April 2009 NPD Data
Video game hardware sales in April 2009 significantly underperformed market expectations again. Total hardware units (excluding PS2) sold were 1.8 million, 8.12% worse than the market's expectation for 1.96 million units sold. Every console except the Nintendo DS underperformed their respective expected sales. The Nintendo DS was an outlier due to the release of the new DSi model.
Anita Frazier of NPD Group commented, "the NDS platform accounted for 31 percent of total industry unit sales this month across all categories. Also notable is the performance of the PS2 which is now at the budget-friendly price point of $99. Compared to March 2009, the PS2 sales rate almost doubled when comparing the two months on a same-week basis. This is a testament to the impact a price reduction can have on hardware acquisition, with price being only second to compelling new content as a catalyst for hardware sales."
Growth in video game sales was once again negative year-over-year. Total video game software sales contracted a massive 23% from $660.1 million in April 2008 to $510.74 million. Traders on the simExchange prediction market expected $611.6 million in sales.
"While April sales might appear soft on the surface, it's important to remember that April is being compared against a month (April 2008) that realized nearly 50 percent growth over April 2007. This year's performance still represents the second-best performance for the industry in the month of April, besting April 2007, which is the previous second-place holder, by 26 percent," says Frazier.
She continues: "Despite being compared against last year, when several big title releases drove both software sales and hardware acquisition, April 2009 was down only 5 percent on a unit sales basis, with the remainder of dollar sales decline coming from reduced average selling prices. Easter fell in April this year which undoubtedly helped cushion the decline."
The market also tracked the sales of Halo Wars (Xbox 360), which did not make the top 10. The Monthly Sales Future will cash out at 9.10 DKP.
The following tables compare market expectations on the simExchange and actual results as reported by the NPD Group.
Nintendo's DSi was released this month in America. 
The latest console data from the NPD Group shows that, in April, Nintendo's DSi handheld console outsold all other consoles in America in its first month of release. Apart from the Nintendo Wii  and the original Nintendo DS, all other consoles sold under 200,000 units.

A worrying trend for the industry is that the Xbox 360, Wii and the Playstation 3 all had lower sales on a month-over-month and a year-over-year basis.

Hardware sales for the month in America fell 8% year-over-year, down to $391 million. Year-to-date sales are down 1%, sitting at $1.83 billion.

The fall in hardware sales year-over-year can be attributed to major title releases last year in the month of April such as Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart Wii.

Below are the full results provided by NPD:




Console

Sales



'''Nintendo DSi'''

'''827,000'''



'''Wii'''

'''340,000'''



'''Nintendo DS Lite'''

'''215,000'''



'''Xbox 360'''

'''175,000'''



'''Playstation 2'''

'''172,000'''



'''Playstation 3'''

'''127,000'''



'''PSP'''

'''116,000'''