Wedbush Analysts Gloomy On November, 2005 Sales

According to the latest statement from the game industry financial analysts at Wedbush Morgan Securities, there's further concern, based on limited retail polling, that North American video game sales for the month of November may be significantly depressed. Earlier this week, Banc of America analyst Gary Cooper commented that overall revenue for November might decline 30% from 2004's figures, and singled out Activision's True Crime: New York City game and PlayStation Portable hardware sales as particular disappointments, alongside obvious shortages of Xbox 360 hardware. Wedbush Morgan suggests somewhat less dire, but still hardly pleasant figures for the month of November, estimating total sales of $715 million, 16% less than last year's sales for the month. The most recent NPD statistics, for October 2005, showed $365 million in total sales for the month, a figure that's down almost 25% on the previous year's figure. In addition, WMS revised its forecast of 6% growth for the entire North American game sales market in 2005 to a somewhat non-committal "flat to slightly positive" advisory, promising further information when official NPD results debut in the near future. WMS analyst Michael Pachter recently queried even that positive an outlook, suggesting in an earlier note: "Recent lower than expected reviews of key holiday releases, a supply shortage of Xbox 360 units, price cuts on several new games, the lack of a price cut on current generation hardware, and a weak consumer environment leaves us questioning whether sales will rebound sufficiently to drive growth for the full year."