WASHINGTON (AFP) – U.S. sales of videogame hardware and software fell 16 percent in August to 908.72 million dollars, the sixth straight monthly decline, according to the NPD Group.

Sales of consoles and handheld devices in the United States dropped 25 percent to 297.6 million dollars while software sales declined 15 percent to 470.32 million dollars, NPD said late Thursday.
Videogame accessories were the only bright spot with sales increasing two percent to 140.81 million dollars.
“The industry realized its sixth consecutive month-over-month decline, and while improved over the last several months, it's still a notable decline,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.
She said sales would have to significantly improve in the remaining four months of the year just to meet last year's numbers.
“The back four months of the year would have to be up 14 percent in aggregate for 2009 to come in flat in comparison to 2008 sales,” said Frazier.
Nintendo dominated hardware sales in August with its Wii consoles and DS handheld devices, which sold 552,900 and 277,400 units respectively.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 racked up sales of 215,400 units in August, followed by the PlayStation 3 (210,000 units), Sony's PSP (140,300 units) and the Playstation 2 (105,900 units).
Microsoft cut the price of its top-of-the-line Xbox 360 videogame console by 100 dollars in late August, just days after Sony cut the PlayStation 3's price by a similar amount.
“The price cuts implemented on the PS3 and 360 hardware already made an impact on unit sales, despite having been executed fairly late in the month,” Frazier said. “It will be interesting to see the full impact of the new price points on September sales.”
All hardware systems, except for the PS2, saw a boost in unit sales in July, she added, noting the PS3 had the greatest consecutive monthly increase as unit sales increase by 72 percent compared to July.
“There is a lot of speculation about Wii and whether Nintendo will take a price cut as sales comps to last year show declines,” Frazier said.
The top-selling title for the month was Madden NFL 10 from Electronic Arts on sales of 928,000 units for the Xbox 360, 665,000 units for the PS3 and 160,000 units for the PS2.
Frazier noted that two games analysts expect to prove big hits will be introduced this month.
“With the introduction of 'Beatles: Rock Band' and 'Guitar Hero 5' in September, a lot of folks have inquired about the performance of these titles and the music/dance genre,” she said.
“While sales of this genre are down 46 percent year-to-date, unit sales are down much less because lower prices are playing into the dollar sales decline.”