By Paul Hayes
PORT WASHINGTON, US: New research released this morning has revealed that Sony’s PlayStation3 (PS3) is the only gaming device showing uniformly positive sales growth as the global market experiences its worst decline in close to a year.
“Across hardware, software and accessories, the PS3 platform is the only one to have enjoyed growth over last year for both the month of April and year-to-date,” said analyst for the market researcher NPD Group, Anita Frazier.
According to the latest NPD Group report, April saw the game console industry experience its worst year-over-year decline since July 2009, as well as the fourth largest year-over-year percentage decline ever, after September 2000, June 2009 and July 2009.
News of the PS3’s solid sales numbers comes after Nintendo last week forecast significantly lower sales figures for the year to 31 March 2010.
It was revealed that sales for Nintendo’s Wii gaming console had slowed considerably, due in part to the direct competition from Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which NPD figures show have both sold well despite market trends.
“The PS3 and the Xbox 360 both enjoyed a unit sales increase over last April while all other systems declined,” said Frazier.