U.S. sales of video games and consoles have so far kept pace with the industry's strong 2008, according to new data from NPD Group, a market tracker.

For the quarter, total U.S. video game revenue was $4.25 billion, which matches sales from last year's first quarter, according to NPD. During the quarter, video game sales slipped slightly, but a 1% increase in video game consoles, led by sales of Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (NTDOY) Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Xbox 360, made up the difference, NPD reports.

A weak March, when sales fell 17%, makes it "tempting to jump to the conclusion that the sky is starting to fall," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "It was a pretty healthy month for sales, overall."

Analysts though are warning that the industry is in for a tough few months ahead, when overall growth is expected to slow dramatically. The culprit was last year's biggest-selling games debuted between March and June, which created big spikes in both game and console sales, and tough comparisons for sales of video games a year later.

Had March 2008 been a month of little merit, and not the debut of one of the top-selling Wii games of all times, March 2009 in the video-game industry would likely have shown much more impressive growth. Rather, NPD data suggest overall revenue and revenue from games and consoles each fell between 17% and 18%.

Bank of America analyst Justin Post sees the season of tough comparisons ending some time after June and solid growth returning to the video game industry in the back half of the year. "But it could be a difficult few months for this group," he noted earlier this week.

"We're only just finishing up the first quarter, and from a Nintendo perspective, we're quite pleased," said Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, a Nintendo Co. Ltd. division. "In the end, though, it's the critical holiday period that typically accounts for half of our growth that we need to worry about."

The NPD data for March sales showed a month once again dominated by Nintendo, whose Wii motion-controlled console was the top-selling device, though sales slipped substantially from a year ago. Microsoft Xbox 360 console was the lone console to register growth, with sales growing 25% as earlier price cuts continue to resonate, Microsoft says.

-By Ben Charny, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-8230; ben.charny@dowjones.com