Pachter: Meaningful price cut needed for continued DS success
Is the DS platform reaching critical mass in the market place?
Famed industry analyst Michael Pachter - who has become something of a celebrity in video gaming circles - has once again opened his mouth and allowed all kinds of predictive vomit to spew forth.
This time he’s passing judgement on the recent NPD February sales data. After chanting a few spells and burning some incense he’s succeeded in cooking up his latest selection of prophecies.
While he focuses mainly on the continuing battle between the Wii, PS3, and 360, he does take time to mention the plight of the plucky little Nintendo DS.
Pachter believes that the astonishing success of the format is likely to be its own undoing this year - at least when it comes to hardware sales.
“Nintendo’s DS biggest sales challenge will be its own high installed base,” he says. “Without a meaningful price cut, we expect a 25 per cent sales decline for the DS in 2010.”
With the DSi XL on the shelves at only a smidgen more than its smaller sibling the DSi, now is certainly a good time for a reduction in price. Maybe Pachter’s on to something at last.
