April NPD

[Flawless]

NPD: 'Portal Kombat' Drives Game Industry Up 20% in April

Xbox 360 Was Top Selling Console Again in April; Kinect Games Portfolio to Triple in 2011

PS3 Sales Up 13% in April Despite PSN Breach

Hardware:

• 360 - 297K (+60%)
• PS3 - 204.3K (+13%)
• 3DS - 194K
• Wii - 172K (-38%)

Software:

• Mortal Kombat - 1+ million including special editions
• Portal 2 - 637K
• LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
• Crysis 2 - 236K
• Just Dance 2
• Michael Jackson: The Experience
• Pokemon White Version
• NBA 2K11 - 190K

More:

Kinect Sports - 3+ million sold worldwide
Dance Central - 2.5+ million sold worldwide

• Overall
  "New physical retail sales of hardware, software and accessories showed notable growth in April versus last year. A 17% increase in unit sales translated into over 20% dollar growth due to higher average retail prices.
  
  Sales occurring in April resulted in 2% year-to-date dollar growth for new physical sales, reversing the negative trend up until March. All three categories experienced double-digit dollar growth compared to April 2010.
  
  "Easter purchasing occurred in April this year as opposed to March last year. The Easter timing shift could explain about $60 million of the growth, but even accounting for that shift, sales of new physical product realized a notable increase versus last year."

• Hardware
  "Hardware sales realized the least growth at the category level. Unit sales were up 3%, with the greater dollar sales growth being driven by an increase in average retail price."
  
  "The PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 platforms saw an increase in unit sales versus April 2010. The Xbox 360 platform was the best selling of the month in terms of unit sales, followed by the Nintendo DS."
  
  "April marks the third consecutive month of year-over-year increase in dollar sales for the hardware category."

• Software
  "April 2011 represents the first month that new physical retail sales of content showed growth in both units and dollars since November of last year."
  
  "The Xbox 360 platform generated the greatest unit sales of new physical content at over 3.5 million units for the month, followed by the Nintendo DS platform. The Nintendo DS, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 platforms all generated greater unit sales of content versus April 2010."
  
  "The best-selling game of the month is Mortal Kombat 2011, which sold just under 900K units in its first month at retail."
  
  "Portal 2 was the second best selling game in April. According to our PC digital download report, the original Portal was the fifth most downloaded game in 2010, and was available for free when Steam launched on Mac. Portal's performance on the PC, coupled with the success of the Orange Box on consoles undoubtedly helped prime the fan base for Portal 2."
  
  "The content slate was stronger this year versus last April. Five games sold more than 250K units in April 2011 as opposed to just two last April."
  
  "Games that would appear in the top ten ranking on a SKU basis for April include "NDS POKEMON BLACK VERSION," and "PS3 SOCOM 4: U.S. NAVY SEALS." If sales of the SOCOM Move accessory bundle were combined with software sales, this game would have ranked in the top ten titles as well."

• Accessories
  "On a year-to-date basis, video games accessories realized the greatest year-over-year percentage increase of all categories. The best-selling accessory item in April was the Xbox 360 Live 1600 Points Game Card."
  
  "Sony's SOCOM 4: Full Deployment Bundle, which included the Sharpshooter as well as the Move, was the top new accessory release."

[bkfount]

Re: April NPD

According to Boon's twitter, MK actually sold over a million, when including the pricier special editions.

http://twitter.com/#!/noobde/statuses/68817788818571264

RT @RampagedDeath MK9 sold 900,000 kopies. Well done NetherRealm Noobde: That don't include special versions, actually over 1mil !!

[DickDalewood]

Re: April NPD

Lol, NBA 2K STILL up there. That game is beastin'.

[Flawless]

Re: April NPD

Portal 2 for 360 outsells PS3 version by more than 60%. 3DS sells fell by 50%.

CNBC

"Portal 2" was a bellwether of sorts for Sony's [SNE 28.23 -0.07 (-0.25%) ] troubles. While NPD no longer breaks out sales to the media by platform, people who had seen the full results said the version for Microsoft's [MSFT 25.32 -0.04 (-0.16%) ] Xbox 360 outsold PlayStation 3 version by more than 60 percent.

That's significant, since Valve had pushed the PS3 version for its multiplayer aspects.

3DS continues to underwhelm. After selling just under 400,000 units in March, sources tell CNBC that number fell by 50 percent in April.

Analysts say the weak software lineup and high price are the likely culprits.

"We initially expected the launch of the 3DS to spike overall software sales growth back into positive territory beginning in April, but the handheld is off to a slow start, as a lack of compelling software has kept many consumers on the sidelines for the expensive hardware," said Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities.

[bkfount]

Re: April NPD

Portal 2 for 360 outsells PS3 version by more than 60%. 3DS sells fell by 50%.

Valve never really built an audience on the ps3. The Orange box was a terrible outsourced port, and neither of the Left 4 Dead games are on the system. XBLA also has Portal 1: Still Alive, which even had a sale right before Portal 2 released. Only a minority of hardcore gamers would care about the ps3 steam integration and free PC version promotion.

[jmood88]

Re: April NPD

Portal 2 for 360 outsells PS3 version by more than 60%. 3DS sells fell by 50%.

CNBC

I really don't understand what Nintendo is doing with the 3DS and why they felt like they needed to hurry up to get it out. Half the features on it won't be available until next month and the first party games they were pushing aren't going to be on the system for awhile. The NGP isn't coming out anytime soon so it's not like they had to get it out before that was released.

[myghty]

Re: April NPD

I really don't understand what Nintendo is doing with the 3DS and why they felt like they needed to hurry up to get it out. Half the features on it won't be available until next month and the first party games they were pushing aren't going to be on the system for awhile. The NGP isn't coming out anytime soon so it's not like they had to get it out before that was released.

Plus the price tag doesnt help it any. 250 can be a little steep for a handheld in this economy. idk

[matt8204]

Re: April NPD

Lol, NBA 2K STILL up there. That game is beastin'.

Renewed interest because of the playoffs maybe?

I'm not a huge NBA fan, but I've heard nothing but good things about 2K11. I might have to get it; it's probably discounted by this point in the season anyway.

[bkfount]

Re: April NPD

I really don't understand what Nintendo is doing with the 3DS and why they felt like they needed to hurry up to get it out. Half the features on it won't be available until next month and the first party games they were pushing aren't going to be on the system for awhile. The NGP isn't coming out anytime soon so it's not like they had to get it out before that was released.

because nintendo is cocky. They pushed an expensive handheld with no games out to early adopters based on hype, and are supposedly already making a nice profit on the hardware anyways.

They can't be sweating the 3ds sales yet, especially since it's still finding some buyers with no games at all. Sure, mobile gaming is big with casuals, and the 3ds may never match the DS sales, but if it's still doing poorly after the holidays with some notable Nintendo titles out, Nintendo can still price drop it.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Re: April NPD

Lol, NBA 2K STILL up there. That game is beastin'.

So happy for 2k, It gives me true Joy to know that the Best basketball games is still around and will continue to be.