14 DAY TRIAL // Yep, it's that time of the month again. On Thursday, the NPD Group, which is tracking the sales numbers for both gaming consoles and videogames in North America, is set to reveal its results for the month of February.
As usual, before the numbers themselves are revealed, a chorus of analysts is making its own predictions regarding the evolution of the videogame industry. Their opinions are pretty different and they paint a picture that goes from rosy to rather gloomy.
Evan Wilson, from Pacific Crest Securities, is saying that the industry is set to grow when compared to February 2008, with games like Street Fighter IV and Killzone 2 leading the software charts. He also believes that one figure to watch will be the sales of the Nintendo Wii as “during the month of February, Wiis were largely in stock at major retailers. This does not appear to be a reflection of increased hardware deliveries. Instead, it was likely caused by the typical postholiday deceleration in demand and the existence of few new, big February releases. February data will be interesting, because they will be an indication of ongoing Wii demand rather than ongoing supply.”
Michael Patcher, from Wedbush Morgan Securities, is going one step further to say that he expects Nintendo to sell 725,000 Wiis during February. He also believes that the Xbox 360 will sell around 300,000 units, while the PlayStation 3 will move around 200,000 consoles in February.
Meanwhile, Jesse Divnich, who works for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, is more pessimistic, saying that the overall sales in the videogame industry are set to shrink by 2% in February, for the first time since October 2008. He is particularly worried about the performance of the PlayStation 3, which could again see a reduction in sales when compared to the same period in 2008. We’ll only get to see who is right this Thursday.