Last month was crazy for the industry. Game sales were up 41% over last year. But, as summer winds down, so does the videogames industry. We’re in what you might call that pre-holiday season lull.
The individual NPD releases from each of the big three seem to say “we’re still doing good” and not much else. Nintendo is still on top, with the DS and Wii finishing as number one and two for August. The PSP is doing great, coming in at number three. Sony says that this was related to their new Madden PSP pack. The PS3 falls just behind the Xbox 360 this month, with about 185,000 units trailing Microsoft’s 195,000. I look for that gap to increase next month with the new Xbox 360 price cuts.
As for games, last month was Madden month, so you know how that went. Over two million units of Madden NFL 09 were sold over various consoles, with the Xbox 360 selling a million copies itself. Too Human deserves a pat on the back for selling over 168,000 copies last month, ranking in the top ten alongside Wii Fit and Soul Calibur IV. And I’ll be damned: Wii Play continues to sell, coming in at number 6 this month with more than 200,000 copies sold. Amazing.
August may have been calm, but I don’t think September will be. The industry is ramping up for the holiday, ready to rape our wallets.
