Originally Posted by Anita Frazier, Industry Analyst for NPD:

Overall

"The video games industry continues to perform in the face of an ever-increasingly difficult economic environment as many turn to more in-home entertainment. Even if growth slows over the back half of 2008, the industry is poised to achieve record-breaking revenues of over $22B for the year."

"Looking at historical data, hardware price reductions have been a good incentive for a broader consumer base to invest in a new-gen system, which encourages continued industry growth across all categories."

Hardware

"Platform-exclusive content usually fuels hardware system purchases, and PS3 sales certainly reflect the impact of Metal Gear Solid 4. PS3 unit sales were the highest of any month outside of that recorded during previous November/December holiday timeframes."

"The Wii has taken the lead in total sales of current generation console hardware at 10.9 million units sold at retail life-to-date in the U.S."

"The 360 platform has driven the greatest number of hardware purchases this generation, with just under 8 software units purchased for each unit of hardware, on average."

Software

"As expected, Metal Gear Solid 4 realized significant retail sales and drove PS3 hardware acquisition. While the attached media report does not include units bundled with hardware, if included MGS4 sold-through nearly 1 million units."

"Wii Play continues to achieve an attach rate of over 50% to every new Wii hardware system sale. I can't think of another game that has ever had that kind of performance after 16 months at retail."

"At the title level, Lego Indiana Jones captured the top sales spot for the month at 1.1 million units sold across all platforms. As Iron Man did last month, mass-friendly titles are a perfect fit for the still healthy PS2 platform, and the PS2 version of this game grabbed a spot in the top 10 list."

Accessories

"Accessory sales growth slowed slightly this month but still increased 25% over last June. Accessories for the Wii contributed one-third of total category sales, and the new games and accessories that Nintendo announced at E3 should engender future accessory sales."