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."
