Xboxist

Xbox 360 Sells 1.4 Million Units in December

The NPD group has released its monthly video game sales data for North America. December is traditionally the strongest month for both hardware and software sales, and this year was no exception. The Playstation Portable performed remarkably well in North America, with over 1 million units sold. Despite a lack of new software available for the handheld system, it even managed to outsell Sony’s larger, more expensive PS3 home console. With the cost of manufacturing coming down, it is expected that Sony will drop the price of the PS3 early in 2009 to boost sales.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console also did well following pre-holiday price cuts. However, the real story in December was the massive success of Nintendo. The company sold more than 3 million DS units and over 2 million Wii consoles in North America last month. The Wii numbers were slightly lower than analyst’s expectations, but this can be explained by persistent supply shortages.

Nintendo software also dominated the sales charts, with 6 out of the top ten titles published on Nintendo platforms.
Overall the video game sector saw an improvement over the same month in 2007, with December hardware sales increasing by 2% and software sales up by 15%. Even though other areas of the economy are experiencing negative growth, it appears that video games are indeed recession proof (for now).

North American Hardware Sales December 2008:

DS - 3.04M
Wii - 2.15M
X360 - 1.44M
PSP - 1.02M
PS3 - 726K
PS2 - 410K

North Ameican Software Sales December 2008:

WII PLAY W/ REMOTE 1.46M
360 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR 1.33M
WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD 999K
WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL 878K
WII GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR 859K
360 GEARS OF WAR 2 745K
360 LEFT 4 DEAD 629K
NDS MARIO KART 540K
PS3 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR 533K
WII ANIMAL CROSSING: CITY FOLK 497K

[Source: NPD Group]