Video Game Industry Drop . Microsoft XBox Gains to Buck U.S.

June 13 (Bloomberg Business Week)

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 was the top-selling video-game console in the U.S. last month, bucking a software-led decline that saw industry sales slump to their lowest since October 2006.

Xbox 360 sales increased 39 percent to 270,000 units from a year earlier, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said today in an e-mailed statement, citing industry tracker NPD Group Inc. Sony Corp., maker of the PlayStation 3 and the PlayStation Portable, said its hardware sales increased 14 percent.

A light slate of new game software and Nintendo Co.’s aging Wii console contributed to a 14 percent decline in overall retail sales of $743.1 million in May, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said in an e-mailed statement. The figure doesn’t include digital sales of games.

“Overall, the Xbox 360 platform has contributed 34 percent of year-to-date revenues” across hardware, content and accessories, said Anita Frazier, an analyst with NPD. The platform has gained 7 percentage points of market share, she said.

Industry hardware sales dropped 5 percent to $228.9 million, and software declined 19 percent to $375.8 million, NPD reported.

Sony’s PS3 and PSP both showed unit-sales growth, NPD reported, without citing exact figures