Analysts: Price Drop Should Push July PS3 Sales Above 360

Ahead of NPD's July U.S. sales results, expected this Thursday, Lazard's Colin Sebastian and fantasy video game prediction market simExchange have released their predictions, which, like Pachter's earlier prediction, calls for the PS3 to outsell the Xbox 360. Said Sebastian, who predicted the sales rise, "While July is still a seasonally slow period for video-game sales, we note there were several high profile new title releases during the month, including NCAA Football 08, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s, and Mario Strikers Charged." Sebastian says the PlayStation 3 price cut should give the console an expected bump, while negative press over the Xbox 360's hardware malfunctions should cause sales to lag, and both the Wii and DS figures should reflect ongoing strong demand, with the two platforms "likely to remain in short supply throughout much of the year." By publisher, Sebastian says Activision should see 200 percent growth in July on Guitar Hero Encore, Guitar Hero II and Transformers, Electronic Arts should see a 10 percent decline on a tough year-over-year comparison, and THQ down 30 percent with no significant releases during the month and modest numbers for Ratatouille. THQ's numbers, he adds, should "improve later this month and through the holiday selling season." Fantasy video game prediction market simExchange, which aggregates predictions from multiple users of its service, has similarly offered its hardware predictions at the following rates: Nintendo DS - 486K units Wii - 356K units PSP - 241K units PS3 - 164K units Xbox 360 - 137K units And, as with last month, the group has offered predictions for ten top selling software titles, with Guitar Hero Encore leading the pack: All Pro Football 2K8 (PS3) 31K copies All Pro Football 2K8 (Xbox 360) 92K copies Guitar Hero: Rock the 80s (PS2) 484K copies Mario Party 8 (Wii) 155K copies Mario Strikers Charged (Wii) 149K copies NCAA Football 08 (PS3) 111K copies NCAA Football 08 (Xbox 360) 474K copies Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3) 68K copies Pokémon Diamond/Pearl (DS) 395K copies Wii Play (Wii) 228K copies Gamasutra will update with NPD's figures this Thursday as they arrive.