Video game industry posts a February surprise

The video game industry pulled a rabbit out of its hat in February – and that rabbit looked a lot like an Xbox 360.

A surprise 10 percent jump in hardware sales and a 22 percent increase in peripheral sales not only led the industry to an increase over the February 2010 numbers, but put it in positive year-over-year country as well, according to data from the NPD Group.

NPD no longer breaks out its numbers by platform, so it’s hard to pinpoint how widespread the hardware sale surge was, but Microsoft issued a statement saying Xbox 360 sales were up 27 percent during the month with 535,000 units sold.

“Total retail spend on the Xbox 360 platform (hardware, software and accessories) reached $475 million, the highest among current generation consoles,” the company said.

Game-wise, sales beat analyst’s forecasts, but were still 5 percent below the February 2010 numbers. “Call of Duty: Black Ops” topped the list – as it has since November. Capcom took the number two slot with Marvel vs. Capcom 3. And Just Dance 2 slipped to third.

“Bulletstorm” and “Killzone 3,” the month’s two other major releases, took a relatively disappointing seventh and eighth, respectively.

The complete list of the top 10 games can be found after the break.