Video games are bigger than ever
Posted on January 18th, 2008 – 8:53 AMBy Randy A. Salas
The final figures are in for 2007, and video games posted a record year with nearly $18 billion in sales, according to the NPD Group. That’s a 43 percent increase over 2006. Ironically, last year’s tally — $17.9 billion for software, hardware and accessories – fell just short of predictions of $18 billion to $19 billion, but it’s still phenomenal.
“While I wouldn’t count on similar growth in 2008, I would expect to see 2008 increase over 2007, with more growth (proportionately) coming from software sales,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. ”While we will continue to see strong hardware sales, particularly if prices come down again, the spotlight now turns from hardware to software.”
Nintendo ruled the year in system sales, with its portable DS selling 8.5 million units and its hot home console, the Wii, selling 6.3 million. The Xbox 360 came in third, with system sales of 4.6 million — although it still rules (for now) overall with total to-date sales of 9.2 million vs. the Wii’s 7.4 million.
I continue to be amazed by the relatively poor performance of the PlayStation 3. Even after widely publicized price cuts to a low of $399, the PS3 still sold fewer units in December than its venerable predecessor, the PlayStation 2 — 798,000 units for the PS3 (2.6 million for the entire year) vs. 1.1 million for the PS2 (4 million). The fortunes for the PS3 should change dramatically this year now that Blu-ray has effectively been declared the winner in the high-def disc war with HD DVD. The PS3 is by far the most popular Blu-ray player and also a better performer than any stand-alone Blu-ray model.
Sony’s PlayStation Portable sold 3.8 million units in 2007.
On the software side, the Xbox 360-exclusive Halo 3 gunned down the competition by selling 4.8 million copies, according to NPD, to become the top game of 2007. Wii Play, bolstered by the inclusion of an extra Wiimote, was close behind with sales of 4.1 million. Interestingly, while the Madden series of NFL games are a perennial bestseller, only the PS2 version of Madden 08 finished in the top 10 for the year, at No. 7 with sales of 1.9 million.
“If Halo 3 was the game of the year (in terms of sales), one has to recognize the tremendous success of the Guitar Hero franchise,” Frazier said. ”Guitar Hero games [for all systems]sold over $820 million at U.S. retail, which is a record for any single franchise in any one year.”
The PS2 version of Guitar Hero III finished at No. 4 for the year (2.7 million), and the PS2 version of Guitar Hero II was No. 8 (1.9 million), NPD said. The other Top 10 games were Call of Duty 4 for the 360 (3 million), Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii (2.5 million), Pokemon Diamond for the DS (2.5 million), Assassin’s Creed for the 360 (1.9 million) and Mario Party 8 for the Wii (1.8 million).
