NPD March Game Sales Specifics Added

Following yesterday's announcement that March 2006 U.S. game software sales were $499 million last month, down 8 percent from March 2005, when titles such as Gran Turismo 4 helped drive more significant sales, further data released by NPD has helped illuminate specific titles. As far as charting specific game sales, it was revealed that, at least by dollar amount spent, Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts II was the most popular North American game in March. However, the game was closely followed by notable Xbox 360 titles Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Oblivion, and then by Criterion and Electronic Arts' Black for PlayStation 2. Notably languishing a little further down the chart was EA's The Godfather, however - the top SKU, for PlayStation 2, made No. 10 in the charts, just above the Guitar Hero bundle at No.11. The top handheld game in terms of sales, bearing in mind a lower price point, was Metroid Prime: Hunters for Nintendo DS at No. 14. With 8 Xbox 360 games in the top 20, this was a relatively good outing for Microsoft's next-gen console. In addition, on the hardware front, it was revealed that the Xbox 360 sold through just under 200,000 copies in North America in March, showing the continued shortages of the console, allegedly now ameliorated. Elsewhere, the PlayStation 2 still led the way with almost 275,000 sales, and the Xbox (just under 85,000) and GameCube (just under 65,000) brought up the rear. Gamasutra will add any further additional information on March 2006 game and hardware sales as it becomes available.