Piper Jaffray senior analyst Tony Gikas expects last month's software sales to be up 15 to 20 percent thanks to Madden, Fable, and Pokémon.
NPD sales figures for the month of September aren't likely to be released until Monday, October 18, but market research group Piper Jaffray released a report today that disclosed the company's predictions for the monthly charts, as well as revealed some telling sales advice for investors this holiday season.
In the report, senior research analyst Anthony "Tony" Gikas predicts that total software sales for the month of September will be up 15 to 20 percent year-over-year. The jump is largely attributed to top titles like Madden 2005, ESPN NFL 2K5, Fable, Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, and Star Wars: Battlefront, "to name a few."
And indeed, "the best is yet to come," read the report. "The holiday [lineup] looks like the strongest ever." But it apparently won't be a happy holiday season all around, because Piper Jaffray tells investors to brace for a "bumpy ride" this holiday season as enormous sales of titles like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3 will create an "unpredictable sales environment" for any company without a major title release.
Gikas' advice to investors, then? Put money into video game retailers, like EB Games and GameStop. They will benefit strongly from the holiday lineup, price cuts, new hardware launches, and, of course, the ever-increasing slice of the pie that's taken up by preowned software (from which game publishers do not benefit).
By Chris Kohler -- GameSpot
POSTED: 10/14/04 02:32 PM PST
