NPD March 2011 Sales Results

[BDSooner72]

5-week tracking month; Reporting Period 2/27/11 through 4/2/11

Software (New Physical Retail only)
2.5 Million combined White + Black
01. Pokemon White Version (NDS) Nintendo - 1.3 Million
02. Pokemon Black Version (NDS) Nintendo - 1.1 Million
03. Homefront (360, PS3, PC) THQ
04. Dragon Age II (360, PS3, PC)** Electronic Arts
05. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, NDS, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzard
06. Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) LucasArts
07. Crysis 2 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
08. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP, PC) Take 2 Interactive
09. MLB 11: The Show (PS3, PSP, PS2) Sony
10. Fight Night Champion (360, PS3) Electronic Arts

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

Hardware
Nintendo DS (Yes, DS) - 460k
Xbox 360 - 433,000 (Top Selling Console)
Nintendo 3DS - Slightly Under 400,000
Wii - 290k




Anita Frazier:
Overall

"We recently completed our estimate of the total consumer spend on the games industry in the U.S. for 2010 including both physical and digital format sales. We found that increases in some digital forms of content distribution offset the declines in new physical retail sales of software. 2010 saw a consumer spend on games content of $15.9 billion, which was essentially flat (down less than 1/2 of 1 percentage point) to 2009."

"While new physical sales of video game hardware, software and accessories are down 1% in the first quarter of 2011, the trends we've measured with regard to growth in digital formats like full game and add-on downloads, microtransactions, mobile apps and social network gaming will likely result in net industry growth when we release our full measure of the first quarter consumer spend on games in June."

Hardware

"The 3DS launched in the U.S. on 3/27, so seven days of retail sales are included in this months results. The 3DS launch compares quite favorably to that of the best-selling dedicated handheld gaming platform of all time, the Nintendo DS. While the 3DS sold about 100K units less than the DS did in its launch month, we must consider that the DS launched in November and had holiday seasonality and a price differential of about $100. Because of the price differential, the 3DS generated greater revenues than did the DS in its launch month in November 2004. In addition, the 3DS was launched in an environment where there are more devices that can support the portable gaming experience such as tablets and smartphones."

"The best-selling hardware platform for the month was indeed the Nintendo DS despite the launch of the 3DS at the end of the month."

"The PSP, Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms each enjoyed a unit sales increase over last March. The PSP benefitted from a $40/unit price reduction which occurred at the beginning of the reporting period."

Software

"Pokemon White is the best-selling Pokemon SKU in its debut month at retail of any Pokemon to date, and the Black version is third. Combined they break previous sales records held by Pokemon Silver and Gold in October 2000."

"New physical retail software sales declined significantly, and despite the great success of the Pokemon SKU's, software sales last year were marked by several marquee titles including Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and God of War 3 which were all million plus unit sellers in March 2010."

"The best-selling 3DS game is Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition from Capcom. Despite selling fewer hardware units in its debut month as compared to the DS, more units of 3DS software sold through retail this month than did DS software in November 2004."

"Now that we're reporting on games at the title rather than SKU level, it's important to note several that sold well and would have made the top 10 on a SKU unit sales ranking basis. Those include Just Dance 2 on Wii, Killzone 3 on PS3, and Zumba Fitness on Wii."

Accessories

"The number one accessory SKU for March 2011 was the $20 PS3 Network Card, which is the second time since its introduction in June '08 that it has ranked first. This is another indication of digital growth across consoles and how physical retailers are participating."