Joystiq

The analysts have all come popping up from their respective holes following yesterday's NPD numbers to say a couple of words before going back in and waiting by their fax machines for the next month. The message conveyed? August's much better than expected sales were far from the norm. simExchange analyst Jesse Divnich said that slowdown is typically expected before a major release like Halo 3 -- and that totally didn't happen. It seems this holiday season could be "spectacular, spectacular" even if GTA IV decided to miss the holiday party.

As for the nitty gritty, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter was very happy with the Mirror's predictions and trusted it yet again to forecast that Halo 3 will sell three million units in less than two weeks. It also suggested that Xbox 360 sales in Sept. will be over 400k. The simExchange said that Xbox will outsell PS3 2-to-1 in September, adding that Sony's system needs to be more compelling to consumers (another price drop wouldn't hurt, apparently). That's where Pachter jumps in again with rumors of a 40GB PS3 at $399 and a $99 PS2 being announced at the Tokyo Games Show next week.

Other analysts chimed in too, err, chiming that the Wii third-party titles aren't selling well. Divnich said, "The market continues to imply that Wii consumers prefer Nintendo published titles for the Wii over third-party ports like Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, even if the ported version includes functions that take advantage of the Wii's control system." We're not too sure yet if given the choice, consumers would take an alternate control scheme over the instant gratification of a familiar (and prettier) product.