Even Caped Crusader can't help year's slumping sales
With August proving to be yet another losing month for videogames in spite of the highly anticipated release of "Madden NFL 10," a closer examination of the final numbers still managed to yield a few bright spots for Microsoft and Sony.
According to the NPD Group's latest report, sales figures for the videogame industry fell by 16 percent to $908.72 million in August, delivering the industry its sixth straight month of decline.
Currently, sales are down by 14 percent over 2008, bringing the tally to $9.07 billion for the year.
Not surprisingly, flaccid sales of hardware led the decline, plummeting by as much as 25 percent for the month down to $297.60 million.
However, while the overall sales figures for hardware continue their downward descent, it appears as though recent price cuts by both Microsoft and Sony have already began to yield some positive results.
For the same time period, sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 rose by 10 percent, while a much cheaper and much slimmer PS3 have led to a 13 percent increase for Sony as well.
As expected, things are looking much better for Sony since introducing the slim version of their PS3.
In a measurement from July to August of this year, sales of the PS3 actually rocketed up 73 percent.
Naturally this trend is not likely to continue for the company, however in a more money conscious environment, both Sony and Microsoft appear to have given their respective consoles a much needed shot in the arm with the lower $299 price point.
Unfortunately, while the competition looks to be heading for calmer seas, Nintendo finds itself trying to turn sales of their Wii around.
For the year, sales of the Wii have fallen by 50 percent, leading many to speculate that Nintendo may be planning a price cut on their console as well.
Some have felt that this was already long overdue for the Wii, however with its competitors now offering their systems at only $50 more, there is a sense that the company will have no choice but to lower the price of its console in order to remain competitive.
Compounding this argument is the fact that while Nintendo may have still outsold both of its competitors in August; year-over-year the Wii still ended up down 39 percent for the month.
Sadly, software sales did not fare much better in August, as even with the release of "Madden NFL 10," this area of the industry was unable to stave off a 15 percent drop for the month.
That is not to say that "Madden NFL 10" did not do well. Quite the contrary, sales of this latest title accounted for more than 1.9 million copies sold.
"Batman: Arkham Asylum" also proved to be a successful title with this title quickly approaching 2 million units sold worldwide within its first month on store shelves.
Nevertheless, in spite of these individual title's successes, the industry is still in a slump that it is unlikely to come out of any time soon.
Many are confident that this holiday shopping season will make up for the difference for the year, however after six straight months of decline, the possibilities of that happening seem more and more unlikely.
