After sluggish sales in July for the Xbox 360, analyst Michael Pachter believes the console's numbers jumped back up in August thanks to the price cuts. Additionally, he is now anticipating the PS3 to come down to $399 no later than next April.Ahead of the August video game sales data from The NPD Group, expected next Thursday (September 13), Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has issued his own preview for the month, which predicts that the Xbox 360 bounced back from its 170K July showing with 240K units sold in August.
"We expect Xbox 360 hardware and software sales to increase over prior months due to the Xbox 360 price cuts," he said.
He believes PS3 sales dipped slightly, down to 150K, while the Wii sold 420K. If his forecast proves true, the 360 managed to outsell the PS2, which he thinks sold around 225K. Although the PS2 is seven years old, its low price and huge catalog of games has enabled it to outsell the 360 fairly often.
In terms of his overall forecast, he's assuming U.S. console software sales of $445 million, which would represent a 12 percent increase year-over-year. $310 million of that is expected to come from the new consoles (360, Wii, PS3) and the portables (DS and PSP).
Sales were likely driven by new releases such as Electronic Arts' juggernaut Madden NFL 08 (estimated 1.9M), Nintendo's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and Take-Two's potential game-of-the-year contender Bioshock (estimated 600K). Continued sales of Activision's Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's and Guitar Hero 2 along with EA's NCAA Football 08 and Nintendo's Wii Play are expected to contribute as well.
Pachter also took the time to reiterate his belief that Sony will slash the price on the 80GB PS3 this year to $499, but he thinks they'll remove the bundled in Motorstorm at the lower price. He said the $499 price for the 80GB model should take effect some time before Thanksgiving.
Moreover, Pachter thinks that Sony will quickly shave another $100 off the PS3 in early 2008.
"We think that Sony's recent announcement of an IPO for its financial services unit (with an estimated $3 billion in proceeds) could forebode another PS3 price cut early next year. We believe that the company is interested in subsidizing sales of the console in order to stabilize its market share in the games market and grow its lead in the high-definition DVD market. We expect a price cut no later than April, likely to $399 for the 80Gb model," he said.
by James Brightman
SOURCE:GAMEDAILY.COM
