NPD May 2009

[AranhaHunter]

Numbers originally posted by Evilore on GAF.

PlayStation 2 117K
PlayStation 3 131K
PSP 100.4K
Xbox 360 175K
Wii 289.5K
Nintendo DS 633.5K


UFC 2009 UNDISPUTED (Xbox 360) 679.6K
Wii FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD (Wii) 352.8K
EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE (Wii) 345.8K
UFC 2009 UNDISPUTED (PS3) 334.4K
INFAMOUS (PS3) 175.9K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION (NDS) 168.9K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL (Wii) 158.3K
PUNCH OUT!! (Wii) 156.9K
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE UNCAGED ED (Xbox 360) 120.7K
Wii PLAY W/ REMOTE (Wii) 109.8K

Analysis from NPD's Anita Frazier:

Originally Posted by Anita Frazier

The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1B since August 2007. May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months in any given year for the industry in general.

Every category declined versus a year ago with the exception of portable hardware sales which was bolstered by the continued strong sales of the Nintendo DS including both the DSi and the Lite.

Unit sales declined less than dollar sales did. The dollar sales decline was exacerbated by a decline in average retail prices for almost all of the categories.


The DS was the top-selling hardware platform for the month. There is a lot of new DS content coming to market this month for a wide variety of gamers, so we should see strong hardware sales continue.


Two third-party titles had a strong showing in May. UFC Undisputed had a great launch selling over a million units across both platforms, while EA Sports Active Bundle, a Wii exclusive, made it into the top 5. There are more new releases in this month's top 10 list than we have seen for some time. As we mentioned last month, it's a great time to release new IP, illustrated by May's strong debuts of EA's Sports Active and Sony's InFAMOUS.

While there were some very strong new releases this month along with continued strong sales of evergreen games, this month's top 10 games sold 2.6 million units combined, whereas last year the top 10 sold 3.7 million units. Again this illustrates how tough the comparisons are to last year.

Looking ahead to June, there are some promising games coming out this month between Sims 3 (PC), Prototype, Red Faction, Virtua Tennis, Ghostbusters, Transformers and Tiger Woods just to name a few. At E3, it was notable how many games were targeted to the tween girl demographic, and this June will see a number of games introduced for girls as well. June comparisons are still likely to be tough, but the wide variety of new content could help reinvigorate things somewhat.

Tiger Woods titles are typically released in August or September. It will be interesting to watch how the title performs when it's not competing at retail with Madden, and with the impact of the Wii MotionPlus for the Wii version. Releasing it during the month when the U.S. Open (and consequently Tiger) is getting air time can't hurt either.

[Blu boy]

well the ps3 is back on top of the ps2. i thought infamous would at least get over 200,000 copies, oh well it still did goodish. a ps3 price cut cant come soon enough.

[blitz6speed]

Infamous is only 6 days of sales. Did pretty good. Overall a snore fest for a NPD day.

[Maximus]

Pretty good for inFamous I would say. I think the positive reviews really helped as there was no marketing for the title.

[AranhaHunter]

I'm really impressed by UFC, I honestly didn't expect that much for it, THQ must be very happy with it.

And considering inFamous was out for only 6 days, so SCE and Sucker Punch are probably satisfied with its performance.

[bajor27]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Pretty good for inFamous I would say. I think the positive reviews really helped as there was no marketing for the title.

No marketing for the title? I see a commercial for it every time I turn the TV on.

June should be pretty big. It won't be reported in NPD, but Sims 3 sold like 1.4 mil in the first week. Ghostbusters could make an appearance on the list for all 3 consoles. Prototype for the 360 will likely be in there. PS3 version might not be as I could see that market buying INfamous instead. speaking of Infamous, that will probably be in the top 10 for next month as well. Likely one of the new EA Wii games will also show up. Tiger 10 or Grand Slam Tennis - maybe even both. June will be a very tough month to call.

[xino]

why do you care so much about sales!?
just a fanboy man.

I don't even know why people play games anymore if they really care about sales rather than games.

[ras752000]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Pretty good for inFamous I would say. I think the positive reviews really helped as there was no marketing for the title.

They actually had an infamous commercial attached to pre-movie trailers here in the states . . .
or were you joking?

[Marine Mike]

Originally Posted by ras752000

They actually had an infamous commercial attached to pre-movie trailers here in the states . . .
or were you joking?

Yeah, I actually saw a trailer for it at the movie theatre before I saw Star Trek!

[Hedchekr]

Originally Posted by ras752000

They actually had an infamous commercial attached to pre-movie trailers here in the states . . .
or were you joking?

On top of that I saw plenty of commercials for this game on tv as well. It had plenty of marketing. My fiance got tired of me saying "ohh look, InFamous".

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Pretty good for inFamous I would say. I think the positive reviews really helped as there was no marketing for the title.

Sony marketed the crap out of the game.

seriously. There are trailers on TV, before movies, posters at the bus stop (Which have been taken down now) posters at game stop and the mall. The game is everywhere.

[pmac]

yup, saw more advertising for Infamous than anything else I can remember except for those PS3 commercials where images were projected on the sides of buildings. Saw that way more.