Industry Sales Estimates Up for this Year
At least according to Michael Pachter, in this interview on Gamesindustry.biz. Pretty interesting if true - there was a lot of angst about this year being the trough of the console cycle, and to end the year +5-10% year-over-year (versus predictions of -6% or so) is pretty significant. To quote:
"In a nutshell, the publishers all based their forecasts on industry sales that would be flat to down 5 per cent this year," Pachter told GI.biz.
"We're at almost 6 per cent year-to-date growth, and all signs point to the next three months being up 8 to 10 per cent. That would cause the year to end up 8 per cent, and so most of the publishers were too conservative in their modelling.
"We've all been caught by surprise," he continued. "I think that the current generation consumer is not slowing purchases as drastically as most of us predicted, likely because he or she knows that they will not be getting a new console for Christmas."
Looks like the major game stocks have potential of doing well this holiday... but next holiday will be where the magic happens, and all hardware vendors are unconstrained in retail. Should be a fun time!