Tag Archives: Ben Schachter

Macquarie Securities analyst Ben Schachter has said concerns over sales figures for Star Wars: The Old Republic and the resulting drop in EA stock prices are due to outside “speculation”, as NPD’s sales figures don’t show a complete picture. According to Schachter, the majority sales for the MMO were likely through Origin, and since NPD doesn’t track the service, the figures weren’t taken into account. The analyst believes around 1.5 million copies of the game were sold through Origin, but until EA releases its financials for Q4 and FY11, the exact figures will remain speculative. Another analyst, Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter, is of the same opinion as Schachter, but said the figure is likely closer to 800,000 through both retail and Origin, and the game will have sold 2 million units by the time its first anniversary comes around. Thanks, Gamasutra.

GTA IV may be simply too large to succesfully carry DLC, Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter’s told VG247, as the majority of owners never actually finish the main game.

Pachter was talking in response to comments made earlier by AmTech analyst Ben Schachter (via Industrygamers and Joystiq), who expressed “concern” about the state of the GTA franchise in general thanks to The Lost and Damned, Gay Tony and other related games failing to match expectation.

“Ben’s right that the DLC disappointed, but I suspect that the reason is that GTA games are so massive that a substantial majority of the GTA audience hasn’t finished the core game, so they don’t feel especially compelled to buy the DLC,” Pachter said.

“GTA IV was at least a 50 hour game (for me, probably more like 100 hours), in contrast to the typical Call of Duty, which is a 6-10 hour game. Almost anyone who bought CoD finished it, and if they liked it (that’s a high percentage), they were interested in DLC. On the other hand, my guess is that fewer than 20% of GTA owners finished the game (100% of VG247 readers, of course), so fewer were interested in DLC.

“I think that is a fair assessment, and don’t think that the slow pace of DLC sales reflects poor performance for the franchise.”

They’re watching, kids. And they know you’re hardcore. No further GTA games are public at this point.

Chart-Track’s defended its 1.23 million day one UK sales figure for Modern Warfare 2 in the UK, following Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter casting doubt on the number last night.

“UK retailers have been at the forefront of electronic data capture for decades, which in turn allows us to capture daily sales from 99 per cent of retailers on our panel,” said CT director Dorian Bloch, talking to GI.

“That’s over 6000 retail outlets plus all the etailers – currently 25 different store fronts.”

Pachter told VG247 overnight that Broadpoint AmTech’s Ben Schachter’s day one estimate of 7 million units for MW2 was “very reasonable… if we accept that the UK figure is accurate. My guess is that it’s not.”

Pachter himself put the day one number at around 4 million. Hit the GI link for a fuller explanation of how Chart-Track arrived at its figure.

The dust has hardly even settled on Modern Warfare 2′s launch, but some people have already begun counting their chickens. Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter is one such person, but he’s an analyst, so it’s kind of his job to do this sort of thing. Speaking with IndustryGamers, Schachter set the current tally at seven million copies. After only one day.

Among other things, Schachter’s numbers were pulled from an earlier report that the UK’s rabid crowd of Modern warmongers snapped up 1.23 million units on day one.

“With GTA IV selling-through 6mm units worldwide in its first week, that suggests week one of Modern Warfare 2 worldwide sell-through could approximate ~11.7mm. While 2x the week one tally for GTA IV may seem aggressive, the bottom line is that we believe current consensus estimates of around 12mm for the December quarter may end up being conservative,” Schachter said.

More through the link.

Analyst David Cole of DFC Intelligence has told Industry Gamers that it won’t be long before Microsoft released a slimmer version of Xbox 360.

“I think it is a question of when not if,” he told the site. “However, the when part is a big uncertainty … rumors have been going on for a long time. I think people were asking me the same question last year at this time. As cost efficiencies allow smaller and more reliable is always a good thing. However, you also have something like Project Natal which could also tie in with hardware redesigns.

“There are a lot of questions Microsoft must weigh internally and there are always going to arguments on both sides of the fence around timing. So I don’t know, but in our DFC forecasts we anticipated a major redesign in 2010….so I guess that was our bet.”

While the other three analysts the site spoke with, Tom Greenwald of Signal Hill, Arvind Bhatia from Sterne Agee and Broadpoint AmTech’s Ben Schachter, do not agree with him, each do foresee a new SKU redesigned with Project Natal for 2010.

More through the link.

Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter has weighed in on yesterday’s NPD results for July, and has pointed out that Wii hardware sales are the lowest ever since its launch in November 2006.

To counter this, Schachter says Wii needs a price cut, and it is expected soon.

“Although Wii Sports Resort sold well, it appears to have offered little lift to Wii hardware sales, increasing the probability in our view that Nintendo must lower the price soon (we expect a September cut),” stated Schachter.

According to the NPD figures, Wii sold 252,000 units in the US during July.

More through IndustryGamers.

UBS analyst Ben Schachter’s that Guitar Hero outsold Rock Band by more than 1 million units in America last month, Gamespot reports.

Over 1.7 million Guitar Hero games of all versions and formats were sold in the US in November, of which 978,000 were copies of the latest version, Guitar Hero World Tour. This compares with 628,452 copies of Rock Band and Rock Band 2.

However, Guitar Hero sales were down 25 percent on November last year, versus an increase of 65 percent for Rock Band.

Combined sales of both games fell 12 percent compared to 2007.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

According to UBS analyst Ben Schachter, music games have been a “key driver” for music industry this year, with “sales of music-themed games responsible for 19% of overall industry software dollars in July (15% YTD) and 44% of y/y industry dollar growth during the month (32% of growth YTD).”

That’s not insignificant. In a research note, Schachter has also pointed out that Guitar Hero franchise dollars year-to-date are up a mighty 87 percent.

In terms of units, Guitar Hero is up 82 percent this year. On a dollars basis, the recent DS release of Guitar Hero: On Tour took in more than $15 million in July alone.

Moreover, MTV Games’ Rock Band bundles on Wii, PS2 and Xbox 360 combined for nearly $47 million in sales in July.

More on GameDaily.

The latest Xbox 360 price cut seems like a pretty good idea considering the console’s less-than-rocket sales of late, but could it end up being Microsoft’s ace-in-the-hole? UBS analyst Ben Schachter thinks so.

“If we are correct [about the price drop], it would position the Xbox 360′s low-end sku as the lowest priced next-gen console (below Nintendo’s Wii for the first time). Its high-end SKU would be price-comparable to Sony’s new $399 PS3 SKU,” Schachter told GameDaily.

“Overall, consoles have seen an average unit increase of ~53% in the month of/after a price cut,” he noted.

Undercutting the Wii would probably give Microsoft a nice boost, but without a waggle wand, how long would it last?

By Nathan Grayson

Speaking to The Deal, Janco’s Mike Hickey has predicted that Activision Blizzard will take a look at buying Take-Two, for no better reason that to piss EA off.

“We absolutely believe Activision will take a look at Take-Two,” said the analyst. “If a competitor is for sale, you take a look, and if EA is your real rival, why wouldn’t you stir the pot a little bit?”

UBS’ Ben Schachter, however, isn’t so sure anything could ever happen between Acti-Blizz and the GTA-owner.

“It is highly unlikely that Activision would try to outbid EA,” Schachter said. “They have enough on their plate at the moment.”

More through there.

UBS analyst Ben Schachter has called for higher profile third party titles for the Nintendo Wii following the May NPD software numbers.

“While overall hardware and software trends for the Nintendo Wii continue to be strong, we would like to see more third-party hits on the platform,” said Schachter.

“To date, Guitar Hero III, Sega of America’s Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games, and TTWO’s Carnival Games are the only third-party Wii games that have sold more than 1 million units to-date according to NPD, and there are many third-party Wii exclusives that have come-and-gone with minimal reaction from the market,” he added.

“Nintendo’s share of software dollars on its platform has approximated almost 50% since the Wii was introduced, and reached an all-time high in May of 68%.”

The statement comes after it was revealed that Spielberg’s Boom Blox only sold 60k, although NPD analyst Anita Frazier puts the poor performance down to EA’s puzzler being released in amongst “Super Smash Bros. Brawl, GTA IV, Wii Fit, Mario Kart and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4″.

Thanks GameDaily.

By Mike Bowden