Videogame industry remains in decline during October

by Stevie Smith - Nov 13 2009, 09:40

Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 may well be taking checkouts by storm, and breaking sales records in the process, but recent U.S. market figures released by NPD suggest the hot-selling sequel’s breakneck momentum is not indicative of the overall videogames industry.

More pointedly, research group NPD’s latest figures show that sales of videogame software and accessories plunged by 19 percent to a total of $1.07 billion USD during the month of October, while hardware sales dropped by a fairly hefty 23 percent.

The continuing decline of the videogame industry comes despite heavyweight players Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo recently either refreshing their respective console line-ups (i.e., the PS3 Slim and PSP Go) or hacking down the ticket prices assigned to their hardware bundles.

While September saw Sony enjoy a chart-topping sales spike via its revamped PlayStation 3 platform, Nintendo’s hugely popular motion-sensing Wii deposed its powerhouse rival and regained bragging rights in October, thanks to sales of 507,000 units.

Holding on to some of its momentum, the PlayStation 3 pulled in 321,000 sales across the U.S. market, which was likely aided by the attraction of PS3 exclusive Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – October’s best-selling software title. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 managed to shift 250,000 units.

News of the continuing drop in hardware and software sales comes in the same week third-party publishing giant Electronic Arts announced a restructuring plan that will involve culling some 1,500 jobs from its international workforce.

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