14 DAY TRIAL // Analysts have offered their predictions for hardware and software sales for the month of October, just as the NPD Group, which tracks industry sales for the North American market, is preparing to put out the sales figures for last month.
Both Michael Pachter, from Wedbush Morgan, and Jesse Divnich, who works with EEDAR, are saying that the Xbox 360 home console from Microsoft is the console which will lead the pack in October, coming in somewhere between 360,000 and 395,000 devices sold in one month.
The Microsoft platform might see an increase of more than 50 percent over the same period of 2009.
The Nintendo DS will take second place, with the PlayStation 3 from Sony coming in third, with sales estimated to range between 265,000 and 280,000 units.
The Wii will be in third person when it comes to home consoles, seeing sales fall by more than half when compared to the same period of last year.
The PlayStation Portable handheld is also predicted to see an important decrease in sales to somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000 units.
Michael Pachter stated, “We expect demand for the Xbox 360 to remain high due to the August release of the new slim Arcade model, the September release of Halo: Reach, and the October release of Fable III.”
He added, “PS3 sales should remain high due to the August release of the 160Gb model and the September release of Move, though Sony has a difficult comparison due to a price cut from $399 to $299 last September.”
Overall hardware sales will probably fall by one quarter over the same period of 2009.
When it comes to video game sales the best performers are expected to be Medal of Honor, from DICE, Danger Close and Electronic Arts, NBA 2K11, Just Dance 2, Fable III, Fallout: New Vegas and FIFA 11.