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According to market research firm NPD Group in a report Thursday, monthly sales for the video-game industry dipped below $1 billion in May for the first date since August 2007. that represented a 23 percent drop and the third straight month with a decline. Sales in May were $863.3 million, including both game and console sales.

Sales of consoles alone dropped 30 percent, to $302.5 million. In May 2008, sales of consoles were about $433 million.

Nintendo Wii Sales Down

A big reason for the drop in hardware was that sales of Nintendo’s Wii were down by more than half. But Nintendo still topped its two main competitors with 289,500 Wiis sold compared to 175,000 Xbox 360s and 131,000 PlayStation 3s. The Nintendo DS held strong at about 633,000 units sold.

Games sales dropped 17 percent, compared with May 2008. The top game was THQ’s UFC 2009 Undisputed for the Xbox 360, with about 679,000 units

sold, and the second-place game, Wii Fit with Balance Board, sold 352,000.

The remaining games in the top 10, in order, were EA Sports Active Bundle for Wii, UFC 2009 Undisputed for PS3, Infamous for PS3, Pokemon Platinum Version for Nintendo DS, Mario Kart with wheel for Wii, Punch Out! for Wii, X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged for Xbox 360, and Wii Play with Remote.

Paul Jackson, an analyst at Forrester, said sales of the Wii have dipped recently in North America and Japan. One of the reasons for the drop in May, he said, is that “the Wii has gone from being a phenomenon to having a more normal console sales cycle.”

The first quarter, he added, usually has “roll-over sales” from the holiday season in the fourth quarter as public redeem gift certificates or buy games for their new consoles. “We had a fairly strong Q1,” he said, noting…

Original post by dhiram