The video game industry continued to struggle in the United States last month as sales slid yet again according to market research firm The NPD Group. After dropping 34% year-over-year to $750.6 million in January, total video game hardware, software and accessory sales in the U.S. dipped to $1.06 billion in February, down 20% from the same period in 2011. Hardware sales dropped 18% to $381.4 million, software sales declined 23% to $464.4 million and accessory sales were down 16% to $215.2 million. ”Ou...

Over the last year, the total time spent playing video games increased 7% and purchases of digital content and subscriptions rose 8% according to a study from Nielsen. Over half of all households, 56%, owned at least one current-generation gaming console as of January 2012, an increase from 50% in 2011. Mobile, handheld and tablet gaming continues to grow as well, with 66% of households with kids between 6 and 12 years old owning a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, while also owning an iOS device. More adults ages 25...

Sales of video game hardware and software in the United States plummeted last month according to new data from market research firm The NPD Group. The firm’s January figures suggest that sales of video game hardware fell 38% to $199.5 million, down from $324 million in January 2011. Video game software sales slid 38% as well in January, falling to $355.9 million, and sales of accessories in the U.S. dropped 18% year-on-year to $195.2 million. Total industry sales were down 34% to $750.6 million. “...

Nintendo recently published a note in which it said it will report an annual operating loss of 45 billion yen ($575 million) for the December quarter. Analysts had expected the Japan-based gaming giant to report a 4.2 billion yen loss, Reuters said Thursday. The company now expects to ship 10 million Wii consoles, instead of the original 12 million projected, and 14 million units of its portable 3DS gaming consoles, down from 16 million units. ”We had higher expectations for the year-end season, but f...

Nintendo announced on Tuesday that it has shipped more than 4 million 3DS units worldwide in nine months. That’s more than the number of Wii units Nintendo sold during that console’s first nine months on the market, though Nintendo did announce that it sold more than 4.5 million Wiis in the U.S. alone last year. “One of the strongest software lineups in our history helped Nintendo have a great holiday season and to close 2011 with a full head of steam,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America�...

New data from Nielsen suggests that console owners are using their Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii game consoles to stream video content more than ever before. “Streaming now represents a reported 14 percent of Xbox 360 time, 15 percent of PS3 time and 33 percent of Wii time,” Nielsen said Wednesday. The market research firm explained that the growth in time spent streaming was driven by services such as ESPN 3, Netflix, MLB Network and Hulu, but that time spent using consoles also increased overall. Consol...

Sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video game console trounced the competition in November, nearly doubling PlayStation 3 sales and sales of Nintendo’s Wii console. According to November sales data from leading market research firm The NPD Group, Microsoft sold 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles in November. While Sony managed unit sales growth of about 70% year-over-year, the company only sold about 900,000 PlayStation 3 consoles last month. Nintendo sold 860,000 Wii consoles, 795,000 portable Nintendo 3...

Nintendo announced earlier this week that the company kicked off the holiday shopping season with a bang, having seen record-setting sales of its Wii and multiple game titles. Nintendo sold more than 500,000 Wii consoles on Black Friday 2011 alone, making it the console’s biggest Black Friday ever. The company’s newest addition to the Zelda franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, sold 535,000 copies since launching on November 20th to become the fastest-selling Zelda game of all time. Super...

Sales of video games and video game hardware remained lackluster in October according to market research giant The NPD Group. Overall industry sales in the U.S. grew just 1% to $1.08 billion last month compared to October 2010. Total hardware sales were up 6% year-over-year to $295.6 million in October, and software sales were up 3% to $621.3 million. Sales of video game accessories in the U.S. dipped 5% to $135.9 million last month. Microsoft’s Xbox showed the most impressive growth among home consoles...

The wait is finally over and late Tuesday evening we’ll be making our way over to our local game store to pick up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The latest title in Activision’s hit series achieved record pre-order figures, surpassing even the staggering pre-orders totals racked by by Call of Duty: Black Ops. The single-player campaign will pick up right where we were left off at the end of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 but, let’s be honest, we’re all in it for the multiplayer matche...

Sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the United States continued to slide in August according to new data from NPD Group, again dipping more than 20% compared to the same period last year. Overall industry sales slid 23% to $669.9 million last month from $873.8 million in August 2010. Hardware sales were down 12% from last year to $249.4 million, accessory sales were down just 1% to $134.7 million and software sales plummeted 34% to $264.8 million. ”August 2011 sales saw a declin...

Much has been made of the video game console business’ steady decline, and rightfully so; console sales have dropped considerably in recent months. Some attribute the sliding sales to a weakened economy while a minority believe trends are turning toward casual mobile gaming, but market research firm IDC says we shouldn’t be sounding any alarms just yet. In a new report, IDC suggests that console gaming will begin to reverse current downward trends in 2012, with a big-time resurgence to follow in...

U.S. video game industry sales were down 26% in July compared to the same period last year according to new data published by The NPD Group. Hardware sales were down 29% year-over-year to $223 million, video game software sales dipped 17% to $336.2 million and sales of video game accessories were down 8% to $127.8 million. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the U.S. for the seventh consecutive month with unit sales of 277,000, though July marked the first time the Xbox saw a year-on-y...

Redbox on Thursday announced that it will add video game rentals to an additional 5,000 kiosks beginning August 1st. The company announced last month that game titles for the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Wii would be added to 16,000 more redbox kiosks by the end of June, and the total after this coming round of additions will approach 27,000. Redbox owns and operated approximately 33,000 rental kiosks around the country, and the company did not indicate if or when video games might be add...