Wedbush forecasts 47 per cent increase

Ahead of this week's release of September sales data, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter predicts a 47 per cent increase over last year.

Halo 3, unsurprisingly, is seen as driving most of the sales growth for the month.

Pachter estimates sell-through of 450,000 Xbox 360 consoles, which would put Microsoft's system ahead of Nintendo's Wii for the month. He estimates sell-through of 425,000 Wii consoles and 150,000 PS3 consoles.

PS2 software sales are down 37 per cent from last year, but at a forecast of USD 101 million, they are nearly equal to current generation software sales, forecast to be USD 125 million.

Pachter expects continued strong sales growth of 10 per cent or more for the rest of the year. Should Sony introduce a USD 399 PS3 in the next few weeks, he expects hardware sales to drive software sales to at least that level.

Wedbush Morgan is advising investors to accumulate Activision, EA, GameStop, THQ, and Ubisoft shares at current levels, as "investors appear confident that the next generation console cycle is in full swing."