NPD News, NPD Features

Tomb Raider reboot sitting pretty in second

The data moguls at North American sales-tracking group the NPD have compiled figures for the video game industry in March, crowning BioShock Infinite the best-selling title of the month. Unfortunately, the physical sales sector of the US industry shrunk by 10 per cent compared to the same period in 2012,...

Sales strong for Sony's system

PlayStation 4 may have stolen the headlines in February, but the PlayStation 3 proved that it’s still got the staying power to carry Sony into the next generation. GamesIndustry.biz has revealed that the manufacturer’s current flagship console sold 263,000 units in North America last month – enough to make it the...

Sly Cooper squeezes into the top ten

Despite speculation regarding its disappointing sales, Dead Space 3 managed to fire its way to the summit of the North American sales charts in February. The space shooter pushed Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 into second, while Crysis 3, NBA 2K13, and

The future's bleak

Staying consistent with the rest of 2012, December served up another year of decline for the North American video game industry. Despite pulling in a whopping $3.2 billion during the festive window, sales were still down 22 per cent over last year’s $4.10 billion. The year as a whole drooped by a similar margin, scooping just...

Bang on trend

The excellent hardware figures for Black Friday week weren’t enough to offset the North American video game industry’s continued decline in November. According to the NPD group, numbers for the period fell by 11 per cent year-over-year, with sales amounting to $2.55 billion, compared to $2.87 billion in 2011. Hardware sales were...

Bounce back

NBA 2K13 scored a convincing three-pointer in the latest NPD report, as the rest of the North American video games industry continued its downward trend. The sector as a whole earned $755.5 million for the period, a figure which compares negatively to last year’s $1 billion. While the figures aren't especially pleasant, analyst Liam...

Christmas is coming

Average weekly sales of both the PlayStation 3 and Vita increased in North America throughout September, suggesting renewed momentum heading into the holiday season. As has become a recurring theme, the Xbox 360 was the best selling console for the month with 270,000 units sold. Unfortunately, Sony doesn't share specific hardware...

Industry woes continue, though

July proved to be another desperately disappointing month for physical video game sales in North America. Overall sales in the retail sector dropped by 20 percent year over year – bringing in just $548.4 million compared to $686.3 million the year prior. Hardware sales dwindled by as much as 32 percent, with a 23...

Holy great performance, Batman!

Not content with dominating the charts across the pond, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes has also topped the North American best-sellers for the month of June. But while developer Traveller’s Tales will be cracking open the champagne in celebration, the rest of the sector won’t be quite so enthusiastic. The entire...

Troublesome trends

Let’s get straight to the point: May was not a good month for video game sales in North America. Hardware sales were down 39% year-over-year, bringing in just $138.9 million compared to $228.8 million in 2011. Software sales also saw a decline of 16%, though the NPD puts that decrease down to fewer releases. Unsurprisingly, PC...

Heller bad

Those of you with any kind of financial investment in the North American video game industry might want to point your browser towards a more positive place. The April NPD results are in, and they don’t make for particularly pleasant reading in the slightest. Indeed, as a whole the gaming industry shrunk by a whopping 32 percent year...

Cash is king

New intellectual properties have it tough in today’s video game market, so it’s refreshing to see a title like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning post impressive US sales. The EA published action RPG has sold 410k units since its launch in February, with a sizeable chunk of those sales coming from the month of March. NPD’s David Riley...

Geth a load of that

Mass Effect 3 sold 1.3 million copies across multiple platforms in North America last month, the NPD has confirmed. The figure covers retail releases only, so digital downloads on the PlayStation Network (and EA’s own Origin) are not counted. As such, it’s safe to assume the true, ahem, Tali is significantly higher. To put...

Bad news

Binary Domain is a rare gem. Sure, it gets a bit repetitive in places, but it’s uncommon to find a new IP with a genuinely intriguing universe and likable cast. It’s just a shame the general public didn’t agree. According to this month’s NPD report, the Yakuza Studio developed third-person shooter sold just 20k copies in North...

Not especially pretty

Despite the arrival of several massive new releases, software and hardware sales continued their decline in North America for the month of March 2012. The latest NPD report shows that the month brought in $1.1billion in revenue, a whopping 25 percent less than the same period in 2011. Hardware, software and accessory sales were...

Call of Duty on top

Forget the concerning news about dwindling sales, and let’s focus on what really matters: Twisted Metal was the ninth best selling game in North America for the month of February. Considering the amount of scepticism that was lofted at director David Jaffe and his team regarding the relevance of car combat, we think that’s a...

Stuck in a rut

The latest NPD report – covering monthly spend for the video game industry in North America – didn’t paint a particularly promising picture for digital entertainment in January. Both hardware and software dropped 38% year over year, with sales down from $1.14 billion in January 2011 to just $750 million this past month. The NPD cites the lack of major new releases as the reason..

Ever since we've played video games, we've struggled to get our head around the furore surrounding EA Sports' NCAA sports titles

For those that aren't American and don't understand, NCAA stands for (as we understand it at least) National Collegiate Athletic Association. These are essentially teams — in a variety of sports — made up of college students. Even more bizarre is that the top selling..

Turns out Patrick Seybold was very crafty with his wording of inFamous 2's sales success

While Sucker Punch's super-hero adventure might have been the top selling single SKU in June, it did not manage to outsell its multiplatform rivals L.A. Noire and Duke Nukem Forever. But that's ok, we'll forgive it that. Finishing up in third on the multiplatform sales chart is a very good result for inFamous..