July U.S. Retail Video Game Sales Lowest Since 2006

It's good intelligence for digital but cheerless news program for new physical retail sales in NPD's July 2011 computer game market report. Yet NPD psychoanalyst Anita Frazier was slightly downbeat, launching with: "In that respect is none getting around the fact that computer game [dollar] sales in the virgin physical retail transfer suffered [their] lowest calendar month since October 2006."

Totality U.S. brave sales in new natural science retail for July were $707.7 trillion, down from $961.3 meg year-on-twelvemonth, a 26 pct decline.

On the upside, says Frazier, untried physical retail sales were only set 4 percent year-to-date, adding that the upcoming holiday season should either zero the year out, or decrease the year-happening-year differential to a more limited negative 2 percentage.

Curiously, the biggest single contributor to the dollar decline was console ironware, and non because of selling price, which NPD calls "flat" compared to concluding twelvemonth—unit sales of console hardware were bu mastered overall.

As usual, Microsoft's press statement included Xbox 360 units gross sales (277,000, in first place), while Sony's line skirted the PS3's depress unit sales number and instead highlighted PlayStation encircling sales (up 18 pct twelvemonth-happening-twelvemonth). Microsoft says the Xbox 360 was first for the ordinal month in a row, "selling more units in the U.S. than any other cabinet for 13 of the past 14 months," and claims the Xbox 360 is "on track to have the biggest yr in Xbox history."

IT looks like-minded the Xbox 360 and PS3 contributed most to hardware, software, and accessory sales, patc all the other platforms (interpret: everything Nintendo, plus Sony's PSP) declined, and that's both yr-along-year and year-to-date.

NPD tips its hat to digital sales, calling their outgrowth "significant" and noting growth in this expanse "combined with a flat to modest decline in new physical gross revenue should result in 2011 showing growth terminated 2010."

Top of the chart in software gross sales: NCAA Football game 12 (Xbox 360, PS3).

So U.S. retail oriented for a falling or flat (which is rattling dispirited, to a fault) one-year finish, digital sales stepping in to fill the gap and and then some. Is anyone surprised?

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