It ain't just Hollywood having problems...

Video game makers Electronic Arts and Activision are reporting lower-than-expected sales this holiday season, reports Matt Richtel in the New York Times. He writes:

NPD, a market research company, reported last week that video game software sales were down 18 percent last month from November 2004.



The evidence suggests the video game industry is experiencing its most lackluster holiday selling season in at least a decade, and one of its most disappointing quarters ever.

The hypothesis: everyone's waiting to get their Xbox 360 for Christmas, so they're not buying new games for their old consoles. Can that possibly be the only reason? (EA also delayed the release of its game based on the "Godfather" films from this year to next.)

One analyst calls this the "worst quarter in 10 years" for the videogame industry.