September is a key month for Electronic Arts, says Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, who predicts the highly-anticipated
Spore could sell about 2 million units in that month alone.
Sebastian also pegs
Warhammer Online as a successful release, predicting 650,000 units sold in September. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter also expects
Spore to win September, along with high sales of LucasArts'
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
Despite some challenges for
"spotty" hardware sales in August, analysts generally expect upcoming NPD results for the current month to continue showing strong software sales, thanks in part to increased retail traffic over the back-to-school shopping season.
Pachter and Sebastian agree that August NPD results should show dominance by EA's
Madden NFL 09 and
Mercenaries 2; Pachter adds likely positive results for
Too Human and
Mario Super Sluggers, while Sebastian adds in
Soul Calibur IV and catalog sales of
Mario Kart Wii and
Wii Fit.
Says Sebastian, "Looking ahead, we expect generally positive industry sales trends, despite more difficult year-over-year growth comparisons with the launch of
Halo 3 in September last year followed by a strong Holiday season."
