IndustryGamers

With Halloween in the rear-view mirror and Thanksgiving and Black Friday coming up, the holiday shopping season is definitely ramping up, especially with hot titles like Battlefield 3selling 5 million in one week. With Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land, among others, this may be the greatest lineup in this editor's memory, and it could coincide with an amazing hardware sales period, says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.

Microsoft may play a large role in driving the industry's holiday sales this year as it celebrates the anniversary of Kinect and looks to spark further adoption. Pachter thinks Microsoft's moves will draw attention from Sony and Nintendo, which should help boost sales overall.

"We see a console battle heating up this holiday, with Microsoft celebrating the anniversary of its Kinect launch with a media blitz. We think that Sony will respond in kind, and expect Nintendo to follow with advertising of its own. This holiday may be one of the most successful hardware sales periods ever (in terms of units) given appropriate pricing for the three consoles and recent discounting for the handhelds. We think that solid hardware sales will lead to sustainable software growth throughout 2012," Pachter commented.

Pachter told IndustryGamers that Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 combined to sell 9.4 million units in the U.S. during the October – December period last year, and he's anticipating that number to be larger this holiday.

And, if the holiday sales are as good as Pachter thinks they will be, he's also optimistic about the momentum being carried into 2012.

"We expect October sales to be up in the solid double-digits, and think that November and December sales will be up as well. Rolling into 2012, we think that games like Darkness II, Mass Effect 3, Max Payne 3 and Ghost Recon Future Soldier have the potential to drive solidly positive sales growth in the early part of the year. Once new hardware launches (the PS Vita in March and the Wii U later in 2012), we think that continuing declines on Nintendo platforms will be fully offset with software sales from the new platforms. Overall, we expect 8% software sales growth in 2012, which should allow for publisher multiples to expand," he said.

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/xbox-360-to-drive-one-of-the-most-successful-hardware-sales-periods-ever-this-holiday/

wow a thousand views but no comments whats going on? anyway this is achievable since PS3 is cheaper than last year as well as the Wii.

He never mentioned a price drop for the 360. I don't see this kinect anniversary thing being a big deal but 10 million for the hd twins in the US seems attainable.

Sigh.. Pachter's at it again.. Predicting things..

All three will sale about the same IMO. But, none will approach Wii or DS's sales from a couple years ago.

All in all this season will be less than those before it, but still good numbers for the HD twins as they haven't quite hit the downward slope yet.