Packaged video game sales dipped in the U.S in January, as the industry struggles to compete with cheaper games being offered by social media and mobile phones, says The Wall Street Journal.
The results released by NPD Group, showed that video game sales dropped by 1.5 percent to $1.16 Billion from $1.22 Billion a year ago. The LA Times reports that this situation has pushed Activision to pull the plug on its popular Guitar Hero series, and also Viacom’s MTV to sell its Harmonix studio which developed Rock Band to a private investment firm for $50 to rid itself of liabilities and $50 Million in taxes.
It’s not all bad news however. If video game console sales went down by 8 percent compared with January 2010, it’s a different story when it came to video game accessories. The Seattle Times reports that there was a 6 percent increase with sales reaching $235 Million. This can be attributed to people possibly buying more controllers for their existing consoles, dance mats, or Kinects.
Although overall sales decreased, some video games fared better than others. Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops is still riding the wave from the holiday season and upholding strong sales and the number 1 spot in video games sold, according to The Wall Street Journal. Another revelation is that dance games are becoming increasingly popular as seen by their appearance in the top ten video games sold. Just Dance 2 from Ubisoft was second on the list, and further down, Zumba Fitness was at number 5, and MTV’s Dance Central was eighth, reported by Wired.
Other games to have made it on the bestselling list for January are: Dead Space 2 at number 2, LittleBig Planet 2 at number 4, NBA 2K 2011 at number 6, Assassins’ Creed: Brotherhood at number 7, Michael Jackson: The experience was ninth, and finally DC Universe Online: The Next Legend is You in 10th place.
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