Video Game Sales Sink 5 Percent in May

By Ian Bell July 1, 2010

Sales of video game software and equipment in the United States fell 5 percent in May, industry tracker NPD said on Thursday, dragged down by sagging demand for game consoles.

Game software performed well in the month, with sales rising 4 percent to $466.3 million. Hardware sales tumbled, however, by 20 percent to $241.5 million. Sales of video game accessories rose 3 percent to $115.7 million.

Overall sales are down 10 percent this year in the United States, the world’s largest market, hurt by lower average selling prices on consoles, NPD said.

Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii was the top-selling home console in May, followed by Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc’s “Red Dead Redemption” was the top game in the month, selling 1.5 million units.

Editors' Recommendations

Publisher

I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?

Gaming

Video game genres, explained

Link and Zelda under Hyrule Castle in "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom."

Every entertainment medium uses genres to help people understand what a game or movie or song will be like before experiencing it. In a sea of nearly limitless content, this is essential for allowing people to more easily find the things they are interested in -- and to avoid the ones they aren't. However, genres also need to be broad enough to still be useful, meaning most things don't fit perfectly into any one box. Games are in an even trickier situation since genres can not only describe the tone and target audience, but also how the game is played. This has created a whole new set of genres and subgenres exclusive to games that can be quite confusing. We'll go over the most recognized video game genres, as well as some subgenres within them, to explain what they are and give some examples.

While we will do our best to organize games and genres in a logical way, it is still a subjective practice.
Action

Gaming

PlayStation State of Play returns this week, will feature 14 PS5 games

Three colorful PS5s float together in a line.

PlayStation will kick off the summer of digital video game reveal streams this week with a State of Play broadcast. The stream will take place at 3 p.m. PT on Thursday, May 30.

State of Play is one of Sony's primary livestream presentation formats. It tends to be slightly shorter than the company's flagship stream, the PlayStation Showcase. This State of Play is a significant one, though, as Sony's slate of first-party games for 2024 is entirely unknown at this stage. This stream should shed some light on what's coming later this year.

Gaming

May is packed with great games, but don’t miss these 3 hidden gems

Key art for Zet Zillions

While its biggest hitters have been Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, XDefiant, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, May has also seen indie games thrive. While some of these games, including Animal Well and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, have clearly gotten the respect they deserve, in the past week alone, three standout games flew under the radar among all the AAA releases.

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is a remake of one of the most influential video game RPGs ever made, and it just exited early access on Steam and launched for consoles on May 23. Zet Zillions is a quirky roguelike card game with an enthralling gameplay loop and character designs that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Finally, there’s Starstruck Vagabond, a chill sci-fi shipping game created by Second Wind’s Yahtzee Croshaw. These three games are all quite different from each other, but that also makes it more likely that one of the games will speak to your specific tastes.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord