October was brutal for the video game industry. Domestic sales of hardware and software fell a sharp 19%, to $1.07 billion, over last year, according to sales tracker NPD Group. You know it's a bad month when Sony's (NYSE: SNE ) Uncharted 2 is the top seller.
The small uptick in September -- fueled by lower console prices and the release of Viacom's (NYSE: VIA ) The Beatles: Rock Band -- proved temporary. The industry has posted year-over-year declines in seven of the past eight months.
Lower hardware prices are moving systems, but only Sony's PS3 sold more units than it did a year ago.
|
Units Sold
|
October 2009
|
|
Wii
|
507,000
|
|
PS3
|
321,000
|
|
Xbox 360
|
250,000
|
Source: NPD Group.
The upside to these numbers is that we're talking about incremental growth. The installed base of all three platforms grows with every passing month. This makes the year-over-year declines that much more problematic, though hope rings eternal in November.
Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI ) shattered single-day sales records with Tuesday's debut of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Diehard gamers are already saving up their pennies for next week's rollout of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2 and Electronic Arts' (Nasdaq: ERTS ) Left 4 Dead 2. Nintendo's (OTC BB: NTDOY.PK) New Super Mario Bros. hits retailers Sunday.
It's a healthy slate, but investors need to realize that these numbers will be compared with last November's showing. Developers typically release blockbuster games in November, cashing in on what they hope will be brisk holiday sales. Call of Duty: World at War and Gears of War 2 were some of last year's heavy hitters.
This month's major releases will sell well, but are consumers buying the smaller releases or older catalog titles at all? November is certainly setting itself up as a bounce-back month, but we'll have to wait until mid-December to know for sure.
Care to take a stab at November's sales metrics? Take a guess in the comment box below, and I'll be back in a month to crown the victor.
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