Video-game industry sales drop for 10th straight month

Bad news for the Research Triangle's video-game sector - one of the largest gaming hubs in the country: People continue to buy fewer games and related hardware as well as accessories. U.S. retail sales of video game software, hardware and accessories declined 24 percent to $848.3 million in September from a year earlier, researcher NPD Group Inc. reported Thursday.

The falloff marked the 10th-consecutive month of declining sales as the gaming world holds off buying ahead of the release of Nintendo's Wii U console next month. NPD Group reported sales of $1.11 billion a year earlier.

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Sales of video games themselves, excluding PC titles, fell 18 percent to $497.4 million. The September decline was less severe, however, than the 28 percent drop forecast by Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz. The decline was led by shrinking sales of game consoles, which fell 39 percent to $210.9 million, NPD said. Read more >>

CNBC Ratings Get Smashed

Damien Hoffman

I think Nielson ratings are complete bullshit, but for what it’s worth I’m going to make a bullshit to bullshit comparison:

Once again, CNBC has continued to lose viewers after failing to help anyone save money during the Great Crash of 2008. The newest Nielson Media Research numbers show Business Day (5am-7pm) down 24% P2+ (total households) and down 37% in the A25-54 demographic. Primetime, CNBC is down 34% P2+ and down 25% in the A25-54 demo (Monday through Friday).

That’s a significant drop. Is it those pesky video games? Maybe it’s iPhone apps. Nah. It’s definitely correlated to the value CNBC offers to our investment accounts.