14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group is delivering its monthly report on the video game industry for January 2016 in the United States, showing that the PlayStation 4 has managed to once more outsell the Xbox One.
Total spending generated by the industry has dropped by about 4 percent, according to NeoGAF, but the most worrying revelation is that the money linked to the hardware space has seen a decrease in overall value of about 13 percent.
Both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One have posted flat sales, and 2016 might be the first year since the two new devices from Sony and Microsoft were launched when the market sees a decline in the number of units they get in the hands of gamers.
Software sales were down 10 percent during January of this year when compared to the same period in 2015, and the only category that posted solid growth is accessories.
The overall value of sold hardware is 157 million dollars (130 million Euro), and the PS3 and the Xbox 360 once again dropped a lot of sales, as more players are focused on the new generation of home devices.
Neither of the involved companies is offering actual sales numbers, but Sony says that its platform is the software and hardware leader for January and has posted solid year-over-year growth.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, from Treyarch and Activision, is the best-selling video game of the month, followed by a very strong Grand Theft Auto V from Rockstar and Take Two, and by a surprising NBA 2K16, another sports game from the same publisher.
The rest of the top ten is made up of: Star Wars Battlefront 2015, Fallout 4, Minecraft, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Madden NFL 16, LEGO Marvel Avengers, and FIFA 16.
The NPD Group is only tracking physical sales, although it has plans to introduce a new system that will allow it to also take into account consoles and video games sold online.
Sony and Microsoft have very different strategies for 2016
Microsoft has made it clear that it does not yet have plans for a new price cut for the Xbox One, despite the fact that the previous one had a very solid positive impact on sales, and that in the coming months it intends to rely on bundles to make the console attractive.
Recently, the company has announced an impressive offering built around Quantum Break, the coming title from Remedy, which has also been revealed as coming to PCs that run Windows 10 and DirectX 12.
Meanwhile, Sony is talking about adding extra value for the PlayStation 4 by improving the firmware and by continuing to deliver extra content for those players who love major franchises like Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 or Destiny.
The two big players need to also take into account rumors that say Nintendo will finally reveal and even launch the NX before the end of summer, with a plan to deliver as many as 12 million devices to its own fans before the end of the year.