PSP World

Economic Recession Slams Game Industry in June

There were few bright spots for video game hardware manufacturers in June, as a weak U.S. economy continued to exert downward pressure on sales. When compared to the same month a year ago, the overall U.S. video game industry declined by 31% to $1.17 billion in total revenue.

Anita frazier, analyst for the NPD market study group, blamed the poor results on hesitant consumers who are waiting for price cuts on hardware before jumping in.

"This is one of the first months where I think the impact of the economy is clearly reflected in the sales numbers. While the aggregate of content may not be as strong as what we saw in the first half of last year, and while the consumer base willing to spend dollars on hardware at the current price points may be thinning, the size of the decliine could also point to consumers deferring limited discretionary spending until a big event (must-have new title, hardware price cut) compels them to spend."

It is likely that the announcement of a new PSP Go and rumors of an upcoming cheaper PS3 Slim model are also hurting sales of current Sony hardware, which saw the steepest yearly decline.

On the software side, things were a little bit better, with a large number of games posting strong -- if not stellar -- sales results in June. Prototype and UFC 2009 led the way on Xbox 360, while Infamous posted a monthly increase in sales on the PS3. Wii Play was finally bumped off the charts as consumers flocked to the new Wii Motion Plus peripheral.

Activision's open world superhero game Prototype was a huge seller in June.