March 9, 2012 05:46 pm EDT

February's gaming sales a mixed bag: up for the month, down for the year

At this point, every time NPD releases its numbers, the video game industry collectively holds its breath. The last couple of months have not been kind, as hardware sales continued to drop. But, in February there was finally some good news -- console sales were 87 percent over January. More impressively, that jump only falls to 62 percent if you exclude the Vita. Still, after so many disappointing months, even that stratospheric jump left sales 18 percent lower than the same period last year. Even when taking software into account sales were down 20 percent -- with the industry as a whole raking in just $1.06 billion last month, down from the $1.33 billion the previous February. Individually there was good news for companies, though. Nintendo saw Super Mario Galaxy cross the five million mark, while all of its consoles (the DS, 3DS and Wii) all saw more than 50 percent spikes in their sales compared to January. Meanwhile, Microsoft held on to its number one slot by moving 426,000 Xbox 360s. Hit up the various source links for more info.

February's gaming sales a mixed bag: up for the month, down for the year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Joystiq 1, 2, Microsoft ||Comments

Original Link: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/09/februarys-gaming-sales-a-mixed-bag-up-for-the-month-down-for/

View Full Article

Engadget

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics. Engadget was launched in March of 2004 in partnership with the Weblogs, Inc. Network (WI

More About this Source Visit Engadget