Take away Nintendo Co., and the video-game industry looks like every other consumer business: in a funk.
U.S. sales of games, players and accessories rose 10 percent to $2.91 billion in November, researcher NPD Group Inc. said last week. Nintendo, maker of the Wii console, accounted for almost three-fourths of the growth, leaving the rest of the industry with a gain of 3 percent or less.
The results show Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo prospering, while the rest of the industry faces a U.S. economy in recession and slumping retail sales. U.S. consumers doubled their purchases of Wii players to 2.04 million last month, while Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 declined 19 percent from a year earlier, when a price cut gave sales a lift. Total U.S. retail sales fell 1.8 percent in November, according to the Commerce Department.
“If you’re worried about your job, are you going to buy a $400 PS3?” said Mike Hickey, an analyst for Janco Partners in Greenwood Village, Colorado. “Christmas is not going to have the same glow.”
The Wii, outselling PS3 and Xbox together by almost 2-1, also is having an impact in software. Five of the top 10 titles last month were for the Nintendo player, including “Wii Play” and “Wii Fit,” according to the Dec. 11 report from NPD, a Port Washington, New York-based researcher.
Wii games typically sell for about $10 less than those used on Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360, which increased sales 8.6 percent last month, and the PlayStation3, according to Billy Pidgeon, a New York-based analyst with researcher IDC.
