The other bit of bad news is actually kind of good news, depending on your vantage. The bad bit's that we're once more looking at an apple-to-oranges sales month. Guitar Hero: Metallica? The Godfather II? Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor? Escape the Museum? That's the "blockbuster" competition up against last year's Grand Theft Auto IV and Mario Kart Wii, which together rang up about 4 million units for $325 million and a whopping 36% cut of April 2008's total haul. The good bit's that that's an argument against April's downturn being purely economy-driven. As WM puts it, "We believe that the decline is more attributable to difficult year-over-year comparisons (which improve after July) than to overall weakness in the economy," adding that the company believes video games software remains "recession-resistant."
Who's hurting most? Domestic PS2 software sales continue to plummet like a piano dropped off a cargo plane, down 60% year-over-year -- so much so that WM says it's dropping PS2 software sales from its subsequent monthly reports.
Estimated console sell-through numbers:
480,000 - Wii
275,000 - Xbox 360