Blog

Gamers caught football fever in September. The NPD Group reported September industry sales figures for the United States today, revealing Madden NFL 13 as the month’s best-seller. Sales of the new game jumped 11 percent over last year’s iteration.

Another top performer for September was Borderlands 2. It took the number two spot for the month, and bested the first-month sales of the original Borderlands by 234 percent. Specific sales figures were not revealed.

Overall, total software sales were down 14 percent year-over-year. NPD analyst Liam Callahan attributed this downturn to a stronger slate of new titles launching this time last year that included Gears of War 3 and Dead Island.

The retail PC game sector was a bright spot for the month, rising 12 percent year-over-year. This boost was attributed to the high-profile recent launches of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Guild Wars 2, and Diablo III.

Hardware took the biggest hit during September, diving 39 percent year-on-year to $210.9 million. However, Callahan believes there is reason to be optimistic.

“Hardware sales are up on an average sales per week basis compared to August for the NDS, 3DS, PS3, Vita, and 360, which points to momentum heading into the holiday season,” Callahan said.

NPD did not divulge specific sales figures for hardware, but Microsoft spokesperson Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb chimed in over Twitter, revealing the Xbox 360 moved 270,000 units during September. He claims the Xbox 360 now represents 49 percent of total current-generation console marketshare for the US.

Of note, Electronic Arts titles accounted for 50 percent of September’s best-selling games and no Call of Duty game broke the top ten list.

SEPTEMBER US GAME SALES (August 26-September 29)
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES

Total retail sales: $843.3 million (-24%)
Non-PC hardware: $210.9 million (-39%)
Non-PC software: $497.4 million (-18%)
Accessories: $139.9 million (-11%)
Total software: $547.3 million (-14%)

TOP 10 GAMES FOR SEPTEMBER 2012
Title (Platforms) – Publisher

1. Madden NFL 13 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS Vita) – Electronic Arts
2. Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC) – Take-Two Interactive
3. FIFA Soccer 13 (PS3, X360, PS Vita, Wii, 3DS, PSP) – Electronic Arts
4. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS) – Nintendo
5. Guild Wars 2 (PC) – NCSoft
6. NHL 13 (X360, PS3) – Electronic Arts
7. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC) – Activision Blizzard
8. NCAA Football 13 (X360, PS3) – Electronic Arts
9. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (X360, Wii, 3DS, DS, PS3, PS Vita, PC) – Warner Bros. Interactive
10. Battlefield 3 (X360, PS3, PC) – Electronic Arts

The Halo movie may be stalled, but that has not stopped Microsoft from tapping Hollywood talent for its popular science fiction series. The company announced today that Fight Club and The Social Network director David Fincher will produce Halo 4’s live-action launch trailer.

Visual effects craftsman Tim Miller, who contributed to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, will direct the trailer.

The two-minute Halo 4 launch trailer will debut during Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on October 18, and will be made available immediately thereafter through Halo Waypoint and the official Xbox YouTube channel.

The trailer itself is titled “Scanned,” and delves into the backstory of series hero Master Chief. It was shot in Czech Republic capital city of Prague. No actors for the trailer were named.

“[Fincher and Miller’s] involvement is a testament to the significance of ‘Halo’ as a pop culture touchstone, and we think fans are going to be blown away when they see the final piece,” 343 Industries’ franchise development director Frank O’Connor said in a statement.

Halo 4’s “Scanned” trailer is not the only live-action effort attached to Halo 4. The first entry in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn launched last week. The series spans five episodes leading up to Halo 4’s November 6 launch and features Chronicles of Narnia actress Anna Popplewell.

Treyarch designer director David Vonderhaar is baffled by the issues fans may have with the Call of Duty game engine. Speaking to the Official Xbox Magazine, Vonderhaar said the Call of Duty: Black Ops II engine is replete with new features and does not resemble any older iteration.

“People like to talk about the engine, but the truth of the matter is that this isn’t like something that was invented six years ago,” he said. “At this point that engine doesn’t resemble anything like any engine. We’ve ripped out the UI system; the rendering and the lighting are all new, the core gameplay systems are all new.”

“To me, it’s like I never really understood,” Vonderhaar added. “It runs at 60 [frames-per-second] and it’s gorgeous. What exactly is there to be upset about with the engine?”

Vonderhaar’s comments follow a statement from Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia, who said in May that he is aware fans want a “better-looking” Call of Duty game. He claimed that the studio did not need to build an all-new engine to achieve this, but rather continue to tweak the existing engine to offer new features, like lighting advancements.

The NPD Group will report September sales on Thursday, and according to one analyst, they will not be pretty. Cowen & Company industry watcher Doug Creutz released a note to investors today predicting that total packaged game sales dipped 28 percent year-on-year.

A bright spot on the sheet was retail PC games, according to Creutz, who expects sales in this market to surge 101 percent year-over-year based on the launch of World of Warcraft’s four expansion, Mists pf Pandaria.

The top-performer for September, Creutz predicts, will be Madden NFL 13 at 2.16 million units, followed by Borderlands 2 at 1.57 million. For retail PC, he forecasted Mists of Pandaria to have sold 640,000 units during the month, noting that the majority of sales were downloaded digitally, a channel that NPD does not track.

Blizzard Entertainment announced last week that Mists of Pandaria had sold 2.7 million units during its first week across all channels.

Additionally, Creutz does not believe declines will turn around in any significant way anytime soon. Though the fall software release slate and the launch of the Wii U will boost sales somewhat, he still predicts double-digit year-on-year software sales through the end of 2012. This bleak outlook is due to the “continued weakness” of the Wii and the forthcoming end to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation console cycle, he said.

Lastly, Creutz reiterated that new consoles from Microsoft and Sony are potentially in line for a launch during fall 2013.

Electronic Arts’ Battlefield: Bad Company series is not headed to the big screen, but rather the small screen. That’s according to Deadline, which reports today that broadcasting company Fox is developing an hour-long action-comedy based on the popular Battlefield spinoff series.

Alias producer John Eisendrath is heading up the effort, serving as executive producer and writer for the series. He will receive assistance from Sony TV and Happy Madison, the production company founded by Adam Sandler (Big Daddy, Bedtime Stories).

On EA’s side, DICE executive producer Patrick Bach and EA vice president of entertainment Patrick O’Brien are attached to the project.

The Bad Company TV show will reportedly follow the game’s four main soldiers soldiers as they leave military life and transition into the private sector. Trouble, of course, presents itself, and the soldiers must escape the clutches of a shadowy government unit.

An EA representative was not immediately available for comment.

The Battlefield: Bad Company series has been a critical and commercial success for EA. The most recent entry in the series was 2010’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which won warm reviews upon launch, and sold nearly 6 million copies.

Additionally, Battlefield: Bad Company 3 is rumored to be in development.