14 DAY TRIAL // The numbers that the NPD Group releases related to hardware and videogame sales on the North American market are expected towards the end of the week and industry analysts are projecting that they will again be disappointing, with sales going down by 22% overall when compared with July 2008.
Michael Pachter, who is an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, expects the Nintendo Wii to sell a little over 300,000 units, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft to move 190,000, and the PlayStation 3 to come third, with 135,000 units. This means that hardware sales will be more than a third smaller than during the same month last year.
Pachter believes that the continuing slump is putting more and more pressure on all the hardware manufacturers to cut the price of their consoles. For much of the year, it has been rumored that Sony will be taking down the price of the PS3, but that moment has not arrived yet.
But now, Nintendo is also under pressure and the analyst is saying that the company will not be reaching its sales target for 2009 if it does not take measures. Microsoft already sliced the price of the Xbox 360 in late 2008, so it has the luxury to wait and see what its rivals are doing.
When it comes to videogames, the downturn is likely to be less pronounced, sales falling about 16% over last year. The problem is no longer the power of last year's line up, which consisted of games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but the fact that publishers did not push any blockbuster titles in July 2009.
The situation is likely to be rectified in August and beyond, with sales of both videogames and hardware positioned to jump by 30%. Still, the end of the year line ups are looking ever flimsier as big titles like Starcraft II and BioShock 2 are being pushed back into 2010.