According to the latest sales figures from market information company The NPD Group, total U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in 2002 grew 10% from the previous year. The video game industry generated $10.3 billion in sales, surpassing the previous record high of $9.4 billion in 2001. The NPD Group credits the healthy increase in sales to the success of key properties such as: GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY, MADDEN NFL 2003, SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE, SPIDER-MAN: THE MOVIE, HALO and TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL. But although software sales were up, annual 2002 video game hardware sales showed a slight decline of 4% in revenue, earning $3.5 billion versus $3.7 billion in 2001. However, the category did post a 10% increase in unit volume. The decline in dollar and increase in unit volume were attributed to price reductions of all hardware systems. Prices of GameBoy Advance, GameCube, Sony Playstation 2 and Xbox dropped to almost one-third of their original price in first half 2002. The new price points opened the doors to the mass market, which in turn led to the increase in unit sales. Another notable increase in 2002 was in the category of console and portable accessories. Console accessories include items such as DVD remotes and Internet adapters. Posting a 9% increase in dollar volume versus 2001, these particular accessories were very important drivers to the video game industry in 2002, as they represented 18% of the next-generation accessory dollars in August through December 2002. The forecast for 2003 is that unit volume growth will outpace dollar volume growth in the hardware category, and the majority of the industry dollars in 2003 will come from software sales.
