Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Electronic Arts (ERTS) (THQI) (ATVI) (NTDOY.PK) Expected to Lead March Game Sales

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.

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