Last night's June NPD data continued the trend of declining sales in the industry, but this particular month hit a new milestone for the industry - and not a good one. June's year-over-year sales saw massive declines in some areas: 38% in hardware, and 31% in games themselves. This makes it the largest year-over-year drop since September of 2000, when the overall decline was at 41%. NPD analyst Anita Frazier says this kind of drop is sure to cause "some pain and reflection in the industry." She suggests that 2008's high performance will continue to reflect poorly on 2009, which even with strong performance in the coming months "could still be flat." She's particularly cautious of what may happen to full-year sales if 2009 titles move to 2010, a trend we've been seeing this week with several Take-Two games.
"This is one of the first months where I think the impact of the economy is clearly reflected in the sales numbers," said Frazier. "The decline could also point to consumers deferring limited discretionary spending until a big event (must-have new title, hardware price cut) compels them to spend." This is still a year-over-year comparison to 2008, one of the strongest in the industry's history; but companies are still going to be hoping for a stellar second half to make up for losses.