Better Games, New Consoles Drive Record Games Sales This Year

Sweet games like this year’s Maxim top 10, plus those left off like Rock Band, and the always-out-of-stock Nintendo Wii have fueled a record year of game sales. New sales numbers from NPD Group put the console and game total for November at $2.63 billion. The total for 2007 is now $13.1 billion. Even without December this year has topped the 2006 total, $12.5 billion.

Grab the exact numbers at the link below. The reasons why are pretty clear to all of us in the Engamer bunker. Better games. More games. And more better games. And maybe a little help from the many high-price-point options.

The huge selection of good games for the newer consoles, plus Wii games that are even selling to retirement homes — i.e., selling to what used to be a nongaming demo — helped put this year over the top. Without at least a few decent games we sure wouldn’t drop $800 on a console bundle. The record will be set a whole lot higher by the end of the year. December is usually the biggest sales month. Even with the Wii always out of stock we sure wouldn’t mind pocketing a slice of this month’s sales.

[via Ars Technica]