Analysts believe that Black Ops 2 won’t break the sales record like the other CoD games did, but will sell exceedingly well.

Michael Patcher who works at Wedbush Morgan commented:

“I don’t think Modern Warfare 3 is going to sell more than the last Black Ops, so I doubt that this one will break a record,” he said to GamesIndustry.

“I think that Call of Duty is a phenomenon, selling way more than 20 million units annually, and it’s unrealistic to think that number can grow meaningfully with each annual release.”

Personally for me, I believe it will break the records considering how Amazon have already mentioned that it’s tracking higher than Black Ops in pre-orders.

Jesse Divinch from EEDAR shared his opinion as well. He believes most analysts and other cogs in the production – marketing process will be conservative over Black Ops 2’s fortunes.

“The entire HD market is very soft at the moment, and it is understandable that retailers, publishers, and analysts are likely to be conservative on any Black Ops II forecast,” he said.

“Every year we question whether the Call of Duty franchises can set new records, and for the last four years they have proven us wrong. Personally, I wouldn’t under-estimate Activision, even against the odds of a more torpid HD market this holiday season.”

Do you think Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will overtake the other CoD games in sales and set a new record? Tell us in the comments section below.

Michael Patcher, the awesome analyst, that we all love and respect had some wise words to say regarding Nintendo and Sony, and how they approach certain… things.

Speaking to IndustryGamers at CES this year, he mentioned that, Nintendo does not know that an Internet exists.

“Nintendo doesn’t even know there’s an Internet yet so trust me, they’re going to be making consoles until someone explains it to them.”

This is a pretty dumb thing to say, as I’m pretty sure plenty of people are enjoying playing Mario Kart online. Maybe he is talking about providing evolved services like PSN and XBL? Who knows. But I’m sure things will change with the Wii U.

But there is more. Patcher said a few more things about Sony as well.

“Sony is a content provider in film and music and games; I think they’re ahead of the curve. Microsoft… They’re right back on track. These guys want to be an entertainment hub. So you’re going to get a box out of Microsoft that’s going to turn your washer and dryer on, and they’re going to give you the multi-purpose console of all time,” he said.

You can read the entire thing here.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Take-Two recently delayed Max Payne 3 to a May 2012 release, and that makes their release schedule all the more dense and crowded, with the likes of Borderlands 2, BioShock: Infinite, The Darkness II, Spec Ops: The Line, XCOM and XCOM: Enemy Unknown also releasing this year. Considering this, fans have been skeptical of a 2012 release for GTA 5, much less a May release. However, analysts believe the game will still release in fiscal year 2012, that is before April 2013.

“It seems unlikely that Rockstar Games would launch both Max Payne 3 and GTA 5 in the month on May,” National Alliance Capital Markets analyst Mike Hickey said while speaking with Game Informer. “Therefore, we have shifted our original expectation for GTA V to launch in May 2012, into the Company’s 2013 fiscal second-half operating period.

“We remain confident GTA V will ship in calendar year ’12, based on an assumption that Rockstar is using a sub 12 month marketing window for GTA V and the company’s fiscal 2013 performance guidance, which would suggest the game’s release.”

“[Take-Two] are still saying they will achieve $2.00 earnings per share in fiscal 2013,” said EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich, “so Grand Theft Auto V has to come out by March 2013.”

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said, “

“Although GTA V may still launch in FY:13, predicting the actual release date is difficult due to a crowded pipeline.

“I don’t know if [Max Payne’s delay] means a full year gap, but very likely six months. Too bad, as I think Grand Theft Auto V would benefit from giving Call of Duty some breathing room.”

Well, the analysts pretty much nailed it (that’s why they’re analysts, after all). It seems unlikely that GTA 5 will be released a few months after Mac Payne 3, but a Holiday 2012 release doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

Tell us what you think in your comments below.

It looks like Nintendo managed to turn the 3DS’ fortunes around, and the analysts who were skeptical of the system’s future are now predicting that, it may be a successful product after all. Who would have thought, eh?

Michael Patcher (needs no introduction) revealed to Eurogamer that he was a bit surprised about 3DS’ sales.

“It’s very successful, but ran into a headwind given its relatively high price – which I incorrectly thought was the right price – and lack of third party software support,” he said.

“Now that we are seeing more first party titles at a lower price point, sales have increased. It’s definitely turned the corner.

“I was surprised that it sold so few at the $249 price point, and its sales to date are exactly what I originally forecasted at that price.”

Of course, they said a lot more things, but yeah the bottomline is, the Nintendo 3DS is here to stay.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Rockstar announced earlier today that Max Payne 3 will be released in March 2012 for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. And its development is reportedly costing Rockstar a hefty $105 million. That’s… huge.

Sterne Agee’s Arvind Bhatia generated a table (pictured below) that calculates the expenditure of Max Payne 3’s development, and ultimately adds up to $105 million.

“Life-to-date, the Max Payne franchise has sold through 7M units between the two prior versions — Max Payne and Max Payne 2. We think the latest iteration, Max Payne 3, has greater potential for success than either of the two prior versions,” he said.

However, he also noted that Max Payne 3 will have to sell 4 million units to break even with its production cost.  “Although the break-even unit level for Max Payne 3 is likely high — probably in the 4M units range — due to its long development time, we think the title is highly anticipated and has potential for upside surprise.”

Have a look at the table below.

Clicki the image to view in full screen

Stay tuned, we’ll keep you updated.

Thanks, Industrygamers.

Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz believes Rockstar and Take-Two won’t probably release Grand Theft Auto V before late next year, because they wouldn’t want to cannibalize the sales and success of Max Payne 3, which they announced earlier today would be released in March next year.

“With the announcement, we are increasingly convinced that we will not see the next Grand Theft Auto title until (at least) holiday 2012,” Creutz said in an investor note.

“We doubt that Rockstar would launch two of its titles in close proximity to each other given the studio’s elaborate marketing campaigns and the likelihood that GTA could cannibalize sales from MP3 if launched in late spring.”

Last month, Pachter said he believes GTA V can sell as much as 18-24 million.

Stay tuned for more updates.

DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole believes the console market has hit its peak, and ever though he believes the next generation home consoles will sell well, he doesn’t believe they will cross, say, Wii’s sales.

“We feel the consoles have hit their peak,” Cole said while talking to VentureBeat.

He says while the Wii U will sell well, it will never cross the Wii’s sales. Microsoft and Sony, he believes, are enjoying Xbox 360’s and PS3’s success right now. And the more the console manufacturers wait to bring out the next generation, the more mobiles and tablets will be able to close the gap between the two markets.

“Systems like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are having their best sales ever five or six years into their lifecycle,” he said. “Unfortunately this means Microsoft and Sony are in no hurry to launch new systems that would generate substantial consumer excitement and spending.

“Games on Facebook and products like the iPad help expand the audience and the way products are delivered. The console business is firmly established and suffers mainly from the reluctance of hardware manufacturers to commit to expensive new products.

“The dedicated console business is still the major driver of industry growth, but we feel overall it has peaked with the current console systems.”

What do you think? Does the market have more potential for expansion? Or is it as Cole says? Let us know in your comments.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter and analyst firm EEDAR have released their predicted hardware sales figures for the month of August in US, and they have placed the Xbox 360 at the top, despite the fact that the PS3 recently received a price cut in the region.

In terms of software, Pachter believes Deus Ex: Human Revolution will lead the charts, with NCAA Football 12 coming in next.

Here are the predicted hardware sales:

Wedbush / EEDAR August sales estimates (change year-on-year):
360 – 275,000 (-23%) / 250,000 (-30%)
PS3 – 240,000 (+6%) / 245,000 (+8%)
DS – 235,000 (-31%) / 210,000 (-39%)
Wii – 175,000 (-28%) / 150,000 (-39%)
3DS – 135,000 (n/a) / 175,000 (n/a)
PSP – 60,000 (-24%) / 60,000 (-24%)
PS2 – 10,000 (-87%) / n/a
Total – 1,130,000 (-15%) / 1,090,000 (-18%)

[CVG]

Yes and if they have their way, you may see Mario on your iPhone. After the bad performance of the 3DS, many analysts have been advising Nintendo to make games for the smartphones.

“Smartphones are the new battlefield for the gaming industry,” said Stats Investment Management’s Masamitsu Ohki . “Nintendo should try to either buy its way into this platform or develop something totally new.”

Nintendo has close to $14 billion in cash and it is expected that they will do some acquisitions to improve their performance in the long run. Earlier, Satoru Iwata said that, till he is in charge of Nintendo, they will never make games for non-Nintendo products.

What do you think about this? Please tell us in the comments section below.

Source