There’s another month in the books for the video games industry. It was not pretty. The NPD Group has recently released their sales figures for the month of April, and sales took another header off the high dive, slumping to the tune of 25% across the industry.
Software (-17%), hardware (-42%), and accessories (-19%) were all hit with double digit declines in April on a year over year basis. As you can see, hardware took a huge hit as gamers look to the future with new consoles from Sony and Microsoft on the horizon. Though Microsoft’s Xbox 360 prevailed once again as the hardware sales leader in April. An Xbox representative confirmed that the company sold 130k consoles.
On the software side of things, Injustice: Gods Among Us ranked as the top selling title. It was followed by Dead Island: Riptide, Bioshock Infinite, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Defiance. It was a slow month for the game releases, and the sales were down significantly.
“Despite overall declines, April title launches in 2013 fared better than games that launched in April 2012, up 118 percent in unit sales and 130 percent in dollar sales. This increase was driven by games like Injustice: Gods Among Us, Dead Island: Riptide, and Lego City:Undercover,” said Liam Callahan of the NPD Group.
Analysts have already come out and warned investors that things will continue to get worse until the arrival of Grand Theft Auto V. Where many believe will be the turning point for declines, followed by the start of a new uptrend following the release of new consoles from Sony and Microsoft.
