Video Game Software Sales Increase

According to NPD Group, video game sales rose 7.2 percent in November, with companies such as Activision, Electronic Arts (EA), and THQ seeing the biggest gains while competitors Acclaim Entertainment and Take-Two Interactive Software nose-dived. However, despite the gains, overall video game industry sales--which include hardware and accessories in addition to software--were somewhat flat or even falling when compared with 1 year ago. Major video game makers--Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo--might have the cure for that problem, however: Each company is expected to soon announce its next-generation hardware platforms, which should be in stores by late 2005.