New NPD figures show weak sales in July

The latest set of market figures for North American sales from NPD Funworld have shown a nine per cent year-on-year decline in game software sales - but the year to date continues to be the best on record.

July sales dropped nine per cent to $317 million - which also represents a fall of some 18 per cent from the previous month - and underperformed the estimates of most analysts by a few percentage points.

The best selling title in the period was EA's NCAA Football 2006, which sold over 950,000 units and led a nine per cent rise in EA's sell-through for the month, while other games selling well during the month included Activision's Fantastic Four, THQ's Destroy All Humans and Nintendo's Pokemon Emerald.

Microsoft's Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack also sold over 100,000 units - joining NCAA, Pokemon Emerald and Fantastic Four in the exclusive camp of games topping that figure during the month - but was sold at a budget price point.

Although the month missed its targets and was down year on year, the impact on the market isn't likely to be severe, not least since the month faced tough comps against last year - especially for Activision, which saw a decline of 50 per cent in July due to a comp against the launch of Spider-Man 2 last year.

For the full year so far, the market in North America continues to break records - and has now recorded year to date sales of $2.68 billion, up ten per cent over last year's figures.