July Videogame Sales Up 29 Percent

The month of July saw overall videogame software, hardware and accessories sales climb 29 percent to $684.6 million, compared to the $531.4 million in total game sales in July 2005. Overall hardware sales were up 23 percent across all systems. Videogame software sales were up 22 percent to $386 million thanks in large part to Electronic Arts' "NCAA Football 07," which topped Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and Xbox game sales for the month. Sales of that football giant sold 1 million copies out of the gate, which was up 10 percent compared to last year's launch. Overall, 14 games topped saled of 100,000 units each, compared to just five titles last July.

pCurrent generation software sales declined $45.5 million to $237.5 million. Strong sales of "Guitar Hero," "Cars," "FIFA World Cup," and "GTA: Liberty City Stories" were attributed to the continued strength of the PS2 user base. Next generation game sales increased by $116 million to $148 million. Xbox 360 game sales rose from $66 million in June to $74.5 million in July. Strong sales of Xbox 360 games could help the industry overall heading into the fall launches of PlayStation 3 and Wii.

Year-to-date software sales are up 2 percent compared to 2005 thanks to strong sales in June and July, traditionally slow summer months. Wedbush Morgan Securities videogame analyst Michael Pachter believes that the decline in current generation software will be largely offset by next generation software sales for the next several months.  He added that once PS3 and Wii are launched, he expects next generation software sales to surpass current generation software sales.

On the handheld front, Nintendo DS games like "Super Mario Bros.," "Brain Age," and "Big Brain Academy" lead the field. While Nintendo DS game sales rose 354 percent for the month compared to last year, PSP software sales dove 40 percent with few new releases for the platform and PSP hardware sales dropped 20 percent. Gamers are making the move to Nintendo DS and leaving Game Boy Advance behind. GBA game sales dropped 25 percent and hardware sales fell 33 percent in July.

Microsoft sold 207,000 Xbox 360s in July, which was down 27 percent compared to June. The total installed base for the next generation platform in the U.S. is 2.2 million. Pachter believes Microsoft will have a total installed base of 5 million Xbox 360s by the end of this year. Consumers dumped the Xbox, which had a 91 percent drop in hardware sales and 51 percent fall in game sales.

Another dead system, GameCube, fared much better on the software front. Game sales were up three percent for GameCube, compared to a five percent increase in game sales for PS2.

Comments

[PS3 Froum]

Interesting stats, however it seems that the 3 consoles have 3 very different markets. My pick is the 360 though as online gaming is the future.

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