Drilling down further, software sales (games for both consoles and handheld devices like the PSP and Nintendo DS) sales were down 3 percent vs. November 2008. Though that’s far better than the 18 percent drop in October, it still shouldn’t be viewed as a “healthy start” to the holiday season, according to Jesse Divnich, director of analyst services at EEDAR. Also of concern is that “core” games like MW2 and Assassin’s Creed II fared better than casual titles in November, since family-friendly games typically drive holiday sales.

SEE ALSO: Game Sales Not Withstanding Recession After AllModern Warfare 2 Sales Shoot Down Concerns About Activision’s Future Performance

Still, NPD analyst Anita Frazier suggests that a combination of “frugal fatigue”—or consumers getting sick of pinching pennies—and better news about the economy overall could “positively impact industry sales” during these last weeks of holiday shopping.

There’s also some good news for publishers like Take-Two (NSDQ: TTWO) and Ubisoft that pushed the release dates of games like BioShock 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction back into 2010: They avoided getting crushed by the MW2 launch, and Divnich also predicts that they’ll see stronger sales post-holiday than they would’ve if they’d rushed development for a holiday release. “This schedule shift will limit cannibalization and create a much stronger and healthier video game environment in the long-term,” he said, in a research note.