September NPD: PS3 232.4k

[Maximus]

HW Sales
PlayStation 2 173.5K
PlayStation 3 232.4K
PSP 238.1K
Xbox 360 347.2K
Wii 687.0K
Nintendo DS 536.8K

Top 10 SW Sales
Publisher Release Date Rank # Units
360 STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED LUCASARTS Sep-08 1 610K
WII WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-08 2 518K
360 ROCK BAND 2 MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS Sep-08 3 363K
WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 4 353K
PS3 STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED LUCASARTS Sep-08 5 325K
360 MERCENARIES 2: WORLD IN FLAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-08 6 297K
WII WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA Feb-07 7 243K
360 MADDEN NFL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-08 8 224K
WII STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED LUCASARTS Sep-08 9 223K
PS2 MADDEN NFL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-08 10 158K

Originally Posted by Anita Frazier

Overall

"This is the first true monthly decline the industry has experienced since March of 2006. It's important to keep in mind, however, that this month's 7% decline is against a month (September 2007) that itself was up 75% from the prior September. Last year, Halo 3 released in September 2007 and that game had a huge impact on hardware and software sales."

"Overall, the health of the video games industry remains quite strong despite the rocky economic conditions. Tracking against typical industry seasonality, the U.S. video games industry is positioned to realize $22B or more in revenues for the year (does not include PC Games)."

Software

"A full 35% of last year's software sales came from one title: Halo 3. This year, the wealth is spread a bit more broadly as seven titles achieved sales of 250K units or more while last year only three hit that mark."

"A wide array of content found retail success from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, to Wii Fit, to LEGO Batman. Rock Band 2 achieved sales of over 360K units on just one platform and this title should continue to make its mark on the industry when the PS3, Wii and PS2 versions are released later this year."

"Although PC games sales are not included in these numbers, there were two that should be pointed out. Spore realized sales of 406K units and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning sold 274K which would put them both in the top 10 list of combined console, portable and pc games sales for the month."

Hardware

"Hardware unit sales were flat versus last year so the decline in dollars is due to lower prices. The average retail price of hardware across all platforms declined 8% from last September."

"Compared to August, nearly all hardware systems realized an increase in unit sales in September. The price reduction on the Xbox 360 helped deliver a month-over-month unit sales increase for that platform of 78%. This increase, despite the acceleration of economic turmoil during the month of September, is solid indicator of the health of the industry heading into the holiday season."

Accessories

"Although down slightly in dollars, unit sales of accessory items increased slightly as compared to last year."

As ever, thanks to sonycowboy over on GAF!