June Videogame Sales Up 25 Percent

While the summer is traditionally a slow time for games, portable game systems like Nintendo DS Lite helped drive the month of June to solid growth. According to the NPD Group, the month of June helped push the total 2006 year ahead of last year by 4 percent. That's because the $444 million in software sales generated in June was a 15 percent increase over last June. Strong sales of hardware, lead by Nintendo DS (593,000), PlayStation 2 (312,000) and Xbox 360 (277,000) helped drive new game sales like "Super Mario Bros.," "Cars," "Hitman: Blood Money" and "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories." Overall game hardware and software sales were up 25 percent to $844.5 million.

These numbers are ahead of most analyst predictions. Summer time rarely sees an increase in hardware or software sales, when families focus on traveling and summer movies. But the Nintendo DS Lite has had a huge impact on the industry. Consumers are buying that system as well as many of its games. Nintendo has been marketing the system to more casual consumers with low-priced games like "Brain Age Academy" and "Sudoko."

THQ is riding the success of Disney's Pixar "Cars" movie across multiple platforms. The game was a top seller on every system it launched on. With the film having long legs, and the anticipated DVD release this fall, "Cars" sales shouldn't slow down any time soon.

The $20 price tag has resulted in the new "GTA: Liberty City Stories" flying off store shelves. Consumers may be purchasing a PS2 to play the game on, as Sony's current gen system lead all console sales in June.

July has a pair of big releases in "NCAA Football 07" and "Prey," which should drive sales across platforms. And August has a new "Madden NFL 07" game, which always sells like gangbusters at launch.