After six straight months of double-digit declines, US video game sales finally saw an improvement last month.
But the rebound was much more muted than analysts had hoped, a sign that the recession has cut deep into consumer spending on interactive entertainment. Even recent console price cuts weren’t enough to push hardware dollar sales higher year-over-year.
Market researcher NPD Group on Monday reported a 1 percent increase in sales of video game hardware, software and accessories last month compared with the same month last year. The total came to US$1.28 billion. Year-to-date sales were down 13 percent.
Hardware sales dropped 6 percent to US$472.3 million. For the first time since its launch three years ago, Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 sold more units than both the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Corp’s Xbox 360.
“This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease, as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70 percent over the prior month,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier of the PlayStation 3’s performance.
Sony cut the price of the PlayStation 3 by US$100 in August.
Microsoft also slashed the Xbox 360’s price by US$100 that month, and Nintendo cut the Wii’s price for the first time since its 2006 launch by US$50 late last month. The average retail price of console hardware declined 8 percent from September last year.
The top-selling gaming platform was still the handheld Nintendo DS, for the sixth month in a row.
Microsoft’s Halo 3: ODST was by far the month’s best-selling game. It helped push software sales 5 percent higher, to US$649.3 million, still well below what many analysts expected. David Magee of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey forecast an increase in the low double digits. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter expected a 21 percent jump.
Both The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 were among the top 10 best-selling games, along with Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort and Madden NFL 10 for the Xbox 360.
Shares of GameStop Corp fell US$0.30 to US$27.86 in after-hours trading.
‘GLOBAL WARNING’: The infiltration is not just a local problem, as Beijing has been deploying the same tactics worldwide against Western democracies, a report said Between 50,000 and 100,000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan, far more than the National Security Bureau’s previous estimate of 5,000, German journalist and author Jurgen Kremb said on Monday. Kremb presented his research, titled “The War of Spies: How China’s Intelligence Services Are Infiltrating Taiwan — and What Europe Must Learn from It,” at a joint event held by the Taiwan offices of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the European Values Center for Security Policy. The report was published in June in the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau’s Prospect & Exploration Monthly (展望與探索月刊). By spies, he said he was referring to informants,
PRICE STABILIZATION: The Ministry of Economic Affairs has urged the legislature to support the Cabinet’s supplementary budget for state-owned energy companies State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Saturday announced that it would raise domestic gasoline prices by NT$0.7 (US$0.02) per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter this week after international crude oil prices rose above US$100 per barrel last week. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said that it matched CPC’s price adjustments for this week. The decisions end a six-week period during which CPC and Formosa kept fuel prices in Taiwan unchanged. Retail gasoline prices this week would rise to NT$31.2, NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC
More than 100 Taiwanese-Americans, Taiwanese lawmakers and members of civic groups on Saturday marched through New York City to call for Taiwan’s participation in the UN, with Marshall Island Permanent Representative to the UN John Silk joining the event to show support. Participants chanted: “UN for Taiwan” and “Keep Taiwan Free” as they marched through central Manhattan, passing Times Square and Bryant Park before ending near the New York Public Library. The annual march brought together Taiwanese community groups from across the US East Coast. Silk expressed hope that Taiwan would one day be able to participate in UN meetings
WASHINGTON MEETING: Japan’s Hirofumi Takinami said participants rejected the idea that the US should limit its defensive perimeter to the Second Island Chain US and Japanese lawmakers agree that the US must defend the First Island Chain, including Taiwan, and should not fall back to the Second Island Chain, while “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency and therefore a US-Japan alliance contingency,” media reported after a meeting between officials of the two nations in Washington on Tuesday. A delegation of Japanese lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party met with US Senator Thom Tillis, co-chair of the Senate Taiwan Caucus, and US Representative Ami Bera, co-chair of the US Congressional Taiwan caucus, to discuss issues concerning East Asia and the Taiwan Strait. The Japanese and
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