Slow economy helps boost game sales for June

With less people traveling due to the high prices of gas and air travel, more families are staying home and playing videogames. According to the NPD Group, total game sales for June tallied $1.69 billion. That’s a 50 percent increase over June 2007 sales of $1.1 billion, when the economy was in much better shape.

Videogame hardware sales brought in $615.1 million in June, which is up 54 percent over last year’s record pace. Traditionally, the summer months are slow for game hardware sales, but Nintendo’s Wii and Nintendo DS have become year-round hardware sales sensations. Nintendo’s still hard-to-find Wii sold 666,700 units in June, which brings the console’s lifetime install base to 10.9 million units. The Wii is now the number one console in the U.S. for the first time, an honor it already holds in every other territory.

Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots shipped in June exclusively for PlayStation 3. That helped catapult PS3 hardware sales to 405,000 units for the month, which is nearly twice the 220,000 Xbox 360s Microsoft sold in June. Sony had an exclusive PS3 bundle featuring MGS4 at retail.

"Platform-exclusive content usually fuels hardware system purchases, and PS3 sales certainly reflect the impact of Metal Gear Solid 4,” said Anita Frazier, videogame analyst at The NPD Group. “PS3 unit sales were the highest of any month outside of that recorded during previous November/December holiday timeframes."

Rounding out the hardware front, Sony sold 337,000 PSPs and 188,000 PS2s. Nintendo topped all comers with Nintendo DS sales of 783,000 units, which was 300,000 more units than it sold in May—likely a result of families who do travel purchasing entertainment for the kids.

On the software front, games accounted for sales of $872.6 million, which is up 61 percent over last June. MGS4 sales topped all titles with 775,000 units sold. Add in that PS3 MGS4 bundle and this game’s sales actually neared 1 million units sold in just a few weeks. Other top sellers for the month included Activision’s Guitar Hero On Tour (422,000 units sold) on Nintendo DS, Ninja Gaiden II (372,000 units) on Xbox 360, Wii Fit (372,700 units), and Wii Play (359,100 units).

When you factor in cross-platform sales, the top title for June was LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure, which had cumulative sales of 1.1 million units and three versions in the Top 10.

There appears to be no slowdown in sight for games, especially as the industry heads into the always-lucrative fall season.

"Even if growth slows over the back half of 2008, the industry is poised to achieve record-breaking revenues of over $22B for the year," said Frazier.

The top 10 selling games in June, according to the NPD Group:

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - PS3 – Konami – 774.6K

Guitar Hero On Tour – DS – Activision – 422.3K

Ninja Gaiden II – 360 – Microsoft – 372.7K

Wii Fit (w/ balance board) - Wii – Nintendo – 372.7K

Wii Play (w/ remote) – Wii – Nintendo – 359.1K

Battlefield: Bad Company - 360 – Electronic Arts – 346.8K

Mario Kart Wii (w/ Wii wheel) - Wii – Nintendo – 322.4K

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure - Wii – LucasArts – 294.5K

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure - DS – LucasArts – 267.8K

Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure - PS2 – LucasArts – 260.3K