Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has predicted Sony’s PlayStation 3 console will outsell Microsoft’s beleaguered Xbox 360 in July.
While official figures are not yet available, Pachter anticipates the PlayStation 3 surging into second place ahead of the Xbox 360, while both continue to lag far behind Nintendo’s still-dominant Wii platform. “We estimate sell-through of 330,000 Wii, 115,000 Xbox 360 and 160,000 PS3 hardware systems,” he said. He also forecast a 12.5 percent increase in game sales, from $378 million to $425 million, based on “$295 million in sales contributions from new platforms (PS3, Wii, 360, PSP and DS) and current generation software sales of $130 million.”
According to Pachter, the rise in Sony’s fortunes can be attributed primarily to the recent PlayStation 3 price cuts. Microsoft, on the other hand, continues to suffer the effects of the “red ring of death” controversy that has plagued the system for months. “We forecast a month-over-month decline for Xbox 360 hardware sales, due to the warranty issue announced in early July,” he said, but also noted that the warranty extension to address the problem, as well as a recent price drop of its own, should allow sales to “rebound.”
Pachter’s predictions are preliminary; official numbers from NPD won’t be released until August 23.
Published: Aug 20, 2007 05:31 pm