Duke Nukem Can't Stop Game Sales from Slipping

Posted 07/15/2011 at 6:31am | by Paul Lilly

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Not even the completion of a game 14 years in the making was enough to stop both console and PC videogame sales from slipping in June. According to market research firm NPD Group, retail sales of videogame hardware, software, and accessories fell to $995 million in June 2011, down 10 percent from one year prior. Sales of just software tumbled 12 percent to $469.5 million, or 10 percent to $508.9 million when including PC games.

The numbers don't tell the whole story, in part because some are missing. NPD's report doesn't include online sales. Moreover, some publishers performed well in the month of June, especially Take Two, whose LA Noire and Duke Nukem Forever were the top two performers with 419,000 and 376,000 copies sold, respectively. Sony's Infamous 2, exclusive to the PlayStation 3, was the third best selling game for the month. Rounding out the top 10 list are Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Call of Duy: Black Ops, NBA 2K11, Mortal Kombat 2011, Cars 2, and Just Dance 2.

Comparatively slow as June might have been, the games industry isn't flinching. Electronic Arts, for example, recently announced plans to purchase PopCap games for $750 million, while Zynga filed for an IPO.

Image Credit: 2K Games