Sony Game Systems Were Weakest Sellers Again in December, NPD Says

Sony’s PS3 and PSP were again the weakest-selling videogame systems in the U.S., while Nintendo’s DS and Wii repeated as the best-selling systems in December despite seeing significant slowdowns from a year earlier, NPD’s data showed. The Xbox 360, meanwhile, had another strong month in the market, selling 1.86 million units, up from 1.31 million in December 2009 (CED Jan 19 p8) and 1.37 million in November 2010 (CED Dec 13 p3), as its U.S. installed base grew to more than 25 million. It was the only system with a sales increase from December 2009.

Sony Computer Entertainment America was again the only one of the three console makers to not say how many systems it sold last month, and NPD stopped providing monthly hardware sales data to reporters. But an industry source who said he receives the research company’s hardware data said 1.21 million PS3s were sold in December, down from 1.36 million in December 2009 but an improvement over the 530,000 sold in November 2010. The PS3’s U.S. installed base inched up to more than 15 million -- still far behind the 360 and Wii.

The PS3 is not getting nearly as big of a sales bounce from the recent launch of Sony’s new PlayStation Move motion control system as the 360 is getting from Microsoft’s Kinect launch. The source estimated that only about 20 percent of PS3 sales included Move controller bundles in December; in comparison, about 50 percent of 360 sales included Kinect bundles.

PSP sales, meanwhile, continued to struggle and were down 35 percent in December from the 654,700 that NPD said Sony sold in December 2009, though they grew 49 percent from November 2010, the source said. The source didn’t say how many PSPs were sold in December, but we projected that the number was 425,000-430,000 based on the data provided by NPD last year and the source on Friday. Sony hasn’t found a way to generate much interest for the platform in the U.S. despite continued PSP strength in Japan. A long-rumored PSP2 that could be announced as soon as late this month may generate the kind of demand that Sony failed to achieve with the download-only PSP Go in every major market.

The DS repeated as the month’s best-selling system overall, moving more than 2.5 million units, Nintendo of America (NOA) said. That was down from the 3.31 million in December 2009, but up from the 1.5 million in November 2010. The handheld platform’s U.S. installed base grew to more than 47 million, passing Sony’s PS2, NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

The Wii remained the No. 2 hardware platform in December. The 2.36 million sold were fewer than the 3.81 million sold in December 2009, but more than the 1.27 million sold in November 2010. Its U.S. installed base grew to more than 34 million. The Nintendo systems were also the best-selling U.S. systems for all of 2010, NOA said. More than 8.5 million DS systems and more than 7 million Wiis were sold in 2010, it said, citing NPD data.

After a strong November, U.S. game industry sales had a setback in December. Overall U.S. game industry sales fell 9 percent in December from a year earlier to $5.06 billion, NPD said. The data included sales of all interactive games sold in the physical retail channel, including PC, console and portable titles, as well as hardware and accessories. Total hardware sales tumbled 16 percent to $1.84 billion. Videogame software sales for consoles and handheld systems, not including PC titles, fell 8 percent to $2.37 billion. Overall physical game sales, including for PCs, slid 5 percent to $2.53 billion.

Accessory sales were the one bright spot in December for new videogame product sales, growing 10 percent to $853.2 million. Kinect was the No. 1 accessory for the second straight month after its early-November release, Frazier said. It wasn’t clear how many dollars the relatively high-priced accessory sucked out of the sector; Many consumers who bought a Kinect sensor bar on its own for $149.99 or a higher-priced bundle including it and a 360 console may have opted to not buy any other game products. NPD didn’t say how many Kinect sensors or other accessories were sold, but our source said about 700,000 of THQ’s uDraw GameTablets for the Wii were sold in December.

The month’s best-selling game in units was Activision Blizzard’s multiplatform Call of Duty: Black Ops for the second straight month, NPD said. Ubisoft’s Wii game Just Dance 2 was No. 2, while Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Cataclysm for the PC was No. 3, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for the 360 and PS3 was No. 4 and Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii was No. 5. NPD recently stopped providing specific game sales data, and also stopped breaking down results by specific SKUs. But the source said 3.6 million copies of Black Ops were sold in the month across all SKUs.

For 2010, overall U.S. game industry sales fell 6 percent from 2009 to $18.58 billion, NPD said. Hardware sales tumbled 13 percent to $6.29 billion. Videogame software sales for consoles and handheld systems fell 6 percent to $9.36 billion. Overall physical game sales, including for PCs, dropped 5 percent to $10.06 billion. Accessory sales were the one bright spot for the year, too, growing 13 percent to $2.93 billion. NPD estimated that total consumer spending on games content in 2010, including new games across all platforms, used games, rentals, subscriptions, downloads, social network games and mobile game applications, came in at $15.4 billion-$15.6 billion, about flat or down one percent compared to 2009.

In addition to accessories, NPD said, “bright spots” for 2010 included a 3 percent increase in new physical PC games sold at retail, as well as “increases in the consumer spend on used games sales, full-game digital downloads and downloadable content, mobile gaming apps, and social network gaming, which offset declines in console and portable new physical game sales, rentals, and subscriptions.” But it said: “Spending on new physical content at retail continues to account for the majority of the total consumer spend on games content."

Black Ops was also the best-selling game of 2010, despite only being available for two months, NPD said. The multiplatform Madden NFL 11 from Electronic Arts was the No. 2 game of the year, followed by Microsoft’s 360 game Halo: Reach, Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Take-Two Interactive’s Red Dead Redemption for the 360 and PS3, Nintendo’s Wii Fit Plus, Just Dance 2, Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for 360, PS3 and PC, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, and Take-Two’s multiplatform NBA 2K11.

Underscoring the relatively weak performance of the Sony platforms compared to those of Microsoft and Nintendo, not a single PS3 or PSP exclusive made the top 10 for either December or the year. The absence of a Rock Band or Guitar Hero game in the top 10 for December or 2010 also underscored the continued decline in music videogame sales.