John-ShepardThe game industry was mostly flat in July but in a month where only the new Madden installment could be considered a big title, numbers fell again.
According to the August NPD , overall non-PC retail game sales fell 10% in the US (down to $818.9 million), and hardware sales slipped 5% (down to $282.9 million). Software dropped even further, falling 14% to $403.5 million and accessories dipped 6% to $132.4 million. Due to the recent release of the Xbox 360 Slim, Microsoft's console had another easy hardware win in August, selling 356,000 units and with Halo: Reach due out this month, it's expected to rule September as well. The DS sold 342,700 units, the Wii came in at 244,300, and the PS3 sold 226,800. It should be noted that the PS3 has now had 13 straight months of sales growth after the PS3 Slim hit the market last year.
Madden NFL 11 unsurprisingly topped the software charts with 920,800 units sold on the 360 and 893,600 on the PS3 (an almost even split). Take-Two's Mafia II was expected to do better than its 121,600 unit showing for the month. As for Sony's statements concerning these results- the PS3 saw the highest year-over-year growth rate in August with 40% sales growth, there are currently 13 million systems in the US to date, and this is what SCEA Senior Director of Corporate Communications, Patrick Seybold, had to say:
"When PlayStation first emerged on the gaming scene 15 years ago, it garnered immediate attention for breaking the standard model of cartridge-based video gaming with a disc-based model and robust three-dimensional game play, helping to drive the transformation of a $2B dollar a year industry into a more than $20B industry, annually. Fast forward fifteen years and PlayStation continues to push the envelope of innovation with the industry's biggest franchises and new technologies like PlayStation Move and 3D stereoscopic gaming. August marks our 13th consecutive month of year-over-year growth for the PS3, supporting our ongoing momentum and further preparing us to officially kick off the key selling season next week with PlayStation Move."
