Shock Horror! Pachter was wrong - Xbox 360 over PS3 in US

Mike Bantick
Friday, 12 September 2008 12:07

Your IT - Entertainment

Given the Xbox 360 price cuts have only just come onto the market, many analysts predicted that the August game console sales would see the Microsoft machine slip behind the Sony PlayStation 3 yet again.  But no!

Paid to analyse the US games market, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter  predicted a win in August for the PS3 over the Xbox 360. Oh!  With the Nintendo Wii still sweeping the field of console sales.

He predicted 550K of Wii sales, followed by a healthy 225K in PS3 and 200K in Xbox 360.  How did he do?  Here are the official NPD game console sales – including handheld devices (PSP and NDS) – for August.

1. Nintendo DS – 518,300
2. Nintendo Wii – 453,000
3. PlayStation Portable – 253,000
4. Xbox 360 – 195,200
5. PlayStation 3 – 185,400
6. PlayStation 2 – 144,100

So it looks like – overall, sales were down compared to the analyst predictions, especially in the PS3 and Wii realm which came in almost 20 percent below expectations.  The Xbox 360 however, was pretty much bang on the money with 195K units heading home in the US.

Much of the Xbox 360 sales could be due to the latest NFL release from EA.  Madden NFL 09 tops the software charts with smack on 1 million units shipped.

1. Madden NFL 09 (360) – 1M
2. Madden NFL 09 (PS3) - 643K
3. Madden NFL 09 (PS2) - 424.5K
4. Wii Fit (Wii) - 394.9K
5. Mario Kart (Wii) - 328.7K
6. Wii Play (Wii) - 200.2K
7. Soulcalibur IV (360) - 174K
8. Too Human (360) - 168.2K
9. Madden NFL 09 (Wii) - 115.8K
10. Guitar Hero On Tour (DS) - 111.2K