Tag Archives: sne

Video:EA’s ‘Madden NFL 15’ sacks competition in August

Video game sales at U.S. retail rose for the seventh straight month on a year-over-year basis in August, led by new consoles and the pro football game “Madden NFL 15” from Electronic Arts (EA). Retail tracker NPD Group reported late Thursday that sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories at U.S. retail stores rose 8% in August, vs. August 2013, to $561 million. Sales of new video game products at brick-and-mortar stores represent half of total consumer spending on video games, NPD says. The other half is generated by used game sales and rentals and digital-format sales, downloads and subscriptions. Retail sales were fueled by spending on new game consoles, including Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox One, Nintendo’s (NTDOY) Wii U and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4, NPD analyst Liam Callahan said. Game hardware sales rose 116% year over year in August to $196 million. Accessories sales dipped 2% to…

Post-apocalyptic ‘Last of Us’ leads July game sales

Video game consoles helped to lift overall industry sales in July, while game software sales dipped year over year as consumers faced mostly reruns. U.S. sales of video game hardware, software and accessories at retail rose 16% to $514 million in July, compared with the same month last year, according to the NPD Group. It was the sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Game hardware sales doubled to $199 million. Accessories sales inched up 3% to $137 million. But game software sales dipped 15% to $178 million. “Similar to the pattern seen in seven out of the last nine months, strong growth in hardware sales offset declines in software sales in July 2014, while accessory sales had modest growth,” NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement late Thursday. Hardware sales were fueled by Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox One consoles, which are outselling their predecessors. “When…

Xbox One, ‘Watch Dogs’ drive June video game sales growth

Microsoft’s (MSFT) lower-priced Xbox One video game console and Ubisoft’s conspiracy-themed action-adventure game “Watch Dogs” helped push U.S. retail video game sales to their fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in June. Domestic retail sales of new game hardware, software and accessories rose 24% to $736.4 million last month, research firm NPD Group reported late Thursday. Game hardware sales alone jumped 106% from the same month last year to $292.7 million. Strong sales of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox One and Sony’s (SNE) PlayStation 4 living-room consoles helped to offset declines in portable game hardware in June, NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “Combined sales of Xbox One and PS4 are over 80% higher than the combined totals for Xbox 360 and PS3 — an indication of the strength of the start of this new console generation,” Callahan said. Microsoft said Wednesday that U.S. sales of its Xbox One console more than…