Xbox 360 Top Game System for Sixth Straight Month, NPD Says
The Xbox 360 was the best-selling videogame system for the sixth straight month in January, but sales of it and every other system fell from a year ago, according to U.S. sales data released by NPD. Retail videogame industry sales, meanwhile, were weaker across the board in all categories compared to January 2011.
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More than 270,000 Xbox 360s were sold in the U.S. last month and the console had a 49 percent share of current-generation console sales for the month, with retail sales for the platform coming in at $301 million for hardware, software and accessories, Microsoft said. But 360 sales were weaker than the 381,000 sold in January last year (CED Feb 22/11 p4), shortly after the Kinect for 360 launch, and much weaker than the more than 1.7 million sold in December (CED Jan 17 p9).
Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment America didn’t say how many game systems they sold last month, and NPD stopped providing that data to reporters. But an industry source said PS3 sales fell 28 percent from January 2011, while Wii sales tumbled 53 percent. About 267,000 PS3s and about 319,000 Wiis were sold in January 2011. The source also said 3DS sales softened and the system had its worst showing since July, while DS and PSP sales continued to drop also.
Nintendo of America issued a statement Friday saying more than 4.25 million units of the 3DS were sold in the U.S. through its first 11 months on the market, trailing only the Wii’s 4.53 million units for the “fastest-pace among current-generation systems.” Also, even though January is typically one of the slower months for the videogame industry, NOA said it achieved some other “noteworthy milestones” last month. For example, more than 300 million copies of software were sold for the Wii system in the U.S. to date, it said. Three games that were released during the holiday season also “continue to resonate with consumers,” it said, pointing to Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii. Super Mario 3D Land sold more than 1.7 million copies through January, while the other two games each sold more than 1.3 million copies, it said. Several new games for Nintendo platforms ship this month, it said, including Capcom’s Resident Evil: Revelations (already out), Sega’s Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games and Namco Bandai’s Tekken 3D Prime Edition on Tuesday and Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D on Feb. 21 for the 3DS.
Total U.S. videogame hardware sales tumbled 38 percent year-over-year in January to $199.5 million, NPD said. Accessory sales fell 18 percent to $195.2 million. Total U.S. physical game industry sales tumbled 34 percent to $750.6 million. That includes software, hardware and accessories. Total U.S. physical videogame software sales, excluding PC games, tumbled 38 percent to $355.9 million. Overall physical U.S. game sales, including for PCs, tumbled 37 percent to $379.6 million.
The “steep declines” in January retail sales were the result of “a lack of software launches, and poor” hardware and accessory performance partly related to a difficult comparison to January 2011, when the Kinect motion sensor had just launched, said NPD analyst Liam Callahan. Outside of the new physical retail sales, NPD estimated that consumer spending on other ways to purchase content -- including used games, full game and add-on content downloads, social network games, mobile games, rentals and subscriptions -- accounted for an additional $350-400 million in sales, the analyst said.
Revenue from January 2012 new game launches tumbled 99 percent from new game launch performance in January 2011, Callahan said. Dead Space 2, LittleBigPlanet 2 and DC Universe Online were top ten games in January 2011, but there were no major releases this time, the analyst said. Last month’s best-selling game was again Activision’s multiplatform Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Ubisoft’s Just Dance 3 for the three home consoles remained No. 2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the 360, PS3 and PC from Bethesda Softworks repeated at No. 3.
Compounding the problem was that games released in Q4 of 2011 “also performed poorly” last month, tumbling 31 percent in units compared to Q4 2010 launches in January 2011, Callahan said. Because “shoppers were not drawn to stores due to new launch activity, this potentially impacted additional software purchases made on impulse,” the analyst said.
One bright note was that Activision’s Skylanders accessories continued “to perform well at retail” last month, with the “1 character pack” SKU ranking highest in units, Callahan said. Skylanders accessories were 22 percent of total game accessory unit sales last month, the analyst said. But the multiplatform game itself, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, came in at only No. 8 on the game software chart.