primary software sales driver for the month.
Total software sales were $551 million, up 13 percent year-on-year.
The Xbox 360 version of Madden 09 sold 1 million units, topping the August charts, followed by the PS3 version (643,000) and the PS2 version (424,500).
The Wii version sold 115,800, coming in at number nine on the month's charts.
Frazier said, "Madden NFL '09 was the top-selling game of the month, and launched with 2.3 million units out of retail doors in it's first month, besting last year's '08 title by 2 percent. Year after year, the industry can count on the Madden release to bring folks into stores during the relatively lazy days of late summer"
While it didn't make this month's top ten, Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto IV is still going strong, considering it launched in late April. The game is still the top-selling title year-to-date, with 4.8 million sold in the U.S. through August, according to Frazier.
Hardware
Total hardware sales were up just 3 percent on a revenue basis to $395 million.
Nintendo DS led the way with 518,300 units sold, followed by Wii (453,000), PSP (253,000), Xbox 360 (195,200), PS3 (185,400) and PS2 (144,100).
"The PSP and PS3 systems achieved the greatest percentage gain of all now-gen systems," Frazier said. "The sales acceleration of these systems, combined with the recent Xbox 360 price cuts should fuel future growth of this category"
Microsoft cut the price of its line of Xbox 360s in early September. Results of that move should be seen in next month's NPD report.
Accessories
Videogame accessories brought in $137 million, a 13 percent year-on-year increase. Frazier said Xbox Live points cards and Gold membership cards represented three of the top 10 items in the category.
Top 10 software sales, according to NPD:
360 Madden NFL 09--1M
PS3 Madden NFL 09--643K
PS2 Madden NFL 09--424.5K
Wii Wii Fit--394.9K
Wii Mario Kart--328.7K
Wii Wii Play w/ Remote--200.2K
360 Soul Calibur IV--174K
360 Too Human--168.2K
Wii Madden NFL 09--115.8K
NDS Guitar Hero: On Tour--111.2K
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Typically weak August. Man, I hate to see Wii Play on the charts every month. NPD should really remove what is essentially an accessory from the list.
I am a little surprised that Soul Caliber IV for PS3 didn't even show up on the list as that traditionally has been associated more with Playstation than Xbox.
The Too Human sales actually aren't that bad but I expect it will drop completely off the list next month.
Don't be too surprised if Too Human is still in the top ten. It was only available for 10 days during the NPD August dates. It may make top ten, but be number 8 or higher. You're right, Soul Caliber 3 was PS2 only. Soul Caliber 2 was on all 3 last gen systems (the gamecube version of Soul Caliber 2 ironically sold the most copies, most likely due to LInks inclusion in the game) and the xbox version sold solid. I would equate Soul Caliber IV on PS3 not making the list purely based on install base, not brand loyalty.
SCII sold better on the Cube because it was the sole decent release in six months on that system when it came out (be jt first or third party, doesn't matter, there was just nothing to eat in the first semester of 2003, making the Cube owners very hungry for whatever you would have thrown in their direction at that point in time). On the other hand, on Xbox and PS2, SCII had to compete for gamer's dollars with a torrent of AAA titles released the month before, or the same month, or the month after. It had to do with software libraries more than Link's inclusion (even though I'm sure the latter didn't hurt neither).
Those numbers definitely don't lie. The Wii sold ONLY 450k, which is still solid, but surprisingly low by Wii standards. And the Wii had been more readily available as of late (I bought one without getting in line, and I saw some just the other day 20 minutes before close at best buy). The numbers are interesting to say the least.
Dude, it's August and right in the thick of summer. Of course it's gonna have lower sales. All the consoles did. That's quite typical of summer.
Understood. But the Wii has consistently defied traditional sale history; I was just pointing out that its human after all. And I was pretty surprised that I saw them sitting around on the shelves. Just about a month ago when I attempted to buy a Wii, I got to best buy about 5 minutes before they opened on an advertised Wii availability day on a Sunday. All 30 Wii tickets had already been handed out to people that were in the line earlier. Then, a month later they're just sitting on the shelf 15 minutes to close? It sold, what a crazy 700k+ consoles in a traditionally slower month earlier in the year. So, I think the Wii sales dropping may have a LITTLE bit more to do with demand possibly slowing down a little bit, then with it being a summer month as the Wii sold a crap load during slow months pretty much since its existence. Maybe they’re hording them for the holidays? But if that were the case, they would be even rarer to see sitting around. I think demand might be finally slowing a bit…or maybe not.
August numbers... summerhole in the US... always slow except for handheld and the traditional Madden launch (industry seasonality. It has to do with vacations -and related spendings-, sunny days, people getting out more)... you'll now see numbers grow gradually in september and october for hardware across the board, then boom in nov-dec.
August 2008 NPD LotusCharts:
http://lotuscharts.blogspot.com/2008/09/august-2008-npd-results.html