Sales of video games, consoles and accessories fell 17 percent in April, to $1 billion versus $1.2 billion in the same period last year, according to NPD Group. Year-to-date sales also saw a drop. Sales for the year were $5.28 billion, down from $5.48 billion.
The decrease for April may be steep, but analysts say there’s no need to worry.
“While April sales might appear soft on the surface, it’s important to remember that April is being compared against a month (April 2008) that realized nearly 50 percent growth over April 2007,” said Anita Frazier, a video-game and toy analyst with NPD. “This year’s performance still represents the second-best performance for the industry in the month of April, besting April 2007, which is the previous second-place holder, by 26 percent.”
Sales of portable game systems have increased because of Nintendo’s release of the DSi. The Nintendo DS category accounted for 31 percent of total sales in April, according to NPD. Despite the portables’ success, there will be a weakness in sales for other platforms this month with a year-over-year decrease in Wii hardware sales.
“Taking that into account, Wii unit sales are still very strong and only followed the DS this month in terms of dollar and unit sales contribution to total industry sales,” Frazier said.
Video-game software took the hardest hit in comparison to hardware and accessories. Software sales in April were down 23 percent from April 2008, dropping from $660.1 billion to $510.7 billion
“The number of new releases this month is fairly comparable to what was introduced last April, but GTA IV — on both PS3 and the 360 — sold nearly one million more units last April than the entire top 10 list did this year,” Frazier said.
April 2008 also included the release of Mario Kart…