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Video game sales off in March -- should investors panic?

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Investors in video-game stocks might end up with a case of a sour stomach after digesting the latest domestic sales figures from research firm NPD. According to Reuters, overall video-game revenues in March dropped 17% on a year-over-year basis. Indeed, it's not something that shareholders of Sony (NYSE: SNE), Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY), or Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) want to see.

Shareholders of Nintendo, however, will be glad to know that their company once again dominated the charts. The Wii sold over 600,000 consoles. Xbox 360 sold over 300,000 units, and PlayStation 3 moved over 200,000 systems. As for the PlayStation 3, well, it's frustrating statistics like these that are causing video-game execs to publicly call on Sony to do something!

I'm pretty frustrated myself, considering that Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), a company that I own in one of my portfolios, didn't score in the software chart. Capcom's Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360 was the number-one game. Nintendo captured second place with Pokemon Platinum for the Nintendo DS handheld device.

Nintendo really has an interesting near-term future. It will be fascinating to see how sales of the new Nintendo DSi fare over the coming months. But there have been concerns about slowing Wii sales. In fact, I recently wrote about this issue in terms of how sales of the Wii were doing in Japan. So there will be a lot of press devoted to the new handheld hardware as the quarters go by since the market will want to know if the DSi can help to alleviate the potentially slowing Wii.

As far as the sales decline in March goes, I wouldn't worry too much over it. Simply put, we're still in a tough economic time, and video-game investors have to expect bumps in the road. With the new DSi in the market, and with the buzz of price cuts for hardware in the air (particularly when it comes to PlayStation 3), I think the industry will be okay. You just have to pick your positions carefully. For me, that means continuing to hold Activision Blizzard and keeping an eye on Nintendo, which would be more interesting to me after a big pullback.

Disclosure: I own Activision Blizzard, Microsoft; I have covered calls written against the Microsoft position; holdings can change without notice.

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Last updated: November 25, 2009: 12:09 PM

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