July NPD - US games trade down 29% to $848 million

The US games trade continued its freefall in July, posting a total sales figure of $848 million for the month, down 29 percent year-over-year from $1.19 billion.

Hardware dropped hugely, down 37 percent from $448 million last year to $281 million.

Software was down 26 percent from $592 million in July 2008 to $437 million.

Accessories held up, for what its worth, down a piffling 12 percent from $150 million to $131 million.

Rough stuff. Here's what NPD analyst Anita Frazier had to say:

"The U.S. video games industry declined for the fifth consecutive month, bringing year-to-date sales to $8.16 billion, down 14% from the same time period last year."

"In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11% (or more) higher than the last five months of last year."

"While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including Madden this month, which should help spur sales. The worst comps should be behind us, and looking beyond August we have The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, and of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to look forward to."