However, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter wants to warn people that this is all probably an overreaction. Pachter believes that no publisher- Sony included- is “foolhardy enough to take such a risk”, and that the patent doesn’t even mention if Sony will necessarily use the technology. The patent would only give publishers the option to do so if they wanted to.

“This patent reminds me of SOPA,” Pachter said in a note, “and if Sony puts the technology into the next PlayStation and any publishers attempt to limit the playing of used games, I expect the consumer backlash to be similar.”

Pachter also said that PlayStation US boss Jack Tretton told him earlier in 2012 that he is against blocking used games. “For the record, I’m totally opposed to blocking used games,” is what Tretton said, according to Pachter. “I think it is great for the consumer that they can buy those. We have a customer that buys our console late in the cycle, pays less and is looking for value-priced games. I think it would be anti-consumer for us to do that.”

He did add this, though: “I don’t know, maybe Japan will think something different but that’s my view.”

“Sony benefits little from a unilateral decision to block games,” Pachter said, talking about whether or not Sony will actually ever implement this technology that has created a shitstorm in the industry. “The company’s first party software sales represent less than 10 per cent of overall sales on its consoles, and it is unlikely that blocking used games would result in a lift of more than 10 per cent in new game sales. That means that Sony’s sales would rise only marginally if the PS4 blocked used games.”

“Sony would be materially hurt if its console blocked used games and competitor consoles from Microsoft and Nintendo did not,” he continued. “The Wii U is already on the market with no used game prohibition, and we believe that Microsoft would take advantage of Sony’s prospective decision to block used games by marketing that its own next generation did not block used games.

“If we are right, consumers would favour the console that provided more choice, leading to loss of market share for Sony’s console and a benefit to Microsoft’s.”

Well, online passes discourage the sale of used games as it is, but it seems highly unlikely, as Pachter said, that any publisher would take a risk such as this. The used games industry is a major pillar that supports the revenues of all publishers and retailers, and no publisher, especially one as important or as big as Sony, would risk such a move.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

[Eurogamer]

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says that Nintendo’s holiday season went worse than expected because of the fact that the Wii U’s hardware sales at GameStop are low, and that the system’s availability across all GameStop stores is “abundant.”

He also said that the Wii U has a low attach rate at GameStop stores, though he did not provide any specific figures.

“Our conclusion is the Nintendo Wii U launch has been slightly disappointing,” Bhatia said.

The $350 Wii U Deluxe model is selling better than the $300 basic version at GameStop, according to Bhatia’s investor note. This is probably due to the higher value for money in the costlier model, since it has 32GB storage space and a bundled copy of Nintendo Land. The basic version has only 8GB worth of storage space.

The Wii U managed to sell 400,000 units during its first week, and its overall sales were going strong as per the last report, so this comes as a bit of a shock.

Stay tuned for more updates.

[GameSpot]

Oh Michael Pachter. I see you are at it again, trolling everyone with your inane predictions, aren’t you?

Anyway, Michael Pachter, coming off a string of gloriously inaccurate predictions regarding E3, has decided to add one more potentially failed prediction to his repertoire.

Speaking about further possible PS3 and Xbox 360 price cuts in 2012, Pachter said, “I think both Microsoft and Sony are waiting to see Wii U pricing. If it is over $300, they don’t need to cut. When Nintendo makes a move, they will respond accordingly.”

This part sounds sensible enough, considering Microsoft is trying to sell a contract subsidized Xbox 360 for $99 as the low budget alternative. The PS3 might have a price cut soon on the other hand, potentially a $50 cut to push it under the lucrative $200 mark.

However, when he started talking about the Vita, things became wonky: “I don’t expect a Vita cut till November at the earliest,” he said, “and probably not until February.” Keep in mind that this is the man who believes that the 3DS has failed.

So… if the PS Vita doesn’t get its price cut, how does Sony plan on selling 10 million of them this year? I don’t think Sony really knows what it’s doing, especially considering how ‘comfortable and relaxed’ it is about the PS Vita’s prospects.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter believes the Xbox 360 will remain ahead of the PS3 for the foreseeable future, but that Microsoft’s home console will be getting a price cut soon, probably before E3 this year.

“We expect hardware sales to rebound once price cuts are implemented, but expect a recurrence of the dip next holiday, partially buffered by some modest contribution from the introduction of the PS Vita in February and the Wii U later this year,” he said. “Recent slowing of Xbox 360 hardware sales could cause Microsoft to consider a price cut by E3.”

“We do not expect an announcement of a next- generation console from Microsoft until the Xbox 360 core model is priced below $200, likely around this time next year.

“PS3 hardware sales should continue to lag those of the Xbox 360, and we expect sales to trend downward by 10 – 20% monthly, until Sony cuts prices once again, likely at E3.”

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey says Irrational Games’ upcoming first person shooter, BioShock: Infinite has the potential to move a lot of copies, and that it certainly can and should sell around 5 million units, amassing 2K games a $221 million in sales.

He reckons the game will outsell BioShock 2, the 3 million seller of last year.

We certainly think the game does seem to have the potential to sell that much, if not more. Here’s 10 reasons why we think you should get excited about it.

[Gamespot]

Nikko Securities analyst, Kazaharu Miura of SMBC Nikko Securities has said that, Sony will take a 5000 yen loss on every Playstation Vita sold. Which equates to about $65, and will fall to about $30 in FY 2013. He also expects the system to sell 8.5 million units of hardware and 28 million units of software.

While for 2012 he expects Sony to ship 2.5 million Vita’s and sell 7 million units of software. The NA and EU release date is not confirmed yet, but the portable will launch first in Japan this year and has been delayed to 2012 for the other markets.

Source

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Cowen, who earlier predicted that BioWare’s upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic will sell 1.5 million in its first year, now says it will sell twice that amount, 3 million units, in the same period of time.

He says the upcoming MMO will do as well, if not better, as Blizzard’s StarCraft 2 or World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

“Since Star Wars became available for pre-orders three weeks ago, it has tracked very strongly on the Amazon.com top-selling video games list,” he said in a research note.

“We believe it is trending as well or better than two of the top-selling PC titles last year, Blizzard’s Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, both of which went on to sell over 4MM units.”

He expressed his “increasing confidence in the company’s Star Wars MMO… We believe ERTS shares have at least 25% upside relative to the market over the next 12 months.”

Stay tuned for more info.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter and fellow analyst firm EEDAR believe the Xbox 360 will be the top selling piece of gaming hardware in the US for the month of July, just as it has been for the past six months.

They believe the PS3 will be the only console which sees a rise in sales, and according to their predictions, the 3DS will be the third lowest selling gaming system, behind PSP and PS2 respectively.

Wedbush / EEDAR July sales estimates (change year-on-year):
360 – 350,000 (-21%) / 401,000 (-10%)
DS – 315,000 (-21%) / 310,000 (-22%)
Wii – 230,000 (-9%) / 225,000 (-11%)
PS3 – 220,000 (+3%) / 229,000 (+7%)
3DS – 110,000 (n/a) / 100,000 (n/a)
PSP – 90,000 (+7%) / 80,000 (-5%)
PS2 – 10,000 (-59%) / n/a
Total – 1,325,000 (-7%) / 1,345,000 (-5%)

Pachter believes L.A. Noire, inFamous 2, Ocarina of Time 3D and NCAA Football 12 will lead software charts.

[CVG]

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz says Battlefield 3’s pre-orders match those of Call of Duty: Black Ops’ last year- the game broke a shitload of records, and went on to sell over 20 million units, so I suppose EA would be pretty happy right now.

Figures “”indicate that pre-orders are roughly comparable to those of Call of Duty: Black Ops last year, which has gone on to sell over 20 million units,” says the analyst.

As I said, Ea would be pretty happy, since Black Ops went on to sell like hot cakes.

Janco Partners’ Mike Hickey believes that Take Two will ship the next GTA game in its 2012 financial year, which is April 2012-March 2013.

The title, whatever it’s going to be called should sell around 16 million copies and earn about $750 million, according to him.

The next in the series is rumoured to be taking place in Hollywood.

Hickey also told that Bioshock Infinite should release around the same timeframe which Gamespot seems to have confirmed aswell. The title should sell around 4 million units, he believes.

Hickey also thinks that Take Two’s financial prospects are bright for 2011, with L.A Noire and Max Payne 3 slated for that period. The two games will be accopanied by Duke Nukem: Forever.

GTA IV which released in 2008 has sold 15 million units in its lifetime.