Video-game sales plummet in February

LOS ANGELES — Video game sales in the U.S. plunged 15 percent in February as skittish consumers continued to ratchet back their spending.

The bleak sales report, from the NPD Group, marks the 10th declining month of the past 12 months. Sales of software fell 15 percent in February from a year earlier to $624 million.

Console sales dropped a precipitous 20 percent to $426 million, while sales of peripherals such as game controllers dipped 1 percent to $204 million.

The slip occurred despite three major titles released last month, including “BioShock 2” from Take-Two Interactive Inc., “Dante’s Inferno” from Electronic Arts Inc., and “Heavy Rain” from Sony Corp.

“Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

In the console race, Microsoft Corp. finished first by selling 422,000 Xbox 360s. Nintendo Co.’s came in second with 397,900 Wii consoles sold.

Sony came in third place with 360,100 PlayStation 3 consoles sold. Still that was up 30 percent from a year earlier.

Expectations for console sales appeared to be low,
with some stores running out of Wii and PS3 consoles last month,
Frazier noted.

The top-selling titles included “BioShock 2,” which
sold 750,000 copies in February. Meanwhile, “Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare 2” blasted its way to become the third-best-selling game of all
time in the U.S. at 10 million copies.

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