Game Sales Unexpectedly Rocket 32% in March
According to a new report by the NPD Group, a company that researches consumer purchase trends,
video game sales for the month of March rose 32% year-over-year thanks to improved hardware availability, the launch of the PSP, and heavy consumer demand for games like Gran Turismo 4.
That solidly trounces estimates by analysts who predicted slower growth of 5% to 15%.
We can't find the report yet, so here's what we're culling from various second-hand analyses.
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The PSP sold 620,000 handheld units and 1.1 million software units in March (compare that with the Nintendo DS's
sales of 420,000 in 2005 year to date). Remember, the PSP launched on March 24th. That means that Sony sold nearly
one PSP per second in the first 8 days of the handheld's launch. -
495,000 PS2 console units sold in March vs. Xbox sales of 227,000, though Microsoft and analysts note low
inventory availability for the Xbox probably contributed to that console's relative weakness in sales. -
Gran Turismo 4 alone sold 520,000 units. It was the number one software title not just for the month of March,
but for the entire first quarter of 2005. -
Industry analysts had been predicting March sales to rise just 5% to 15%, proving (a) an analyst's guess is as
good as yours or mine and (b) sales are simply a lot damned hotter than even the guys that are paid to monitor them
thought they would be. -
Analyses of the report agree that the numbers are surprising given that game sales are frequently depressed
during so-called "transition years" or years in which new consoles are launched and old consoles lose marketing
support. -
The top 5 console titles were: (1) Gran Turismo 4 (2) EA Sports Fight Night Round 2 (3) Devil May Cry 3 (4) Star
Wars: Republic Commando (5) God of War. -
The top 5 PSP launch titles were: (1) Twisted Metal: Head-On (2) Need For Speed Underground: Rivals (3) Untold
Legends: Brotherhood Of The Blade (4) Metal Gear Acid (5) WipEout Pure.