Crime 
pays — and it pays well.
The extraordinarily strong sales of Grand Theft Auto V drove the video game industry to a spectacular September. According to The NPD Group, combined physical sales of hardware and software were up 27 per cent, with $1.07 billion in revenue versus $848 million last year. Software sales, the most closely watched figure, were up a stunning 52 percent from a year ago to $754.3 million. That number does not include digital sales through services like Steam.
Madden 
NFL 25 might not be performing quite as well as last year’s game, but it’s still strong enough to lead the video game industry to a major comeback.
Video game software retail sales in August were up 21 percent compared to a year ago, according to The NPD Group — the first time the industry has shown a year-over-year increase since October of 2011 (excluding January 2013, which had an extra week of reporting). Brick and mortar sales of video games came in at $305 million, an improvement of better than $55 million. The boost was even bigger than Wall Street analysts were expecting.
As 
the launch of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 inches closer, gamers are being even more careful with their money.
For the sixth month in a row, sales of video game software, the most closely-watched figure from The NPD Group, were down once again in July. The good news is that was slightly better than some analysts were predicting.
Joel, 
Ellie and those terrifying Clickers did their best to boost video game sales in June, but it was just another doomed mission for the duo.
Software sales last month were down 10 percent to $296.1 million, according to The NPD Group. The decline was moderate compared to recent months, though, a bit of optimism in an otherwise gloomy report.
Last 
week’s E3 conference was a celebratory look at the growth that’s expected to come in the gaming industry’s near future. This week, though, it’s back to the present — and its harsh realities.
Retail sales of video game hardware and software were down 25 percent in May, according to The NPD Group. Total software sales — combining console, portable games and PC titles sold at retail — were down 44 percent compared to last year to $187.6 million.
While 
video game sales totals have been anyone’s guess for the past few years, the rankings on the video game industry’s sales charts have been fairly predictable.
Megafranchises like “Call of Duty” and “Assassin’s Creed” have been at or near the top—with family friendly “Just Dance” not too far behind when the final rankings come in. And the midyear check typically doesn’t show a lot of divergence from that pattern.
Even 
the DC universe’s mightiest superheroes couldn’t fight off yet another month of poor retail sales for the video game industry.
April was the latest in a long string of sales disappointments, with brick and mortar sales of video game software falling 17 percent as compared to the same period in 2012. Hardware sales, predictably, were drastically lower as consumers start to save their money for the looming next-generation systems.
If 
there was a beacon of hope for the video game industry in the first half of 2013, it was Bioshock Infinite. The hotly-anticipated game, currently the top-rated title of the year, was the best chance for retail sales to rebound and return to positive territory.
As it turns out, Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth couldn’t quite live up to that pressure — even with Lara Croft, Kratos and the Gears of War crew backing them up.
The 
video game industry’s retail losing streak just keeps getting uglier.
Brick and mortar video game sales were down in February, and once again they falling far short of analysts’ weak expectations. Software sales, which are the most closely watched figure, were down 27 percent from a year ago to $352 million.
Nintendo 
has a problem on its hands.
The Wii U, in its second full month of availability, sold a paltry 57,000 units in the U.S. according to data from The NPD Group. That’s substantially fewer than its predecessor and well under half the number analysts were expecting for the month. And it props opens the door — and perhaps issues a warning — for Sony and Microsoft, which are both expected to roll out new consoles this year.
Chris Morris: Journalist 