The NPD Group has released their monthly hardware and software sales report for the month of May 2009.  The sales period for this month is the four-week period from May 3, 2009 to May 30, 2009.  The industry as a whole slowed down this month yet again as compared to last May, but Nintendo still leads the way in hardware sales.  New release UFC 2009 Undisputed for the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 from THQ is the main software highlight.

March 2009 US Games Industry Summary
Total Sales - $863.3 million USD
Hardware Sales - $302.5 million USD
Software Sales - $448.9 million USD
Accessory Sales - $112 million USD

The games industry saw its third-straight drop in sales in May, and according to the NPD Group's Anita Frazier, saw sales drop below $1 billion USD, constituting a decline of 23 percent.  Likewise, software sales fell 17 percent, while hardware and accessories were the hardest hit, falling 30 and 25 percent, respectively.  Last year saw the release of Nintendo's Wii Fit around this time, which in part was a contributor to May 2008's higher sales.  Both dollar and unit sales dropped this month, as mentioned by Frazier:

"The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1B since August 2007. May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months in any given year for the industry in general.

Every category declined versus a year ago with the exception of portable hardware sales which was bolstered by the continued strong sales of the Nintendo DS including both the DSi and the Lite.

Unit sales declined less than dollar sales did. The dollar sales decline was exacerbated by a decline in average retail prices for almost all of the categories."

The Nintendo DS is the only video game hardware to have seen an increase as opposed to May 2008, in part because of the Nintendo DSi, which the Japanese publisher had launched last month in the United States.  Aside from the sole bright spot, every other hardware saw varying decreases from last May, with the most notable being the Nintendo Wii and the Sony PlayStation Portable.  Despite surpassing 20 million units in May, the Wii sees its sales have fallen as opposed to last year at this time.  With the launch of the Wii MotionPlus this month, and Wii Sports Resort in July, NIntendo hopes to reignite its sales to kickstart the second half of the year.  Sales for Sony's handheld system continues to sell poorly in the new year, as the publisher is hoping that the PSP Go!, which had been announced at last week's E3 Expo, will rectify this situation, in which it had posted its worst month so far when tracked by the NPD Group.  Also notable is that Sony's current generation console, the PlayStation 3, has now for the seventh straight month saw a decrease in year-on-year sales.

June 2009 will see a bevy of new releases from established franchises and popular movie licenses.  Ghostbusters: The Video Game and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will see a release on all six relevant systems this month.  Electronic Arts is also rolling out the latest entry in its Tiger Woods PGA TOUR series this month, to coincide with the U.S. Open.  Nintendo has also released its Wii MotionPlus peripheral in June, which is an add-on for the Wii Remote for added control and precision.  Other notable titles to release this month include Activision Blizzard's Prototype for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii from Electronic Arts, and two titles from Sega: Virtua Tennis 2009 for all consoles, and The Conduit, a first-person shooter for the Wii.