If we thought May's video games hardware and software figure were bad, then June's NPD figures are frankly awful.
According to NPD's Anita Frazer, "This is one of the first months where I think the impact of the economy is clearly reflected in the sales numbers. This level of decline is certainly going to cause some pain and reflection in the industry."
That impact displayed itself as an overall 31% drop in revenues compared to last year. Hardware was down 38%, software fell by 29% said NPD.
Certainly Sony is going to emerge from these figures in pain. Sales of PS3 fell by 46%. This hasn't stopped Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media over at SCEA saying, "With positive momentum of PS3 hardware over the past two months, and continued enthusiasm for breakout exclusive games like inFamous, we’re on pace for another tremendous year across our platforms."
inFamous did indeed manage to stay in the Top 10 of US games sales. The PS3 on the other hand, tanked badly. So, no platform seller there.
Microsoft looks to have emerged from the figures with the least blood on its buttoned-down collar. It actually managed sell more Xbox 360s this year than last, leading Microsoft's Xbox 360/Xbox Live group product manager Aaron Greenberg to tell Leigh Alexander: "We're the only console that grew in the first half of the year." Can't argue with that.
Finally, Nintendo and the fact that the first part of this year doesn't really matter anyway: "Last year the focus was on the first half when you look at the strong launches ... this year our strong titles are coming out in the second half of the year", said Denise Kaigler, vice president of corporate affairs for Nintendo of America to journalist Gabriel Madway.
That said, the DS is only down by 17,000 sales year on year - a relatively modest drop compared to the Wii's 305,000 dip.
The hardware figures are below. We've contrasted them with last month's and June 2008 to give you a clearer view:
Handheld
DS - 766,500 (May: 633,500) ('08: 783,000)
PSP - 163,500 (May: 100,400) ('08: 337,400)
Console
Wii - 361,700 (May: 289,500) ('08: 666,700)
Xbox 360 - 240,600 (May: 175,000) ('08: 219,800)
PS3 - 164,700 (May: 131,000) ('08: 405,500)
PS2 - 152,700 (May: 117,000) ('08: 188,800)
And finally... games. Now, NPD slices its games up and dices them out as biggest sale by platform. So, as you can see, analyst, Jesse Divinich, was right: [PROTOTYPE] did outsell inFamous on the Xbox 360. Seriously though - yes, we know inFamous was PS3 exclusive - with the PS3 only having two games in NPD's Top 10, surely a neatly bundled, price-cut slim version of the console would help?
1 - Prototype - Xbox 360: 419,900
2 - UFC 2009: Undisputed - Xbox 360: 338,300
3 - EA Sports Active - Wii: 289,100
4 - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - Wii: 272,400
5 - Wii Fit - Wii: 271,600
6 - Fight Night Round 4 - Xbox 360: 260,800
7 - Fight Night Round 4 - PS3: 210,300
8 - Mario Kart - Wii: 202,100
9 - Red Faction: Guerrilla - Xbox 360: 199,400
10 - Infamous - PS3: 192,700
According to NPD's Anita Frazer, "This is one of the first months where I think the impact of the economy is clearly reflected in the sales numbers. This level of decline is certainly going to cause some pain and reflection in the industry."
That impact displayed itself as an overall 31% drop in revenues compared to last year. Hardware was down 38%, software fell by 29% said NPD.
Certainly Sony is going to emerge from these figures in pain. Sales of PS3 fell by 46%. This hasn't stopped Patrick Seybold, Senior Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media over at SCEA saying, "With positive momentum of PS3 hardware over the past two months, and continued enthusiasm for breakout exclusive games like inFamous, we’re on pace for another tremendous year across our platforms."
inFamous did indeed manage to stay in the Top 10 of US games sales. The PS3 on the other hand, tanked badly. So, no platform seller there.
Microsoft looks to have emerged from the figures with the least blood on its buttoned-down collar. It actually managed sell more Xbox 360s this year than last, leading Microsoft's Xbox 360/Xbox Live group product manager Aaron Greenberg to tell Leigh Alexander: "We're the only console that grew in the first half of the year." Can't argue with that.
Finally, Nintendo and the fact that the first part of this year doesn't really matter anyway: "Last year the focus was on the first half when you look at the strong launches ... this year our strong titles are coming out in the second half of the year", said Denise Kaigler, vice president of corporate affairs for Nintendo of America to journalist Gabriel Madway.
That said, the DS is only down by 17,000 sales year on year - a relatively modest drop compared to the Wii's 305,000 dip.
The hardware figures are below. We've contrasted them with last month's and June 2008 to give you a clearer view:
Handheld
DS - 766,500 (May: 633,500) ('08: 783,000)
PSP - 163,500 (May: 100,400) ('08: 337,400)
Console
Wii - 361,700 (May: 289,500) ('08: 666,700)
Xbox 360 - 240,600 (May: 175,000) ('08: 219,800)
PS3 - 164,700 (May: 131,000) ('08: 405,500)
PS2 - 152,700 (May: 117,000) ('08: 188,800)
And finally... games. Now, NPD slices its games up and dices them out as biggest sale by platform. So, as you can see, analyst, Jesse Divinich, was right: [PROTOTYPE] did outsell inFamous on the Xbox 360. Seriously though - yes, we know inFamous was PS3 exclusive - with the PS3 only having two games in NPD's Top 10, surely a neatly bundled, price-cut slim version of the console would help?
1 - Prototype - Xbox 360: 419,900
2 - UFC 2009: Undisputed - Xbox 360: 338,300
3 - EA Sports Active - Wii: 289,100
4 - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 - Wii: 272,400
5 - Wii Fit - Wii: 271,600
6 - Fight Night Round 4 - Xbox 360: 260,800
7 - Fight Night Round 4 - PS3: 210,300
8 - Mario Kart - Wii: 202,100
9 - Red Faction: Guerrilla - Xbox 360: 199,400
10 - Infamous - PS3: 192,700
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