Capcom was the big winner again in March: Resident Evil 5 outsold every other videogame in the U.S. last month.
The Xbox 360 version alone came in at 938,000 copies sold, with the PlayStation 3 version at 585,000, according to the NPD Group's sales results for the U.S. videogame industry in March 2009. This suggests that Microsoft's efforts to co-market the 360 version were quite well received. Recall that last month, Capcom's top-selling Street Fighter IV sold roughly equal amounts on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
(The Xbox 360 number does not include copies bundled with Xbox hardware, NPD says.)
Other big games for March included Nintendo's Pokemon Platinum and Microsoft's Halo Wars.
On the hardware side, it's the same old story. Everything's down from February, as usually happens in March.
Wii 601K
Nintendo DS 563K
Xbox 360 330K
PlayStation 3 218K
PSP 168K
PlayStation 2 112K
Software chart and broader industry analysis below.
Top 10 Software, March 2009
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA 360 938K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 805K
HALO WARS* MICROSOFT 360 639K
RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA PS3 585K
WII FIT W/BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 541K
MLB '09: THE SHOW SONY PS3 305K
KILLZONE 2 SONY PS3 296K
WII PLAY W/REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 281K
MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 278K
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE 360 205K
*Includes limited edition versions
The entire game industry is down significantly over March 2008.
Dollar Sales March 2008 March 2009 Change
Video Games $1.72B $1.43B -17%
Video Games Hardware $552.04M $455.55M -18%
Video Games Software $952.14M $792.83M -17%
Video Game Accessories $217.55M $185.67 -15%
NPD analyst Anita Frazier, in a statement released with today's numbers, cautions against Chicken Little-type behavior, however:
While it might be tempting to jump to the conclusion that the sky is starting to fall on the video games industry given this month's results, it's important to remember that two very big things are different this year than last. First, Easter fell in March last year whereas it fell in April this year, and last March included the release of Super Smash Bros.: Brawl, which went on to become the fourth best-selling game in 2008.
We'll see next month whether that all pans out. Seems to make a lot of sense -- NPD says Easter accounted for $121 million in sales last year.