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NPD analyst Anita Frazier said last night that the lack of a US hardware sales boost thanks to GTA IV has come as a “surprise”.
“I was surprised by this month’s hardware sales because I did believe we’d see a boost in May,” she said. “GTA IV sales remained very strong so you can’t point to waning interest in the title as contributing to slower hardware sales.”
The data showed that GTA IV sold more than 1.3 million units in the US last month, but that combined PS3 and 360 hardware sales sat at 395,300 - only a slight increase on the 375,100 consoles sold in April.
Read more of Anita’s analysis of May’s NPD data on GameDaily. Read the rest of our NPD coverage here.
Viewing 14 responses
Tonka said:
Maybe there was a boost.
patlike said:
PS3 figures were up. 360 sales were actually down. I bet Microsoft’s pleased about that.
Blerk said:
I’m astonished, tbh. Where the hell is everybody?
Although I suppose I’ve some need to talk, being a last-gen die-hard and all. Maybe there are more people like me than I expected?
I still think Sony need to drop their price at least $100. If top-notch games can’t kick-start the market, it can *only* be the hardware price that’s holding it back.
Tonka said:
I’m not overly surprised to be honest. I would have thought any major boost would have occurred week 1 (like they always do. Since there wasn’t any it would have been strange to see a huge increase this month.
But I do believe there was a boost. If it wasnt for GTA the 360 would have sold less than 100K both this and last month.
Blerk said:
Next month should be interesting. I doubt even Pachter can balls that prediction up.
Tonka said:
Why and why not?
Blerk said:
Well…. New PS3 packs + MGS == sales. No new 360 deals + no big 360 releases == fewer sales. Wii + metoometoometoo == jumbo sales.
patlike said:
What Blerk said. It’s pretty obvious. PS3’s going to destroy 360 in June.
Blerk said:
Seems like a good time for Microsoft to announce that US price cut, doesn’t it?
patlike said:
It’s almost as if some kind of major 360 channel announcement could pop up in the next few months. Maybe even at a trade show in LA.
Tonka said:
When is e3 btw?
Blerk said:
Week beginning July 13th. Kicks off proper on the Wednesday, but there are conferences and stuff earlier than that.
Killerbee said:
I have to agree - the Americans seem to be lapping up the Playstation 3 and MGS4. Especially the sell-out 80GB bundle.
It’d be interesting to see whether the same happens in Europe where we don’t have such goodies though… I can see MGS4 selling well, but I’m less sure it’s a console shifter. Particularly since the MGS4 bundle is just the same old 40GB, Sixaxis and a game thing Sony have been doing for months now…
patlike said:
The press conferences are on the Monday and Tuesday.