Whoever says that video games don’t sell anymore just needs to look at November’s stats.
“November sales represent the best November on record in terms of new physical retail sales,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier wrote in the company’s latest report according to Ars Technica. “It bests November 2008 by roughly $30 million, and that time frame was at the height of the music/dance genre sales.”
Partially the Kinect, making the Xbox 360 the top home gaming console for the sixth consecutive month, and the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops, selling 8.4 million copies, had a lot to do with this, and of course, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.”The 360 platform accounted for over 40 percent of total industry sales driven by the successful launch of Microsoft’s Kinect,” Frazier wrote. “Xbox 360 accessories accounted for 60 percent of that categories’ dollar sales this month.” It also means that as the Holiday season approaches (and ends for some of us), we’re going to see strong sales continue. But, the Nintendo DS was the best-selling system of the month, showing that the company still has a powerhouse in handheld consoles.
The big loser: Sony. Though Gran Turismo 5 was a success, it wasn’t the big winner for PS3 that people were hoping for. Their PS3 sales actually dropped 25 percent to 530,000, surprising since the Move had such positive reviews. They’re still hanging on internationally, and since things are looking up overall, it could mean good things for the industry this month and onward in 2011.
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