Can Spider-Man Save the PS2?

May 15, 2007 |

Software sales continue to decline for the PS2, but there’s one thing that could give them a boost — summer blockbusters. A leading analyst sees the PS2 grabbing the biggest sales for games based on this summer’s biggest movies, like Spiderman 3, Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, Transformers, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Sony won’t be the only one benefitting from popular franchises. When April sales figures are released, the top game is expected to be Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS. In the U.S., Nintendo announced they’d sold over a million copies in the first five days — faster than any Pokemon release in nearly 10 years — and racked up over 500,000 pre-orders. In June Nintendo will also release Pokemon Battle Revolution for the Wii.

Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities has studied the sales figures for consoles, and now predicts that the movie-based games will sell best on the PS2. He also predicts console sales will favor the “current generation” of systems like the PS2 when the latest figures are released for April.

But that can’t last forever — and in the same month, he predicts 70% of the games sold will be for “next generation” consoles like the Wii and PS3. In April’s battle for future dominance, Pachter sees Wii consoles outselling the PS3 by a ratio of 3:1 — while larger sales for the older Nintendo DS will equal the combined sales for Sony’s PS2 and PSP.

Of course, these are just predictions, but they prove two things. First, it’s still a very competitive market, with all the platforms racking up big sales. Pachter predicts that this month even the 18-month-old Xbox 360 will sell 175,000 consoles. And second, because the market is so competitive — everyone’s looking for a sure thing, that title that can guarantee them better sales than their competitors.

Which is why Sony is hoping Spider-Man can save the day.