Analyst: PS3 continues to set records, Wii and software sales down

by Mike Schramm on Feb 2nd 2010 8:45PM

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says that Sony is in for a good 2010 -- he expects the PlayStation 3 to experience its largest year-over-year growth from last month's sales among all consoles, and for Sony to beat its own record from the month before for the console's best sales ever. The PS3 appears to be on a roll, and January sales are expected to continue the trend.

Bhatia also says that the Wii's sales are being hurt by "meaningful shortages," and points out that just 28% of the stores NPD checked in January had Nintendo's console in stock. Bhatia also suggests that Xbox 360 sales would be up slightly, due to a big GameStop promotion, and that software sales would be down in general. Not unexpected, given that January almost never matches up to the frenzy of the holiday season, but 2010 has already started off with a bang in terms of quality releases. NPD's official info, released soon, will let us know if there were sales to match.

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Tags: analyst, arvind-bhatia, gamestop, january-2010, Microsoft, Nintendo, npd, predictions, promotion, reports, sales, software, sony, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (109)

"Sterne Agee"

Who is this?... WHO IS THIS?

WHERE'S MY PACH ATTACK, BABIES???

Even worse! Arvind Bhatia's place of employment sounds like a real person's name! What kind of place does he work for???

Seriously, Wedbush-Morgan FTW.

PachMan died because he predicted his death yesterday.

The Pach$Attack will f*ck your sh*t up!

Good for Sony--great, even!

Now, back to Mass Effect 2.

this is interesting and all, but you sir are no Pachter

No one cared about the PS3. It's her younger, slimmer sister that everyone seems to want now.

Smack that ass!

I liked the Phat unit...

And so Bradwart's secret came out.

Hey, she ain't that big. You seen a Sega CD32X unit?

My phat ps3 just has more to love ...

(ps2 backwards compatible)

I love my slim. It's about as big as.... ok, I'm not doing this. Size doesn't matt- WTF! Too many sexual inuendios.

In your endo.

PS3 is definitely an awesome console now. It pretty much has all the best games and exclusives except Mass Effect 2, that certainly woulda been nice. But oh well MA2 runs on pretty much any PC made in the last 4 years just fine anyway. The 120gig Slim for $300 really is a great deal for everything thats included.

i like to hit it from the back......wards compatibility

Why are there Wii shortages? You'd think Nintendo would have been able to restock by now.

Also, Sony's sales will be helped by their major franchises finally hitting this year. GoW III, GT5, and FFXIII alone should move a lot of consoles.

Even Mass Effect 2 won't keep tmac from leaving a comment about this...

Small nitpick, but when did everyone convince themselves that god of war was a huge seller and even a system seller? The 2 ps2 games have combined for about 5.8 million units, which isn't very much for a "system seller".

Just something that irks me a little, as I don't know when people decided it was this massive selling franchise all of a sudden.

Franchises usually gain strength as they get older. Halo, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, I'm not saying GoW will move millions of consoles, but it will move some.

"Franchises usually gain strength as they get older."

God of War 2 sold almost a million less than 1 :P

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/index.php?name=god+of+war

I know I know, vgchartz lolz. But someone give a better (any?) source and I'll gladly roll with it.

That is interesting, but that did come out when everyone was switching over to the seventh-generation consoles, plus Sony was dealing with record backlash.

Don't misunderstand, I love me some god of war. It would actually be my most wanted game this year if ME2 didn't come out, I'm just trying to debunk this myth that everyone seems to think is true. The franchise as a whole has never been a HUGE financial hit like the ones we're used to seeing, like Halo, Cod, Assassin's Creed, and Mario.

Well, Nintendo had scaled back due to their declining sales over 2009, but NSMBWii has brought the "fad" back again, so now Nintendo's stuck with the other problem, but it's the better problem to have...

Neither is good to have. You want inventory to move, but not to be out.

They're not really "shortages". They are just really clever attempts at creating the perception of high-demand, which makes the gullible want a Wii even more!

Sure, judging by history you might say it's not a system seller. But, new IPs are never system sellers and GOW 2 came out at the end of the PS2s lifespan when everyone already had a PS2 and were gearing up for next gen systems. I think its safe to say that God of War 3 is going to outsell the previous two games combined and will more than likely lead to an increase in PS3's sold in the month it releases. My point is there are mitigating circumstances around the previous two franchises that aren't applicable in the thirds release.

There sure are a lot of excuses and predictions based on 0 evidence or history going around here.

I agree with Tmac. I think the majority of the people that will buy GOW III already own a PS3. Same goes for Heavy Rain and The Last Guardian. I think GT5 will move a lot of systems (mainly in the UK), and FF XIII as well.

I know people who already bought a PS3 just for FF XIII, it broke their heart when I showed them it was on a 360 too.

Just for the record here, Johnny says god of war 3 will easily outsell both god of wars combined.

That means he thinks it will do a minimum of 6 million, which is what...2-3 times more than any other first party sony title so far.

I'm not saying it'll do that in it's first month. But, lifetime sales, I think it'll outsell the other two combined. You can write it down if you want because I believe it to be true.

GoW III is going to force me to buy a PS3, so there's one 'system seller' confirmed. :)

Hey, I already said if you go by history then there isn't any reason to think it'll be a system seller. I also think there are mitigating circumstances as to why I feel that way. I admit its not based on past performance but more so on future projection.

If the whole game is like the demo (but improved a bit, as it was an old build) and the short gameplay of the fighting on the Titan video then it will pretty much lock up PS3 goty and runner up for overall goty.

Still, it didn't sell bad. I admit I could be totally wrong but I think God of War 3 is going to create an increase in PS3s sold (to what degree I have no idea) and I don't think you can get an average of 93 without having a lot of 100's. I think it'll certainly be in the mid 90's and who knows maybe higher. We'll have to wait and see. Maybe it'll beat out Uncharted 2 as the highest aggregate PS3 exclusive (96).

Well, when I ask most gamers what game they are looking forward to, most of them say God of War 3. Then that is quickly followed by "I wish I had a PS3 though..."

So yeah, while maybe not a system seller, it's just one more big reason to get one.

I haven't seen a shortage of Wiis in a year. They're everywhere. I don't what what the hell this analyst is talking about.

@Tmac
where is this "fighting on the Titan video"? I thought only screenshots were released. I've been dying to see this sequence in motion.

Sure! Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Other M... Oh... no...

PS3 is going to explode on March 16! God of War 3 baby!!!!

No it isn't. Not because of GoW, at least. Isn't March when FFXIII comes out? Yeah, that.

They're talking about sales though, and 2 of those games will not sell well at all.

Hard to say on The Last Guardian. There's a lot of love for SotC and Ico.

Heavy Rain will be a long term hit.

I can't believe you're not mentioning GT5, which will basically be the PS3's Halo.

Wonder if the predictions will change now that gt5 has been delayed for a possible fall release?

No, because it's year-wide growth. GT5 will dominate the charts no matter when it's released.

The software will move, but at this stage, it will unlikely drive hardware significantly. The load has been mostly shot on Uncharted 2 and MGS4. I don't see that many individuals:

a. Buying a PS3 just for GT5.

b. Not interested in both GT5 and the aforementioned titles.

Since the PS3 library has gained some real meat, growth will likely be on auto-pilot at this point forward. There shouldn't be too many more major spikes in the two major markets, EU and US, outside the normal holiday crush. Those two markets don't behave line Japan, where it's common for a gamer to buy the console for each release because he sold it onto the used market after finishing the last major release.

You'll see a hardware spike for Gran Turismo 5 & God of War 3 in my opinion. It may not be 1 million more units than the previous month but sales will increase from the previous year and month in my opinion.

Thats not really what he's saying though. His opinion is no one exclusive is going to cause a massive spike in sales. Thats different than saying exclusives don't matter. In fact, he's saying the back catalogue of exclusives will have more of an effect than any one game. So, he really isn't saying what you think he's saying.

Well, the initial point was that you said you got flamed for saying the same thing when that really wasn't the case. Who will be second or third place is really a sperate issue entirely.

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Analyst: PS3 continues to set records, Wii and software sales down

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