Rockstar 
Games is considered a nearly bulletproof game developer. They take their time crafting their games, and their releases are always major events. The company’s last three blockbuster titles — Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and last year’s L.A. Noire — enjoyed chart-topping success, a testament to the company’s dedication to quality and terrific sense of timing.
But the release of Max Payne 3 is putting their impressive streak at risk.
For 
Activision-Blizzard, hell on earth meant a cash bonanza in May. For every other video game publisher, it was just hell.
The PC/Mac blockbuster Diablo III was the month’s top selling video game — even without taking in the title’s (presumably substantial) digital sales. But demand for the long-in-development action role-playing game couldn’t prop up the industry’s sales charts.
Every 
industry has down cycles, but for several companies in the videogame space, 2012 can’t end soon enough.
While the year is likely to finish stronger than it started, with the launch of Nintendo’s Wii U console and the return of popular franchises like “Halo 4” and “Call of Duty Black Ops 2,” pretty much everything that could go wrong in the first half of the year has.
Four 
months of 2012 are over. And not one of them has held good news for video game publishers.
Total video game sales came to $630.4 million in April, down 32 percent from $930.9 million a year ago. Video game software sales were especially lousy, down an astonishing 42 percent, coming in at just $292 million. Hardware sales were down 32 percent, according to The NPD Group, which tracks the numbers. The numbers are significantly worse than analysts were expecting, more than double the 19 percent drop Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter had warned of.
2012’s 
losing streak for video game sales unfortunately kept right on going in March.
Sales of video game software were down 25 percent compared to last year. Hardware sales were down 35 percent, according to The NPD Group, which tracks the numbers. The totals, while disappointing, were within the range expected by Wall St. analysts.
2012 
continues to be a real stinker for the video game industry.
Video game software sales were down 23 percent in February compared to 2011 figures, according to the NPD Group.
To say 
the video game industry stumbled out of the gate in 2012 would be exceedingly kind.
January software sales, which are the most closely watched figure by investors, were down 34 percent – the biggest percentage drop in more than 2 years — to $750.6 million. That’s more than $389 million less than a year ago.
While LED 
TVs provide a brighter (and arguably better) picture than their LCD counterparts, consumers aren’t embracing them at a pace the industry or analysts have been expecting.
That’s likely to result in some changes to the sets – and they don’t sound especially encouraging. NPD reports set makers are reducing the number of LEDs per TV set which will lower brightness and veer away from the slim designs and picture quality that have helped LED backlit sets.
While December 
was a grim month overall for the video game industry, it was particularly brutal for Nintendo. Wii hardware sales were down a whopping 55 percent compared to a year ago, a clear sign that interest in the once-hot console has dried up.
All of the major consoles saw sales declines last month, but they were muted compared to Nintendo’s drop. The Xbox 360 was off 8 percent and the PlayStation 3 saw sales fall 22 percent.
Video game 
retailers didn’t have a lot to celebrate in 2011.
According to figures announced Thursday by The NPD Group, overall sales for the industry came in between $16.3 and $16.6 billion for 2011. That’s down from $18.6 billion a year ago.
Chris Morris: Journalist 