Videogame sales to fall 5% in 2006

The videogame industry is in a funk, expected to suffer a decline in game sales of about 5% this year after a 3% decline last year. E3 will provide more detail on the products game executives believe will lift the business out of its doldrums.

The delay in upcoming consoles, particularly Sony’s PlayStation 3, is lengthening the drought as consumer anticipation of new consoles freezes purchases of games for older systems. Console-game sales in the US last year fell to $6.06 billion from $6.25 billion in 2004, according to NPD Group Inc. Most analysts expect the industry to resume sales growth next year after the three major providers of game consoles presumably have production lines moving smoothly.

Tom’s Hardware Guide, TG Daily and TwitchGuru will be at E3 all this week to report on what the three big players give us to end the videogame drought.

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