U.S. retail game sales suffer in April as release lineup rem

[kaspersky]

Video game sales at U.S. retail suffered a significant drop in April, adding to the industry's continuing declines at retail over the last several months.

Software proved to be the biggest negative contributor to an overall industry-wide decline to $630.4 million. The $307.2 million in software sales for the month represents a 42 percent decline from April 2011, according to data from the NPD Group.

These software numbers were well below PiperJaffray's estimates of $375 million, and the NPD Group's own Anita Frazier attributed this sharp drop to the lack of new releases for the month.

"I think what the new physical retail content sales reflect a very light release schedule in terms of the amount of compelling new games. Last April, the top seven titles outsold the top-selling title this year, and, simply stated, there were notably fewer new market introductions," Frazier said.

One of the months few big releases, Activision's multiplatform Prototype 2 led the software charts the month, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360-exclusive Kinect Star Wars at number two. When looking at products by individual SKU, Kinect Star Wars was the number one title across any individual platform.

"Kid Icarus: Uprising on the 3DS ranked among the top 10 SKUs for the month, and would have made the list if we were reporting on SKU rather than total title level," Frazier added.
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