Game Sales

February video game sales suffered another double-digit monthly decline, plunging 20% to $1.06 billion, down from $1.33 billion in February 2011. Sales of software titles struggled the most, dropping 24.4% to $464.4 million last month, down from $601.4 million for the same period last year. Sales of the PlayStation Vita, Sony's Corp.'s latest portable game console — introduced in the U.S. on Feb. 22 — helped to cushion the overall decline in hardware sales last month, but not enough to prevent an 18% decline in sales of consoles, including the Nintendo Wii. Sales of the top 10 titles listed below accounted for 78% of total game sales in terms of units.

The launch of the biggest video games of the year was only enough to lessen the long-running slump in retail video game sales. U.S. game industry receipts were down 11% in November, the month that saw the debut of such hot titles as “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” “Halo 4” and “Assassin's Creed III” -- the top three titles of the month, in that order. Searching for a silver lining, NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan noted that “November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year.” Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the No. 1 console for the 16th month straight, selling 1.26 million units.

The video game industry hit the pause button on sales in May, posting its lowest monthly revenue from U.S. retail stores such as Best Buy Co. and GameStop Corp. since October 2006. Sales of games, consoles and game accessories such as extra controllers dropped 14% last month to $743.1 million, down from $866.8 million in May 2010, according to a report released Monday from NPD Group, a market research firm. "A light slate of new releases is at the heart of last month's performance," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

While sales of new video game discs have been plummeting all year, it turns out gamers are spending their money to play in other ways. During the third quarter (from July through September), total spending on video games -- new and old, purchases and rentals, physical and digital -- totaled $1.07 billion in the U.S., according to research firm NPD Group. That's down only 1% from a year ago. Those figures are more heartening to the game industry than monthly figures for new physical game sales and consoles that are released by NPD. In total, spending on physical games dropped 16% during the third quarter, and spending on games on digital platforms jumped 22%. Video game publishers make no money from used game sales or rentals (besides the initial sales of those titles)

  Strong sales for the latest incarnation of the annual "Madden NFL" and action sequel "Borderlands 2" were not enough to arrest the latest slide in video game sales. Total industry revenue from sales of physical games, consoles and accessories in the U.S. was $848 million in September, according to research firm NPD Group, down 24% from the same period a year ago. Including sales of used games and digital downloads, as well as rentals, revenue in September was close to $1.6 billion, NPD analyst Liam Callahan estimated.

The launch of the biggest video games of the year was only enough to lessen the long-running slump in retail video game sales. U.S. game industry receipts were down 11% in November, the month that saw the debut of such hot titles as “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” “Halo 4” and “Assassin's Creed III” -- the top three titles of the month, in that order. Searching for a silver lining, NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan noted that “November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year.” Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the No. 1 console for the 16th month straight, selling 1.26 million units.

Activision Blizzard Inc., the world's largest video game company, posted a third-quarter profit, but sales slipped slightly as consumers continued to keep close tabs on spending. Sales of games including Guitar Hero 5 totaled $703 million in the quarter, down 1% from a year earlier. The Santa Monica game developer, however, swung to a $15-million profit, up from a $108-million loss in the same quarter a year earlier. It earned a penny a share in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with an 8-cent loss a year earlier.

This is not a high scoring year for video games. With total revenue for physical game sales up only 1% at just over $1 billion in October, the business probably will end the year flat to down 2% compared with 2010, according to researchers at NPD Group Inc. The once-booming industry's flat-lining is attributed to consumers not only spending less money in the tough economy , but investing more time in fewer games that they play repeatedly online...

The video game industry got a much needed bonus last Tuesday as "Halo 4" players around the world spent more than $220 million on the heavily marketed sequel. That's the highest ever first day gross for Microsoft Corp.'s blockbuster science-fiction/action franchise. 2010's "Halo Reach," the previous record holder, enjoyed a $200-million "opening day. " Microsoft did not report how many "Halo 4" units it sold on launch day, but based on the game's U.S. retail price of between $60 and $100, the total is more than 2.2 million.

A new basketball game and a sequel to the combo game/toy line "Skylanders" were two spots of good news in what was otherwise a grim month for the video game business. Take-Two Interactive's "NBA 2K 13" was the best-selling video game during October, according to the NPD Group, and outsold last year's "NBA 2K 12" by more than 60%. Activision Blizzard's "Skylanders: Giants" was only the No. 10 game, but outsold last year's "Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure" during its first month on sale.

Six-year-old Jericho Rodriguez sprinted into Toys R Us like a cheetah chasing its prey. "Mommy, Skylanders! Skylanders!" he yelled as he ran through a crowd gathered around the biggest display in the store, larger even than ones for Legos and Marvel superheroes such as Iron Man. Jericho and other young boys were gathered in Atwater Village early Sunday morning for the new video game "Skylanders: Giants" and dozens of action figures associated with...

  Strong sales for the latest incarnation of the annual "Madden NFL" and action sequel "Borderlands 2" were not enough to arrest the latest slide in video game sales. Total industry revenue from sales of physical games, consoles and accessories in the U.S. was $848 million in September, according to research firm NPD Group, down 24% from the same period a year ago. Including sales of used games and digital downloads, as well as rentals, revenue in September was close to $1.6 billion, NPD analyst Liam Callahan estimated.

The summer doldrums hit July video game sales, which fell 20% from last year, according to a monthly survey by NPD Group. The game industry rang up just $548.4 million in U.S. retail sales last month, compared with $686.3 million a year earlier, the research group said Thursday. It was the eighth consecutive double-digit drop since November 2011, when game sales were flat compared with the prior year. The numbers indicate a continued trend of gamers flocking online instead of buying console and computer games that used to dominate the industry.

It's not entirely doom and gloom in the games business -- just mostly. While sales of disc-based games have fallen into a cycle of despair, sales of digitally distributed games have grown. Just how much, though, has been the subject of serious conjecture for the last several years. The NPD Group, which has collected physical game sales data for decades, on Monday pegged the increase of digital game sales at 10% during the first three months of the year, as compared with the same period last year.

May was another crushing month for video game sales. Or was it? At first glance, the numbers look dismal. Game sales declined 16% in May to $335.2 million compared with a year earlier. Sales of game consoles and hardware peripherals dropped 23% to $261.2 million, according to the NPD Group Inc., a market research firm. Overall sales of both hardware and games fell 19.7% to $596.4 million last month, down from $743.1 million a year earlier. Only game accessories saw an increase, fueled by gift cards for online games and brisk sales of physical toys for Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Skylanders" game.

Video game sales took a nose dive in April, plunging a stomach-churning 42% compared with a year earlier as companies cranked out fewer releases than in April 2011. Retailers rang up only $292.1 million in game sales last month, down from $503.2 million a year earlier, according to NPD Group, a market research firm. With fewer new games to drive people into stores, sales of game consoles also took a hit, falling 32% to $189.7 million. "Simply stated, there were notably fewer" new game releases, said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.