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Video game industry sales finally take a hit

March revenues for the video game industry dropped 17 percent from a year ago, the NPD Group reported Thursday, the first time in the current recession that the business has seen sales fall.

For the month, the analyst firm reported that the industry turned in total sales of $1.43 billion, down 17 percent from $1.72 billion a year earlier. Hardware sales were down 18 percent, while software was down 17 percent.

But while the numbers look poor, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said she attributed some of the drop to the vagaries of the calendar.

"While it might … Read more

Amazon finds niche in iTunes-dominant market

The NPD Group just sent out some interesting statistics, based on a study conducted by its music-tracking service.

"In 2008, 87 percent of digital-music buyers in the U.S. used iTunes to download music, versus just 16 percent who used Amazon MP3," according to a spokesman for the research group. (Those surveyed could list more than one store.)

On the face of it, the study's numbers don't sound so bad.

Russ Crupnick, an NPD analyst agreed that they should encourage Amazon. For one, the online retailer's music store is in second place only 18 months … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 935: Butt out loud

We have finally hit on an appropriate term for very small lightweight laptops: the Buttbook, as in small enough to fit in your butt pocket. We also talk about Gmail's new undo feature for e-mail and Molly ponders that age-old question: should she buy land or a jaunty beret?

Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 935

Take it back: Gmail gets ‘Undo Send’ Labs feature http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10200370-2.html

Chrome only browser left standing after day 1 of Pwn2Own http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/03/chrome-is-the-only-browser-left-standing-in-pwn2own-contest.ars

iPhone 3.0 OS reveals new iPhones, iPods … Read more

Video game industry posts big February gains

The video games industry continued to defy general economic realities in February, posting a 10 percent year-over-year sales increase and a 10.5 percent boost over January.

For the month of February, the industry recorded sales of $1.47 billion, up from $1.34 billion a year earlier, according to numbers released Thursday by industry analyst NPD Group. And the February numbers also outpaced January's $1.33 billion. In February, software accounted for $733.5 million in sales, while hardware and accessories came in at $532.7 million and $207.1 million, respectively.

According to NPD, Microsoft's Xbox … Read more

Video game industry roars in December

Video game industry sales grew 9 percent, year-over-year, in December, and were up 19 percent for the year, according to the latest figures from analyst firm, the NPD Group.

Overall, the industry saw sales of $5.29 billion in December, the first time it had ever cleared the $5 billion mark in a single month, according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

And once again, the video game industry far outpaced general retail sales, which were down 2.7 percent from November. By contrast, video games were up 81.8 percent over November's $2.91 billion.

Leading the way again … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: A big file-swapping faceoff waits for a decision

A federal judge in Rhode Island has postponed a hearing in a case that may test the legal underpinnings of the Recording Industry Association of America's suits against file swapping. CNET News' Declan McCullagh explains what's at stake.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Report: Mac sales hit a slowdown

Judge postpones hearing in key RIAA lawsuit

Toshiba, SanDisk to cut flash chip output

Mobile phone market to shrink in `09

Analyst predicts Apple will unveil Netbook

Intel's twist on the Classmate PC debuting at CES

Report: Mac sales hit a slowdown

Apple has been something of a golden child among makers of computers and consumer electronics. But now it, too, is showing at least a hint that the good times can't last forever.

In November, says market researcher NPD Group, sales of the company's Mac products slipped 1 percent from the same month a year ago, even as industrywide PC sales were up 2 percent, according to a report in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has been the pacesetter amid overall PC sales for some time. And it does continue to hold those honors, at … Read more

DVD sales flat, but still dwarf downloads

UPDATE:To include quotes from NPD Group analyst Russ Crupnick

DVD sales are flat but the drop doesn't have anything to do with movie downloads, according to the NPD Group.

The research group reported Tuesday that, on average, consumers spent 41 percent of the money budgeted for movies and other video content by purchasing DVDs of films. Movie rentals on DVD were the next biggest category with 29 percent. Consumers spent 11 percent purchasing TV shows on DVD. About 18 percent went to theater tickets, according to the report.

Here's the kicker for Internet video: only 0.5 … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 808: Apple, give us our Podcaster!

In today's show, Rafe joins us for a discussion of useless video blobs, the implications of, uh, Internet "shopping," the NPD numbers that read Tom's mind, and the U.S. Senate's "enormous gift" to Big Content (per Ars Technica). Also, we rouse the Buzz Militia from their stupor to launch an attack on Apple's arbitrary and annoying App Store approval process. Save Podcaster!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 808

Committee amends, approves 'enormous gift' to Big Content http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080911-committee-amends-approves-enormous-gift-to-big-content.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10039745-38.html… Read more

Nintendo dominates video game hardware sales in July

As always, when video game industry research firm The NPD Group puts out its monthly numbers, each of the big hardware companies--Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony--find their own unique positive spin, regardless what the numbers show.

But with the July numbers, which were released Thursday, there's little question that Nintendo gets the biggest bragging rights.

That's because, according to NPD, Nintendo's DS handheld gaming machine and its Wii console far outsold any competition from Sony or Microsoft.

NPD reported that the DS sold 608,400 units in July, while the Wii moved 555,000 machines. No other gaming … Read more