January game sales slow as molasses in winter

By Vladimir Cole

Game sales were weak in January as a result of a continued shortage of Xbox 360 hardware and continued buyer reluctance to invest in older-generation gaming given looming next-generation releases from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, according to NPD Funworld data analyzed in a report from Susquehana International Group analysts Jason Kraft and Chris Kwak.

Highlights include:

  • Total game software sales dropped 5% in January to $357 million.
  • Sales of EA's Xbox 360 titles fell by nearly half (48%) as a result of continued scarcity of Xbox 360s
  • Call of Duty 2 has
    "outperformed" analyst estimates and was the top-selling Xbox 360 game in January
  • Take-Two's
    Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the Sony PSP sold just over 100 thousand units, "well above" analyst estimates. Take-Two also raked in another $11 million from GTA: San Andreas.
  • The strongest-selling portable title in all of 2005 was Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the GBA (it sold 217 thousand copies), but Nintendo's Mario Kart for the DS was edged out of the top spot by GTA:LCS for the PSP in January (which sold , as noted above, over 100k units).

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