Analyst: September U.S. Retail Sales May See Rare Increase

A new report from Wedbush Securities has forecast that U.S. retail video game software sales may see a rare increase in September 2011. Ahead of official numbers to debut later this week, the company's Michael Pachter estimates that a barrage of strong releases, plus a late August release for Madden NFL 12, has seen overall September sales of $635 million, up 4 percent compared to last September's $612 million. It named the likes of FIFA Soccer 12, Gears of Wars 3 and Resistance 3 as titles that helped push sales through in September. The company noted that retail sales have seen a decline in every month this year apart from April, and now September. Wedbush said that October should also see gains compared to last year, thanks to such releases as Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City. In terms of hardware sales, Wedbush Securities expects 190,000 Wii units were sold, down 25 percent year-over-year, while 360,000 Xbox 360 units were sold (down 26 percent) and 260,000 PlayStation 3 units (down 17 percent). The company noted that this last decrease was despite the PS3 price cut earlier this year. The firm also believes that Nintendo DS sold through 185,000 units (down 54 percent year-on-year), and the Nintendo 3DS managed around 225,000 units, and improvement thanks to the recent mid-August price drop. NPD is expected to publish its official report on new U.S. retail sales of games, hardware and accessories after the market closes Thursday.