Software
August sales of Sonys PlayStation 3 console gained 13 percent from a year earlier, the first increase in 10 months, and those of Microsofts Xbox 360 rose 10 percent, researcher NPD Group Inc. said in a statement yesterday. Total U.S. revenue from hardware, software and accessories fell 16 percent to $908.7 million, NPD said. Thats smaller than the 29 percent decline in July and a 31 percent slump in June.
Sony cut the price of the PS3 by 25 percent on Aug. 19 and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft lowered the price of its most powerful console, the Xbox 360 Elite, by a similar proportion to $300 on Aug. 27. The cheaper players will likely spur software sales, further slowing down the contraction of the market later this year, said Koki Shiraishi, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd.
“I expect the game market during the year-end shopping season to be positive,” he said.
Hardware sales fell 25 percent to $297.6 million, NPD said. Nintendo Co.s Wii console, the industry leader, slumped 39 percent to 277,400 units. Including software and accessories, sales declined for a record sixth-straight month.
Xbox, PS3 Gain
PS3 sales rose 72 percent from July to 210,000 units. The PS3 is now $299 in the U.S. Store sales of the Xbox 360 rose 10 percent to 215,400 units. The company continues to sell a less- powerful $200 model.
“The price cuts implemented on the PS3 and 360 hardware already made an impact on unit sales, despite having been executed fairly late in the month,” Frazier said. “It will be interesting to see the full impact of the new price points on September sales.”
Tokyo-based Sony rose 1.4 percent to 2,505 yen as of 2:08 p.m. break in Tokyo, while Nintendo gained 1 percent in Osaka. Japans benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average slid 0.7 percent. Microsoft added 0.9 percent to $25 on the Nasdaq Stock Market yesterday.
Kyoto-based Nintendo sold 552,900 units of DS handheld game machines, 6.7 percent more from a year ago. Sony sold 140,300 of its PlayStation Portable systems, down by 45 percent.
Software Sales
Software sales fell 15 percent to $470.3 million. The top- selling title for the month was Electronic Arts Inc.s “Madden NFL 10″ for Xbox 360.
For the full year, Mitchell lowered his estimate for industry sales by $500 million to $20.2 billion, down 5 percent from $21.3 billion in 2008, as measured by NPD.
“The console price cuts did not create a huge surge in demand,” Mitchell said in a research note.
Electronic Arts, the second-largest video-game maker after Activision Inc., said that sales of “Madden NFL 10,” released on Aug. 14, are “discouraging.”
“It is discouraging that one of our highest-rated and best- marketed Madden titles in years is facing strong headwinds,” Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello told employees in an e-mail to employees released yesterday. Industry trends “present a challenge,” he said.
“Madden NFL 10″ sold 928,000 units for the Xbox 360, 665,000 units for the PS3 and 160,000 for PlayStation 2 in August, NPD said. “Madden NFL 09″ claimed the top three spots in August 2008 with more than 2 million copies sold for those three formats, according to NPD.