Deadhouse Gates

The videogame sector had a blowout month in December thanks to a strong slate of popular titles and the continued strength of the Nintendo Co. Wii, which remained in short supply through the holidays. Sales of videogame software in the U.S. jumped 36% during the month compared to last year, according to data from NPD Group released late Thursday. That came in ahead of most analysts’ estimates. Sales of game hardware grew 17% as consumers continued to snap up next-generation consoles from Nintendo, Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. The Nintendo Wii ruled the day, coming in with sales of 1.35 million units for the month compared with 1.26 million units for the Xbox 360 and 797,600 units for the PlayStation 3. The PS3 has seen a huge boost in sales over the last two months thanks to a sharp price reduction for the console, which debuted on the market in late 2006 at the high price of $600.

The Wii finished the year as the top-selling console, with nearly 6.3 million units sold domestically. That compares to 4.6 million units for the Xbox 360 and nearly 2.6 million units for the PS3 for the year, according to NPD data. Among handheld devices, the Nintendo DS fared even better, with 8.5 million in sales for the year compared to 3.8 million for the Sony PSP. For game software, sales totaled more than $8.6 billion in the U.S. for the year, up 34% from the previous year. The most popular games in November remained at the top of the list for December. The top-selling game of the month was “Call of Duty 4″ from Activision Inc., which moved nearly 1.5 million units. Activision also had the No. 3 title for the month with “Guitar Hero III” for the PlayStation 2, which moved 1.25 million units.

Source: WSJ