14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to hardware sales in North America for the month of September, the PlayStation 4 has managed to once again sell more home consoles than the Xbox One, even as the overall industry has failed to deliver an inspiring performance.
According to data from the NPD Group, a company that tracks physical goods moved in the United States, and quoted by NeoGAF, overall retail sales have gone down by 9 percent when compared to the same period of 2014.
Surprisingly, given the solid performance of the current generation of devices from Sony and Microsoft, the biggest decline was linked to hardware sales, which have gone down by 27%, although neither of the involved companies has revealed actual numbers linked to its platforms.
The PlayStation 4 continues to perform well because gamers tend to pick up more physical titles linked to it at the moment, and the PlayStation Store has also had a record-breaking month when it comes to sales.
Both the PS4 and the Xbox One have performed worse than last year, but the Wii U from Nintendo has managed to post an increase of 110 percent.
The two current-gen devices are still outpacing their older cousins at the moment, and the September drop might just be a preamble for a rebound in October, followed by big increases for November and December.
For the holiday period, Microsoft has chosen to focus on the launch of exclusives including Rise of the Tomb Raider and Halo 5: Guardians and is also planning to deliver the new user experience and the backwards functionality feature.
Sony is focusing on multiplatform titles, linking the PS4 to the coming Star Wars: Battlefront and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.
The company has also recently delivered a price cut for its device.
Basketball leads in September
Sales for video games in September 2015, according to the NPD Group, have dropped by only 3 percent.
NBA 2K16, the basketball simulation published by 2K Games, has managed to move the most copies to gamers, mainly because of its very solid mechanics and even if a number of players have criticized the single-player story created by Spike Lee.
The rest of the top ten includes: Madden NFL 16 from EA Sports, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain from Hideo Kojima and Konami, FIFA 16 from EA Sports, Destiny: The Taken King from Bungie and Activision, Super Mario Maker from Nintendo, Disney Infinity 3.0 from Disney, Mad Max from Warner Bros., NHL 16 from EA Sports and Minecraft, from Mojang and Microsoft.
Apparently, NBA 2K16 has had the best launch month for any sports title linked to the new generation of home consoles, and Super Mario Maker has managed to get past the half a million copies sold milestone.
For the coming months, gamers will have to make some big choices when it comes to how they use their money as the market is getting ready to welcome the likes of Black Ops 3, Halo 5, Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider and more.