Sales of the Nintendo Wii game console rose 37 percent in September, but the rest of the industry saw losses. It was the first time in more than two years that the market for consoles and games has seen an overall decline.
In all, consumers purchased 687,000 Wii consoles, according to the NPD Group. That marks an increase from 501,000 in September 2007. But the industry’s total sales fell seven percent to $1.27 billion.
“Last September, the industry saw the release of Halo 3, so that’s probably affecting the numbers,” said Michael Cai, a video-game analyst at Parks Associates. The Microsoft blockbuster sold 3.3. million titles, which boosted overall industry sales 75 percent for September 2007, according to NPD Group.
“With just one month of data it’s difficult to generalize whether this is going to be a downward trend or not,” Cai said. “Even a recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of decline. So it’s difficult to make a conclusion from one month of data.”
Measuring Next-Gen Success
Indeed, despite the down numbers and the economic uncertainties, NPD reports that the health of the video-game industry is strong. For example, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, September’s hottest title, sold 610,000 units.
Nintendo is readying for the holiday season, the most important time of the year for the video-game industry, by upping its shipment volume 50 percent in the fourth quarter. The company hopes to avoid lost sales from any potential shortages. Nintendo has no plans to cut the Wii’s already market-low $249 price for the holidays, according to the company.
It’s a different story for Microsoft. Redmond slashed the price of the the Xbox 360 Arcade, its low-end model, from $279.99 to $199.99 in September. The Xbox 360 is still selling well, pushing out 347,200 units in September to secure second place…