The NPD Group divulged its report chronicling retail U.S. videogame hardware and software sales during the month of November 2008 Thursday. The video game market continued its record-breaking year in the U.S., as the video game sales were up 10% in November, to $2.91 billion, while year-to-date sales are up 22%, to $16.04 billion compared with $13.14 billion at the same point a year ago.

 

Considering the nation's overwhelmingly bleak financial landscape of late, the fact that total game sales managed a gain during this crucial holiday shopping month seems encouraging, but closer inspection of the figures reveals that not every publisher has reason to celebrate.

 

Despite Microsoft's recent price drop that makes the entry-level Arcade bundle $50 cheaper than the Wii, Nintendo's system moved more than twice as many units as the Xbox 360 during the four-week November time frame while still firmly at its launch MSRP of $249.99. Although the Xbox 360 had a full year's head start on the Wii, Nintendo's console has already left Microsoft's admittedly popular console in the dust: 15.4 million Wiis are now in U.S. homes, compared to 12.5 million Xbox 360s.

 

The Xbox 360, yet Microsoft's box still made a strong showing with 836,000 consoles sold during the four-week period. This represents a year-on-year increase of 8.6 percent. The new, cheaper-than-Wii $199 Arcade hardware bundle, aggressive holiday freebie incentives (Arcade units come with "Sega Superstar Tennis" while the pricier Pro and Elite models ship alongside "Kung Fu Panda" and "Lego Indiana Jones"), and a massive advertising campaign focusing on casual, family-focused entertainment all likely helped spur the increase. It's clear that the recent move to a sub-$200 price point has had an impact: Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter commented that the Xbox 360's average sale price (ASP) during November was $270, which is lower than the previous months' figure, indicating the increasing ratio of the less expensive Arcade sku to the total number of 360s sold.

 

But in spite of it all, Microsoft's phenomenal Epic Games-developed shooter "Gears of War 2" edged out Activision's "Call of Duty: World at War" for the top spot on the charts, selling an impressive 1.56 million copies in 22 days.

 

Sony only managed to move a comparatively meager 378,000 consoles during November, which represents a stunning year-over-year drop of roughly 80,000 units. This decline does appear to be something of a hiccup, however, as the overall U.S. PS3 sales stand at nearly 60% above 2007's figures. But the PS3 wasn't the only member of the PlayStation family having a rough time--both the PlayStation 2 (with 206,000 sold) and PSP (421,000) showed diminishing year-over-year returns.

 

While the PS3 has a handful of good exclusive games, there's enough overlap between the games on the PS3 and the Xbox 360 that the average gamer is going to decide which system to get based largely on the price. And the PS3 sells for $399, while the cheapest Xbox 360 model goes for $199.