NPD: August shows 16% decline

Sales analyst NPD has revealed that the North American video games market suffered yet another monthly decline in August – its sixth in as many months – though there are signs that the drops are abating.

The market’s total value hit $908.72m throughout the month – 16 per cent down on the same month in 2008. Hardware sales were down 25 per cent and software sales down 15 per cent.

For the year-to-date, current sales are 14 per cent behind where that market was at this stage in 2008.

The price cuts implemented on the PS3 and 360 hardware already made an impact on unit sales,” NPD’s Anita Frazier stated. It will be interesting to see the full impact of the new price points on September sales.

The back four months of the year would have to be up 14% in aggregate for 2009 to come in flat in comparison to 2008 sales.”