US videogame sales slump in March
WASHINGTON: US videogame sales fell 17% in March as the industry failed to escape the economic slowdown, according to figures released by the market research firm NPD Group.
Videogame sales dropped to US$1.43 billion in March from $1.72 billion in the same month last year, NPD said.
Videogame software and videogame hardware sales were equally affected, according to the figures released by NPD on Thursday.
Videogame software sales fell 17% to $792.8 million while videogame hardware sales declined by 18% to $455.5 million.
Sales of videogame accessories were down 15% at $185.7 million.
Despite the drop in March, videogame sales were virtually unchanged for the quarter, NPD said, racking up $4.25 billion in the first three months of 2009 compared with $4.24 billion in the same quarter last year.
Nintendo's Wii was the top-selling game platform in March with 601,000 units sold followed by Nintendo DS handheld console on sales of 563,000 units.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 was next on sales of 330,000 units followed by Sony's PlayStation 3 on sales of 218,000 units. Sony's PSP handheld console sold 168,000 units in March.
Among game titles, Capcom USA's "Resident Evil 5" was the top-selling game in March, selling 938,000 units for the Xbox and 585,000 for the PlayStation 3.
Nintendo's "Pokemon Platinum Version" was next on sales of 805,000 units followed by Microsoft's "Halo Wars" on sales of 639,000 units and Nintendo's "Wii Fit" on sales of 541,000 units.
Source: AFP
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