NPD Says Kinect and Black Ops Ruled in November

[Andy Chalk]

NPD Says Kinect and Black Ops Ruled in November

The videogame industry had a solid month of sales in November, driven by the success of Microsoft's Call of Duty: Black Ops [http://www.amazon.com/Kinect-Sensor-Adventures-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292000468&sr=8-1].

It hasn't been the best year ever for the game industry, which is still struggling with a year-over-year decline in overall "new physical channel" sales. But the month of November was a good one, as sales of hardware and software increased very slightly while sales of accessories, which includes Kinect and Move, went through the roof.

Hardware sales in November 2010 were up by two percent over November 2009, from $1.05 billion to $1.08 billion, while software sales rose from $1.41 billion to $1.46 billion, an increase of four percent. Accessories, on the other hand, leaped from $244.5 million to $413.3 million, a 69 percent jump that powered year-over-year accessory sales to a 15 percent improvement. That impressive mark wasn't enough to compensate for the relatively flat hardware and software sales, however, which left overall sales down by four percent year-over-year.

"The 360 platform accounted for over 40 percent of total industry sales driven by the successful launch of Microsoft's Kinect. Xbox 360 accessories accounted for 60 percent of that categories' dollar sales this month," Anita Frazier of the NPD Group [http://www.npd.com/] said. The Xbox 360 itself had a very good month as well, Frazier added, managing an "incredible" 68 percent increase over November of last year.

On the software side of the coin, November was all about Call of Duty: Black Ops, which banged out 8.4 million units and accounted for one quarter of all new software sales in the month. Not only that, but in just one month of release it became the seventh-best-selling game of all time, life to date. Somewhat surprisingly, the music/dance genre also did well, enjoying a 38 percent rise thanks to good sales of Dance Central [http://www.amazon.com/Just-Dance-2-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B003O6FV8S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292000629&sr=8-1].

The top-ten selling games for November 2010:


Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard) - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, DS
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft) - Xbox 360, PS3
Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft) - Wii
Madden NFL 11 (Electronic Arts) - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP
Fable III (Microsoft) -Xbox 360
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Nintendo) -Wii
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts) -PS3, 360, Wii, PC
Gran Turismo 5 (Sony) - PS3
NBA 2K11 (Take-Two Interactive) - Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP,PC
Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) - Wii


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[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

01. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, PC, NDS) ACTIVISION BLIZZARD ** - 8.4 Million
02. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (360, PS3) UBISOFT ** - 1.14 Million
03. Just Dance 2 (Wii) UBISOFT
04. Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) ELECTRONIC ARTS
05. Fable III (360) MICROSOFT**
06. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) NINTENDO - 430.5K
New! 07. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (PS3, 360, Wii, PC) ELECTRONIC ARTS - 417K
08. Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) SONY** - 400K
09. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP,PC) TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
10. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) NINTENDO**

*NPD's monthly point-of-sale data reports on U.S. Games Industry Sales occurring from new physical purchases at retail which is the largest channel for games sales, but it does not represent 100% of industry sales; it does not account for consumer purchases made via digital distribution, used game sales, subscriptions, mobile game apps, rentals, or social network games.

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)


Nintendo DS: 1.5 Million (-11.8%)
Xbox 360: 1.37 Million (+68%)
Wii: 1.27 Million (+0.8%)
PS3: 530k (-25%)

These are the numbers we have for those interested

edit pachter on kinect vs move


Pachter also noted that one third of PS3 sales were $400 PlayStation Move bundles, versus one half of all Xbox 360 purchases being Kinect bundles. (There are two Kinect bundles, a $300 4GB model and $400 250GB model.) "Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles outsold PS3 Move console bundles by more than 5 to 1," said the analyst.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Kinect was a success, after all.

Despite all of the "hardcore" gamers bitching and predicting a massive flop.

I'm kind of glad that it's successful, really. Don't know why...

 

[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

...November was all about Call of Duty: Black Ops, which banged out 8.4 million units and accounted for one quarter of all new software sales in the month.

It would be interesting to see the breakdown of Black Ops' sales by platform. I'm sure that the "8.4 million units" were probably split 40-40 between the Xbox 360 and the PS3, with the last 20% accounting for units sold on PC (mostly), Wii, and DS.

Probably more like 50% on 360, 40% PS3, 5% PC(this doesn't track DD so PC sales will be higher than indicated though) and the remaining 300k split between the Wii and DSbut yeah platform breakdown would be good. Especially if we could see if Goldeneye did better than BLOPS wii.

 

[The Rockerfly]

I am pleased to be honest with you, any console that supports a pick up and play attitude with little messing about deserves to sell well
Also I am pleasantly surprised by the Kinects success, I thought it would sell poorly but there we go I was very wrong

Go Microsoft

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

I'm not really surprised by the Kinect thing in a way; tell people that they can "work out" by punching air-squares in front of the television and they'll buy it up like a leather ab-recliner with cup-holders. I wonder how many were the disillusioned consumers from last year who bought up the Wii fits?

Black Ops as the number one game seems about right just buy name, advertising, word of mouth/popularity, and so on. Good to see AssCredible up there, though, it looks like a fun extension of AssCreed 2.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Kinect was a success, after all.

Despite all of the "hardcore" gamers bitching and predicting a massive flop.

I'm kind of glad that it's successful, really. Don't know why...

Actually, it's kind of early to claim whether or not it is a success. Yes, it is enjoying initial success, but that wasn't ever really a question. Infact, after a 500$ million advertisement campaign, it would have to be the equivalent of horse dung in order to not enjoy at least a degree of good initial sales.

No, the thing which will show whether or not Kinect is a success is whether or not it helps raise sales of Xbox 360 consoles in the long run (afterall, that was the entire reason why it was designed). This, however, won't really become apparent until at least a few months after release.

So the big question isn't whether or not Kinect can sell now. The question is, whether or not it will be able to do so after the holidays and beyond. That, however, remains to be seen.

Also, for all the success Kinect seems to be enjoying currently, I find it funny how not even one Kinect game has managed to break into the top 10. Makes one wonder if Kinect-related software actually has any legs.

 

[Something Amyss]

The Kinect is a success, eh?

I'd hate to know what they think is a failure.

I'm betting things that don't sell well.

Kinect was a success, after all.

Despite all of the "hardcore" gamers bitching and predicting a massive flop.

I'm kind of glad that it's successful, really. Don't know why...

All that bitching basically broke down to people saying it would fail because they wanted it to fail.

I don't own a Kinect or plan to get one, but I think the major fear is that 2-3 of the 6,000 shooters released every year will go away.