U.S. Game sales still on a roll

The Game sales season in U.S. does not seem to slow down as the Americans spent $1.23 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in April. This is a 47 percent increase as compared to last year.

Total hardware sales grew 26 percent to $426.2 million with Nintendo’ Wii outselling all the other gaming consoles. According to NPD data, Nintendo sold an incredible 714,000 Wii’s last month, which is more than all other non-Nintendo platforms combined, including Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and PSP.

Microsoft and Sony saw a downtrend in the sales of the gaming consoles. Microsoft sold 188,000 Xbox 360s and Sony sold 187,000 PS3s in April, which are down from 262,000 units and 257,000 units in March.

As far as games are concerned, newly launched Grand Theft Auto 4 stole the show. It was launched on April 29 and sold nearly 2.9 million copies in the United States in its first five days, NPD said.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV sold 1.85 million units sold on Xbox 360 and PS3 version of GTA IV sold around 1 million copies.

Because "Grand Theft Auto 4" is a criminal action game, it can only be played on these two systems. Microsoft and Sony were counting on this to convince those who hadn't bought a new gaming system to seize the opportunity and buy their console.

According to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, “It was surprising not to see bigger hardware sales for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 given the release of GTA IV.”

However, since the game was only in the market for 5 days during this reporting period, that sales lift could very well be evident in May data.

Nintendo's cartoony racing game "Mario Kart Wii," was the No. 2 game in the month as it sold more than 1.1 million copies.

Sony is optimistic that its sales will get a boost when the upcoming games such as "Metal Gear Solid 4" and "Resistance 2" are released.

"For us it doesn't end after GTA ships," said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America. "We've got a great back half of the year."

The console battle is only going to get more intense as the lifetime sales of Wii have now reached more than 9.5 million according to NPD data, a mere 500,000 fewer than the Xbox 360 which launched a year earlier.

Irrespective of who is the winner, the customers will surely have a great time. The competition will keep the prices in check and customers can enjoy new games from time to time.