Analysts: Xbox 360, Madden August NPD Winners

Game industry analysts have weighed in with sales forecasts for August 2010 ahead of the expected release of US market data from the NPD Group this Thursday.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter forecast software sales of $445 million, down six per cent compared to last August’s $471 million.

“We expect August software sales to be down again (the sixth month out of eight) due to a lighter release schedule and weak catalog sales momentum,” he said in a research note. “Despite sales growth of five per cent year-over-year for top release Madden NFL 10 (announced by EA), we think that last year’s Eidos’ Batman: Arkham Asylum ($38 million) and Nintendo’s Wii Sports Resort ($37 million) presents a difficult comparison. We expect music genre sales in August to be $8 million compared to $25 million last August, with the impact from declines lessening each month going forward.”