Industry analyst predicts 20% sales growth for September

by Blake Snow { Oct 10th 2006 at 3:25PM }

In its regular NPD sales preview, Wedbush Morgan Securities forecasts a 20% sales increase in gaming over last year for the month of September. This is particularly interesting because most gamers traditionally curb spending in anticipation of next-generation offerings such as Sony's PS3 and Nintendo's Wii out next month. The investment bank predicts no signs of slowing citing strong sales of THQ's Saint's Row (360), LucasArts' Lego Star Wars II (PS2, Xbox, PSP, DS, GBA, GC, 360, PC), Nintendo's Pokemon Mystery Dungeon (DS, GBA) and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 (DS), and Electronic Arts' NBA Live 07 (PS2, Xbox, PC, PSP, 360) and continued Madden NFL 07 sales.

GameDaily reports: "Current generation software sales are expected to be about $247 million, representing a 20 percent decline, while newer platforms (Xbox 360, PSP, DS) are predicted to generate sales of $168 million, which would reflect a healthy increase of $130 million ... WMS expects that 10 games sold over 100,000 units during the month, compared to 7 games that did so one year ago at this time."

Cue industry high-five, fist style as pictured.

[Quick update: fixed "cue" typo]