The U.S. video game industry took another hit, right in the sensitive hardware region, as May sales show another month-to-month and year-over-year decline. Despite drops, Nintendo remains the hardware champ thanks to continued Nintendo DS and Wii sales.
Both the DS and Wii saw sizable hits from the previous month. April was boosted by the introduction of the Nintendo DSi, but second month sales were closer to pre-DSi figures. The DS and DSi—combined in the NPD Group's data—moved another 633,5000 units, more than double the Wii's 289,500.
The PlayStation 3 was the only console to see an increase in sales, moving 131,000 units in May versus 127,000 in April. The Xbox 360, however, held strong to its 175,000 sales from April, moving the same amount in May. Total PlayStation family hardware sales topped 348,000, but saw month-to-month declines on the PSP and PS2.
- Nintendo DS - 633,500
- Wii - 289,500
- Xbox 360 - 175,000
- PlayStation 3 - 131,000
- PlayStation 2 - 117,000
- PSP - 100,400
Total hardware spend over the 28 day May reporting period was $302.5 million, a 30% drop from the same period from last year. NPD analyst Anita Frazier didn't have a lot of positive things to say about the month in sales.
"The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1B since August 2007," Frazier said. "May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months in any given year for the industry in general."