UPDATE: US Videogame Industry Retail Sales Fell 21% In Dec -NPD

Retail sales for the videogame industry plunged 21% in December, hurt by an aging console lineup and an unexpected slowdown in software sales.

Overall, industry sales of new videogames, consoles and accessories in U.S. stores tumbled to $3.99 billion last month from $5.07 billion a year earlier, according to surveys by data tracker NPD Group.

The results are the latest sign of weak consumer electronics spending during the holidays as U.S. economic growth remains tepid. Videogame industry competition also has mounted in the form of used and mobile games, which aren't included in NPD's monthly survey release.

"December was very rough for new physical sales of videogames hardware, software and accessories," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said. "Because of the great slate of content that came to market during the fourth quarter, I had expected December sales to represent a larger portion of total year sales than what occurred."

Frazier said December accounted for just 23% of annual sales, while the average for the past 10 years had been 28%.

Among the reasons cited for slowdown were the lack of new consoles and the increase play of cheaper casual games found on smartphones and social-networking websites, such as Facebook, which have drawn some consumers away from traditional games.

NPD acknowledged the exclusion of products such as used games and online-game subscriptions limits the precision of its data. Including all types of videogame sales, total spending in the U.S. was between $16.3 billion and $16.6 billion for 2011, down about 2% from 2010.

"Our overall estimate of the market continues to point toward the increased imperative for deeper visibility into digital distribution than is available today, not only in the U.S. but globally," said David McQuillan, president of games at the NPD Group.

Nonetheless, the industry continues to prove that it can draw large demand for a hit.

Activision Blizzard Inc.'s (ATVI) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 remained the top-selling game, as some analysts expected. Ubisoft Entertainment SA's (UBI.FR) Just Dance 3, which was released for Sony Corp.'s (SNE, 6758.TO) PlayStation 3 in December, jumped to the No. 2 spot from No. 5 the previous month, outselling Bethesda Softworks's Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Overall, sales of new games at brick-and-mortar stores fell 14% in December to $2.04 billion from the same month a year ago, falling far short of the estimates of some analysts. For example, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter on Monday forecast software sales growth of 2% to $2.41 billion.

NPD noted that unit sales were down less than dollar sales in the software category. "This could indicate that aggressive promotions, which lowered the average retail price, did not spur an increase of unit sales the way they were intended to do," Frazier said.

December retail sales of videogame hardware fell 28% to $1.32 billion, NPD said. The Nintendo Co. (NTDOY, 7974.OK) Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 are both five years old, while Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Xbox 360 is a year older.

"Hardware was particularly hard hit in December," Frazier said. Nintendo's "3DS and the DS were the only platforms to realize a unit sales increase versus November, which is highly unusual since typically all platforms enjoy a lift in the biggest month at retail."

For the year, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling platform, NPD said, while the Wii and PlayStation 3 "were neck and neck in second place."

The monthly survey release also said videogame accessory sales, such as prepaid cards used to purchase digital content within games, dropped 27% to $628.7 million.

"A lot of the decline in accessory sales can be tied to tough comps against the performance of the Kinect and Move" last year, Frazier said.

-By Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240; matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com

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