5 new shots posted.

Sinking hardware, software sales send overall stateside revenues sliding; Just Dance 2, Dead Space 2, Little Big Planet 2, Zumba Fitness make top 10.

Following months of sales declines in 2010, the US game industry started 2011 with£another month of sales declines. According to NPD figures released today, overall sales of PC games, non-PC games, hardware, and accessories sank 5 percent during the January reporting period, going from $1.22 billion to $1.16 billion.

Of the various sectors, hardware sank the most, falling 8 percent to $324 million. The only company to release sales figures was Microsoft, which reported that 381,000 Xbox 360s were sold during the month, a 15 percent year-on-year increase. Neither Sony nor Nintendo issued sales figures for their platforms as of press time.

Call of Duty: Black Ops was the top title in the US once again in January.

In terms of software, combined PC and non-PC games totaled $603.1 million, down 6 percent from $644.9 million in January 2010. The top game for the month was once again Call of Duty: Black Ops, followed by a repeat appearance from 2010 favorite Just Dance 2. Both beat off a strong debut from Dead Space 2, which
shipped 2 million units worldwide just weeks after its release.

In fourth place was another debut, Little Big Planet 2, followed by the workout game Zumba Fitness: Join the Party. NBA 2K11 returned to dunk sixth place, followed by fellow holdover Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood in seventh. Kinect favorite Dance Central sashayed into eighth place, while another dance title, the double-platinum Michael Jackson The Experience, moonwalked into ninth. NPD’s top 10 was rounded out by the massively multiplayer title DC Universe Online.

The sole bright spot in today’s NPD figures was accessories, which includes sales of Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s PlayStation Move. The two motion-sensing systems helped sales in the category increase 6 percent from $222.8 million to $235.1 million year-over-year.

JANUARY 2011 US GAME SALES
OVERALL DOLLAR SALES
Total retail sales: $1.16 billion (-5%)
Non-PC hardware: $324.0 million (-8%)
Total software: $603.1 million (-6%)
Non-PC software: $576.0 million (-5%)
Accessories: $235.1 million (+6%)

TOP 10 GAMES
Title (Platforms) – Publisher

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, WII, NDS, PC) – Activision

2. Just Dance 2 (WII) – Ubisoft

3. Dead Space 2 (360, PS3, PC) – Electronic Arts

4. Little Big Planet 2 (PS3) – Sony

5. Zumba Fitness: Join the Party (WII, 360, PS3) – Majesco

6. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PSP, WII, PS2, PC) – Take-Two Interactive

7. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (360, PS3) – Ubisoft

8. Dance Central (360) – MTV Games

9. Michael Jackson The Experience (WII, DS, PSP) – Ubisoft

10. DC Universe Online (PS3, PC) – Sony

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We chat up the three big winners of the 2011 Indie Games Challenge.

Today On the Spot we take a look at This Week on XBL and PC and bust some caps with a demo of Homefront and Operation Flashpoint: Red River, and Ricardo Torres interviews winners from the Indie Game Challenge at DICE. We also sit down with Rockstar and talk L.A. Noire.

What was supposed to be a three-hour tour aboard a tiny ship turns into an undead nightmare when developer Techland leaves us stranded in its first-person brawler Dead Island.

It has been a while since we were last marooned on Dead Island back at the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Now we’re back again alongside developer Techland for another brisk outing in its zombie apocalypse, armed with a wooden boat oar and a pocketful of experience points. Our own personal hell: a tropical paradise turned tropical wasteland brimming with death and beautifully rendered in the same engine as Call of Juarez. We recently sat down to watch a demonstration of what it’s like to go face-to-face with the walking dead in this gruesome first-person brawler…armed with little more than a oar.

This massive island of death is yours to explore, but at your own peril.

Dead Island is all about getting extremely up close and personal with hordes of zombies. Your arsenal is a near-endless supply of mundane items scattered across the ravaged island, including wooden oars, machetes, and the occasional gun or two. If you’re feeling creative, you can combine certain items to make powerful new weapons, a la Dead Rising 2, provided you have the right blueprints. Once you have armed yourself with the deadliest vacation items imaginable, it’s time to take the fight to the horde. You can fight in one of two ways–we saw both styles in action with an Xbox 360 gamepad. The first, analog, uses one analog stick for movement and the other for arm control. This unique setup looks like it will take some getting used to, but it does allow you more control over the strength and arc of each swing. The second, digital, is a more-traditional setup that will be familiar to anyone who has played console action games. The analog sticks are dedicated to movement, while all the attacks are mapped to the face buttons.

The four unlucky people you will be controlling are described as a leader, a tank, an assassin, and a jack-of-all-trades. Each of these characters brings something unique to the profession of zombie killing and can be further specialized by leveling up and progressing down one of three skill trees. The leader, for instance, can be specialized to boost his party’s performance or maximize his effectiveness with the island’s limited gun supply. Techland wants to give you plenty of options for dealing with the deceased by loading up each character with plenty of active skills. These skills can then be used in concert with other player’s skills to devastating effect, such as using the tank’s ability to knock enemies prone followed by the assassin’s ability to quickly slay foes.

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