Once looked upon as one of the few ‘recession-proof’ industries, the video game market has seen sales drop for the fifth month in a row, with the Wii sales hitting the lowest monthly level since the system launched nearly three years ago!

From the Yahoo! Article:

The summer tailspin was particularly sharp. NPD reported the industry saw a 31 percent decline from the year-ago period in June. But total sales still reached $1.17 billion. In July, sales were down 27.4 percent from June.

Hardware was the largest culprit in the industry’s weakened position. Hardware sales dipped 37 percent in July to $280.94 million. July 2008 sales, by contrast, totaled $447.71 million. Meanwhile, software and accessory sales dropped 26 percent in July.

“In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11 percent (or more) higher than the last five months of last year,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier wrote in a report Thursday.

“While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including Madden (10, from Electronic Arts) this month, which should help spur sales,” she wrote. “The worst … should be behind us, and looking beyond August, we have The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, and, of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to look forward to.”

Of course, the fact that perhaps a dozen big-name ‘AAA’ titles have been pushed out from Q4′09 to Q1′10 over the last couple of months won’t help that forecast, as many gamers I know are planning to save money for after the New Year.

According to an article at Joystiq, here are the system sales numbers:

-DS: 539K Down 227K (-29%)
-Wii: 253K Down 108K (-30%)
-Xbox 360: 203K Down 37K (-15%)
-PSP: 123K Down 41K (-25%)
-PS3: 122K Down 42K (-25%)
-PS2: 108K Down 45K (-29%)

Thoughts on the hardware sales: it is interesting that even though the Wii sales are ‘lowest since launch’, they are good enough to be the top home console once again, and second only to the Nintendo DS, destined to be the best selling system of all time. It is also interesting that the XBOX360 fell less than any other console, perhaps due to a solid library mixed with good bundles and solid bargains this summer. Even with the upcoming PSP Go it is hard to tell WHAT is happening with the PSP sales … they are in line with everything else. If anything, I see that as bad news for the PSP Go – it is as if folks have already written it off.

And here are the top 10 games for the month:

1. Wii Sports Resort (w/ Wii Motion Plus) – WII – Nintendo – 508K
2. NCAA Football 10 – 360 – EA – 377K
3. NCAA Football 10 – PS3 – EA – 237K
4. Wii Fit (w/ Balance Board) – WII – Nintendo – 164K
5. Mario Kart (w/ Wheel) – WII – Nintendo – 157K
6. Mario Kart DS – NDS – Nintendo – 132K
7. Pokemon Platinum Version – NDS – Nintendo – 116K
8. Fight Night Round 4 – 360 – EA – 116K
9. New Super Mario Bros. – NDS – Nintendo – 102K
10. EA Sports Active – WII – EA – 97K

An interesting note on the top 10 list: of the ten games, only half were even released in 2009, with Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii released in 2008. Pokemon Platinum was released in early 2009. Mario Kart DS was released in 2005, and New Super Mario Bros was released in early 2006.

Source: Joystiq and Yahoo! News

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