Sony continues to come out swinging each month in the NPD charts, noting that they are once again number one for the month of August. Unfortunately, all three of the big console manufacturers avoided discussing the hardware numbers for each of the respective consoles, but Sony and Microsoft were intent on boasting about their consoles' sales performance.
According to Joystiq, the NPD let loose a flurry of the standard monthly sales figures that you would expect. Except, on the software side of things the numbers didn't quite match up in the same period as last year.
As noted by NPD analyst Liam Callahan...
“Deep declines in seventh generation software [X360, PS3, Wii] of 57 percent were not offset by growth in eighth generation software, leading to a net decrease of console software sales of $47 million,"
Software managed to rack in $231.6 million throughout the month of August this year. That's down from $293.4 million in August of 2013.
Hardware was a slightly different story, as the industry topped $196.2 million in the U.S., throughout August. The hardware sales were led by none other than Sony's PlayStation 4.
According to Venture Beat, Sony PlayStation senior vice president of marketing Guy Longworth issued the following statement about the performance of the PS4 in the previous month, saying...
“PlayStation 4 was No. 1 in hardware sales for the eighth consecutive month,” ... “And it remains the cumulative leader for new-generation game consoles.”
Microsoft actually had a heck of a lot more to share this time around.
Since May, the company has not released any public SKU sales figures for the Xbox One. It's possible we could be getting more numbers soon with the holiday season about ready to kick off once fall shifts into top gear.
Nevertheless a Microsoft representative sent the following message to Venture Beat...
“Xbox One sales are on a positive trajectory, nearly doubling sales in August in the U.S. compared to July due in part to strong demand for the Xbox One Madden NFL 15 bundle. We’re looking forward to bringing the best value bundles, incredible offers like the ‘Buy a Console, Get a Game Free’ promotion running now, and more great games as we gear up for the launches of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2, Destiny, Grand Theft Auto V, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.”
The site also points to Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter as having estimated that the PS4 may have moved 175,000 SKUs in the U.S., while the Xbox One may have hit 150,000.
So far, there's no word on the Wii U's performance, but Wii U Daily is reporting that Mario Kart 8 has fallen out of the top 10 for August. It's not that bad of a slip-up if Nintendo can recover with Hyrule Warriors in September, followed by Bayonetta 2 in October.
I'm almost kind of curious to see what September's NPD will look like now that Destiny is up and out on store shelves. While the reviews haven't been exactly glowing of the game, I do wonder if the momentum will carry through the rest of the season or if it will have a short sales momentum and then fade out? I guess time will tell.
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