sonycowboy
Member
July 22, 2004 11:01 AM US Eastern Timezone
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 2004--
Console Software and Console Accessories Showed Growth While the Rest of the Industry Saw Moderate Declines in Sales
According to leading marketing information provider, The NPD Group, retail sales of U.S. console and portable video games hardware, software and accessories saw a decline of 2.5 percent during the first half of 2004 (January - June), compared to the same time last year. The video games industry saw sales figures fall to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2004 compared to $3.5 billion in the first half of 2003.
While dollar sales dropped slightly, overall unit sales of video games hardware, software and accessories were up 1 percent during the first half of 2004.
Console software and console accessories were the only categories to show growth during the first half of 2004, with software revenue increasing 4 percent and accessory revenue increasing 8 percent. Within accessory sales, Internet components and specialty controllers saw the most growth, with dollar sales increases of 120 percent and 184 percent, respectively. All other categories, which include console hardware, portable hardware and portable software saw dollar sales decreases of 17 percent, 10 percent, 12 percent, respectively.
"The reduced price points for Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's Playstation 2 helped to stabilize industry sales during the first half of the year," said Richard Ow, senior video games analyst, The NPD Group. "While the first quarter of 2004 was showing double-digit losses in console hardware unit sales, with the help of lower price points for the Xbox and PS2 during the second quarter of 2004, the industry actually saw double digit increases in unit sales for the entire second quarter of the year."
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 22, 2004--
Console Software and Console Accessories Showed Growth While the Rest of the Industry Saw Moderate Declines in Sales
According to leading marketing information provider, The NPD Group, retail sales of U.S. console and portable video games hardware, software and accessories saw a decline of 2.5 percent during the first half of 2004 (January - June), compared to the same time last year. The video games industry saw sales figures fall to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2004 compared to $3.5 billion in the first half of 2003.
While dollar sales dropped slightly, overall unit sales of video games hardware, software and accessories were up 1 percent during the first half of 2004.
Console software and console accessories were the only categories to show growth during the first half of 2004, with software revenue increasing 4 percent and accessory revenue increasing 8 percent. Within accessory sales, Internet components and specialty controllers saw the most growth, with dollar sales increases of 120 percent and 184 percent, respectively. All other categories, which include console hardware, portable hardware and portable software saw dollar sales decreases of 17 percent, 10 percent, 12 percent, respectively.
"The reduced price points for Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's Playstation 2 helped to stabilize industry sales during the first half of the year," said Richard Ow, senior video games analyst, The NPD Group. "While the first quarter of 2004 was showing double-digit losses in console hardware unit sales, with the help of lower price points for the Xbox and PS2 during the second quarter of 2004, the industry actually saw double digit increases in unit sales for the entire second quarter of the year."
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U.S. Video Game Industry Dollar and Unit Percent Changes
January - June 2004 vs. January - June 2003
Categories Dollar % Change Unit % Change
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TOTAL -3 1
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Console Hardware -17 -1
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Console Software 4 4
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Console Accessories 8 3
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Portable Hardware -10 -18
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Portable Software -12 -6
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Portable Accessories -1 -8
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Source: The NPD Group / Point-of-Sale
Top10 Video Game Titles, Sorted By Units
January - June 2004
RANK TITLE PLATFORM PUBLISHER RELEASE ARP
DATE
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1 FIGHT NIGHT 2004 PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS APR'04 $49
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2 NBA BALLERS PS2 MIDWAY APR'04 $39
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3 MVP BASEBALL 2004 PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS MAR'04 $49
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4 FIGHT NIGHT 2004 XBX ELECTRONIC ARTS APR'04 $49
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5 POKEMON COLOSSEUM GCN NINTENDO OF MAR'04 $49
AMERICA
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6 HALO XBX MICROSOFT NOV'01 $29
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7 RED DEAD REVOLVER PS2 TAKE 2 INT. MAY'04 $47
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8 T. CLANCYS PANDORA XBX UBISOFT MAR'04 $49
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9 SHREK 2 PS2 ACTIVISION MAY'04 $46
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10 SPIDER-MAN:THE PS2 ACTIVISION JUN'04 $49
MOVIE2
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Source: The NPD Group / Point-of-Sale