Pachter: April's low game sales 'baffling'
The April NPD sales figures for the US were bad. How bad? Let's try: The April NPD figures were as if millions of analysts "cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced" bad. Speaking with IndustryGamers, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says his group found the results "baffling." He notes that sales were the lowest since May of 2007, "when this generation was barely underway," and it was the weakest April since 2005. Pachter also stated, "The sequential decline of 54% is the greatest in the 11 years that we have been tracking monthly data (except for December-January declines), dwarfing the previous record of 42% set in March-April 2002."
At a loss to explain exactly why April 2010 was so bad, Pachter feels it was just a "fluke." He explained, "We do not believe that core gamers suddenly shifted allegiance to Facebook or iPhone games in April, nor do we believe that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 online play increased dramatically during April."
With May's lineup including several major titles across multiple consoles, the analyst feels the month could show "dramatic growth." If not, well, let's just hope for the best right now. Flukes happen.
