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.

Raptr: Everyone’s a Gamer

Raptr announced today that it has launched a new multi-network instant messaging service and client, and has added two new publishers to its Raptr Partners Program.

For more details, we spoke with Raptr CEO and Founder Dennis Fong, who walked us through some of the new features in a run-through of the new client earlier this week. His comments are highlighted in blue  throughout.

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GameRanger celebrates ten years of multiplayer matchmaking

Mac and PC multiplayer matchmaking service GamerRanger will be celebrating its 10th birthday this month. GameRanger is inviting everyone to join in, bring their friends, and play online with some of their favorite games this coming Sunday. GameRanger launched in 1999 providing matchmaking support for 11 Mac games, and today supports 542 PC games and 181 Mac games. GameRanger has lasted longer than most if not all other gaming services including DWANGO, TEN, Mplayer, Kali, HEAT.NET, WON.net, Zone.com, etc.

While that fact could probably be disputed, GameRanger at least deserves credit for continuing to support its users by providing multiplayer support for new games over the last ten years.

you can check it out by visiting www.GameRanger.com.

Resident Evil 5 Dominates March Software Sales

Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 outsold every other video game in March, according to software and hardware sales data for the month from NPD Group. Resident Evil 5 on the Xbox 360 managed to move 938,00 units, while its PS3 counterpart did a respectable 585, 000 units. Pokémon Platinum Edition managed to move 805,000 units in March, followed by Halo Wars for Xbox 360 with 639,000 units, Wii fit with 541,000, MLB 09 with 305,000, Killzone 2 with 296,000, and Wii Play with 281,000.

1. Resident Evil 5 - Xbox 360
2. Pokémon Platinum Edition - DS
3. Halo Wars - Xbox 360
4. Resident Evil 5 - Xbox 360
5. Wii Fit - Wii
6. MLB 09: The Show - PS3
7. Killzone 2 - PS3
8. Wii Play - Wii
9. Mario Kart Wii - Wii
10. MLB 2K9 - Xbox 360

NPD group noted that video games sales for March were down by about 17 percent from the same  period last year.

Impulse Surpasses 1 Million User Mark

Stardock announced that its digital download platform, Impulse, has managed to exceed one million customers since its launch last summer. Since its debut nine months ago, Impulse platform has made available games from Stardock’s catalog, indie developers and publishers like THQ, 2KGames, Atari, Capcom, Dreamcatcher, Epic, Paradox and more. The platform also offers non-game software applications, utilities, anti-virus and more. Stardock announced earlier this month that the millionth user would win a custom-built $4,000 PC gaming rig and has awarded James from Bloomington, Illinois who purchased Sacred 2: Fallen Angel last week.

Impulse is set to get a major update on April 7 with the release Impulse Reactor, a development platform that includes in-game community features, multiplayer matchmaking, achievements, cloud multiplayer, and vendor neutral IP protection in the form of Game Object Obfuscation (Goo).
Impulse Reactor does not require publishers to change any code in their software to make use of Goo or include a third-party client with their title. This allows publishers to have a single executable to be sold at retail or digitally that is vendor neutral. The third major update to Impulse also includes features such as Impulse Anywhere (ability to download your title from a web page on one PC and then install on your home PC.)

Finally Gas Powered Games’ new real-time strategy / role-playing game, Demigod will showcase the new Impulse Reactor features, when it is released on April 14.

January Video Game Sales Up 13 Percent

Sales of video game hardware and software grew 13 percent in January, according to fresh January numbers from NPD Group. Overall software and hardware sales were $1.33 billion in North America, up from $1.18 billion from the same period a year ago. Game hardware, led by sales of the Wii, were up 17 percent to $445.4 million, while software saw a year over year increase of 10 percent, raking in $676.6 million in January.

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November Hardware and Software Sales

NPD sales data numbers for the month of Nov. 2008 are in, and to its competition’s chagrin, Nintendo continues to dominate the hardware sales chart. for the month of November, Nintendo managed to sell through 2.04 million units in North America, outpacing its own sales numbers from the same period a year ago (981K) by twofold. The Nintendo Ds also did pretty well during the month, moving 1.57 million units, up slightly from 1.53 million in Nov. 2007.

While Nintendo’s platforms continue to take the rest of the pack to the woodshed on a regular basis, there’s some good news for Microsoft and some even more bad news for Sony; the Xbox 360 sold 836K units in Nov., up slightly from 770K units a year ago beating out the PS3, PSP and PS2. The PS3 moved 378K units, but was down from 466K a year ago. The PSP moved 421K units, but was down from 567K in the same period a year ago, and the aging PS2 moved 206K units - down substantially from 496K units in Nov. 2007.  (more after the break)

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