Even though the gaming console industry has seen better days in recent times, it appears that the Xbox 360 of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has topped the US market again. Despite the unimpressive performance of the market, the game console offering of software giant has provided the bright spot recently.
Microsoft indicated that the Xbox 360 accounted for over 42 percent of the market as it sold 426,000 units in the previous month.
Total software, hardware and accessories sales of the Xbox 360 have accounted for around $383 million for the month of February, which surpassed sales of its competitors in the market.
Out of the top ten games that were sold in the US market, five were for the Xbox 360. In comparison, sales of the Nintendo Wii was at around 262,000 units, the Nintendo 3DS accounted for 135,000 units sold while the Nintendo DS sold around 135,000 units.
Despite these numbers posted by the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo (TYO:7974) devices, the industry is experiencing a slowdown in sales as compared to that of last year. Sales for last month reach $1.06 billion, which is a decrease of twenty percent compared to the same period last year.
Software and hardware sales have also gone down by 23 percent and 18 percent respectively. However new software releases have reportedly accounted for a 22 percent increase in sales compared to February of last year. These new games were for the Sony PS3 and the Xbox 360.
Even as the Xbox 360 topped the game console sales last month, the industry has also benefitted from the sale of used games as well as online content. According to Anita Frazier of the NPD Group, other methods of the acquisition of content are used by consumers which include the purchase of used games, add-on content and full game download, mobile games, social network games as well as subscriptions and rentals. These alternative acquisitions have contributed around $600 million worth of sales.
