US video game sales drop 25 percent in October

A research firm says U.S. retail sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories fell 25 percent in October.

The drop marks the 11th straight month of declining sales for physical game products. Many gamers are waiting for big holiday releases such as Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Call of Duty: Black Ops II."

The NPD Group said Thursday that sales fell to $755.5 million from $1 billion a year earlier.

Sales of video games themselves, excluding PC titles, fell 25 percent to $432.6 million. Sales of hardware such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 fell 37 percent to $187.3 million. Sales of accessories, meanwhile, grew 5 percent to $135.6 million.

NPD estimates that retail sales account for about half of all video game spending. The rest is downloads, apps and the like.