News

May 2012 US sales down 28% over last year despite Diablo III
Posted: 15.06.2012 16:11 by JonahFalcon Comments: 1
Diablo III became the first PC game to lead US videogame sales since Starcraft II two years ago, but it wasn't enough to prevent sales from suffering a 28% drop from May 2011 to May 2012, according to the NPD Group. This has been a trend in dipping sales for the past few months, starting with February 2012's 20% drop from February 2011.

Hardware sales were particularly affected, as the Xbox 360's 160,000 led all other consoles. Overall, console sales were down 39% year-to-date. Accessories were the only segment of the industry to see an increase over last year, primarily due to Skylander: Spyro's Adventure's action figure sales. However, Microsoft announced that revenue on Xbox 360 games, hardware, and accessories hit $209 million, which was more than what was spent on the Wii and PlayStation 3 combined.


TOP 10 GAMES FOR MAY 2012

1. Diablo III (PC) - Activision Blizzard
2. Max Payne 3 (X360, PS3) - Take-Two
3. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (X360, PS3) - Ubisoft
4. Prototype 2 (X360, PS3) - Activision
5. NBA 2K12 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) - Take-Two
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, Wii, PC) - Activision
7. Sniper Elite V2 (X360, PS3) - 505 Games
8. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts
9. Dragon's Dogma (X360, PS3) - Capcom
10. Just Dance 3 (Wii, X360, PS3) - Ubisoft
Source: GameSpot
Related games: Diablo III (Xbox360), Max Payne 3 (PC), Max Payne 3 (PS3), Max Payne 3 (Xbox360), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PS3), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Xbox360), Prototype 2 (PS3), Prototype 2 (Xbox360), NBA 2K12 (PC), NBA 2K12 (PS3), NBA 2K12 (Xbox360), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PC), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Wii), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PS3), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Xbox360), Sniper Elite V2 (PC), Sniper Elite V2 (PS3), Sniper Elite V2 (Xbox360), Battlefield 3 (PC), Battlefield 3 (PS3), Battlefield 3 (Xbox360), Dragon's Dogma (PS3), Dragon's Dogma (Xbox360), Just Dance 3 (PS3), Just Dance 3 (Xbox360), Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (PC), Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (PS3), Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Xbox360)

Comments

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jun 15, 2012
herodotus
The Entertainment Industry is aways the last in line to suffer from financial recessions and we're in a mighty big one globally at present. Given the fiscal state of the US economy, including the unemployment percentage over the past 12 months this is not a surprising result. It'll probably get worse before it gets better, as retail sales in general are down worldwide.
Added to this is the rising cost of making games and keeping developers employed. The subsequent impact this has on the retailer and game sales are likely to keep falling no matter the title or quality of product,, which may end up suffering as well.
On the Good News side of things, Piracy in Australia has been shown to have dropped by 12% with many now preferring to actibvely support the ailing retail industry with their wallets.
Time will tell, but the GFC is worsening and things are looking pretty bleak at this stage.