June wasn’t a good month for video game consoles and games.
According to industry research firm NPD Group, sales of video game equipment and game titles tumbled 29% to $699.8 million last month, down from $989.5 million during the same time last year. Hardware sales — including gaming consoles — dropped 45% to $201 million.
That marks the seventh consecutive monthly decline, the Associated Press noted.
NPD’s numbers include newly purchased consoles, games and peripherals, accounting for between 50% and 60% of the overall market. A significant aftermarket exists for second-hand and rented games.
Also excluded from NPD’s numbers are games directly downloaded from online sources, especially for mobile devices including Apple‘s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone and iPad and smartphones and tablets running Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android operating system.
Social media-based games, including those offered by websites like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) also aren’t included in NPD’s data. If social media and downloads were included, NPD calculates that June’s video game-related spending would almost double to $1.36 billion, Bloomberg noted.
Sony (NYSE:SNE) didn’t report June sales numbers for its PlayStation console. However, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) said it sold 257,000 Xbox 360 consoles, down from 507,000 in June of last year. Nintendo (PINK:NTDOY) reported sales of 155,000 3DS consoles and 95,000 Wii consoles for the month.
Comments are currently unavailable. Please check back soon.