Analysts predict hardware, software drops in February NPD

If anything, the 360 may take the lead due to the general scarcity of the PS3 and the Wii.

People buy less stuff when the economy is bad! I am so shocked! Once again, brilliant "predictions" Pachter.

Can't really think of any big games from Feb, apart from Heavy Rain and Bioshock 2. And neither of them is going to pack the same kind of punch as a Modern Warfare or Mario release.

There's definitely some decent stuff from Feb, but no big hitters... Granted, I have no recollection whatsoever about what came out last Feb...maybe it was equally dull.

I wish many successes upon Heavy Rain though. It was very entertaining!

While I'm sure Mass Effect 2 will outsell everything else, I hope Heavy Rain has a good showing in February. Hopefully MAG shows up as well, with an entire month to post.

Nothing that a wet t-shirt can't fix! Isn't that really the reason they used that cover for Heavy Rain? They must have anticipated this.

The power to predict the past is a dark and mysterious one.

Not even JAAAAAAASOOOOOON can save the sales figures?

JAAAAAASOOOON!!!???

JASON!

JASOOOOOON!!??!!??!?

I think they are predicting this more off of the drop we usually see when no games come out this time of year. Expecting the same thing to happen this year seems unlikely given that there are now actual good games in the usually dry period.

Doesn't help that winter screwed over most of the country. Here in Philly we got 45 inches, and that was the month of Feb alone. How are you supposed to go out?

If anything the big problem with this feb/march run is the line up. There are too many games to play coming out within a week of eachother.

Battlefield wasn't helped by a bad demo. While preorders might have been strong, no one talks about the cancellations due to the demo either. I'm sure quite a few people played that demo and said, "I'll stick with Modern Warfare 2."

Let's not forget Dragon Age Awakening will boost PC and 360 software sales. Sure it won't do God of War numbers, but not all PC/360 owners have a PS3.

Heavy Rain and God of War are one trick ponys (like Awakening) with a limited window of time for replayability. People might look at Heavy Rain and say it's too weird or see the slow beginning and say "I'll wait for God of War." Others might not even give Final fantasy 13 a try, because they're not into Final fantasy and just wait for God of War. Sure Heavy Rain has 20+ endings, but only hard core Heavy Rain fans will see more then 2 endings, most will or have moved on to Final Fantasy. Why are people on the fence going to get it when their friends have already moved onto other games.

There's a decline in Februrary hardware and software sales after the November-December-January holiday selling season? Wow. Even though that's happened over the last 30+ years, I was hopeful that this Februrary would be different.

Analyst predict's Michael Pachter will have an increase in FAIL'd predictions this year

PS3 will be down because they didn't ship much out. Its CONSTANTLY Sold out everywhere...I started looking for one every day at the beginning of February.....took til middle of the month to find one...

Hardware shortages definitely are going to hurt, Nintendo most, and Sony slightly. Some solid software, of course, but none of it is really hardware-pushing.

Heavy Rain was pretty "meh." Bad voice-acting, story was filled with holes, and there was some pretty crappy controls. I liked the concept, but it wasn't executed all that well.

I root for Heavy Rain. The game has its problems, no doubt about it, but it is mostly an exceptional piece of entertainment that brings movies and games closer together. And I don't mean that as an insult, but a good thing.

I found that I cared more about what I was doing in Heavy Rain since they took the time to build Ethan and his family as its own cohesive character. While the overall script and dialogue delivery may stumble here and there, I still believe it was generally up to the task (plotholes and such aside).

I'd love to see Quantic Dream continue to take this concept forward and better refine their craft in new games like this. I don't mean a sequel, as I feel there's pretty much no need for one (thank god they didn't pull some crap cliffhanger and gave us the full story!), but brand new IP's with the same overall storytelling and gameplay cohesion of Heavy Rain.

And screw the few people who found the character building moments, like the beginning section, to be boring. That beginning section made me feel for the family when crap went sour. I won't spoil any plot here, but I'll just say that the beginning is key to making you feel for the main character of this well made piece of entertainment.

I think this is strategic shortage for Sony. It's better to ship consoles for demand than to over ship and saturate the market. It also creates an artifical demand increase, because people will notice they can't find any and this may make some people curious about the PS3. They may ask themselves "why is it selling out?", "Is it that good?" and that leads to "I have to get one".