By : Stephanie Prange | Posted: 10 Dec 2009
sprange@questex.com

Sony’s PlayStation 3 in November posted the greatest increase in unit sales among consoles compared to November 2008, according to NPD data.

The PS3 sold 710,000 unies to Xbox 360’s 819,500 and Wii’s 1.26 million in November.

Still, game business sales were down 7.6% in November, compared to the same month the year before, with hardware sales registering the biggest drop at 13.49%. Game software sales fell 3.1%, and accessories dropped 5.5% from November 2008 to November 2009.

Game industry sales are 12.1% behind last year through November at $14.13 billion.

“[Year-to-date] the industry is still up 7% over 2007,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “I think we all have to realize the incredible year that was 2008."

Game software unit sales dropped more than revenue.

"There was even heavier promotional activity this year than normal, and while they seem to have benefited hardware sales, they don't appear to have positively impacted software sales since unit sales of software are down even more than dollar sales are for that category," Frazier said.

Even record-breaking sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 — besting Halo 3 — couldn’t lift overall unit sales.

“The top 50 games this year sold 5% less units than did the top 50 last year," Frazier said.

---