PS3 February Sales Strong, But Again It’s Weakest-Selling Console—NPD Data

The PS3 remained the weakest-selling home videogame console in the U.S. in February as the Xbox 360 again came out on top and the Wii followed at No. 2, according to NPD data. Sales of Sony’s console, however, were still strong, growing from February 2010 and January this year. Portable videogame system sales, meanwhile, continued to be weak ahead of the coming launches of the 3DS March 27 in the U.S. and the NGP later this year.

NPD stopped providing hardware sales data to reporters. But Microsoft, citing NPD data, said U.S. Xbox 360 sales grew to about 535,000 units from about 422,000 in February 2010 (CED March 15/10 p8) and 381,000 in January this year (CED Feb 22 p4). That boosted its U.S. installed base to about 27 million. February 360 sales “soundly” topped “most industry analyst forecasts,” Microsoft said. Kinect demand boosted the console’s sales, said Bank of Montreal Capital Markets analyst Edward Williams. “Two out of every three Xbox 360s were purchased as part of a Kinect bundle,” he said.

The Wii’s U.S. installed base “crossed the 35 million sales mark” in the U.S. in February after “more than 454,000” consoles were sold in the month, Nintendo of America (NOA) said. February sales were stronger than the 398,000 or so units that were sold in February 2010 and 319,000 sold in January this year.

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) was again the only hardware supplier that didn’t say how many home consoles were sold in February. But an industry source said about 403,000 PS3s were sold, up from the 360,000 or so that were sold in February 2010 and 267,000 sold in January this year. The growth was likely driven by demand for Sony’s new PlayStation Move motion control system, although Kinect demand continued to outstrip Move demand, the source said. The PS3’s U.S. installed base grew to about 16 million.

NOA and SCEA didn’t say how many of their portable systems were sold in February. The source said only that DS sales fell 34 percent from the 613,000 or so that were sold in February 2010, while PSP sales tumbled 42 percent from 133,000. Nintendo’s portable system sales are expected to soar after the 3DS launch. NPD analyst Anita Frazier predicted that the entire portable game segment will “rebound beginning later this month,” after the 3DS launch. NPD’s March sales data will include just seven days of 3DS sales, she said. But it’s widely expected that NOA will be able to quickly sell nearly every unit of the 3DS that it ships for the launch.

Overall February U.S. game industry sales inched up 3 percent from February 2010 to $1.36 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. Minus PC games, sales grew 4 percent to $1.33 billion. Total hardware sales grew 10 percent to $466.9 million. Overall physical game sales, including for PCs, slid 8 percent to $637.4 million, while physical game sales not including PC fell 5 percent to $601.4 million.

The brightest spot was again accessory sales, which soared 22 percent to $256.9 million. It was “the best February on record” for the category,” Frazier said. Despite Kinect and PlayStation Move, the top-selling accessory was the Xbox 360 1,600 points card, she said. Point cards accounted for 22 percent of the month’s accessory sales, underscoring “the increased importance of digitally distributed content sales within the games industry,” she said.

Activision’s multiplatform Call of Duty: Black Ops remained the best-selling game in the U.S., NPD said. It’s topped the chart since being released in November, and “has now become the best-selling game in history, topping” Nintendo’s Wii Play, Frazier said. NPD stopped providing game sales data, but the source said about 775,000 copies of the game were sold in February. Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds for the PS3 and 360 was No. 2 in its first month.