We are in mid-2007 and gaming firms are already uncorking the bubbly! According to Reuters, sales of video game hardware and software in US, in the month of June increased by 31 percent from a year ago. The market data from NPD indicates that stronger demand for gaming consoles from all three major industry players has driven this growth.
Not only that, June sales of $1.1 billion was also up about 35 percent from May 2007. This points to the idea that there is strong momentum at the start of the traditionally slow summer season. Consumers focused on hardware as they had very less blockbuster games being released. Microsoft saw the sales of Xbox 360 increase by 28 percent from May while Sony saw an increase of 20 percent for the PS3.
Not surprisingly, the Nintendo Wii retained its top spot with 381,800 units sold, which by the way is 13 percent more than the previous month. Even in softwares, Nintendo was in the front as Mario Party 8 was also the top game in June, selling nearly 427,000 copies. Nintendo spokeswoman Beth Llewellyn said, “It’s just further evidence that both our platforms, the Wii and DS (handheld), are certainly capturing a wide audience. We are delivering on our message of reaching out to new gamers.”
As for handhelds, Nintendo sold 561,900 units of the DS while Sony’s PSP managed to sell 230,100 units. You might not be surprised; six of the top 10 games for June were from Nintendo, with Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 for the Wii being the only title that was not by Nintendo itself. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 had three games in the top 10. It seems that Nintendo and Sony will be dominating in the coming months!