US Videogame Sales Jump 20% In April; Sony Lags Competitors
13 5월 2011 - 8:51AM
Dow Jones News
U.S. videogame industry sales jumped 20% in April, as a flood of
highly anticipated titles hit the market and enticed consumers.
Sales of new videogame hardware, software and accessories rose
to $961.2 million from $802.4 million a year ago, bolstered by
growing sales in every product category, according to market
researcher NPD Group. Warner Bros. Interactive's highly anticipated
"Mortal Kombat 2011" punched its way to the top spot after debuting
April 19.
NPD's data suggests consumers are responding to a strong slate
of new games, which the industry lacked last month. Another driver
of growth was the Easter holiday, which landed in April as opposed
to March last year, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said.
"The Easter timing shift could explain about $60 million of the
growth," Frazier said. "But even accounting for that shift, sales
of new physical product realized a notable increase versus last
year."
Despite the strong bump, sales of Sony Corp.'s (SNE, 6758.TO)
PlayStation 3 in April rose much more slowly than its main
competitor, Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Xbox 360, a development that
suggests consumers are choosing alternatives to the popular gaming
platform in the wake of an attack on its online videogame networks
that compromised 100 million user accounts.
Sony sold roughly 204,000 PlayStation 3 videogame consoles in
the U.S. in April, compared to 180,800 in the year prior, according
to statements from Sony and industry researcher NPD Group. By
comparison, Microsoft sold roughly 297,000 units, representing a
60% jump over the previous year.
"We continue to see a lot of great momentum at the retail level
and appreciate the support we've received from our partners,
retailers and customers since the criminal attack on the
PlayStation Network," Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold said in a
statement.
Sony's relatively slow sales growth comes amid a difficult
stretch for the Japanese electronics giant. On April 20, Sony shut
down its PlayStation Network, which allows gamers to play each
other over the Internet, after it discovered hackers had
infiltrated its systems. Sony subsequently closed another online
game network and said customer's names, birthdates, passwords and
other personal information had been stolen.
The hack comes as Internet-based game play grows in popularity.
Videogames have added online features, which encourage longer game
play and generate additional profits.
April's biggest titles included Mortal Kombat, followed by
Electronic Arts Inc.'s (ERTS) "Portal 2" physics puzzle game and
Lucas Arts' "Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars", which flew into
the second and third positions respectively.
Across the industry, new game sales rose 26%, to $503.2 million
from $398.5 million the same time last year.
Sales of videogame accessories, such as prepaid cards used to
purchase digital content within games, rose 20%, to $147.6 million
from $123.5 million the year before.
NPD results don't represent sales for the entirety of the
videogame industry. The research firm's methods only include retail
sales of new packaged games. Sales of used games and mobile apps
aren't included in the results.
-By Ian Sherr, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6455;
ian.sherr@dowjones.com
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