According to updated figures from the NPD Group, as reported by IndustryGamers, Nintendo is set to dominate software sales here in the States. It's presence in the top ten bestselling games of the year (through November) give the company six of the top ten spots, with five Wii games and one Nintendo DS contributing more than 13.5 million sales so far this year.

It's mostly what you'd expect—Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Pokemon Platinum, Wii Play, Wii Sports Resort. And Nintendo will have to settle for second behind Modern Warfare 2. But we won't be surprised to see this list change, maybe including one more Nintendo game, by end of year.

NPD: Top 10 Games Through November Reveal Nintendo Dominance [IndustryGamers]

According to a new report from Gamasutra on last month's NPD figures, the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 moved "nearly 170,000" copies at retail. That doesn't include figures for Steam, Valve's digital distribution system, which are likely to have been significant—today, over 100,000 Steam users were playing the game online at the same time, but we're not sure how that breaks down to retail and online sales.

Still, at least 170,000 copies to a group of gamers that balked at the lack of dedicated servers and a higher-than normal price tag is.... pretty good?

Regardless of Modern Warfare 2's success or failures on the PC side of things, Gamasutra's in-depth look at November's NPD estimates are good reading for the sales obsessed gamer.

NPD: Behind the Numbers, November 2009 [Gamasutra]

It would appear that Modern Warfare 2's big software sales numbers on the Xbox 360 had a nice effect on Microsoft's showing last month. After being outsold by the cheaper, slimmer PlayStation 3 in September and October, the 360 outsold its high-def competition by more than 100,000 units.

The PSP and PlayStation 2 round out the bottom half of the list, with nearly a half-million units sold between the two platforms. November's 200,000-plus sales for the PS2 represent its 109th month on the NPD charts.

Here's how the NPD Group saw November's U.S. hardware contest shaking down.

• Nintendo DS - 1,700,000
• Wii - 1,260,000
• Xbox 360 - 819,500
• PlayStation 3 - 710,400
• PSP - 293,900
• PlayStation 2 - 203,100

Total hardware sales were $1.05 billion. That's a 13.4% drop from November of 2008, when all three consoles were considerably more expensive.

Here's NPD Group Anita Frazier with some silver lining.

"While there has been a lot of focus on Wii sales as compared to last year, the system was still the best-selling console system by a margin of 54%," Frazier notes. "At this same point in the PS2 lifecycle, the PS2 was down in unit sales by 23% over the previous year, but as history has shown, it continues to have a great deal of life left in it. So focusing on a comparison to Wii's stellar 2008 performance masks the reality of just how well this system is selling."

"The PS3 realized the greatest increase over last year's November sales and had its third best month in unit sales ever, coming in just under Decembers '07 and '08."

Settling for third, behind the two versions of Modern Warfare 2, was Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which managed 1.39 million copies. Nintendo's latest Mario adventure for the Wii did so with five fewer days on U.S. store shelves.

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II came closest to reaching New Super Mario Bros. Wii, with 794,700 units on the 360, 448,400 on the PS3. Combined, Assassin's Creed II came even closer, with 1,243,100 copies sold across both platforms.

The Xbox 360 and Wii tied for the number of top ten games appearing on each platform. The Xbox 360 scored top showings with Left 4 Dead 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, with Wii bestsellers Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort continuing to score big figures.

The full top ten, according to the NPD Group is as follows.

01. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) - 4,200,000
02. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3) - 1,870,000
03. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) - 1,390,000
04. Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360) - 794,700
05. Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) - 744,000
06. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 720,200
07. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 679,000
08. Assassin's Creed II (PS3) - 448,400
09. Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox 360) - 362,100
10. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 315,000

Total software sales were a relatively healthy $1.406B, down just 3.1% from the November prior. Thanks, Modern Warfare 2.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has achieved the top spot for first-month sales of any game at the title level," says Anita Frazier, NPD analyst. "Halo 3 previously held the spot when it sold 3.3 million units in September '07 in 12 days at retail. MW2 bested Halo 3's daily sales rate by 16% in its 19 days at retail in November.""

"While this year's top-selling item bested last year's by 283%, it couldn't make up for softness elsewhere. The top 50 games this year sold 5% less units than did the top 50 last year."

While we've touched briefly on the performance of two titles not making the top 10, let's look at the other 9. Yes, nine, not eight, because DJ Hero's sales were so dismal (it's best-performing SKU being the 360 version, with 62,000 sold) that it couldn't even make the top 20.

So, without further ado, here are October's almost-there games.

11. Demon's Souls (PS3, Atlus)
12. Brutal Legend (360, Electronic Arts)
13. FIFA Soccer 10 (PS3, Electronic Arts)
14. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS, Nintendo)
15. WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 (360, THQ)
16. Tekken 6 (PS3, Namco Bandai)
17. Borderlands (PS3, Take 2)
18. Madden NFL 10 (360, Electronic Arts)
19. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers Of Sky (DS, Nintendo)
20. Mario Kart Wii / Wheel (Wii, Nintendo)

Well played, Demon's Souls! And well played FIFA (the 360 version was #10), showing that maybe, just maybe, Americans are coming around.

Music Games Aren't Dead, Just Waiting to Be Reborn [Wired]

Brutal Legend managed to move 215,000 copies when you combine the figures from PS3 and 360. For a game with a niche appeal, that's not too bad. But for a game that had Jack Black popping up every five seconds to promote it...yeah, maybe EA were hoping for a little more.

It's a veritable Modern Warfare 2 when you compare it to DJ Hero, however, which only sold 122,300 units. Across four platforms. Yes, it was only on sale for five days in October (still a long enough time to pick up decent numbers), but this was Activision's first crack at their own "Hero" game. It had an expensive marketing campaign, and was backed by heavyweights like Daft Punk, Jay-Z and DJ Shadow.

Then again, maybe that was the problem. My distaste for the game has always been down to its scattershot approach to its soundtrack: a little hip-hop here, a little electronica there, some dance, all meeting over some ill-advised pop remixes...it's a mess. Perhaps it would have been better served picking, say, hip-hop and just running with that, so it was a must-have for at least one market.

That or not being $120. Or making its song downloads $3. Those might have helped, too.

Wonder if it'll do any better in November...

Anyway, here's the platform breakdown for those interested, courtesy of GameSpot:

Brutal Legend (360) - 150,000 units
Brutal Legend (PS3) - 66,000 units
DJ Hero (360) - 62,000 units
DJ Hero (PS3) - 39,000 units
DJ Hero (Wii) - 19,000 units
DJ Hero (PS2) - 3,300 units

Brutal Legend sells 216K, DJ Hero 123K [GameSpot]

The month was packed with new software, including Forza Motorsport 3, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and NBA 2K10 which put big numbers on the board. And while the PS3 and Wii secured software spots one and two, respectively, the Xbox 360's showing as a platform resulted in six of the top ten games sold in the U.S. this October. That's a lot of royalty payments going Microsoft's way.

And speaking of Microsoft's fortunes, last month's U.S. software champ Halo 3 ODST managed to round up another 271,000 sales.

The top ten games for the month of October according to NPD are...

01. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) - 537,000
02. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 441,000
03. Borderlands (Xbox 360) - 418,000
04. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 314,000
05. NBA 2K10 (Xbox 360) - 311,000
06. Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360) - 271,000
07. NBA 2K10 (PS3) - 213,000
08. Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) - 175,000
09. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) - 169,000
10. FIFA Soccer 10 (Xbox 360) - 156,000

That's just a portion of the $572.73 million that U.S. consumers spent on video game software last month, down 18% from the same period last year.

NPD's Anita Frazier notes that about half of Wii Fit Plus' sales for the month were of the bundled variety, meaning that plenty of Wii owners are investing in Wii Balance Boards for the first time.

"The top game for the month across all platforms was NBA 2K10, at 575K units," Frazier says of 2K Sports' latest. "It was a great launch for the game, outselling last year's NBA 2K9 by 60% in its launch month. Sales on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms improved substantially over last year."

Now for the bad news.

"The music/dance genre saw big declines this month compared to last year," Frazier notes. "The genre generated $53 million in sales as compared to $137 million last year. Both Rock Band: Beatles, and Guitar Hero 5 have the potential to be good gifting items for the holidays, so we should expect to see an uptick in sales over the next two months."

The Wii moved more than a half-million units to consumers in the United States last month, according to the NPD Group. That's up from the 462,800 it moved in September and more than enough to best its closest competitor, the Nintendo DS.

Sony's September to October performance was less fortunate, dropping from 491,800 to 320,600. On the Microsoft side, things were less worse, with Xbox 360 sales dipping from 352,600 in September to 249,700 in October. Without the sales boosting power of Halo 3: ODST, that puts Microsoft in fourth place in last month's ranking.

Here's how October treated console makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, according to NPD, whose reporting period ran from 10/4 to 10/31, a four week span compared to September's five week span.

• Wii - 506,900
• Nintendo DS - 457,600
• PlayStation 3 - 320,600
• Xbox 360 - 249,700
• PSP - 174,600
• PlayStation 2 - 117,800

U.S. consumers spent $380.74 million on video game hardware last month, down 23% from October 2008. While that's not good—not good at all—there is a faint silver lining, according to NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.

"The video games industry suffered another decline this month as compared to last October," Frazier points out, adding "This is the third best October on record, behind October 2007 and October 2008."

Frazier points to the Wii and Xbox 360 as "decreasing the most compared to October 2008."

And, putting reporting period windows into perspective, Frazier outlines the positives from October.

"Compared to last month, which was a five-week month as compared to four weeks this month, Wii, PSP and NDS sales increased on an average sales per week basis, while the PS3 and Xbox 360 declined," she says.

"On a year-to-date basis, only the Xbox 360 and the NDS have realized unit sales increases over the same time frame last year," Frazier said, find a bit more silver. "While overall portable hardware unit sales are down, dollar sales are up thanks to an increase in the average selling price of portable hardware generated by the higher price points of the new portable systems and bundles."

Thanks to the NPD Group for this month's info.

According to NPD data released today, the Warner Bros. Interactive-published DS game sold nearly 194,000 copies in its first month on the market. That puts it behind Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the third bestselling DS game for the month.

Scribblenauts was one of only two third party games to make it into the top ten bestselling games for Nintendo's portable platform, a list dominated by Nintendo-published fare. While 5th Cell may already be hard at work on a new Xbox Live Arcade game, surely they won't leaving money on the table by not producing a sequel, right? Right!

That makes Halo 3: ODST the bestselling game in the United States by a wide margin, outselling its nearest competitor, Wii Sports Resort, by more than a million copies. It's not quite as impressive as the launch of Halo 3, which turned in 3.3 million copies when it launched, but clearly enough for the win.

ODST had some stiff competition in September, with new top ten software appearances from games like Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, the only portable game to chart, Madden NFL 10 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Superhero games also scored big, with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum moving more than 200,000 copies each on the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively.

Here's how September's game sales worked out, by the numbers.

01. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360) - 1,520,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 442,900
03. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) - 298,600
04. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS) - 258,100
05. The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360) - 254,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) - 246,500
07. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360) - 236,000
08. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) - 212,500
09. Guitar Hero 5 (Xbox 360) - 210,800
10. The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii) - 208,600

Game purchases for the month amounted to $649.32 million, a five percent increase over the previous September. We're sure the video game industry has already sent a thank you card to Bungie for the uncommon boost.

Here's NPD analyst Anita Frazier's take on the whole thing.

"Halo 3 certainly impacted the industry two years ago (Sep'07) when it was launched, and this year, Halo 3: ODST realized impressive sales making it the 6th best-selling SKU launch of all time," she says.

"We know all eyes are going to be on the Rock Band and Guitar Hero sales since the music/dance genre has been so closely followed by many this year. Both titles captured a spot in the top 10 for the month and at the item level, across all platforms, The Beatles: Rock Band came in third behind Halo 3: ODST and Madden NFL 10 while Guitar Hero 5 came in fourth. The Beatles: Rock Band achieved this level of success with an average retail price premium of 130% to the average retail price for software overall. The sales of Rock Band and Guitar Hero led the music/dance genre to a 72% dollar sales increase over September 2008."

"Madden NFL 10 made up some ground this month," Frazier points out, finding the silver lining in Madden's weaker 2009 sales. "Although when launched in August the game sold 19% fewer units than its predecessor a year prior, with a second month of sales in, that deficit has been reduced to 13%, which bodes very well for the title through the holiday season."

Sony's recent price drop was in effect for the full month of September, more than doubling month-to-month PS3 sales to the tune of 491,800. That's easily better than its nearest competitor, the Wii, which managed 462,800 units sold in the United States last month and well beyond what the Xbox 360 sold.

None of those consoles, however, managed to outsell Nintendo's DS platform, which continues its six month streak atop the NPD Group's hardware chart with another half-million plus sold.

• Nintendo DS - 524,200
• PlayStation 3 - 491,800
• Wii - 462,800
• Xbox 360 - 352,600
• PSP - 190,400
• PlayStation 2 - 146,000

Total hardware sales in the U.S. amounted to $472.28 million during the month of September, which runs from 8/30 to 10/03, according to the NPD Group's window. Speaking of NPD, here's what analyst Anita Frazier had to say.

"All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August)."

"Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales," Frazier notes, pointing to last September's less than impressive fifth place finish for the PlayStation 3. "This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month."

The sales-tracking firm was scheduled to release today its listings of U.S. video game hardware and software sales for September. The report would have provided a glimpse of how the likes of Halo 3: ODST and The Beatles: Rock Band have been faring, along with the price-cut PlayStation 3.

But the report won't be released until Monday, October 19 at 6:30 p.m. eastern, 4:30 p.m. Kotaku. In a statement sent to the press, NPD spokesman David Riley blamed "last minute processing requirements."

We'll have our usual NPD coverage on Monday.

First our fall games are delayed. Now the sales reports too. What's next?

Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, explains in a press release that "consumers will be looking for the right gift, rather than the most extravagant or expensive one." So while spending might be a little bit up from last year, it's going to be on traditional stuff like books, sweaters, wallets and stuff.

Video games are still in the top 10 things people plan to buy as gifts, however — right above perfumes and food. The slight drop from last year's level might even be because people would rather buy a video game for themselves and buy their buddy a video game-related accessory. Or book.

Check it out for yourself here.

Thanks, Jim!
Image Cred: ToyFare Issue No. 89 "Christmas on Infinite Earths"

The NPD Group's David Riley has told MCV "The charts are needed in much the same way that retail and online tracking services are needed."

"Objective third party tracking is essential to separating the wheat from the chaff. In other words, accurate tracking will provide a no-nonsense view of what's happening on the publisher level, keeping away from the spin, and in some cases, misleading information that often appears on the internet.

"Misinformation can have a dramatic, negative impact on a publisher's bottom line."

A plug for their own services, sure, but also a welcome one. Provided, that is, every publisher/platform signs up for the service.
First digital chart coming to US? [MCV]

A comparison by Gamasutra, using NPD Group numbers, has shown that while software and hardware sales in August 2009 were down on 2008's numbers, sales of "accessories" increased by 2.3%.

Of course, that did little to stem the overall year-on-year bleed for the industry as a whole, but still, it's nice to find a positive amidst all the doom, no?

NPD: Behind the Numbers, August 2009 [Gamasutra]

That data says that Xbox 360 owners and Wii owners look to have the biggest crossover. Of the Xbox 360 owning gamers surveyed, 42% also had a Wii. Similarly, of the Wii owners surveyed, 26% had an Xbox 360, compared to 14% of those who had a PlayStation 3.

Don't take that the wrong way. The same ratio of PS3 owners (42% of 'em) also have a Wii. And more than a third of them have a 360. Should be interesting to see how that changes as price drops for all three systems put them closer to the realm of affordability this year.

Beyond the ranking of who likes what and which console is "winning" for second platform in the home, the survey of 20,893 Consumer Panel members has some interesting data within. If you like statistics, you're gonna love it.

MAJORITY OF GAMERS RELY ON WORD OF MOUTH AND HANDS-ON PLAY AT FRIENDS' AND RELATIVES' HOMES TO OBTAIN INFORMATION ON VIDEO GAMES [NPD Group]

According to a report from GameSpot, the Activision game sold just 106,000 copies across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Madden sold 1.9 million. Sure, combined Wolfenstein looks like it may have outsold the Wii version of this year's Madden, but I don't think that counts.

Not terribly good news for Activision, id or Raven, but news that helps shed a bit more light on those recent layoffs at the developer.

Here's to hoping that Singularity, Raven Software's other first-person shooter, fares better with its new release date.

Wolfenstein sells 106K on PC, PS3, and 360 combined [Gamespot]

Madden NFL 10 leads the NPD Group's top ten with 928,000 units sold on the Xbox 360. That's a drop from last year's cool million. And while Madden sales were up year-over-year on the PlayStation 3, the game suffered on the PlayStation 2 and Wii, with the sports game moving less than half of what it did on the PS2 from the same period last year.

All told, Madden NFL 10 managed to move 1.9 million copies across all platforms in August, down from the 2.2 million-plus Madden NFL 09 managed last year.

But NPD Group estimates had good news for Nintendo and Square Enix/Eidos. Wii Sports Resort continues to sell, as does Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii. That means plenty of Wii MotionPlus, Balance Board and Wii Wheel accessories in U.S. homes. Nintendo's Fossil Fighters for the Nintendo DS managed to crack the NPD top ten, with the kid friendly game moving 92,000 units.

U.S. consumers snapped up 593,000 copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

01. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) - 928,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 754,000
03. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) - 665,000
04. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) - 303,000
05. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) - 290,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS2) - 160,000
07. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) - 130,000
08. Wii Fit (Wii) - 128,000
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 120,000
10. Fossil Fighters (DS) - 92,000

All told, U.S. game buyers snapped up $470.32 million in games last month, a 15% decline from August of 2008. Here's NPD analyst Anita Frazier with some silver lining.

"The PS3 was the only platform to realize a year-over-year increase in total software sales and this is reflected in the top 10 list for the month which includes two PS3 games," says Frazier. It should be an interesting September, when we can see how the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 price drops affected sales of each platform over the course of an entire month.

According to the NPD Group, Sony sold 210,000 PlayStation 3s in the U.S. last month. With a $100 drop taking effect at some retailers as early as August 18th, that likely translates to a price conscious boost in sales. The Xbox 360, which also experienced a late August drop, got a minor boost.

In fact, every platform, with the exception of the PlayStation 2, saw a rise in sales, but it was the PS3's that stands out from the pack. Leading that pack, however, was the Nintendo DS, which more than half a million units in August, DS Lite and DSi combined.

Overall, though, it was bad news for the industry, which saw its sixth consecutive month-to-month decline.

• Nintendo DS - 552,900
• Wii - 277,400
• Xbox 360 - 215,400
• PlayStation 3 - 210,000
• PSP - 140,300
• PlayStation 2 - 105,900

Total hardware spend for August was $297.60 million, according to the NPD Group. That's down from $395.34 million from August 2008.

* Combined, that is. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of this year's NCAA Football joined forces to sell over 613,000 copies, besting Wii Sports Resort in multi-SKU semantics. Across all platforms, the NPD Group says, EA Sports' college footballer moved over 689,000 units. I smell sequel!

The line up is, like most months, Nintendo platform heavy. Seven of the top ten games are Wii or Nintendo DS titles, including plenty of evergreen entries like New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart Wii.

Here are July 2009's bestselling games, from the NPD Group.

01. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 508,200
02. NCAA Football 10 (Xbox 360) - 376,500
03. NCAA Football 10 (PS3) - 237,400
04. Wii Fit (Wii) - 164,300
05. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 156,600
06. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 132,200
07. Pokemon Platinum (DS) - 116,400
08. Fight Night Round 4 (Xbox 360) - 116,400
09. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 101,800
10. EA Sports Active (Wii) - 96,800

All that spending amounted to $436.99 million by U.S. consumers, off 26% from the previous year.

Anita Frazier, NPD analyst, has some bad news for some portions of the industry. "Of all genres, the music/dance genre has suffered the greatest declines this year, with nearly $390 million less revenues than the same time period last year," she says. "In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11% (or more) higher than the last five months of last year."

That means Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 really has its work cut out for it.

"While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including Madden this month, which should help spur sales," Frazier notes. "The worst comps should be behind us, and looking beyond August we have The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, and of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to look forward to."