A survey from NPD indicates that US console hardware and software sales fell 2.5% during the first half of 2004. Price cuts from Sony and Microsoft saw a drop in the market’s value, but the number of units sold was up by 1%.
The console market in the US was worth US$3.4 billion (€2.78 billion) during the first six months of 2004, compared to US$3.5 billion (€2.86 billion) for the same period last year.
All of the consoles available have been on sale for at least two years now, so penetration is high – this caused a 17% drop in hardware sales. Portable software (that’ll be Game Boy cartridges then) fell 12%. However, internet accessories like the PS2’s broadband adaptor rose 120% and “speciality controllers” rose 184%. Looks like everybody decided to go out and buy a Wavebird.
“The reduced price points for Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation 2 helped to stabilize industry sales during the first half of the year,” said Richard Ow, s senior video games analyst at NPD. “While the first quarter of 2004 was showing double-digit losses in console hardware unit sales, with the help of lower price points for the Xbox and PS2 during the second quarter of 2004, the industry actually saw double-digit increases in unit sales for the entire second quarter of the year.”