May game sales bite the dust

No one expected May to be a particularly stellar month for video game sales – but no one expected it to be a disaster either. Unfortunately, disaster doesn't begin to describe the month.

Software sales nose dived 19 percent in May, the industry's worst performance since Oct. 2006. Overall, brick and mortar sales were down 13 percent to $718.8 million. Year to date, the industry is 14 percent off of 2010's retail sales pace, according to The NPD Group.

A paucity of new releases (only "L.A. Noire" and "Brink" were of note), along with tough competition from last year, which saw the release of "Red Dead Redemption" were to blame.

Nintendo saw its hardware sales plunge across the board. Even the Wii, which cut its price last month, continued to decline. Sony saw an increase with the PS3, though, and Microsoft actually has something to celebrate, despite the horrid month for the industry.

For nearly a year and a half, the system has consistently had month-over-month sales increases.

“Overall, the Xbox 360 platform has contributed 34 percent of year-to-date revenues (across hardware, content and accessories) generated by new physical retail sales, gaining 7 share points over last year,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

The month's top 10 selling titles can be found after the break.