The recession caused the U.S. video game market to shrink for a fifth-straight month, marking the continued struggle as game studios and console manufacturers attempt to generate sales. "While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including 'Madden' this month, which should help spur sales," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

The game market shrank 29 percent down to $848.9 million in July, according to NPD, with Nintendo Wii game sales dropping 55 percent, Sony PlayStation 3 sales slipping 46 percent and the Microsoft Xbox 360 console sales falling just 1 percent. Despite June's sales figures dropping 31 percent over 12 months, industry insiders were still relieved that sales numbers totaled $1.17 billion.

"In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11 percent (or more) higher than the last five months of last year," Frazier also noted in the report. When looking at the current trends of the video game industry, it seems highly unlikely it'll be at least 11 percent higher than the last five months of 2008.

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