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Activision action game and Kinect Star Wars top sales charts as total retail revenues decline 32 percent year-over-year; Xbox 360 tops console sales for 16th straight month. 
Prototype 2 has followed in its predecessor's footsteps, right down to the part where it tops the sales charts during a brutal month for the industry as a whole.
The NPD Group today released its US retail sales charts for the month of April, revealing Prototype 2 as the best-selling piece of software during a month that saw total game industry sales at stores down 32 percent year-over-year. The original Prototype topped the sales charts for its launch month of July 2009, during which industry-wide sales declined 31 percent.
Beyond Prototype 2, the only April releases to hit the chart were Kinect Star Wars and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition for the Xbox 360. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 also debuted on the charts, though it was released at the very end of March. The best-selling catalog title was Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which rebounded from its eighth-place finish in March.
On the hardware front, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console for the 16th straight month, with Microsoft confirming it sold 236,000 systems in April. The Kinect Star Wars bundle system was particularly popular, with the NPD Group attributing the premium-priced package with helping to boost the average selling price of game hardware year-over-year. Despite that boost, hardware sales were still down 32 percent to $189.7 million.
"I think what the new physical retail content sales reflect a very light release schedule in terms of the amount of compelling new games," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement accompanying the numbers. "Last April, the top seven titles outsold the top-selling title this year, and, simply stated, there were notably fewer new market introductions. I think it's [as] simple as that because when we see compelling content come into the market, the games are still selling as well as ever--we just saw a lot less this April as compared to last."
APRIL 2012 US GAME SALES
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total consumer spend (rentals, used sales, digital estimates included): $1 billion
Total retail sales: $630.4 million (-32%)
Non-PC hardware: $189.7 million (-32%)
Non-PC software: $292.1 million (-42%)
Total software: $307.2 million (-42%)
Accessories: $148.6 million (+1%)
TOP 10 GAMES FOR APRIL 2012
Title (Platforms) - Publisher
1. Prototype 2 (X360, PS3) - Activision
2. Star Wars Kinect (X360) - Microsoft
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (X360, PS3, Wii, PC) - Activision
4. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 (X360, PS3) - Electronic Arts
5. NBA 2K12 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) - Take-Two
6. The Witcher II: Assassins of Kings - Enhanced Edition (X360) - Warner Bros.
7. Mario Party 9 (Wii) - Nintendo
8. Mass Effect 3 (X360, PS3, PC) - Electronic Arts
9. Just Dance 3 (Wii, X360, PS3) - Ubisoft
10. MLB 12: The Show (PS3, PSV) - Sony
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