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]

Before you read this analysis, open up some tabs or windows with McWhertor's NPD November U.S. hardware and software reports.

We're doing Instant Analysis differently this time. Now you have options. Be sure to choose the correct one. Note that all numbers are plucked from the NPD group's U.S. sales charts.

Fact: In 2007, Super Mario Galaxy, a 3D Mario game, sold 1.12 million copies in November (launched on the 12th) in the U.S.. In 2009, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a 2D Mario game, sold 1.39 million in its November (launched on the 15th).

Possible Analysis
1) 2D is more popular than 3D?
2) So many more Wiis two years later didn't net so many more sales, so 3D is more popular than 2D?
3) None of this matters because Wii owners are an unpredictable lot and buy their games when they want to, not necessarily when release day hits.

Fact: In 2007, Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare sold 2.14 million on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in its first November (launched on the 6th) in the U.S.. The sequel, Modern Warfare 2 did 6.07 million on those same two consoles in its first November (launched on the 10th).

Possible Analysis
1) Modern Warfare is an out of control juggernaut, a beast set to trample all contenders.
2) So few other games came out this past month compared to November 2007 that gamers were stuck - just stuck — buying MW2. What else were they going to buy?
3) Once in love with a gaming franchise, consumers show up on day one.

Fact: In 2007, Assassin's Creed sold 1.6 million copies on the Xbox 360 and PS3 in its first month (launched on the 14th) in the U.S.. In 2009, Assassin's Creed II sold 1.2 million copies in its first month (launched on the 17th). ... All of which doesn't exactly explain Ubisoft saying its second Creed was selling more quickly in its first week, worldwide, than its first.

Possible Analysis
1) Uh, oh, Ezio? With more consoles in the market and better reviews, the new game not outselling the first out of the gate in America is a problem that can possibly be blamed on the mixed word of mouth received by the first entry?
2) The ever-important Italian-American user-based was split, wooed over to Mario from ACII's Ezio.
3) The 360 fans have beef with this series, as they bought 185,000 fewer copies of the new one in November '09 than they did of the first one in November '07, while the PS3 community bought 71,000 more.

Fact: Left 4 Dead 2 sold 80% better on the Xbox 360 in its first month this year than its predecessor did last year (The games launched on the 18th in '08 and the 17th in '09).

Possible Analysis
1) Gamers want Valve to start cranking out annual sequels.
2) Zombies are more popular now than they were last year.
3) Internet complaints/petitions against hasty Valve sequels don't count (though, you'd craftily add, who knows about how well the game performed on PC).

Notable new releases that failed to make the overall software top 10 (With no console or handheld version selling more than 315,000 units in the U.S. by November 28): Style Savvy (November 2), Lego Rock Band (November 3), Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage (November 8), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex (November 10), EA Sports Active More Workouts (November 17), Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (November 17), Tony Hawk Ride (November 17).

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."

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.

But in the eye of the contentious hurricane that swirls around the upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, developer Infinity Ward appears unfazed.

"It's very exciting," said Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling, who's title changed from community manager to "creative strategist" as the buzz began to swell for Modern Warfare 2. "I'm fully expecting it to do very well. I'm expecting good things."

And he should be. Set in modern times, the first-person shooter has already broken the record for most pre-orders, according to national retailer GameStop.

And industry analyst Anita Frazier says there's a very good chance it will break Halo 3's record for 3.3 million copies sold at launch.

"The previous best-selling Call of Duty games (across all platforms) in its launch month is a tie between (Modern Warfare) and COD World at War with 2.3 million units including those generated by PC sales at retail," said Frazier, who tracks sales numbers for the NPD Group. "For the title to exceed Halo 3 first month sales, COD: MW2 would have to best its previous best launches by 43%.

"That's a big number to increase, but is it possible? Yes, with what is being reported about pre-sells and the general level of buzz that this game is generating, it's possible. There are also a number of high-interest special edition SKU's launching for this game as well."

But all of that buzz, and those millions of pre-orders, means a lot of people are paying very close attention to what developer Infinity Ward is doing this time around with the game.

Fans have been carefully tracking every bit of information dropped about the game, from the night vision goggles that will be included with some special editions of the title, to plot twists and the way the game will be handled on different platforms.

"We have come to a realization with this game that anything that can leak will leak," Bowling said. "When our night vision glasses went into production, the guys making them figured out what they were for and put them on and took pictures of them."

The leaks have reached such a fevered pitch that Bowling recently advised gamers to avoid the internet altogether if they wanted to have a pristine experience playing through the game.

Soon after, word and video hit of a level in the game that seems to involve player-controlled terrorism. Despite the game being weeks from release, Australian politicians were up in arms about the notion and eventually publisher Activision released a statement defending the game and saying players will have the option to skip it.

But that short lived controversy was nothing compared to the ire raised by the developer's approach to the PC version of the game. When news hit that PC gamers would have less control over the way they play online it ignited a firestorm of seething disappointment, online petitions and, in at least one case, a cash donation to a competing video game.

Bowling and the company defend the decisions made to make the PC game more accessible.

"We have protected what our veteran gamers love about the game, but are also catering to different play styles and rewarding those different play styles," Bowling said. "Accessibility was a major focus for Modern Warfare 2."

And Bowling denies that Infinity Ward and Activision are more focused on making the console versions of the game than a solid PC version.

"We make a fantastic PC game," he said. "Modern Warfare 2 is our most feature-rich PC game yet."

When asked if the next Modern Warfare would be on the PC, Bowling said he doesn't even know yet what Infinity Ward's next game will be.

Bowling believes that the outcry against Infinity Ward's design decisions by some PC gamers is a case of a loud minority, and not the sentiments of the majority.

"We have 14 million players on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," he said. "The hardcore gamers make up a smaller core of that, and PC gamers are the smallest group of that core.

"It is a very vocal community and they are all online."

The outcry is perhaps also the offshoot of a game developer being so engaged with their community.

"Our community gets so invested in our games," Bowling said. "Therefore they feel, and rightfully so, that we should justify every design decision to them. I think that it's very important to understand that you should be very involved in your community and work with them, but not to be held prisoner to their demands.

"We know our game very well. Some of the stuff you have to put in there and have faith in your design. Some things don't sound good out of context. You don't see the beauty of them until you experience them for yourselves."

"It's a very fine line."

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

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!

Well, Batman: Arkham Asylum slips into the top 20 at least, taking a respectable number 16 position. The two MMO titles more or less storm the charts, with Cryptic's Champions Online snagging number 3, and Aion pulling a double as the normal version rocks number 1 and the limited edition takes the 5-spot. This means near domination of the top 5 for MMOs this month, with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at number 4 while The Sims 3 slips down to 2.

Not a bad start for two of the most eagerly anticipated MMO titles of the season. Check out the full chart below to see if your favorite made the cut this month.

Nearly half a million people purchased Playstation 3s in September, according to NPD figures.

"We are in the midst of one of the most exciting times for PlayStation as we continue to redefine entertainment experiences for consumers, both at home and on the go," Sony's Jack Tretton said, pointing to the price drop for the Playstation 3 and the release of the PSPgo. "We've made unprecedented strides in digital and mobile entertainment with the availability of PSPgo."

"The best part is that we've only just begun an onslaught of relentless, rich content hitting throughout the fiscal year, including Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, God of War III, MAG, and ModNation Racers," he said.

Tretton said that Sony is "continuing to stack the chips this holiday with great game content" mentioning the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the PSP and Assassin's Creed 2.

He also pointed out the rave reviews that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has been getting from review publications, including this one.

"There simply has never been a better time to be part of the PlayStation family and we look forward to providing you with the best entertainment content and experience for many, many years to come," he said.

Before you read this analysis, open up some tabs or windows with McWhertor's NPD September U.S. hardware and software reports.

Batman PS3 Has More Legs: In August, the Xbox 360 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum outsold the PS3 version by 13,000 copies. 303k to 290k. So much for the PS3-exclusive Joker downloadable content, right? Well, upon further review, the PS3 version at least shows up in the top 10 this month, out-selling the 360 version, which didn't make the chart, by at least 3,900 copies. If nothing else, it appears that Sony was able to blunt the 360's installed-based advantage on that one.

Wii Fit Streak Ends At 15: Nintendo's Wii Fit was in the software top 10, often atop it, for the first 15 months of its release in the U.S. That ended in September. And like magic, Wii Fit would be replaced with Wii Fit Plus in October.

Music Game Platform Choices Juggle: A lot of people are rightly focusing on the September victory of The Beatles: Rock Band over Guitar Hero 5. That's interesting. But here's another twist. Last year, Guitar Hero: World Tour launched in November 2008 with the Wii version as the top-seller (with the next best-selling music game on the system that month being Wii Music). That could have been a sign of the Wii being the party console of choice. This past September, however, the 360 took the lead, charting Beatles 360 at #5 and Guitar Hero 5 at #9. The top Wii music game was Beatles at #10. Does the 360 have more casual-gaming potential than some thought?

Halo Crushes, Briefly: There something to be said for the relatively light amount of campaign content in Halo 3 ODST not affecting the game's first month of sales. The game tripled its nearest competitor, Wii Sports Resort. Did consumers care that it is a seven-hour game with lots of multiplayer maps and co-op support? Some saw ODST as a short game. In the early going, it looks like consumers may have seen depth.

No PSPgo-Mania Yet: In the September NPDs, the PSP averaged 5,011 units sold per day. In the September NPDs, that number is up to 5,440. That's a small lift, but not the big boost yet of a big product launch. To be fair, these latest NPDs only covered the first two days that the PSPgo was on sale.

Notable new releases that failed to make the overall software top 10 (With no console or handheld version selling more than 208,600 units in the U.S. by October 3): Dirt 2 (September 8), LittleBigPlanet: Game of the Year Edition (September 8), Mini Ninjas (September 8), Muramasa: The Demon Blade (September 8), Need for Speed: Shift (September 15), NHL 10 (September 15), NHL 2K10 (September 15), Scribblenauts (September 15), Wet (September 15), Spyborgs (September 25), Beaterator (September 29), Dead Space Extraction (September 29), Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (September 29), Gran Turismo (October 1) [NOTE: Last month's 10th-place game sold 92,000 copies, making games that didn't chart seem weak. The cut-off here is higher, suggesting failure to make the top 10 was not failure overall.]

Finally, impress your friends by telling them that you know that this NPD reporting period was seven days longer than the last one. So that's why the numbers are so much bigger. Well, at least that's part of the reason.

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?

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]

But what does that mean to gamers?

In reality, it shouldn't mean a thing. Crimes and the things that cause people to commit them are far too complex to compare to other statistics, like unemployment or demographics. But that doesn't stop pundits, newspapers and politicians from doing just that every year.

Occasionally, a wacko will also try to roll out annual video game sales and draw some sort of correlation between the increase in video game purchases and the crime rate, be it juvenile arrests or violent crimes committed. It is, of course, utter nonsense. But it's also an interesting jumping off point for discussion and debate... intelligent discussion and debate.

One word of warning, the numbers shown here, all pulled from NPD and the FBI, are meant to only show changes over time. They should not be used to compare totals because I had to re-fame the "per thousands" on them to get all of the numbers (which range from the thousands to the billions) to show up on one chart.

Now have at it... nicely.

Those ten games, running 11-20 on the charts, can be found on Gamasutra, and what a pitiful bunch they are. For reference, Madden 10 on Wii only sold 67,000 units across the United States, meaning in August for a game to make the top 20 it simply had to be released.

Here's some of my monthly instant analysis for all those NPD August hardware and software sales figures McWhertor just posted. Study them and then consider the following as viable talking points when you're flirting with someone in a bar this weekend or thinking of a topic for your first term paper or just making small talk with your dog...

Shadow Complex Would Have Been #6... Or So: Microsoft announced last month that the downloadable game Shadow Complex sold more than 200,000 copies in its first week of sales, starting August 19. That's more copies than all but five games on the NPD list sold in the month. We don't know how many copies the $15 downloadable sold by month's end, but Dissidia: Final Fantasy, which was released a week later, managed 130,000 during its month. Shadow Complex handily beat it as well as the PS2 version of Madden. Those were more expensive games, but NPD does rank by units. When it comes to tallying which games sold to the most gamers in the month, remember the downloadables. (Note: Gamasutra shows that Trials HD may have ranked even higher, though this also raises the question of whether it's fair to compare what appears to be worldwide sales of XBLA games to U.S.-only NPDs)

Madden Ennui: EA's annual hit football series posted big numbers on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2, but there's no sign of the Wii edition, despite the series being re-retooled. How many more times does EA have to re-invent the series before it clicks with the Wii audience, who, this top 10 list indicates, have nothing against certain types of sports games?

The Gap Closed: A $100 price drop didn't enable the PlayStation 3 to out-sell the Xbox 360, but it's possible that people were waiting to buy a Slim. The redesigned system wasn't available in many regions until after the 8/29 conclusion of the August sales month. Regardless, the Wii didn't even beat the Xbox 360 by that much, bunching the Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo systems at 210,000, 215,400 and 277,400. It's getting cozy there.

Handheld Stereotypes Persevere: A game with Final Fantasy in the title can get a PSP game finally back in the top 10. And a kid-friendly new intellectual property called Fossil Fighters can score a bigger first-month number on the Nintendo DS than a new Grand Theft Auto. Each was on sale for the same amount of days: 19. That success of Fossil Fighters is a possible good sign for another kid-friendly DS game... Scribblenauts.

Activision Shut Out: There aren't many times Activision's many detractors can be gleeful, so they might want to stare at these NPDs and smile just this once. Activision is absent from the list of top 10 games, as are all other publishers in the industry except Nintendo, EA and Square Enix (the last of which recently bought Batman publisher Eidos).

Notable new releases that failed to make the overall software top 10 (With no console or handheld version selling more than 92,000 units in the U.S. by August 29) : G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (August 4), Wolfenstein (August 18), Metroid Prime Trilogy (August 24), Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box (August 24)

NPD-PDs will return next month... if you demand them!