Video game software purchases dropped 20% in February

Bloomberg:

U.S. video-game sales declined 20 percent in February, reflecting tumbling sales of games for consoles and portable devices.

Retail sales of software, players and accessories declined to $1.06 billion in February from $1.33 billion a year earlier, NPD Group Inc. said today in an e-mailed statement.

Software revenue slid 23 percent to $464.4 million, while hardware revenue shrank 18 percent to $381.4 million and purchases of accessories slumped 16 percent to $215.2 million, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said.

That may be so, but I bet that it has a lot to do with players moving to other remote-hosted gaming via onlive and similar services. So, let’s not get too sad panda over this.