NPD: LA Noire tops again, slumps in all sectors
The NPD has revealed significant year-on-year decreases across the board during June 2011, with Microsoft and Take Two the winners of a lacklustre contest.
A grim picture
Total hardware, software and accessory sales came in an $1.03 million during June, a ten percent decrease over the same period last year.
June marks the third calendar month of 2011 to fail to live up to 2010's performance. If not for an impressive 20 percent increase in April, we'd be looking at four months of solid depression.
The NPD has been at some pains to point out it currently only release data on physical sales; the ESA estimates digital sales now make up at least 24 percent of US spending on games.
Hardware
Total hardware sales dropped 9 percent to $366.6 million, from 2010's $401.7 million, with the Xbox 360 the only console to manage a year on year increase in June.
Microsoft boasted that it shifted 507,000 Xbox 360 units last month, which is more than double any other system's sales figures. The Xbox 360 has out-performed all console sales in the US for 12 of the last 13 months.
"We expect Xbox 360 to maintain its lead and to be number one worldwide by the end of the year, selling more hardware units than PlayStation and Wii," it stated.
Accessories saw a significant drop off from May's figures, as Microsoft's Kinect began to flag. Microsoft has promised to triple the software line up for the camera-based control system by next year, which may revive this sector.
Nintendo has announced that it managed more than 800,000 combined hardware units in June. Breaking it down, that number includes 386,000 DS consoles (combined SKUs), 273,000 Wiis and 143,000 3DS systems.
This pushed the Wii's lifetime sales over the 36 million line, and Nintendo reported "double-digit" growth in each product line over May.
Software
Total software sales also saw a marked decrease, dropping 12 percent from 2010's $531.3 million to 2011's $469.5 million.
LA Noire took home honours for its second month at poll position.
Take Two also scored second place with Duke Nukem Forever despite a scandalously poor critical performance.
GiantBomb reports LA Noire managed 419,000 units, while Duke Nukem Forever shifted 376,300.
Sony pipped rival platform holders at the post by trumpeting InFamous 2's success on the charts, but while the PlayStation 3 exclusive may have been the highest selling SKU on a single platform, it was naturally out-performed by multi-platform titles.
Nintendo has said it came second in the single-platform stakes, with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time charting in fifth position, the first 3DS title since the system's launch to make the NPD monthly charts.
The company also boasted that five of the top ten titles were playable on Nintendo systems.
Mortal Kombat held on strongly, perhaps on its way to being a summer slow burn, while a the kid-friendly Lego Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars 2 cashed in on the traditional seasonal drought to woo parents.
See the full top ten below.
- Top 10 best-selling games (US) for June 2011
- L.A. Noire (360, PS3)
- Duke Nukem Forever (360, PS3, PC)
- Infamous 2 (PS3)
- Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) - 283,000 units
- Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC)
- NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, PC)
- Mortal Kombat (PS3, 360)
- Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC)
- Just Dance 2 (Wii)
According to post on NeoGAF, which doesn't site where the numbers came from, Wii Play Motion and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries both moved just over 30,000, while Child of Eden moved just over 35,000. Shadows of the Damned moved just over 25,000 with the Xbox 360 version trumping the PS3 version, while the 360 version of Alice: Madness Returns also bested the PS3 version with both offerings moving just over 120,000. Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, according to the post, moves just over 20,000 with the PS3 version preferred over the 360 offering.