AfterDawn: News

Microsoft leads March hardware sales, software sales swan dive

According to the latest NPD Group figures, software sales for the video game industry collapsed in March, but strong hardware and accessories sales helped buoy the numbers.

The Nintendo 3DS sold 380,000 units in its first three days, falling slightly behind the Xbox 360 at 430,000 for the month.



Altogether, however, the DS line took the month easily, with 460,000 sales for the DS, DSi and DSi XL combined during the month.

Sony and Nintendo did not reveal the numbers for the PS3 or Wii, respectively.

The industry saw a 4 percent dip year-over-year to $1.53 billion, with hardware up 12 percent to $495 million, sales down 15 percent to $791 million and accessories up 13 percent to $241.3 million.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Apr 2011 21:16

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• 6 comments

• Kannz

  Release a good game then maybe well see a increase in software sales? O.o
  

  14.4.2011 22:18 #1

• KillerBug

  Quote:software sales for the video game industry collapsed in March, but strong hardware and accessories sales helped buoy the numbers. Another way to look at it is that hardware sales spiked, leaving no disposable income for software. That is the natural result when you release a system with BC support and few new games (none of them any good).
  

  
  

  14.4.2011 23:37 #2

• Pop_Smith

  Originally posted by Kannz: Release a good game then maybe well see a increase in software sales? O.o What? Never! The sales died because of pirates!
  
  (For those that don't get it, I'm being very sarcastic.)
  

  http://www.megavideo.com/?v=V1VZAD0O <-- Brian Regan "Take Luck" video.
  
  "The only people who should buy Monster cable are people who light cigars with Benjamins." - Gizmodo

  15.4.2011 00:26 #3

• KillerBug

  LoL...I say blame sony...between people buying a second PS3 and people switching to xbox, PS3 owners are tapped out.
  

  
  

  15.4.2011 05:29 #4

• Interestx

  ....or hardware is coming with some good bundles right now so people buying new hardware aren't having to buy new games.
  

  15.4.2011 13:24 #5

• scorpNZ

  I'd be interested to see what year the consoles were made that are selling,there's a mod shop over here that has a few brand spanking new 360's from 09 for sale all are jtagged,naturally i had to get one,yeah & for sure the bundle with kinect is pretty cheap if you go that route
  

  15.4.2011 14:29 #6