July NPD: Sales down 26%, NCAA Football leads software

by Christopher Grant on Aug 11th 2011 6:30PM

Ouch! Overall video game industry sales are down 26% in North America for July, year over year, with a 29% dip in console hardware sales mostly to blame. New retail software sales saw a less severe 17% drop, while accessories saw only an 8% drop. Unsurprisingly, on the hardware front, "the platforms that contributed a greater portion of new physical retail dollar sales as compared to last year were the Xbox 360 and the PS3," says NPD's Anita Frazier. She also adds that July 2011 is the industry's "lowest month since October 2006." We'll say it again: Ouch!

As has become the norm, Microsoft trumpeted its performance in an email claiming a "45% share of the overall current-generation console market." Six years into the Xbox 360's lifecycle, the console managed to move 277,000 units "maintaining the number-one console spot in the U.S. for 2011." Frazier notes that, while the Xbox 360 may have had the strongest numbers of the three consoles, July "was the first month that the Xbox 360 saw a year-over-year decline since December 2009." Of course, last July saw a strong sales spike "driven by the introduction of the Kinect-ready slim form factor SKU," Frazier reminds us.

On the software front, July 2011 only saw "17 new releases [...] compared to 29 last July." With NCAA Football 12 taking the top sales spot, reflecting a "15% increase in unit sales versus NCAA 11 in July 2010," Frazier postulates that this year's Madden delay might have prompted football fans to pick up EA's earlier offering. Find the full top ten list after the break.

Top 10 best-selling games (US) for July 2011:

NCAA Football 12 (360, PS3)
Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, NDS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)
Just Dance 2 (Wii)
Major League Baseball 2K11 (360, Wii, NDS, PS3, PS2, PSP, PC)
Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Wii, 360, PS3)
Fallout: New Vegas (360, PS3, PC)
New Super Mario Bros DS (NDS)
Mortal Kombat (360, PS3)

Tags: ds, microsoft, ncaa-football-12, nintendo, npd, npd-monthly, playstation, ps3, psp, sony, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (31)

What spurred the New Vegas sales? Price cut?

@Epoque Best Buy had for $10 last month and many retailers have it for only $20. Awesome to see companies lower a game's price and have it spur sales.

@Surkov

They lowered the price because nobody was buying it.

I rather pay $60 for an AWESOME game than $20 for POS.

I will probably pick up New Vegas in 2 years, after most of the bugs have been fixed and GAME of the YEAR edition comes out with all the DLC.

Still working on Fallout 3, and 3 years later game still crashes on me, great work, great work indeed.

@Surkov

$10!?!??

WHERE THE HELL WAS I!??!?!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Its not a surprise the consoles are starting to wane on sales, the homes consoles have been out nearly 4-6 years, the PSP will obviously dwindle with the Vita and the 3DS (for all that I enjoy it) isn't proving popular.

So its a mixture of people waiting for new consoles and everyone who wants one of the old ones (and can afford one) has already bought one. Now its down to kids getting them for presents and others buying replacements or having more than one console.

@Jameseh

It is time for a price cut, if SONY plays it right next week, we will see $199 PS3, and that should give us a response from MICROSOFT in a form of $149 XBOX 360 because I don't see them dropping it to $99, maybe $129.

@pickupdoctor I agree. Sony, I'm ready to buy a PS3, but the 300 price point with absolutely nothing bundled to it is just too high right now. Either cut the price or I'll be waiting until a deal on black Friday.

@pickupdoctor

$199? Doubtful.....I'll believe $250...

"Ouch! Overall video game industry sales are down 26% in North America for July, year over year, with a 29% dip in console hardware sales mostly to blame."
. . .
"On the software front, July 2011 only saw '17 new releases [...] compared to 29 last July.'"

See how it works? Put out more games, preferably good ones, and you sell more hardware and software. In other news, the grass is green . . .

Ah shoot, I thought Catherine was gonna break the Top 10, bummer.

Roll Tide

As much as some want this generation to hit the grave I am glad to see it thriving even with bumps in the road like this. I still believe that there is still untapped abilities each console has. I would like to see this console generation thrive for a few years longer.

meanwhile joystiq reader's interest in npd is at zero

That's a terrible, terrible top 10.

Wii's price cut really collapsed on them. Nintendo's really dropped the ball on finishing out the Wii's lifespan well

@Mr Khan There's been very little compelling software for me lately on the Wii. The only thing on my list is Skyward Sword at this point.

@Mr Khan

True that, they will never come close to PS2 sales 153 million and counting, and to be honest I think XBOX 360 and PS3 actually have a chance of catching Wii now. Something that was unthinkable only 1 year ago.

@pickupdoctor

Sony COULD finish first if they get the PS3 cheap enough and do some marketing....but if not I expect MS to be first and Sony 2nd....the Wii wont be selling after next year.....so it will be easy to top....Nintendo didn't realize this was a marathon...then burned out thinking it was a 200 meter dash

@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi

The funny thing is that I don't even feel like they burned out, they just ... left. It's like they were at the end of the race and thought, "Oh man, I could totally go for a slurpee." And then they immediately did just that.

Wasn't it over 500k last month the Xbox 360 sold in the US? But then again most of that 500k was those 'FREE' Xbox's MS gave away LoL

@RealityCheck2011

they are still doing it....but only thru Amazon and HP or Dell I think

"45% share of the overall current-generation console market."

No possible way.

@eNriqeu

I thought that, too, but if they're counting overall revenue and they factor in Xbox Live costs, digital sales, and software sales, they might be pretty darn close.

There are a bunch of good game coming out at around holiday time, so as I see it, sony needs to release a 160gig/Move bundle, pack in Playstation Move Heroes and sell it for around $299, and they could see a very strong holiday 2011....c'mon sony, make it happen.

OK, I 'll be the odd one again out of the bunch, but I 'll never get sports games. We can drive exotic cars at 200 mph, we can conquer planets in the reaches of the galaxy, we can survive post apocalyptic wastelands, we can even dream date some psycho chic, but noooo, we gonna play some merry men with their balls. The same way every year. I mean, one for each sport every five years would be enough, just sell a dlc with the name changes, jeez, like they ever introduce anything interesting in any sports! Do they have a sudden death mode in baseball with a bomb-ball or do they introduce injectable hulk-strength-inducing super serums in football? Even racing games have new tracks and cars, what do sports game have, new outfits? Slightly greener grass?

@TopGunZ sports were the games people would play before video games. It was only natural that this translated into games. In a nation of couch potatoes, this is no surprise. If you can't do it in reality, you might as well play it in a video game. Sports on TV is very big here.

@Prince David
Yeah, same here (only with soccer), but this is exactly what I don't get about sports games, it's not as if you can't go outside and play a match with your mates or pitch a few (or whatever you call it). I think of it as the same thing as not going out to get a girlfriend and have a relationship with a bot in some weird japanese game! Playing real sports, I love it, watching them, meeeeh. Playing sports videogames? The same dullness with watching it with the added drag of recreating it!

I played the Madden Demo and I can't see where there's anything different in this year's version than last years. The game play is a little more fluid, but the graphics are a little worse imho. Maybe I'm missing something?

Sales are also down because for the first time in a couple of years, this year's Games so far have all been mediocre to terrible with all the stuff everyone wants coming out in Oct/Nov.

Question:
Now that NPD doesn't give us specific info on console sales, are they still telling us which console is leading albeit in a crafty way?

ex. 1
Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)

ex. 2
Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, NDS, 360, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)

For COD, 360 is out front for Lego Pirates the order shifts. Why not use the same format to display the systems, unless this is to show which order the game performed the strongest with?

Just a thought.

Buyers are finally wising up and realizing that they are throwing their money away paying full price for a game when it drops drastically in price weeks later.

I just now go around to starting Fallout New Vegas. I stupidly paid 40 bucks for it last year when I could have waited and got it for 10 bucks. I paid a 30 dollar premium just to let the game sit on my shelf.

NCAA Football 12

July NPD: Sales down 26%, NCAA Football leads software

Reader Comments (31)

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:35PM Epoque said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:49PM Surkov said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:05PM pickupdoctor said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:21PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:44PM Jameseh said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:07PM pickupdoctor said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:20PM Paradox596 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:21PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:46PM c0bra95 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:51PM SilverPR said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:57PM Bobthemonkey said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 6:59PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:04PM gevenstaines said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:05PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:06PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:10PM Jacksons said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:11PM pickupdoctor said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:24PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:59PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:07PM RealityCheck2011 said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:41PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 7:58PM eNriqeu said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 8:01PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Aug 11th 2011 10:05PM onslaughtree said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 6:45AM TopGunZ said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 10:46AM Prince David said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 11:24AM TopGunZ said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 6:53AM malexandria said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 6:55AM malexandria said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 9:06AM zigg said

Posted: Aug 12th 2011 11:49AM dvdjunkie32 said

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