NPD: NCAA Football sacks July

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Aug 14, 2008 4:31 pm PT

EA's collegiate pigskin sim scores top honors as 41 percent spike in total software sales push US industry to $1.2 billion in revenue for the month.

Gaming industry analysts have been having a tough time getting a read on monthly sales figures, but for the month of July, it looks like at least a few are getting a hang of the volatile jumps in year-over-year revenue climbs. With its monthly sales report for the month of July out today, the NPD Group revealed that, once again, the industry outpaced 2007 by double digit figures, rising 28 percent in total hardware, software, and accessory sales to $1.2 billion for the month.

Though it was a comparatively light month for new releases at retail, software still accounted for the largest chunk of that haul and hit quite close to analysts' estimations. For July, software spiked 41 percent compared to the same time a year ago, amounting to $591 million in sales.

With perennial chart topper Madden NFL out in August, the first of EA's annual gridiron volleys--NCAA Football 09--slotted into the first and fifth positions of the US sales chart, with the Xbox 360 edition outpacing the PlayStation 3 version, 397,600 units to 242,500. Namco Bandai's Soulcalibur IV also found more footing on Microsoft's console compared to its competitor, with 218,900 units of the well-reviewed fighter slashing to the 360 compared to 155,800 on the PS3.

Save for Take-Two's Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution eking out a 10th place finish on the 360 with 147,600 units sold, the remainder of the month's top 10 belonged to games for Nintendo's platforms. Meanwhile, Wii Fit proved to have legs enough to land a second-place finish with 369,600 units, and Activision's Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS took the bronze with 309,700 units. Surprisingly, Konami's PS3-exclusive critical darling Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots dropped out of the top 10 entirely in its second month on the market, after having easily secured the top slot in June.

While Microsoft roundly thumped Sony in software sales, it was the PlayStation 3 that once again outpaced its most adversarial competitor in July. Despite Microsoft slashing $50 from its midline Xbox 360 Pro, Sony's PlayStation 3's cross-SKU sales amounted to 224,900 units, a step above the 360's 204,800 systems. Nestled in between the two, Sony's PlayStation Portable sold 221,700 units.

As has become de rigueur from NPD sales stats, Nintendo's hardware took top honors, with the DS topping out at 608,400 systems and the Wii dropping 111,000 units under last month's total to a decidedly less nefarious 555,000 units.

US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - JULY 2008
Software: $591.1M (+41%)
Hardware: $446.9M (+17%)
Accessories: $149.1M (+19%)
Total Games: $1.19B (+28%)

TOP-SELLING HARDWARE - JULY 2008
Nintendo DS--608,400
Wii--555,000
PlayStation 3--224,900
PlayStation Portable--221,700
Xbox 360--204,800
PlayStation 2--155,500

TOP-SELLING SOFTWARE - JULY 2008
Title / Publisher / Release Date / Units*
1) NCAA Football 09 (Xbox 360) / Electronic Arts / 397,600
2) Wii Fit w/ Balance Board (WII) / Nintendo / 369,600
3) Guitar Hero On Tour (DS) / Activision / 309,700
4) Wii Play w/ Remote (WII) / Nintendo / 284,000
5) NCAA Football 09 (PS3) / Electronic Arts / 242,500
6) Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360) / Namco Bandai / 218,900
7) Mario Kart Wii w/ Wheel (WII) / Nintendo / 174,500
8) Rock Band Special Edition Bundle (WII) / MTV Games and Electronic Arts / 165,800
9) Soulcalibur IV (PS3) / Namco Bandai / 155,800
10) Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (Xbox 360) / Take-Two / 147,600

* Figures include Collector's Editions and non-hardware bundles.

47 Comments

  • optimusprime18

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 4:04 pm PT

    SINCE WHEN DOES HOW MANY PEOPLE BOUGHT INTO SOMETHING MEAN A GIVEN PRODUCT IS BETTER? MORE PEOPLE VOTED FOR GEORGE W. BUSH IN '00 AND '04 AND LOOK WHAT A F***-UP HE TURNED OUT TO BE. JUST BECAUSE MORE OF YOU IDIOTS OWN AN OBJECT DOESN'T MEAN ITS MAGICALLY THE BEST THING ON EARTH

  • blackace

    Posted Aug 20, 2008 3:49 pm PT

    No doubt Sony's PS3 will probably catch the XBox 360, but by the time it does, it will be irrelevant. It's not going to matter much as the XBox 360 will have already been a complete success and M$ will be working on releasing the next XBox system with Blu-Ray or some other HD format disc. As long as M$ keeps getting their system out first before Nintendo & Sony, they will do just fine. M$ still needs to acquire some better developers. EA talking about buying out Take_Two, Microsoft should buy EA. LOL!! An hostile takeover of EA would be fun to watch. I like to see their Execs squirm for awhile.

  • Yuck_Too

    Posted Aug 18, 2008 6:06 pm PT

    Only 20k more for the PS3 over the 360?...so much for the downfall of MS.

  • sillycatsteven

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 11:05 pm PT

    the only reason SC4 on xbox out sold ps3 was because ps3 verson costs 10~20% more than xbox verson... stupid Sony... stupid Microsoft...

  • bandarman

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 8:28 pm PT

    Another article another fanboy debate!
    You're ought to see fanboys crying over their consoles as soon as you put two sacred words in an article together...
    PS3 and X360!

  • alz619

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 6:11 pm PT

    The 360 is cheap enough. and outsells ps3 on most occasions. ps3 has one good month and the whole world has to know about it. How many months has the xbox out sold the ps3 and at one point the wii.

  • SalarianChemist

    Posted Aug 16, 2008 11:21 am PT

    Xbox 360 outsold Playstation 3 by a ratio of 2.5:1 in Japan this month!

    Due to the release of Namco's RPG called Tales of Vesperia, the Xbox 360 has ONCE AGAIN outsold the Playstation 3 in JAPAN!!!

    Tales of Vesperia on Xbox 360 sold 108,000 copies in its first week in Japan, which was more than the COMBINED sales of Soul Caliber 4 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

    Xbox 360 sold 24,962 systems in Japan, while Playstation 3 only sold 9,673 systems!

    Here's the proof:

    hxxp://www.edge-online.com/news/japan-xbox-360-outsells-ps3-25-1

    ...Ya know what this means: When you add up the numbers for North America and Japan, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are EQUAL for July...then factor in that the Xbox 360 outsold Playstation 3 in Europe, and Xbox 360 comes out ahead.

  • MetalMan300

    Posted Aug 16, 2008 6:22 am PT

    Im not exactly shocked that MGS4 dropped off the top ten. Its kinda overrated...

  • blackace

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 8:05 pm PT

    I think people are waiting for the Arcade to drop to $199 before people rush out and get it. It's still summertime as well and not many gamers are thinking about buying a game console right now. 200K units sold for a month is very low for any game console. The fact that there may be another price drop in Sept for the 360 may be keeping people waiting for that time. It's still surprising that the PS3 outsold the 360 in July, but MGS4 was probably the reason why that happened. These figures just show how off VGChartz figures are every week. Next month they will have the PS3 outselling the 360 in the U.S. and the NPD will have the 360 beating the PS3. As long as there are new games for both systems every month, I'm happy. Leave the sales figures to Sony and Microsoft to worry about.

  • miiiguel

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 2:29 pm PT

    er... yes, at his rate Sony only needs 200 months to reach 360 numbers. Oh wait... just saw Japan's numbers, make it 350 months.

  • sparkypants

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 12:48 pm PT

    wow new price cut and sony still manages to top the 360. Sonys been topping the 360 for some time now, Im starting to think the PS3 might hit second place!

  • Sacred-Snow

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 10:08 am PT

    This is good, I suppose.

  • Tandem_Toad

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 9:28 am PT

    Microsoft needs to bring on a better price cut for the all the 360 sku's if they want to start out selling the PS3 again!

  • Nineball2112

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 9:01 am PT

    Sins-of-Mosin posted: "It's a fact that the PS3 is still the best blu-ray player so naturally they are going to sell well."

    That's true. And that's a good thing. With great movies like Iron Man, The Dark Knight, and other movies that will be coming out on Blu-Ray this holiday season, that will also help increase PS3 sales.

    There are going to be some killer games coming out for the PS3 this fall too! So, no matter how you spin it, PS3 users have the best of BOTH worlds! Great games AND great Blu-Ray movies.... Life is sweet.

  • ThisIsntLeonard

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 8:43 am PT

    Not seeing MGS4 on the top-ten isn't too surprising, seeing as GTA4 fell off within about a month too. And with the release of Madden 09 this month, you probably won't see a lot of these titles up next month (except for Wii Fit and the horde of DS games). People just tend to buy games quick these days. Plus it's easier to save up for a game when it gets delayed a few times.

  • Nineball2112

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 8:06 am PT

    Well, I can honestly say that the hardware sales surprised me. I really thought the X360 would have a bit more sales than the PS3.

    And the PSP put up some good numbers too I see.

    Look, we as gamers have to be happy that total games are up a whopping 28% over this time last year.

    The gaming industry just keeps growing and that's good news for ALL of us.

  • Sins-of-Mosin

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 7:57 am PT

    It's a fact that the PS3 is still the best blu-ray player so naturally they are going to sell well. In terms of gamers actually buying it, look at the software sales and that will tell you where the gamers are. Plus, MGS4 last only one month on the top 10 sales charts.

    Bottom line is that at least half of PS3 buyers are not buying games. I'm sure MS knows this and I'm sure devs know this too. Thats why MS isn't dropping the price like mad and thats why devs still count the PS3 as #2.

  • LosDaddie

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 6:27 am PT

    Where did MGS4 go?

  • atomD21

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 5:13 am PT

    @azad champ - *I was wondering where MGS4 went on that list too. I'm wondering if it's a case of everyone who really wanted it got it day one, and then sales after that dropped off a cliff. I have no doubt it's still selling, just at a greatly reduced rate.* As for the hardware numbers, who really cares which console sold more last month? So long as you have the console(s) you want, just enjoy the gaming and don't get o worried if your favorite isn't number one all the time.

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