Gaming’s recession-proof credentials took a further knock overnight with news that the North American video games market suffered its fourth successive month of decline in June, falling 31 per cent to $1.17bn.



It’s the worst year-on-year fall since September 2000, a month that saw annual declines of 41 per cent. To date in 2009 the entire games market is down 12 per cent on this stage in 2008.

The only platform which managed to increase its sales year-on-year was Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

“While some of the decline in retail sales could be a migration on the part of consumers to acquiring content via digital distribution, our reports on downloads and subscriptions reveal that it’s not yet having enough impact on the console market to be an overly meaningful factor in the retail down-turn,” NPD’s Anita Frazier outlined.

“That said, there are increasing avenues for consumers to game, including via mobile devices, and it’s clear the industry is sorting through how to manage all these opportunities while deploying resources appropriately.”