Analysts Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities and Gary Cooper of Bank of America have recently disclosed their prediction that video game related sales would continue to fall below their monthly average. November is often associated with “big spending”, as the holiday season “officially” begins in the month; however, Pachter is predicting a sixteen percent decline in sales figures for the interactive entertainment industry.
Citing numerous factors, Cooper digresses from Pachter’s assumption, and takes it a step forward, ultimately claiming an astonishing thirty percent decline in sales. The analyst attributes the sluggish sales of Playstation Portable units, the relative unavailability of the Xbox 360, and a general lack of “disappointing” titles as reason for his assertion.
These “unsatisfactory” performing games include Activision’s Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland and Call of Duty: Big Red One along with Electronic Art’s Need for Speed Most Wanted.
“The weak November results are in part attributable to a difficult comparison, and in part due to a supply/demand imbalance for the Xbox 360,” explained Pachter. “We expect this imbalance to partially correct in December, but remain concerned that consumers are uninspired by the sequel-driven slate of new games released this quarter.”
Analysts point to the absence of a true “killer app”, or AAA game as further rational to support their predictions. In 2004, Microsoft’s Halo 2 accounted for twenty percent of video game sales. While 2005 has had its share of stellar games such as Shadow of the Colossus, Dragon Quest 8, Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories and Mario Kart DS, the aforementioned titles seemingly lack the widespread appeal of previous top selling games.
Given that the demand for current generation consoles and their applicable titles has lessened with the arrival of the Xbox 360, the analysts are attributing some of the blame on the seemingly impossible task of purchasing the system. While Microsoft claims that weekly shipments of the console will indeed occur, retail outlets have yet to restock the system on a meritorious scale.
Stay tuned to the Advanced Media Network as we continue to follow up on this situation, as financial data for the month of November should arrive in the coming weeks.
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