Game sales drop 20% in US for August

(GamesIndustry International) NPD acknowledges that the current generation is "showing its age"

The NPD Group has sent its August retail sales report for the US market, and once again it was not a pretty sight, as total industry sales dropped 20 percent to $515.6 million. Total software sales (including PC retail software) dropped 11 percent to $252.8 million while hardware sales declined a sizable 39 percent to $150.6 million. Accessories were also down seven percent to $127.3 million.

[YodaCracker]

Despite console sales being down across the board this year, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the 20th month straight and held almost 50% share of all console hardware sales. Microsoft is just dominating this gen! If they're doing this well already this year, I can't wait to see the kind of numbers they pull off this holiday season, which is when the Xbox always sees its strongest performance and seems to get a larger bump than the other consoles.

[Clarence]

Just dominating the us. That's not dominating. The Wii has a 40m console lead, the ps3 came out a year later yet it had sold faster than the 360. It's like saying lance Armstrong dominated yet he was on steroids.

[Anon1974]

Is he completely oblivious to what's going on outside of the US? First off, the US 360 figures are down almost 40% year over year in the US compared to the 306k they did in August last year, which is in keeping with the worldwide decline of 43% the 360 had seen in the first 6 months of the year compared to last year. And they certainly aren't the only ones seeing declining hardware sales.

Also, let's just ignore that it looks like the 360 is trailing the PS3 by over a million consoles worldwide ytd. And, let's not mention the fact that, as Clarence mentioned, the 360 has been outsold by everyone head 2 head ever since it had competition.

I get that some people have a console preference. I have nothing against that, but to let it completely blind you to the current realities of the videogame industry, what's the point? If you admit what MS's own sales data tells us, that the nearly 9 million lead the 360 had versus the PS3 at the end of 2006 has now been whittled down to 2 million - what have you lost? It doesn't somehow diminish my enjoyment of my 360 knowing that it's been so badly outsold, nor does it make playing my PS3 somehow more enjoyable. I just don't get why some choose to be so blindly ignorant of the sales data that's so easy to find, then come on sites like this and try to talk sales.

If you're interested enough to comment on the business of the games industry, the least you could do is take a couple of minutes and get informed about what you're talking about. Clarence obviously gets it.

http://www.microsoft.com/in...

http://www.sony.net/SonyInf...

[Mustang300C2012]

The problem with you too is that you think whether the PS3 eventually sales more than the 360 it will have some sort of impact. You can keep pointing out how Sony has outsold the MS this year so far. But the same thing happen in 2011 and the 360 towards the END of the year eventually overall outsold Sony worldwide. The 360 pics up around this time frame and regardless the TOTAL number shows the 360 is still ahead. Just like the TOTAL number shows the Wii ahead. Again these numbers won't change anything and it isn't just the hardware numbers. Being specific about NPD, as pointed out MS is doing better than the others and has been for the past 20 months. But yet somehow neither of you can simply speak on that. Your quick to pull up about what is happening worldwide when it clearly stats NPD.

[Lvl_up_gamer]

@ Clarence and Darkride

1) Wii AND PS3 released at the same time and yet out of the 2, the Wii was the only one that managed to surpass the 360 in WW sales.

2) America IS the LARGEST gaming demographic in the WORLD thus plays heavier on sales then ANYWHERE else in the world. Developers know this, console makers know this....I don't understand why the 2 of you don't.

3) This article clearly states its NPD. Why you 2 choose to be OFFTOPIC and bring up World Wide sales in an NPD article is beyond me if nothing more than to mindlessly have to come to the defense of Sony and the PS3.

4) At the end of the day, the only sales number that matters if you choose to talk world wide, is the CURRENT total number of sales. Currently the Wii is the highest selling home console of this gen. The 360 is the highest selling HD console of this gen.

Who cares that the PS3 is closing the gap? Sony have been doing that since 2007 and it's almost 2013. Who cares if year over year the PS3 outsells the 360 world wide (except in 2011)? Bottom line is that CURRENTLY the 360 is still leading (even if by very few units) over the PS3 and is going into it's 21st month straight as the leading console in North America like what is the topic of this article.

[Kamikaze135]

Too bad they never count digital sales and digital sales seem to be getting more and more popular.

[yeahokchief]

i bought a game in august

[FarCryLover182]

I did too.

[josephayal]

The Next GEN is coming

[KonaBro]

Yet you got the Xbox fanboys celebrating that the 360 sold less than 200k units in August. Pathetic. The generation is over and it won't get exciting again until the next PS4/720 comes out.

[Revolver_X_]

The Last of Us and MGS:GZ, among others says hi.

[DiRtY]

LoL Vita below 40k for the past 5 weeks.
Probably around 6000 - 7500 in a week in the biggest market is terrible and nothing less.