五月略微上涨之后，2010年六月份的视频游戏销售额又一次下降。但是这次下降并不让人意外，也与华尔街分析师的预期相一致。

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根据NPD公司的数据，六月份美国游戏硬件、软件和辅助程序的零售额为11亿美元，同比减少6%。其中，软件销售额为5.313亿美元，同比减少 15%，这比分析师原先的预期要糟糕得多。

历史上，第一季度（四、五、六月）一直都是视频游戏销售的淡季。这主要是因为这一季度缺少新游戏上市，尤其是缺少由如艺电（ERTS 14.79 -4.52%）和暴雪（ATVI 11.12 -1.85%）等一些大型游戏商出品的新游戏。

双互动软件五月发行的新游戏“荒野大镖客：救赎”（Red Dead Redemption）仍然高居六月游戏销售榜的首位。排在该榜单次席的是任天堂的“超级马里奥：银河2”（Super Mario Galaxy 2）。

“荒野大镖客：救赎”的Xbox 360版本售出超过96.3万套。“超级马里奥：银河2”的任天堂Wii版本售出超过54.84万套。

有两款六月发布的新游戏登上了本月的10大畅销榜，这两款游戏是由迪斯尼发行的“玩具总动员3”（排第七）和由华纳兄弟发行的“乐高哈利波特：第 1-4年”（排第九）。

尽管游戏软件的销售并不理想，六月游戏硬件销售却很有看点。根据NPD的数据，六月硬件销售额为4.017亿美元，同比增长5%。这一增长主要来自两款游戏机：微软（MSFT 24.89 -2.43%）的Xbox 360和索尼的Playstation 3。

微软在六月份推出了一款全新的更为小巧光滑的Xbox 360机型。这款机型存储空间更大，价格却更为优惠。这款机型一经推出就卖得很好。

六月份几款主要游戏机的销售数字如下：PlayStation 3，超过30.4万台；Xbox 360，近45.2万台；Wii，51.07万台。

以半年计算，整个游戏产业的销售额为66.6亿美元，同比减少9%。但是根据NPD分析师预测，考虑到马上到来的假期销售旺季，2010年游戏业年度销售额将达到200亿美元左右。

一些大型游戏商（如艺电和暴雪）的开发新产品进程相当稳健，按照计划，由这些公司发行的新游戏将在今年下半年上市。下表重点列出了几款下半年最值得期待的游戏，这几款游戏将推高2010年度视频游戏的销售。

我们相信下半年几款动作控制游戏机型（包括微软的Natal和索尼的PlayStation Move）的推出也将刺激游戏销售。

目前，视频游戏业的竞争非常激烈。包括索尼、微软、任天堂、暴雪、双互动软件、育碧在内的几大厂商在这一市场中都十分活跃。

几个大型媒体公司，像迪斯尼、时代华纳（TWX 29.53 -3.50%）、维亚康姆（VIA 36.22 -3.46%）也将触角伸向这一领域，这无疑将进一步加剧游戏业的竞争。

另外，随着智能手机、iPad、iPhone、PDA的出现和广泛使用，对于玩家来说，游戏的购买、安装和使用都变得更加简单了。

根据DFC公司的预测，到2014年，移动游戏业市场价值将升至1170亿美元。

我们相信网游的成功对游戏公司影响极大，一些公司正在转变业务模式，从传统游戏转向网游。

从长远来看，上述的这些新变化将促进视频游戏公司的增长。我们预期今年下半年视频游戏销售将上涨。但短期来看，行业内日益激化的竞争、不断下降的产品质量和尚未恢复的全球经济都是不利因素。 (据雪球财经)

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After tepid gains in May, video game sales again declined in June 2010. However, this fall was in line with the Wall Street analysts’ expectations.

According to research firm NPD, retail sales of hardware, software and accessories in the U.S. decreased 6.0% year over year to $1.1 billion. Software sales declined 15.0% year over year to $531.3 million, considerably weaker than the analysts’ expectations.

Historically, the first quarter (April, May and June) has always been the seasonally weak quarter for the Video game industry. We believe the lack of new game releases, especially from the big third-party publishers such as Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS – Analyst Report) and Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI – Snapshot Report) led to the disappointing results.

Take Two Interactive Software Inc.‘s (TTWO – Snapshot Report) title Red Dead Redemption, which was released in May, remained the top seller for the month of June, followed by Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Red Dead Redemption sold more than 963,000 units for Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT – Analyst Report) Xbox 360, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 sold more than 548,400 units for the Nintendo Wii.

Two games released in June 2010 made to the Top 10 seller list of the month: Toy Story 3 released by Walt Disney (DIS – Analyst Report) for Nintendo DS handheld ranked #7, and Warner Brother’s release The Lego: Harry Potter: Years 1-4 ranked #9.

Despite weak software results, hardware results were encouraging. According to NPD data, hardware sales inched up 5.0% year over year to $401.7 million, primarily driven by a strong demand for Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.‘s (SNE – Analyst Report) Playstation 3.

Microsoft launched a new small and sleek Xbox 360 model with more storage space in the month of June at a lower price, driving better results, according to NPD analysts.

PlayStation 3 sold more than 304,000 units for the reported month while Xbox 360 sold nearly 452,000 units. Nintendo Co.’s Wii sold 510,700 units for June.

On a half-yearly basis, total industry sales fell 9.0% to $6.66 billion, compared with the same period a year ago.

However, according to NPD, industry sales will be around $20.0 billion for the full year 2010, which will likely be driven by the upcoming strong holiday sales season.

We believe third party publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard enjoy a robust product pipeline, scheduled to release in the second half of 2010. The following table highlights the most anticipated games in the next six months, which could pull up video game sales for the full year 2010.

We believe game sales in the second half should also benefit from the launch of motion control devices — Natal from Microsoft and Playstation Move from Sony.

The video game industry is highly competitive. Leading companies such as Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and Ubisoft actively compete in this market.

Diversified media companies such as Disney, Time Warner (TWX – Analyst Report) and Viacom (VIA.B – Analyst Report) are also expanding their software game publishing efforts, which are expected to intensify further competition going forward, in our view.

The gaming industry is going through a major transition. With the advent of smartphones, iPad, iPhone and PDAs, buying and installing games and applications has become quite simple for gamers.

According to research firm DFC Intelligence, the mobile gaming industry is expected to grow to $11.7 billion by 2014.

We believe the success of online and social gaming will have a major impact on gaming companies, as they finally make a switch to Internet-based gaming from the more conventional gaming.

We believe these new avenues will boost earnings growth of the video gaming companies in the long run. We expect video game sales to pick up in the second half of 2010; however, increasing competition, declining quality and a slow-to-recover global economy may act as headwinds for the entire industry in the near term.