US June Sales Up 12%

Analysts from NPD Funworld have reported higher than expected revenues during the month of June in the US, with totals rising from $339 million in 2003 to $380 million this year. Twelve titles sold more than 100,000 units each during the month, including Spider-Man 2, DRIV3R, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Shrek 2, NBA Ballers, Red Dead Revolver and Full Spectrum Warrior. During the month Electronic Arts held on to its 16% market share and drove an estimated $61.4 million at retail. THQ also did particularly well with twenty-nine titles selling over 10,000 units. In hardware terms Xbox software sales rose 69%, GameCube software rose 48%, Game Boy Advance was up 6% and PlayStation 2 up 3%. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has repeated his assessment that the game market will see a year-on-year growth of at least 10% in 2004, commenting that “The rebound in sales growth has begun.” Source: GameSpot