Pachter: Price cut and red rings cause PS3 to outsell Xbox 360 last month
According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, this Thursday’s NPD results for July should reveal that the Sony PlayStation 3 has overtaken Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 in monthly sales for the first time this console cycle.
If the prediction is correct, Pachter says the price reduction of US$ 100 can be viewed as the cause. He also pointed to the Xbox 360’s “red Lights of death” hardware issue as a telling factor.
“We estimate sell-through of 330,000 Wii, 115,000 Xbox 360, and 160,000 PS3 hardware systems,” he comments. Wedbush Morgan also estimates that the PlayStation 2 console would have sold 205,000 units last month while handhelds Sony PSP and Nintendo DS should have hit the 225,000 and 450,000 marks respectively.
Pachter then explains what’s in store for Microsoft in times ahead. “We have forecast a month-over-month decline for Xbox 360 hardware sales, due to the warranty issue announced in early July,” he says. However, he expects the Xbox 360 sales to rebound with the recent price cut and the correction of the red light issue.
The software wing of the game industry should also be doing better, according to the analyst. He says a spike of 12.5 percent in game sales leading to US$ 425 million in revenues should be a fair guess.
The NPD tracks down sales figures for hardware and software in the game industry. The latest listings are due out in a few days, so watch out for our update on it.
According to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, this Thursday’s NPD results for July should reveal that the Sony PlayStation 3 has overtaken Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 in monthly sales for the first time this console cycle.
If the prediction is correct, Pachter says the price reduction of US$ 100 can be viewed as the cause. He also pointed to the Xbox 360’s “red Lights of death” hardware issue as a telling factor.
“We estimate sell-through of 330,000 Wii, 115,000 Xbox 360, and 160,000 PS3 hardware systems,” he comments. Wedbush Morgan also estimates that the PlayStation 2 console would have sold 205,000 units last month while handhelds Sony PSP and Nintendo DS should have hit the 225,000 and 450,000 marks respectively.
Pachter then explains what’s in store for Microsoft in times ahead. “We have forecast a month-over-month decline for Xbox 360 hardware sales, due to the warranty issue announced in early July,” he says. However, he expects the Xbox 360 sales to rebound with the recent price cut and the correction of the red light issue.
The software wing of the game industry should also be doing better, according to the analyst. He says a spike of 12.5 percent in game sales leading to US$ 425 million in revenues should be a fair guess.
The NPD tracks down sales figures for hardware and software in the game industry. The latest listings are due out in a few days, so watch out for our update on it.