Either the summer gaming doldrums really struck the gaming industry in August or perhaps the current generation of game systems is hitting a wall with the
customize xbox 360 controller managing to promote only 193,000 units for your month.
Game sales for home consoles weren't very secure either despite as being a month with numerous new games including Darksiders II, Sleeping Dogs and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. The 3DS was strong though with two games - New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3D inside the top three games sold for your month. So, technically speaking, New Super Mario Bros. 2 will be the top-selling game overall when counting games on individual systems.
The largest oddity in software sales is Cod: Modern Warfare 3 dropping completely outside the top 10 while Cod: Black Ops hangs in at number 9.
Total retail software sales dropped 11 percent to $252.8 million while hardware sales plummeted 39 percent to $150.six million with the month of August. Even accessories were down seven percent to $127.3 million as total industry sales fell twenty percent to $515.6 million.
"The present hardware systems are showing how old they are, therefore it goes without saying which it could well be great to obtain new systems breathe life into traditional retail industry sales," said NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier. "I am anxious to explore the Wii U launch later this month. With any luck we will hear news about others beingshown to people there."
"Within software, the hi-d platforms posted just a slight 1 percent decline in dollar sales compared to last August, pointing to some stabilization therein portion of the retail market for games content," she said.
"One factor causing the softness we now have seen in retail content sales hitherto in 2012 has been the decline inside amount of the latest titles. This, however, was not the truth in August because there have been more new titles in comparison to a year ago; titles with sales that were significantly greater than last year's launches. So, what we're seeing impact August results would be the domino effect with the light release schedule from earlier in. That deficiency of new releases has brought a substantial influence on subsequent month's sales," she continued.
Interestingly, NPD estimates that consumer spending on digital games via micro-transactions, add-ons, subscriptions, mobile games, etc adds up to approximately $391 million for August.
Darksiders II sits atop the 10 list with 247,000 units sold between NPD's reporting period of July 29 through August 25. Meanwhile, New Super Mario Bros. 2 does almost at the same time on one platform with 240,000 units solds. Kingdom Hearts 3D is proper behind at 180,000 units. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron is 7th at 105,000 units sold that ought to give you a thought how games 4 through 6 fared.
Madden NFL 13 fell outside this reporting period but we expect it to be the highest game when examining next month's NPD sales results the way it reportedly sold 1.sixty five million units in the first week.
August 2012 Top ten Games
Darksiders II (PS3,
xbox 360 controller, PC)
New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (3DS)
NCAA Football 13 (PS3, Xbox 360 system)
LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (PS3, Xbox 360 console, Wii, 3DS, PS Vita, PC)
Sleeping Dogs (PS3, Xbox 360 system)
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (PS3, Xbox 360)
Batman: Arkham City (PS3, Xbox 360, PC)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (PS3, Xbox 360 system, PC, Wii, DS)
Incredible Spider-Man (PS3,
xbox 360 controller mod, Wii, 3DS, DS)
Microsoft may be the only company reporting the sales variety of its console for August at 193,000 Xbox 360s sold. Nintendo received an increase through the launch with the Nintendo 3DS XL which represented 44 percent in the total 3DS units sales with only seven days of availability.