The video game industry pulled in March sales of US$1.43 billion, reports market researcher The NPD Group, down 17% from the same period last year.

Nintendo Wii and DS sales captured the top two hardware spots, accounting for 58.4% of video game hardware sold last month, though the Xbox 360 saw the only ear-over-year unit sales increase.

On the kids software front, the release of Pokémon Platinum Version for the DS brought the game in at number two with almost 805,000 units sold.

Easter may not always be thought of as a gift-giving holiday for video games, but the NPD reports that 8% of industry unit sales were generated by the occasion, accounting for US$121 million of March 2008 sales. So the vidgame industry isn’t necessarily doomed to follow the same path of decline of other product categories, assures industry analyst Anita Frazier, noting the holiday fell in April this year and sales have yet to be tallied.