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MGS4 Dominates June NPD, Drives PS3 Sales
by Brandon Boyer
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July 18, 2008
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PlayStation 3 exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4 has taken the top slot in NPD's June North American sales figures in its debut month with nearly 775k units sold, driving nearly double the PS3s sold over May, as Nintendo's DS becomes the top-selling game system.
Overall, the entire video game market -- both hardware and software -- accounted for $1.69 billion in June, up 53 percent from the year prior.
Said NPD analyst Anita Frazier, "The video games industry continues to perform in the face of an ever-increasingly difficult economic environment as many turn to more in-home entertainment. Even if growth slows over the back half of 2008, the industry is poised to achieve record-breaking revenues of over $22B for the year."
June Hardware
Hardware numbers were up 54 percent to $615.1 million, as the PlayStation 3 sees a near doubling in sales following the release of Metal Gear Solid 4. The DS, too, sees a dramatic jump in sales, with all consoles bar the Wii seeing gains over May.
Despite the Wii's fall, though, as announced by Nintendo, its sales take it to the number one console in the U.S., with life to date sales of 10.9 million.
The full charts are as follows:
Nintendo DS - 783K (from 452.6K)
Wii - 666.7K (from 675.1K)
PlayStation 3 - 405.5K (from 208.7K)
PSP - 337.4K (from 182.3K)
Xbox 360 - 219.8K (from 186.6K)
PS2 - 188.8K (no May numbers given)
Frazier noted, "Platform-exclusive content usually fuels hardware system purchases, and PS3 sales certainly reflect the impact of Metal Gear Solid 4. PS3 unit sales were the highest of any month outside of that recorded during previous November/December holiday timeframes."
"The 360 platform has driven the greatest number of hardware purchases this generation," she added, "with just under 8 software units purchased for each unit of hardware, on average."
June Software
On the software side, June sales were up 61 percent to $542.2 million, as Metal Gear Solid 4, Guitar Hero World Tour and Ninja Gaiden II all see chart topping debuts.
Wii Fit continues its success despite limited supply at number four, with the Xbox 360 version of Battlefield: Bad Company debuting at six.
Three versions of Lego Indiana Jones rounded off the rest of the charts, but, combined across all platforms, was the top selling title for the month with 1.1 million sold, noted Frazier.
Grand Theft Auto IV, after selling well over a million cross-platform copies in its first full month, has dropped off the software top ten entirely.
The full rundown is as follows:
1. Metal Gear Solid IV (PlayStation 3, Konami) - 774.6K (not including hardware bundled copies)
2. Guitar Hero World Tour (Nintendo DS, Activision) - 422.3K
3. Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360, Tecmo/MGS) - 372.7K
4. Wii Fit w/balance board (Wii, Nintendo) - 372.7K
5. Wii Play w/remote (Wii, Nintendo) - 359.1K
6. Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360, EA) - 346.8K
7. Mario Kart (Wii, Nintendo) - 322.4K
8. Lego Indiana Jones (Wii, LucasArts) - 294.5K
9. Lego Indiana Jones (DS, LucasArts) - 267.8K
10. Lego Indiana Jones (PS2, LucasArts) - 260.3K
Frazier added that "as expected, Metal Gear Solid 4 realized significant retail sales and drove PS3 hardware acquisition. While the attached media report does not include units bundled with hardware, if included MGS4 sold-through nearly 1 million units."
"Wii Play continues to achieve an attach rate of over 50 percent to every new Wii hardware system sale," she added. "I can't think of another game that has ever had that kind of performance after 16 months at retail."
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