Videogame sales down in January

Videogame sales down in January

2005 was itself a disappointment for the video gaming market as late release of Microsoft Xbox 360 led to gamers delaying their purchases. The beginning of 2006 has been somewhat similar with videogame sales down by around 5% in the month of January.

A report from the market research firm NPD Group claims that the sales were down for the fifth consecutive month. The reason for this delay is the shifting of the gamers to the new technology.

Both Sony and Nintendo are due to launch their own consoles later this year, Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Revolution. And this has further caused to this slowdown. The sales of the next generation gaming console titles are not up either.

Market analysts also claimed that the video game hardware unit sales were down 11 percent overall. Microsoft sold 250,000 of its new Xbox 360s in January. With this, the company has sold around 857,000 units of Xbox 360 in the market.