April NPD 2012

[BDSooner72]

Borrowed from NGAF

Overall:

Overall industry down 32%. Software sales at retail are down 42%.

Originally Posted by Eruogamer:
"Last April, the top seven titles outsold the top-selling title this year, and, simply stated, there were notably fewer new market introductions," said Frazier.

Software:

1.) Prototype 2 (360, PS3) Activision Blizzard - Less than 236K, perhaps significantly.
2.) Kinect Star Wars (360) Lucasarts
3.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC) Activision Blizzard
4.) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 (360, PS3) Electronic Arts
5.) NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PC, PS2) Take-Two Interactive
6.) The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings (360, PC) Warner Bros. Interactive
7.) Mario Party 9 (Wii) Nintendo
8.) Mass Effect 3 (360, PS3, PC) Electronic Arts
9.) Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3) Ubisoft
10.) MLB 12: The show (PS3, PSV) Sony


Hardware:

Xbox 360 - 236K (-20.5%) (Best selling console this month)


Other Information:

Originally Posted by Eurogamer:
Acclaimed Wii RPG Xenoblade Chronicles was a retailer exclusive, so is excluded from NPD's monthly report.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...april-us-chart
Originally Posted by GamesIndustry.biz:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...s-during-april

A very light release schedule and an early Easter holiday spelled bad news for sales

The NPD Group has released its April sales report for the US games industry, and the numbers for retail are not pretty. Total video game sales fell off a cliff, dropping 32 percent to $630.4 million. Software sales alone really nosedived by 42 percent, totaling $307.2 million (including PC retail titles), while hardware fell 32 percent to $189.7 million.

While retail alone does not paint a nice picture for the business, NPD stressed that new physical retail generates about 65 percent of total sales, and what NPD calls the total consumer spend actually came to $1.0 billion for April - this includes used games, rentals, full game digital downloads, DLC, subscriptions, mobile games and social games.

Regarding the retail softness, NPD analyst Anita Frazier commented, "This year, Easter fell very early in April, which means most Easter-related purchases may have fallen into March this year, whereas last year, Easter fell late in April causing most sales to fall in that month. We usually find that Easter-related purchases generate an extra 10 percent in revenue in the month they occur, so some of the softness compared to last April could be attributed to the shift in Easter timing."

She also remarked on the lack of compelling triple-A games in the market. "I think what the new physical retail content sales reflect a very light release schedule in terms of the amount of compelling new games. Last April, the top seven titles outsold the top-selling title this year, and, simply stated, there were notably fewer new market introductions," she said. "I think it's a simple as that because when we see compelling content come into the market, the games are still selling as well as ever - we just saw a lot less this April as compared to last."

Looking at the NPD chart, Activision's Prototype 2 was one of the few new releases to make a splash. Kinect Star Wars also performed reasonably well, and Frazier noted that interest in the title also drove higher sales for Microsoft's Star Wars Kinect 360 bundle. And while not on the top 10 chart, Frazier also pointed out that Nintendo's Kid Icarus: Uprising for 3DS "ranked among the top 10 SKU's for the month, and would have made the list if we were reporting on SKU rather than total title level."
Originally Posted by USA Today:
http://content.usatoday.com/communit...1#.T6xMccUcWRR

Fewer video game releases contributed to a retail sales decline that continued in April with total sales of $630.4 million, down 32% from last April's $930.9 million, according to market-tracking firm NPD Group.

Software sales dropped even more -- 42% -- from $533.7 million in April 2011 to $307.2 million last month.

"When we see compelling content come into the market, the games are still selling as well as ever," says NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "We just saw a lot less this April as compared to last."

It took the record-setting launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 -- $775 million in its first five days -- and the release of hits such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Uncharted 3 back in November 2011 to lift industry sales to its last year-over-year increase of 0.4% over November 2010.

Consumers spent about $1.1 billion in April when used games, rentals, digital downloads, subscriptions, and mobile and social games are added to new retail sales, NPD estimates. Still, new physical retail generates 65% of consumer spending.

Prototype 2 emerged as the top-selling game of the month. Kinect Star Wars, available only for the Xbox 360, was the second-best seller.

Microsoft said that Kinect Star Wars was the top-selling game of the month, when broken down by title and platform. (Prototype 2 is available for Xbox 360 and PS3.)

Similarly, Frazier noted that Kid Icarus: Uprising on the 3DS ranked among the top 10 releases for the month by title and platform "and would have made the list if we were reporting on (unit) rather than total title level."

The Xbox 360 sold 236,000 units in April, Microsoft said, maintaining the No. 1 spot in the U.S. "The average selling price for hardware increased over last April," Frazier says, "with one of the drivers of that increase being the Star Wars Kinect 360 bundle, which included the Xbox 360 console and controller, a Kinect sensor, and Kinect Star Wars game."

Also noted by Frazier: The Nintendo 3DS has outsold the Nintendo DS by about 1 million units in their respective first 14 months in the market "and the DS went on to become the best-selling gaming hardware system ever."

Nintendo has said that it sold 4.5 million 3DS systems in the U.S. in its first year of availability.
Originally Posted by MS PR:
Xbox 360 continues to hold the number one spot in the U.S., selling more units in April than any other console; marking the 16th consecutive month as the best-selling console in the U.S.

April 2012 U.S. NPD highlights:
· Holding 47 percent share of current-generation console sales, Xbox 360 sold 236,000 units in April, maintaining the number-one console spot in the U.S. This marks the 14th consecutive month Xbox 360 has held more than 40 percent of the current-generation console market share. (Source: NPD Group, April 2012)

· Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform in April (hardware, software and accessories) reached $261 million, the most for any console in the U.S. and more than the spend on the other two current-generation consoles combined. (Source: NPD Group, April 2012)

· During the month of April, “Kinect Star Wars” held the number one game title in the U.S. Xbox 360 held seven of the top 10 U.S. console game titles including: “Kinect Star Wars,” “The Witcher Two: Assassin of Kings Enhanced ED,” “Prototype 2,” “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13,” “Mass Effect 3,” “NBA 2K12” and “Major League Baseball 2K12.” (Source: NPD Group, April 2012)


On June 4 at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT, the Xbox 360 E3 media briefing will take place at The Galen Center in Los Angeles to premier blockbuster games and entertainment experiences set for release in 2012 and beyond. The briefing, “Xbox: Entertainment Evolved” will air live and commercial-free on Spike TV, and for the first time ever on Xbox LIVE.