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Albert Einstein once said that "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Near the middle of every month market research firmNPD Group tries to apply that maxim to the gaming industry with release of retail statistics for the prior month’s sales. The numbers are meant to show the direction of the market, and individual products. Today, the October numbers hit the wires. They don’t account for an apparent turn around for Sony’s PS3, which began moving well with price cuts, but the numbers do give a snapshot of the gaming industry as it enters into the two biggest months of their year. As has been the case all year, the industry is hot.

For October, just about a year after the release of the Wii, Nintendo returned to it’s reign as king of the consoles and portables. (Nintendo was briefly displaced in September result of both strong Halo related Xbox’ sales and a limited supply of Wii’s).

As has been the case all year, the Wii remains hard to get and is selling out consistently. Nintendo sold 519k Units during the month.  Full year sales notched 5m.  In second for the month, the Xbox 360 moved 366 Units.  Sony’s Playstation 3, finished with 121k but reportedly was flying off the shelves by the week ended November 11. The price reduced model might have even sold 100k units that week.

In portables the Nintendo DS dominated with 458k units. The PSP sold 286k on the month

Overall, hardware sales were up 127%. They generated $469m in revenue. Games accounted for $513.9m. Combined, the industry grossed $1.1b on the month, a staggering 73% gain over 2006. In game title’s Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise and Microsoft’s Halo emphasized their status as some of the most elite games on the market.

Year to date, the industry has so far earned about $10.5b. That’s up noticeably from $7b through the same period last year. Hardware sales account for 85% increase ($4.1b). Game sales are up 23% over lat year. Anita Frazier of NPD notes "This year sales have already achieved the annual sales number for 2005 – and the two biggest months are yet to come." They expect when full year totals are tabulated, they’ll reach record breaking highs.

The numbers for October:

Hardware(Platform – Units sold for the month – – Units lifetime)

• Nintendo Wii: 519,000 – (5.0 million; Lifetime Total)
• Nintendo DS: 458,000 – (13.6 million)
• Xbox 360 :366,000 – (7.1 million)
• Playstation Portable: 286,000 -(8.8 million)
• PlayStation 2: 184,000 – (39.4 million)
• PlayStation 3: 121,000 – (1.9 million)

October Game Sales (title – platform – units)

• Halo 3 (regular, collector’s, and legendary versions) – Xbox 360 – 434,000
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (with guitar)- Xbox 360 -383,000
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (with guitar)- Wii -286,000
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (with guitar)- PS2 -271,000
• Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – DS -263,000
• Wii Play with Wii Remote- Wii -240,000
• The Orange Box- Xbox 360 – 238,000
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock- PS2 -232,000
• FIFA Soccer 08- PS2 -130,000
• Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day- DS -117,000

Year to Date Game Top Sellers:

1. Halo 3 (3.7m)
2. Madden NFL 08 (3.2m)
3. Guitar Hero II (2.8m)
4. Wii Play with Wii Remote (2.5m)
5. Pokemon Diamond (2.1m)
6. Pokemon Pearl (1.5m)
7. Spider Man 3 (1.4m)
8. Guitar Hero III (1.4m)

For comparative data, NPD’s data from the past few months can be found by clicking the names of the month as follows:
• February • March • April • May • June • July • August • September

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