I'll update the post later
Software:
1.) Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard: 360, PS3, WII, NDS, PC) [Now the best selling game in the U.S. ever]
2.) Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Capcom: 360, PS3) - 790.2K
3.) Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft: Wii) - 554K
4.) NBA 2K11 (Take-Two: 360, PS3, PSP, WII, PS2, PC)
5.) Dead Space 2 (EA: 360, PS3, PC)
6.) Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (Majesco: WII, 360, PS3)
7.) Bulletstorm (EA: 360, PS3, PC) - 285.6K
8.) Killzone 3 (Sony: PS3) - 279.9K
9.) Michael Jackson The Experience (Ubisoft: WII, DS, PSP)
10.) Mario Sports Mix (Nintendo: WII)
LTD Software:
Call Of Duty: Black Ops: 13.7 Million
New Super Mario Bros. DS: 9 Million
New Super Mario Bros. Wii: 8 Million
Donkey Kong Country Returns: 2 Million
Pokemon SoulSilver: 2 Million
Hardware:
Xbox 360 - 535,000 (+27%) [Top Console, 360's Best Non-Holiday Month Ever]
Wii - 454,000 (+14%)
PS3 - 403,000 (+12%)
Wedbush Numbers:
Call of Duty: Black Ops - 775,000
Dead Space 2 - ~311,880 (Down 31% from first month was the statement)
Zumba Fitness - 301,000
Mario Sports Mix - 200,000
Dragon Quest VI - 50,000
de Blob 2 - Much less than 75,000
uDraw - About the same as it sold in January
22 games sold over 100,000 copies (Up from 20 last year).
Kinect bundles outsold Move bundles 5:1 again.
In advance of an expected monthly NPD report on new retail video game sales, Microsoft has revealed its Xbox 360 sold 535,000 units in February, making it the top-selling console in the U.S. for the second straight month.
The result is up 27 percent from the system's performance in February 2010 and is the largest monthly sales number the system has posted in a month outside of October, November or December, the company said.
Strong hardware sales fed into $475 million in total spending on Xbox products, including software and accessories, for the month. Despite this, only four of the month's top ten selling games were available on the Xbox 360: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, Bulletstorm and NBA 2K11.
Video game players finally bought enough games in February to push the monthly sales numbers above year-ago figures, with February sales coming in 3 percent above a year ago.
Total sales of game hardware, PC games, console games, and portables rose 3 percent to $1.36 billion from $1.33 billion a year ago, according to market researcher NPD. The report is encouraging since many months have been negative compared to year ago numbers.
Software sales (console and portable games sold in stores) were still weak in the month, with sales down 5 percent to $601.4 million from $633.6 million a year ago. Hardware sales, on the other hand, were healthy. And accessory sales were up thanks to sales of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing system
Overall, video games as a whole were down 6 percent in 2010. But the game industry has many growing niches, including social network games, mobile games, browser-based online games, used games, game rentals, and free-to-play games on a variety of platforms.
NPD said U.S. retail game hardware sales were up 10 percent to $466.9 million from $426.4 million a year ago. Game software sales also fell 5 percent in January. Accessories were up 22 percent to $256.9 million from $210.0 million a year earlier, largely because of sales of Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing accessory for the Xbox 360, as well as Sony’s PlayStation Move wand-like controller.
The No. 1 title on all platforms was once again Call of Duty Black Ops, the hot-selling combat game from Activision Blizzard which debuted in November. Black Ops was also No. 1 in January, continuing a long streak.
No. 2 was Capcom’s Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, for the Xbox 360 and PS 3. Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2 for the Wii was No. 3, showing that music games aren’t dead but the trend is moving from faux guitar games to dance games. Take-Two Interactive’s NBA 2K11 was No. 4, and Electronic Arts’ Dead Space 2 was No. 5.
One of the new games that sold well, but not spectacularly, was Sony’s Killzone 3, pictured above. It came in at No. 8. Bulletstorm, also from EA, debuted this month at No. 7.
Sales of video game hardware in February propelled industry sales to a surprising improvement over last year, according to The NPD Group's monthly sales data.
Most analysts expected a decline in sales of games and console systems. Software sales did fall 5% below sales in February 2010 -- still a slightly better performance than expected. But all the three console systems saw increased sales.
"Within the video games industry, the console segment of the market was up 12% in dollar sales across hardware, software, accessories, and game cards while the portable segment of the market declined versus February 2010 by 27%," says NPD's Anita Frazier. "We are looking for the portable segment of the market to rebound beginning later this month when the highly anticipated 3DS launches in the U.S. on March 27th. Seven days of sales will be included when we release our March sales results on April 14th."
And Call of Duty: Black Ops became the best-selling game in history, topping Wii Play, Frazier says.
"The best-selling hardware system of the month was the Xbox 360 which had its biggest non-holiday (November/December) sales month ever, surpassing September 2007 when Halo 3 launched.," Frazier says. "The 250 GB system bundled with the Kinect sensor was one of the drivers of the increase in average selling price among console hardware."
All three console systems realized a unit sales increase over last February and a unit sales increase over January 2011, NPD says.
Breaking down the console growth, the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 up about 25% in sales (dollar value) and the Wii up 15%, compared to last year, says Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.
Total industry sales rose 3% to $1.36 billion, compared to $1.33 billion in February 2010. Sales of video game hardware rose 10% ($467 million vs. $426 million), while software dropped ($601 million vs. $634 million). Video game accessories continued to rise, thanks to Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move products ($257 million vs. $210 million).
"The big surprise to me is that hardware ticked up," Pachter says. "Maybe the recession really is over. People don't buy software because there is money burning a hole in their pocket. But they actually would buy hardware. Most recent jobs data show a slight uptick in jobs. Maybe consumer confidence is coming back. ... It has to be either that there's a change in NPD methodology or it is a reasonable signal that consumer confidence is back."
While Sony was reluctant to hand out the hardware data, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter passed along the NPD data for the PS3 console: it sold 403,000 units for the month of February. That's up 12% year-over-year but it's still not as good as Xbox 360's 535,000 (27% bump) or Wii's 454,000 (14% rise). Additionally, the PlayStation Move continues to be outsold by Kinect it would seem.
"Under one-fifth of PS3 sales included bundles with Sony’s Move controller, suggesting another modest month (we have chosen not to subscribe to peripheral data). Over 2/3 of Xbox 360 sales included bundles with Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, as Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles again outsold PS3 Move console bundles by over 5:1," commented Pachter. "We note that the top selling Kinect software titles easily outsold their Move counterparts."
Pachter also reiterated that price cuts are likely forthcoming but that for now 360 and Kinect have the momentum.
"We expect demand for the Xbox 360 to remain stronger than the other consoles due to the popularity of Kinect. We expect Wii and PS3 hardware sales to continue to decline (despite February’s up month for both) in the first part of 2011," he said. "Without further price cuts, we expect hardware sales to be down in 2011, and we think that the console manufacturers will position cuts around the E3 Expo in early June."
