Level Up's NPD August Roundtable (interesting parts are bolded)

[Sullla]

Nice article, thanks for posting it TheSource. I enjoy reading this every month, even if I don't always agree with the comments. (I don't understand the "so long" comments though - don't you guys ever read books?)

I can't help but feel that the industry analysts still don't "get it" when it comes to looking at the market. After a brief mention of the Wii (and some snippy comments about Metroid Prime 3's sales), the remaining 90% of the comments discuss the ins and outs of what's going on with the 360 and PS3. If you didn't have the numbers to look at, and just went with the discussion, you would never know that the Wii was nearly outselling the other two systems combined. (Zero mention of the DS or PSP either, despite their strong sales. Huh?) Most of the emails then revolve around discussing the performance of no fewer than *SEVEN* different upcoming shooters: Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 3, Haze, Half-Life Orange Box, Army of Two, Area 51. Don't get me wrong; I'm sure many of those games will be great. But their take on the market is very much that of the core gamer, so much that I feel as though they're missing the larger perspective of what's going on in terms of sales.

Some of Andy McNamara's comments seem misplaced, to say the least:

This data continues to support the theory that people are buying Wii's to play a small number of games (if they play more than Wii Sports at all), and that the bread and butter of the rest of the industry will still be found on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (notice EA's Boogie less than spectacular showing).

Conveniently ignoring the success of Wii third party games like Resident Evil 4, Rayman, and Red Steel, Andy points to Boogie as an indicator that only Nintendo games will sell on the system. The belief that "the bread and butter of the rest of the industry will still be found on the Xbox 360 and PS3" becomes more and more difficult to accept all the time. (Heck, the PS3 still has ZERO third-party million sellers. The Wii has two!) How much longer until these guys wake up and see what's really going on???

I just have the feeling that these analysts cannot understand why generic shooter #57 gets beaten in sales by a game like Mario Party. I think they need to spend a little less time around hardcore gamers.