Sony Game Systems Were January’s Weakest Sellers—NPD Data

Sony’s PS3 and PSP were again the weakest-selling videogame systems in the U.S. in January, while the Xbox 360 became the top-selling system and was the only one to see a sales increase from January 2010, NPD’s data showed. Microsoft said sales of its console grew to about 381,000 from about 333,000 a year ago (CED Feb 16/10 p6). The growth was aided by continued demand for the Kinect for Xbox 360 motion-sensing system that launched for the holiday season. But 360 sales tumbled from the 1.86 million sold in December 2010 for the holiday season (CED Jan 18 p3). The 360’s U.S. installed base grew to about 26 million.

Sony Computer Entertainment America and Nintendo of America didn’t say how many of their systems were sold in January and NPD stopped providing unit sales data to reporters. But an industry source who said he receives the research company’s hardware data said Friday that about 267,000 PS3s were sold and about 319,000 Wiis.

PS3 sales were down from about 277,000 in January 2010 and about 1.21 million in December. The PS3 isn’t getting the same sales bump from Sony’s PlayStation Move motion control system as the 360 is getting from Kinect. The U.S. installed base of Sony’s console grew to about 16 million. The hardware makers and NPD offered no sales update on Kinect and Move sales. But the source said Kinect/Xbox 360 console and accessory bundles significantly outsold PlayStation Move/PS3 bundles in January.

Wii sales were down from about 466,000 in January 2010 and about 2.36 million in December. Its U.S. installed base grew to about 35 million, keeping Nintendo’s system firmly in the lead among the three home consoles.

Despite outselling its rivals in January, Microsoft said, “Some lingering supply constraints coupled with high consumer demand led to continued pockets of shortages at retail” for the 360 console and Kinect motion sensor. The company “anticipates this trend to improve through February, but will continue to work … to expedite production and shipments,” it said.

Sales of the handheld systems continued to see heavy declines. The industry source said PSP sales tumbled 24 percent from about 100,000 in January 2010, while DS sales fell 31 percent from about 422,000. But Nintendo’s handheld platform still has a far wider U.S. installed base than the PSP, with about 47 million DS systems across all SKUs sold through January.

Overall U.S. game industry sales fell 5 percent from January 2010 to $1.16 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 fell 8 percent to $324 million. Videogame software sales for consoles and handheld systems, not including PC titles, fell 5 percent to $576 million. Overall physical game sales, including for PCs, slid 6 percent to $603.1 million. The one bright spot was videogame accessory sales, which were up 6 percent at $235.1 million, likely driven in large part by Kinect demand.

Activision’s multiplatform Call of Duty: Black Ops remained the best-selling game in the U.S., NPD said. About 750,000 copies were sold across all platforms in January, the source said. Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2 for the Wii was No. 2, followed by Dead Space 2 from Electronic Arts for the 360, PS3 and PC, Sony’s PS3 game LittleBigPlanet 2 and Majesco Entertainment’s Zumba Fitness for the PS3, Wii and 360, NPD said.