Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter gave his preview of gaming sales leaders in March, expecting offerings from Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS), THQ (NASDAQ:THQI), Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI) and Nintendo (OTC:NTDOY.PK) to lead the way.
Pachter noted: We expect March sales to be led by new releases Electronic Arts’ Crysis 2 (360, PS3, PC) and Dragon Age II (360, PS3, PC), Nintendo’s Pokémon Black and White (DS), and THQ’s Homefront (360, PS3, PC), with continued strong sales of Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2.
Other outlooks for March from Pachter:
* We expect March U.S. retail video game console software sales data to be released by the NPD Group after the market close on Thursday, April 14.
* We forecast software sales of $805 million, down 8% compared to last year’s $876 million, the fourth consecutive month of negative growth.
* Despite a strong release slate featuring two new Pokémon games and a pair of high-profile first-person shooters, we believe growth is unlikely due to a difficult comp of +10%, the Nintendo 3DS’ late-March release date (March 27) and relatively modest marketing campaign, and an unfavorable comparison to the Easter calendar shift.
* We expect hardware sales of 410,000 Wii units (down 26% year-over-year), 480,000 Xbox 360 units (up 42% y-o-y), 380,000 PS3 units (up 21% y-o-y), and 500,000 3DS units in its debut month due to strong pre-orders.
* Despite the long-awaited introduction of the Nintendo 3DS, we believe the industry outlook remains unclear.
Electronic Arts was trading at $19.64, down $0.21, or 1.06 percent, as of 1:37 PM EDT. THQ was at $4.42, falling $0.12, or 2.64 percent. Activision was trading at $11.01, dropping $0.12, or 1.12 percent.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Electronic Arts (ERTS) (THQI) (ATVI) (NTDOY.PK) Expected to Lead March Game Sales
Labels:
Activision Blizzard,
Electronic Arts,
Nintendo,
THQI,
Xbox
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment