Woke up this morning to read the Associated Press' rundown of January's video-game sales, based on the industry-tracking NPD Group's monthly report, which was issued last night. A few things in the AP write-up struck me as needing some perspective:

"U.S. video game retail sales dropped 13 percent in January, another down month for the industry after a difficult 2009." The mainstream media -- and even some in the industry -- keep implying that 2009 was a bad year for video games. The reality is that 2009's $19.7 billion in sales -- with the three major consoles maturing -- was being compared with 2008's record sales ($21.4 billion), which were up substantially over the previous year ($18.8 billion).

2009 was actually the second-biggest year ever for video games. Would the industry have liked to have made more money in 2009? Of course. Was it a bad year? No.

"The month's best-selling title was Nintendo's New Super Mario Bros., followed by Mass Effect 2 from Electronic Arts Inc., which launched Jan. 26." Even with only a few days to compete with a month's worth of sales for the Wii's top-seller (656,700 units), I'm stunned that Mass Effect 2 (572,100) wasn't the No. 1 game, especially considering its prominent TV-ad campaign at the height of the NFL season. New Super Mario Bros., Nintendo's only high-profile "game" release for the Wii in the latter part of the year, probably got a post-Christmas bump from gift-card redemptions and purchases by new system owners.

"Sales of accessories climbed 2 percent to $217 million." This was the only bright spot in January's report; all other categories saw double-digit declines. I would bet that the increase was driven largely by sales of extra controllers and other accessories for the Wii, which is under-equipped out of the box, considering its pitch as a party machine. It was the month's best-selling console (465,800), followed by the Xbox 360 (332,800) and -- returning to third place -- the PS3 (276,900).

"After January's decline, analysts expect big game launches to give a boost to software sales for the remainder of the quarter. Many of these titles, such as "BioShock 2," "Dante's Inferno" and "God of War III" cater to hardcore gamers." But Mass Effect 2 should have done better. And Dante's Inferno has received surprisingly middling reviews, which often affects sales. And God of War III, while eagerly awaited, is an exclusive release for the PS3, which has the smallest user base among the consoles. So there are no guarantees.

And that's the rest of the story.