US entertainment research company NPD said that US games hardware and software jumped 73% in October, with Nintendo’s Wii console going back to top spot after a brief jump into the lead by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 during September, due to the launch of Microsoft’s Halo 3 game.
Sales for October were $1.1 billion, compared with $643 million the previous year, with the Wii selling 519,000 devices, Microsoft selling 366,000 Xboxes and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in a poor last place with 121,000 sales.
However Sony now says that during the week ending November 11 it doubled sales due to a price cut and the introduction of a cheaper 40 GB model, with 100,000 consoles sold in one week, so November figures will be interesting and Sony may be well placed for the all important Christmas period when 50% of a year’s sales can happen.
Xbox claims that it is selling more software than the Wii and PS3 combined, but that’s not too surprising given its large installed base, and the 1 year lead it enjoyed in the market.
While Microsoft’s Halo 3 sold a phenomenal 433,800 copies on the Xbox 360, Activision’s Guitar Hero 3 was only on the market for six days and sold 1.4 million copies, across all three major consoles, plus the older Sony PlayStation 2, which puts Halo 3’s success into perspective.