Tag Archives: Lazard Capital Markets

Analyst firm Lazard Capital Markets has concluded World of Warcraft could lose between 900,000 and 1.6 million players when Star Wars: The Old Republic launches next month.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 pre-ordershave overtaken those of Black Ops, according to analyst Atul Bagga of Lazard Capital Markets..

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US investment company Lazard Capital Markets has published a report claiming a 2011 US NGP launch was confirmed by Sony at a recent analyst day. UK and European launch details remain unconfirmed.

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Analysts have predicted that 500,000 3DS consoles were sold in the handhelds first five days on sale in the US, but also that sales have dropped off markedly.

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Lovely, small, bite-sized news for the win. Click onward adventurers.

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With the announcement for NGP from Sony this morning, three industry analysts have weighed-in on the news: Mike Hickey of Janco Partners, Lazard Capital Markets’ Colin Sebastian, and Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter. So did John Carmack, technical director at id Software.

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Think Kinect’s going to bomb when it releases? One analyst reckons you’re all naysayers.

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Industry analysts are predicting an 8-15 percent decline in US hardware and software sales ahead of June’s NPD figures.

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Colin Sebastian, analyst for Lazard Capital Markets, has revealed in the firm’s latest note to investors that sales of New Super Mario Bros Wii are “off to a good start after three days at retail”.

This information was obtained through a meeting with Nintendo yesterday, and while sales for the game are moving in a positive direction, Sebastian is unsure if the title has make a dent in “incremental hardware sales”.

The analyst feels that the next 12-months are integral for Nintendo, and positive sales will depend on the software line-up for the next year. However, he claims that the gaming giant remains “upbeat” regarding 2010 and that the company plans to be “more vigilant” in the fight against piracy.

More through GI.biz.

Best Buy now has trial kiosks set up in some of its US stores full of used games.

The stores are also allowing customers to trade used games for store credit.

Analysts predict this could result in the used game market earning $3 billion annually combined with GameStop and other stores that sell used games.

“While we believe that Best Buy’s entry into the used video game market will create a new overhang on shares of GameStop,” wrote Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets. “We expect Best Buy’s initiative to expand the used videogame market rather than take significant share from the specialty channel.

“We estimate the size of the commercial used videogame market in the USD 2.5 billion range worldwide, continuing to grow, driven by major players including GameStop, Game Group, Game Crazy, and Internet marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon.”

Via GI.biz.

Lazard Capital’s Colin Sebastian reckons that online games will generate upwards of $11 billion of revenue this year, thereby making up 25 per cent of total industry earnings.

“We estimate that online video games will generate more than $11 billion in revenues this year, up from $3 billion in 2005, and account for roughly 25% of industry game sales worldwide,” said Sebastian.

“In this respect, we continue to believe that the Internet is emerging as an important growth driver and content platform, weaving together communication, information, commerce and entertainment.

“In addition, 2009 may be remembered as the year in which the pace of change in media consumption accelerated, while 2010 and 2011 may bring improved monetization and mass market adoption of web-based applications and digital content, in particular interactive entertainment.”

Thanks, Gama.

In other analyst news: Webush Morgan’s Michael Pachter said earlier today that he believes the US will see a 50% decline in hardware sales for May. NPD results are in this Thursday.

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian says that the PS3 could get a $100 price cut between E3 and the end summer.

Putting the console at $299 would not only be good for business, but the purse strings as well. Anything less “would likely be perceived negatively by the market,” Sebastian told Gamasutra.

“In addition to a $100 price reduction, which would put the PS3 in easier reach of a mass market audience, we note that Sony has a healthy lineup of upcoming first-party video games planned over the next year, including inFAMOUS, God of War III, Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2 and Gran Turismo 5,” said Sebastian.

“For Sony PlayStation, we believe the next 12 months are critical to regain market share, particularly with Nintendo losing some momentum near- term, and with Microsoft likely introducing a new gesture-based user interface.”

More through the link.

Lazard Capital’s Colin Sebastian issued a research note today saying that a new Princess Peach title and, wait for it, a brand new Zelda title would help game sales grow 5 percent in 2009.

That was the good news. The bad news is that the new Zelda title is pure guesswork in his part. The Princess Peach adventure isn’t.

GTA V was also included in his research: “Looking ahead to 2009, we expect mid-single-digit growth in software sales on a tough growth comparison and potentially fewer hit titles (eg, no GTA V until 2010),” he wrote.

However, when Gamespot quizzed him on that, “Sebastian said he wasn’t so much specifying 2010 as a release window for the game as telling investors that it would definitely not be coming out in 2009.”

So a huge non-event really. Sorry about that. More through the link, though.

By Mike Bowden