'Halo 3' Drives Sept. Video Game Sales

Barbara Ortutay - Associated Press

NEW YORK — An impressive showing from Microsoft Corp.'s "Halo 3" re-energized the Xbox 360 and pushed U.S. video-game retail sales up 74 percent in September, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.

"Halo 3," the final installment of the hugely popular first-person shooter trilogy for Microsoft's Xbox 360, made its debut Sept. 25 and sold 3.3 million units during the month, including collector's editions.

"True to its name, the game rubbed off on hardware sales too _ the Xbox 360 realized its best month ever in unit hardware sales outside last holiday season," said Anita Frazier, video game analyst for the NPD Group, in an e-mail. "If ever there was doubt that great content drives hardware acquisition, this should put that doubt to rest."

Video game retail sales reached $1.36 billion in September, up from $778.7 million a year earlier.

Hardware sales, including consoles and handheld systems, more than doubled to $544.9 million. People bought nearly 1.4 million consoles in September, up from just 613,500 a year earlier.

The Xbox 360 was the month's top-selling console, selling 527,800 units, up 91 percent from the 276,700 sold in August.

Software sales rose 47 percent to $653.6 million. Games for consoles made up $550.5 million of software sales, up 64 percent from a year earlier. Sales of games for handheld systems such as the Nintendo DS, meanwhile, declined 6 percent to $103.1 million.

Two games from Nintendo, the world's top video game company, followed "Halo 3" in the month's best-selling games. Electronic Arts Inc., the largest independent game publisher, had three games in the top 10, including "Madden NFL 08" for the PlayStation 2.

But EA's monthly revenue fell 6 percent from last September and its market share declined to 17 percent from 26 percent last year, noted Lehman Brothers analyst Eric Handler.

"This decline is largely attributable to revenue gains for Microsoft associated with Halo 3, and Nintendo's continued gains on their platforms," he wrote in a note to investors.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s "BioShock" for the Xbox 360 also made it to the top 10 with 150,000 units sold.

For the first time in eight months, however, Activision Inc.'s "Guitar Hero 2" did not make it to the top 10, noted CIBC analyst Brendan D. McCabe, adding that the company's current quarter nonetheless "appears fine based on historical correlations."

BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward Williams noted that strong sales of Microsoft's products drove September's results, "although the Nintendo DS had another strong month owing to the launch of the latest 'Legend of Zelda' title."

Though it was ousted from its top spot, Nintendo's Wii console had its second-best month ever, selling 501,000 units, up from 403,600 in August as more systems became available in stores.

Sony's PlayStation 3 sold just 119,400 units, topped by its predecessor, the PS2, with 215,000 units sold. On Thursday, Sony cut the price of the 80-gigabyte PS3 in the U.S. to $499 from $599 and said an even cheaper version, with a 40-gigabyte hard drive, will go on sale Nov. 2 for $399.

Frazier expects the U.S. video game industry to bring in revenue of about $17 billion to $18 billion in 2007, its strongest year ever.

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Copyright 2012 by Associated Press