Fewer video game releases contributed to a retail sales decline that continued in April with total sales of $630.4 million, down 32% from last April's $930.9 million, according to market-tracking firm NPD Group.  Software sales dropped even more -- 42% -- from $533.7 million in April 2011 to $307.2 million last month.  "When we see compelling content come into the market, the games are still selling as well as ever," says NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "We just saw a lot less this April as compared to last."  It took the record-setting launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 -- $775 million in its first five days -- and the release of hits such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Uncharted 3 back in November 2011 to lift industry sales to its last year-over-year increase of 0.4% over November 2010.  Consumers spent about $1.1 billion in April when used games, rentals, digital downloads, subscriptions, and mobile and social games are added to new retail sales, NPD estimates. Still, new physical retail generates 65% of consumer spending.  Prototype 2 emerged as the top-selling game of the month. Kinect Star Wars, available only for the Xbox 360, was the second-best seller.  1. Prototype 2 (Activision Blizzard)2. Kinect Star Wars (Lucasarts)3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision Blizzard)4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 (Electronic Arts)5. NBA 2K12 (Take 2 Interactive)6. The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings (Warner Bros. Interactive)7. Mario Party 9 (Nintendo)8. Mass Effect 3 (Electronic Arts)9. Just Dance 3 (Ubisoft)10. MLB 12: The Show (Sony)  Microsoft said that Kinect Star Wars was the top-selling game of the month, when broken down by title and platform. (Prototype 2 is available for Xbox 360 and PS3.)  Similarly, Frazier noted that Kid Icarus: Uprising on the 3DS ranked among the top 10 releases for the month by title and platform "and would have made the list if we were reporting on (unit) rather than total title level."  The Xbox 360 sold 236,000 units in April, Microsoft said, maintaining the No. 1 spot in the U.S. "The average selling price for hardware increased over last April," Frazier says, "with one of the drivers of that increase being the Star Wars Kinect 360 bundle, which included the Xbox 360 console and controller, a Kinect sensor, and Kinect Star Wars game."  Also noted by Frazier: The Nintendo 3DS has outsold the Nintendo DS by about 1 million units in their respective first 14 months in the market "and the DS went on to become the best-selling gaming hardware system ever."  Nintendo has said that it sold 4.5 million 3DS systems in the U.S. in its first year of availability.
Latest news from the gaming world, with video and pc game release dates, cheat codes, reviews and commentary.