May 2007 Video Game Sales Preview: Expect Sales decrease of 5,5%
We expect May U.S. retail video game console hardware sales to be released after market close on Thursday, June 14th. We forecast total hardware sales of 1,475,000 units, up 52,1% compared to last years 970,000 units. The increase is largely due to the tripled sales of the Nintendo DS portable video game system and the introduction of the Nintendo Wii.
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Our forecast presumes sell through of 77,000 PS3, down from last months 82,000, a decrease of 6,1%. Even though Target is discontinuing the GBA portable video game system, and thus the PS3 finally catching a break, we expect that the effects of this won't be noticeable until next months NPD-figures (if at all noticeable). The Nintendo Wii had a sell through of 339,000 units, down 21,000 from last month, or 5,8%. The prediction for the Nintendo Wii is based on lower than usual sales in Japan, most probably due to the launch of Mario Strikers Charged in Europe. We expect more Nintendo Wii hardware systems allocated to the European market and less to the Japanese and North American markets. Although some would think otherwise.
Our overall estimates assume PS2 hardware sales of 185,000, a year-over-year decrease of 47,000, or 20,3%. Despite this fact we expect PS2 sales to continue to be strong this whole year, most probably outselling the PS3 if Sony (Sony Corp, NYSE: SNE: 54.70) doesn't drop that price like it's hot or until system selling games appear for it.