NPD: Overall sales reach $2.7bn

The US games industry generated $2.7 billion in sales last month, making it the second best November in industry history.

Overall sales were down by 7.6 per cent when compared to the same period last year, meaning November 2008 retains the record set last year, according to the latest NPD figures.

Combined hardware sales came in at $1.05 billion, down 13.4 per cent from the $1.21 billion recorded last year, while software sales totaled at $1.406 billion, down from last’s year’s total of $1.451 billion. Video game accessories generated over $242 million in sales, a decline of 5 per cent from $256 million in 2008.

However, the ongoing promotions and strong sales has led the research firm to predict that the industry will rack up an impressive total year’s sales.

Analyst Anita Frazier commented: Based on seasonality the industry looks like it will reach $20 billion for the year, which means December would have to be up over last year by 11 per cent. Impossible? I don’t think so. More positive economic news combined with ‘frugal fatigue’ could positively impact industry sales during these last weeks of the holiday season.

Breaking even seems more out of reach. In order to break even to last year, December sales would have to be up 36 per cent over December 2008. There was even heavier promotional activity this year than normal, and while they seem to have benefited hardware sales, they don’t appear to have positively impacted software sales since unit sales of software are down even more than dollar sales are for that category.”