Sony, Microsoft Boost Their U.S. Game Sales in August

By Rob Golum and Mariko Yasu September 11, 2009

Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. sold more game consoles in August after they cut prices, helping ease the overall decline in the U.S. video-game market. August sales of Sony’s PlayStation 3 console gained 13 percent from a year earlier, the first increase in 10 months, and those of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 rose 10 percent, researcher NPD Group Inc. said in a statement yesterday. Total U.S. revenue from hardware, software and accessories fell 16 percent to $908.7 million, NPD said. That’s smaller than the 29 percent decline in July and a 31 percent slump in June. Sony cut the price of the PS3 by 25 percent on Aug. 19 and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft lowered the price of its most powerful console, the Xbox 360 Elite, by a similar proportion to $300 on Aug. 27. The cheaper players will likely spur software sales, further slowing down the contraction of the market later this year, said Koki Shiraishi, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd.

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