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EEDAR: Big Three Under Added E3 Pressure
Speaking on the recently released April NPD data, Jesse Divnich – Vice President of Analyst Services for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) – had several interesting observations to share.
Despite the trending downturn in sales, Divnich sees an opportunity for the industry to reinvigorate numbers this holiday season – specifically thanks to innovative technology just over the horizon. Divnich believes that launch of the PlayStation Move, Microsoft’s Natal, a resurgence of 3D gaming, and Nintendo’s 3DS could give consumers another reason to drop their hard-earned cash at retail. An adverse effect to this, however, is added pressure to make a huge impact at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo.
“This does put an extraordinary amount of pressure at this year’s E3 event to demonstrate that these new technologies can rekindle excitement among mainstream and core consumers,” weighed in Divnich. “If these technologies fail to generate the excitement and anticipation needed for medium term sales performance improvements this may accelerate the completion of this current hardware cycle.”
A strong software lineup may help alleviate some of the pressure. Divnich notes that May 2010 is slated to be an impressive month in terms of sales – upwards of a 20% increase from this time last year. He notes that the gain has to do with a weak May 2009 performance, in addition to a particularly strong lineup in May 2010 – Mario Galaxy 2, Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, UFC 2010, Blur, ModNation Racers, and Split Second all hitting retail this month.
As for the remainder of the year, Divnich expects for positive and negative fluctuations throughout the coming months, but notes that overall software sales should be comparable with 2009 when all is said and done.
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