Pachter: Wii to lead March, more PS2 sales to come
Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter predicts that for March’s upcoming NPD US charts, Wii sales should far outpace PS3 sales at 400,000 and 165,000 respectively. Not a big surprise given the Wii’s stellar performance so far.
Moving on, Pachter also estimates that, aside from a modest 3 percent rise in game sales (leading to US$ 515 million in sales), US$ 305 million of game sales will come from new platforms.
Here’s something that PlayStation zealots should note: Despite this strong performance by the new platforms, Pachter puts PS2 software sales at US$ 155 million. For a previous gen platform, it is still performing strong. Pachter notes that there’s more to come:
We expect the recent sales strength on the PS2 to continue beyond March, given strong sell-through performance over the past nine months and a phenomenal lineup of mass-market games expected in April-July.
…We note that positive comparisons for PS2 software sales begin in April. …making continued sales strength more difficult. However, we expect a high level of software support for the PS2 platform for the foreseeable future, and expect only modest year-over-year declines (approximately 20%) for the first half of 2007.
Yes, the PS2 isn’t going anywhere, especially not in the next four months. Pachter emphasizes:
we expect the PS2 versions of Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, Transformers, The Simpsons, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to sell more units than on any other platforms. The degree of decline in the second half of the year will depend upon next generation console sales, as most next generation consoles are likely replacements for current generation consoles.
Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter predicts that for March’s upcoming NPD US charts, Wii sales should far outpace PS3 sales at 400,000 and 165,000 respectively. Not a big surprise given the Wii’s stellar performance so far.
Moving on, Pachter also estimates that, aside from a modest 3 percent rise in game sales (leading to US$ 515 million in sales), US$ 305 million of game sales will come from new platforms.
Here’s something that PlayStation zealots should note: Despite this strong performance by the new platforms, Pachter puts PS2 software sales at US$ 155 million. For a previous gen platform, it is still performing strong. Pachter notes that there’s more to come:
We expect the recent sales strength on the PS2 to continue beyond March, given strong sell-through performance over the past nine months and a phenomenal lineup of mass-market games expected in April-July.
…We note that positive comparisons for PS2 software sales begin in April. …making continued sales strength more difficult. However, we expect a high level of software support for the PS2 platform for the foreseeable future, and expect only modest year-over-year declines (approximately 20%) for the first half of 2007.
Yes, the PS2 isn’t going anywhere, especially not in the next four months. Pachter emphasizes:
we expect the PS2 versions of Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, Transformers, The Simpsons, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to sell more units than on any other platforms. The degree of decline in the second half of the year will depend upon next generation console sales, as most next generation consoles are likely replacements for current generation consoles.