March Video Game Sales Off 8 Pct

By Geoff Duncan April 20, 2006

New numbers from the NPD Group indicate U.S. video game sales dropped by eight percent during March 2006, to a total of $499 million, amid an overal industry revenue drop of 16 percent for the month.

March would mark the seventh straight month that game sales in the United States have declined, even though the introduction of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 (and titles for that console) are estimated to account for $96 million, nearly a quarter of all video game revenue for the month.

Sales of video game accessories also dropped 11 percent to $100 million, and monthly sales of video game hardware plummetted 31 percent to $220 million. (Amid this market, it’s no wonder Sony’s just cut prices on its outgoing Playstation 2 console!)

NPD analyst Anita Frazier attributed the year-to-year decline partly to an upswing in sales a year ago following the release of Sony’s PSP, as well as the success of several game titles in early 2005.

For the most part, however, the decline seems to stem from gamers putting off purchases of new games and systems as they wait for Sony’s Playstation 3 (currently due to reach market in November 2006) and the Nintendo Revolution, expected later this year.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

This Lenovo gaming laptop with an RTX 4060 is $430 off

The Legion Slim 5 14 on a desk with peripherals on it.

There are a lot of gaming laptop deals online, but not all of them will get you a dependable device for a reasonable price. To help you narrow down your options, here's one of the best ones we've come across recently -- the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 at $430 off from Best Buy, which brings its price down to $1,050 from $1,480 originally. We're not sure how much time is remaining before this bargain gets taken down though, so if you think this is the perfect gaming laptop for you, proceed with the purchase right now so that you don't miss out on the savings.

Why you should buy the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 gaming laptop
Lenovo is one of the best laptop brands and a mainstay in our roundup of the best gaming laptops, so you can be sure that you'll be getting a topnotch gaming machine with the Lenovo Legion Slim 5. It's got enough power to run the best PC games without any issues as it's equipped with the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, combined with 16GB of RAM that's the best place to start for gaming, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need. The gaming laptop also features a 1TB SSD with Windows 11 Home pre-installed.

Computing

This Alienware gaming PC with an RTX 4080 is $300 off — for now

Alienware Aurora R16 sitting on a coffee table.

While you should be prepared to spend some serious cash if you want to buy a powerful machine from gaming PC deals, it's important to be on the lookout for as much savings as possible. At $300 off from Dell, the Alienware Aurora R16 is a great example, as instead of $2,800, you'll only have to pay $2,500. It's still not what you'd call affordable, but you'll at least have extra funds that you can spend on monitor deals, accessories, and video games. We're not sure how much time is remaining on this discount though, so if you want to take advantage of it, it's highly recommended that you push through with the purchase immediately.

Why you should buy the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC
The Alienware Aurora R16 is the latest model of the Dell-owned brand's gaming desktops, and it currently reigns over our roundup of the best gaming PCs as an excellent choice for the everyday gamer. In terms of performance, it won't have trouble running the best PC games at their most demanding settings with its 14th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Super graphics card, and 32GB of RAM that's the recommendation for gaming PCs by our guide on how much RAM do you need. You'll be able to easily upgrade its components, but you won't need to do that in the near future because with these specifications, you'll be ready for the upcoming PC games of the next few years.

Gaming

What’s new in April 2024: 8 upcoming games to keep on your radar

Many of the characters in Sand Land.

April 2024 will likely be one of the quieter months of the year in terms of new game releases, but it is also poised to be a very fulfilling one. Harold Halibut, a game over a decade in the making, will finally launch. Akira Toriyama’s underappreciated Sand Land will finally get a video game adaptation just over a month after its creator's passing. RPG fans will be thriving with a new SaGa game and the long-awaited spiritual successor to Suikoden. It's also quite a heavy re-release month, with remasters of Gigantic and Braid and multiplatform ports of two Xbox Game Studios titles also coming out.

In some ways, April’s release lineup is emblematic of 2024’s as a whole. Many of the games are a bit niche, but they will be extremely fulfilling for the players anticipating them. The following eight games are new releases, mostly coming in the back half of the month, that are worth looking out for in particular.
Children of the Sun (April 9)