According to NPD data, Xbox just set a new hardware sales record the past month of June in the U.S., outselling PlayStation to the tune of a cool $200 million. The Xbox division cumulatively brought in a total $401 million dollars in the past month of June, marking a year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth to the tune of 112%. That large, $401 million number also marks a new record for Xbox and its Microsoft parent - the previous revenue record for the Xbox division was set way back in 2011. ten years later, it can be said that Xbox is better than ever before.

That same $401 million revenue from Xbox hardware clearly puts Sony's PlayStation in the rear-view mirror, as the company "only" achieved a $207 million revenue for June 2021 - a 1% decline YoY. That Microsoft managed to pull this off in the hardware shortage scenario we currently live in is impressive; and it does speak to the amount of pent-up demand that's still vying to enter the company's coffers. The record comes a month after Microsoft announced the deployment of Xbox Series X server blades to its xCloud programme, which occurred on June 26th. It appears likely that the company was distributing its Series X production capabilities between the retail sector and its own xCloud service before June 26th (with the additional time required for installation and all that entails), which would explain the sudden record in June. As Microsoft freed xCloud-bound capacity to the retail sector, the record thus ensued.

HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., today announced it has sold over 10 million gaming headsets as it begins shipping its newest lifestyle headset, the Cloud MIX Rose Gold Edition. Since developing the first HyperX Cloud gaming headset in 2014, HyperX has produced 30 headset models, establishing itself as a leading PC and console gaming headset brand and moving into the lifestyle market with its Cloud MIX line of headsets. In addition, HyperX leads market share for PC compatible headsets according to latest NPD data.

HyperX also achieved milestones in two additional categories by shipping over one million gaming keyboards and 65 million memory modules. HyperX Alloy mechanical gaming keyboards launched with Cherry MX switches and now HyperX continues to build its gaming keyboard lineup with the release of the HyperX Alloy Origins mechanical gaming keyboard, including proprietary mechanical key switches. HyperX memory products include FURY and Predator DDR4 branded memory modules and include RGB modules with customizable LED lighting using NGENUITY software.

An insight report from The NPD Group on console gaming paints interesting comparisons between the current (Xbox One and PS4) and past (Xbox 360 and PS3) console generations. For one, the fact that both generations started out their shelf-life with comparable new physical game releases and, among those releases, new IP, is interesting. The fact that physical releases new IP releases in current generation consoles tanked compared to their previous-gen counterparts on year three may be an indicator of either reduced trust in the market's capacity to absorb new releases and IP; a conservative approach on releasing games; or, more likely, the increase in development times, which means that games whose production began on or slightly after the new generation of consoles hit the market only went live, usually, three to four years later.

However, the rate of new releases and new IP among them in current generation consoles has increased as we hit their retirement time (which is expected to be between 2020 and 2021). It's interesting to note that it seems that new IP releases ar about on par with previous generation console,s which is a fact I think most of the readers will feel is against their own interpretation of the market - and a reason why NPD says developers "have been taking more risks). We are now seemingly bottoming out in new physical and new IP releases, as this generation comes to a close. But at least the games seem to be better than in the last generation: here, average score for current-generation games is two points higher than that of the last generation of consoles.

For all the talk regarding money-grabbing feature cutbacks and additions to games, it seems that companies such as Activision know exactly what their customers are looking after in their videogame worlds. Proof of this is that the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops 4, is the best selling videogame of 2018, according to the NPD Group. If you'll remember, this is the first Call of Duty game to totally eschew a single-player mode in favor of a no-holds-barred multiplayer mode, thus betting in replayability and user interaction instead of on the ages-old single-player immersion.

An NPD DisplaySearch boldly claiming that the industry will ship as many as 2 million Ultra HD (3840 x 2160-pixel) monitors by the end of 2014, is beginning to sound a little more plausible, with display makers pushing for "affordable" Ultra HD monitors in the 28-inch size segment, by mid-2014. By these, we're not referring to cheap, borderline gray market monitors from lesser known Korean manufacturers; but display majors from the same country, such as Samsung and LG. According to Hardware.info, which recently published a review of the Samsung LU28D590D, a 28-inch monitor based on a cheap TN-film panel by Chimei (CMO), that offers Ultra HD resolution; prices of the display could be as low as 600€ or £500, by mid-2014. So if you're planning to ditch the full HD (1920 x 1080) or WUXGA (1920 x 1200) monitor you've been holding on to for the past 5 or so years, wait just a little longer.

Ultra-slim PC shipments will grow from 3.4 million in 2011 to 65.0 million by 2015-a quarter of mobile PC shipments-according to the NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report. The mobile PC landscape is transforming from a performance-driven market to a convenience-driven market, where easy access to content and usage are the new preferred characteristics.

This fundamental change in preference is most noticeable in the slowing demand for notebook PCs and the increasing demand for tablet PCs. Tablet PC shipments are expected to exceed notebook PC shipment by 2016. Notebook PC players are responding by adopting the features of tablets that consumers have appreciated the most.

EA has made a major push into PC digital distribution with Origin, and it seems to be paying off. Analysts have predicted that we're heading toward an all-digital age, and EA intends to speed up the process by actively moving toward that goal itself. "We'll continue to deliver games in whatever media formats make sense and as one ebbs and one starts to flow, we'll go in that direction," EA Games president Frank Gibeau said. "Ultimately Electronic Arts, at some point in the future - much like your question about streaming and cloud - we're going to be a 100% digital company, period. It's going to be there some day. It's inevitable." He also noted the problem that many in the industry have pointed out: our only measure of tracking sales numbers is through NPD, which tracks retail sales but has lagged behind on reporting digital numbers. Part of that is probably that the large digital marketplace Steam is reluctant to share its sales data, but it still creates a definite issue of incomplete data. "I think one of the problems with this industry right now is that people tend to look at it like they're looking at an elephant through a straw," he told GI.biz. "They only see a little parts of it and they're not looking at the total picture, right? Between Facebook, social, mobile, free to play on PC, Asia, consoles... it's a vibrant, growing, huge market. An occasional bad report from NPD, which measures a sliver of what's actually happening in gaming gives people an erroneous impression."