September 2007 was an absolutely remarkable month for the game industry, mostly because of the hype created around the release of Halo; this helped sales boost to an incredible $1.3 billion in games, console units and accessories.

This year, the situation is slightly different, as sales experience a 7% decrease from last year’s September, selling only $1.27 billion.

Analysts say that this is the first real decrease the video game industry experiences since May 2006 and that the situation can easily explain. In September 2007 there was a 75% increase in sales from 2006 and, this month, the decrease in sales can actually be seen as an accomplishment.

On the hardware market, the undisputed leader remains Nintendo with its Wii unit and tiny DS. Nintendo sold 687,000 Wii consoles and 536,800 units of the DS. Nintendo is currently occupying the first and second place in hardware sales, which is quite outstanding. The fight for third place is between Sony and Microsoft, but considering the dramatic price cuts for the Xbox and the fact that Microsoft experienced a 78% jump in sales, maybe the fight is already over. The basic model of the Xbox is now only $199 and Microsoft’s strategy to cut the prices is really starting to pay off.

Sony also did quite good this month, managing to sell 234,000 units of the PlayStation 3 and 238,100 PSPs. Overall, hardware sales were lower this year, $498.0 million, but this is mostly because of lower prices for all major consoles.