Video game industry sales decline by 29 percent inJuly

According to retail sales data from NPD Group revenue for the video game industry saw a major decline, finally putting to bed the question of whether or not the sector was in fact recession proof. A certain analyst whose name I won’t mention might have said that once, but you won’t hear such utterances from him about that now. It has been the fifth month that the interactive entertainment has seen a decline, according to NPD. Total sector revenue was $848.9 million, down dramatically from $1.2 billion a year ago.

Analysts expected a 15 percent decline in game, console and accessories spending in July, but what they got was nearly double that - a 29 percent drop overall. Hardware sales were the biggest losers in July, with a major decline in Nintendo Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 sales. The Nintendo Wii saw a 54 percent drop in sales, the PS3 a 45 percent drop and the Xbox 360 was off by 10 percent. Hardware sales amounted to $280.9 million in July (a 37 percent decline), down from $447.7 million a year ago.

Analysts are saying that it is probably necessary for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft to start thinking about cutting the prices of their respective systems, but Nintendo and Sony probably won’t - or at least that is what both have been saying for quite some time. We’ll see.