In a month with little new on the market, total game sales in June were ten percent lower than last year, says market research firm NPD, at $995 million.
Hardware sales dropped nine percent to $366.6 million – and software fared even worse, with retail sales 12 percent lower than last year, at $469.5 million. It’s worth remembering, though, that online sales are increasing, and aren’t covered by the report.
And some publishers did rather nicely,such as Take-Two: LA Noire, unsurprisingly, was the month’s best seller, shifting 419,000 copies. It was followed by Duke Nukem, with 376,000 copies sold, and the PlayStation 3-only inFamous. This sold 369,200 copies.
After that come family titles and older games, including Lego Pirates of the Caribbean and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D.
Sales of games accessories were 11 percent lower than in June last year, at $158.9 million.
The Xbox 360 was top of the hardware chart, showing growth for the month – unlike the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation3, which both had declining sales. Indeed, Microsoft sold twice as many of the consoles as Nintendo or Sony managed.
“According to the latest NPD report, PlayStation continues to see growth in software with a strong demand for exclusive PlayStation 3 franchise titles,” says Patrick Seybold, Sony’s director of corporate communications.
“The recently launched inFAMOUS 2 was the number one software SKU in June. In addition, momentum is accelerating with the upcoming fall releases of Resistance 3 and Uncharted 3 on the horizon.”
