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U.S. video game industry sales plunged in October, dropping 19 percent from a year earlier, and 16.4 percent from September, according to data released Thursday by the NPD Group.

But with the tremendous, record-breaking, out-of-the-gate performance of Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the coming holiday season, NPD is bullish on the industry's fortunes for November.

Still, the $1.07 billion in total sales turned in by the industry in October were paltry, compared with $1.32 billion in October 2008 and $1.28 billion in September 2009. NPD analyst Anita Frazier tried to … Read more

Adoption of Windows 7 continues to grow, with the weeks-old operating system accounting for 4 percent of PCs accessing the Web over the past weekend, according to Net Applications.

By contrast, it took Windows Vista seven months to reach that level, the Web-monitoring firm said in a report.

"The early anticipation and high expectations for Windows 7 seem to have been warranted," Net Applications Executive Vice President Vince Vizzaccaro said in an e-mail.

One of the key questions, though, is whether Windows 7 will help Microsoft regain share from Apple, Vizzaccaro said. "Can Windows 7 stop the … Read more

Judging by its initial sales, Windows 7 is certainly proving more popular than Vista.

Microsoft sold 234 percent more boxed editions of Windows 7 than it did Vista in the initial releases of both products, according to research released Thursday by NPD Group.

In actual dollars, Windows 7 has also been more successful than Vista. However, early discounts on pre-sales copies and a lack of a promotional boost behind Windows 7 Ultimate led to revenues only 82 percent greater than those of Vista.

"Ultimate was a much bigger part of what Microsoft did with Vista, whereas this time I … Read more

The video game industry is poised to make a rebound, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. The analyst also predicted that it will be Sony's PlayStation 3, and not the Nintendo Wii, that will lead console sales for the month, when NPD releases figures next week.

"After six consecutive months of double-digit declines, we expect a return to double-digit sales growth (on video game software)," Pachter wrote to clients. "We forecast sales of $750 million, up 21 percent, compared to last year's $618 million."

It's … Read more

As market research firm NPD Group prepares to release sales data data for the U.S. game market next Thursday, other analysts have predicted a return to double-digit growth after six months of decline.

According to Edge Online, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter and Electronic Entertainment Design and Research's Jesse Divnich expect monthly software sales of $750 million (up 21 percent year over year) and $715 million (up 16 percent), respectively. And while these are still just estimates, it shows that consumers are still willing to spend on high-quality new games.

EEDAR's top 10 forecast: Halo 3: … Read more

While the number of Apple-owning households continues to grow, the vast majority of those Macs are sharing space with at least one Windows-based PC, according to a new study.

The NPD Group said Monday that its online survey found that 12 percent of households with a computer have at least one Mac, up from 9 percent a year ago. Nearly 85 percent of those with a Mac, though, also have at least one Windows-based PC.

Overall, Mac owners tend to have more computers and more electronic devices than non-Mac owners. Two-thirds of those with an Apple machine have three or … Read more

In a stark reversal of the trend on display just a few short months ago--when general retail sales were plummeting even as the video games industry was still showing growth--cautious optimism in retail is now being offset by many losing months in video games.

In July, according to industry analyst the NPD Group, video game sales fell for the fifth straight month, and the year-over-year numbers are striking: In July, the video games business posted sales of $848.9 million, down 29 percent from $1.1 billion a year earlier. Year-to-date sales, reported NPD, were at $8.16 billion, down … Read more

Demand for Netbooks has been hot and is likely to get hotter, as sales of their big brother, notebooks, are set to remain steady this year.

Netbooks are projected to grab a 20 percent share of the worldwide market for 2009, according to a report released Monday by researcher DisplaySearch, an NPD Group subsidiary. Consumers are expected to scoop up almost 33 million Netbooks this year, marking a sales gain of close to 100 percent from last year's 16 million.

But notebook sales are set to be flat this year, with 129 million units shipping, virtually the same as … Read more

Revenue from sales of flat-panel displays is expected to rise just 1 percent annually from 2008 to 2016, a new report predicts.

That forecast contrasts sharply with the annual growth rate of 20 percent over the past eight years, according to the report released Friday by market researcher NPD's DisplaySearch.

This year's revenue will dive 20 percent over 2008 due to the sluggish economy. Revenue is expected to see a revival in 2010, rising 13 percent over this year.

The overall flat-panel market is expected to grow from $82.6 billion in 2009 to $111.5 billion in … Read more