Breaking in the video gaming industry reports that overall video game sales dropped 23% this May as compared to last year. It also means sales are down below the one billion dollar mark for the first time since August 2007 (according to a report by the NPD group). Some blame the summer season and others blame the lack of good games released at this particular time of the year.

Video Game Sales Fall in May

Since last year, sales of video game hardware, software and accessories dropped from $1.2 billion to $863.3 million this May. Every category dropped versus last year’s standings except for portable hardware sales which are actually up a bit due to the Nintendo DS, DSi and Lite.

Of all the platforms selling, the Wii from Nintendo is still the favorite and showed May sales of 289,500 units. Microsoft Xbox came in second with 175,000 units and the PlayStation 3 from Sony can in with 131,000 units. Surprisingly, the PlayStation 2 is still making sales following in close to the PS3 with 117,000 units sold.

Now that we know what people want to play on, what kinds of games are they playing? The top-selling game for the month of May was UFC 2009 Undisputed which had 679,600 units sold for the Xbox 360 and 334,400 units sold for the PS3.

There are also some great releases planned for June and with May typically being a slow video game sale month, people are predicting to see better numbers for the month of June and the months to come. Some titles we can expect to see include Sims 3 for the PC, Prototype, Virtua Tennis, Ghostbusters, Red Faction, transformers and Tiger Woods.

One thing remains certain in this situation and that is that video game fans everywhere are looking and waiting on something great, new and exciting to capture their attention. The only real question is whether or not the video game industry will deliver.

lisa Industry News, gaming, video games 360, drop in sales, game, may, profit, PS3, sales, video game sales, Wii