Analysts Lower Publisher Projections

Despite the launch of the first next-gen console, winter sales figures have been lower than hoped-for. From the article: "The two lowered their projected earnings numbers for Electronic Arts and Activision in both the short and long term today, but said both companies remained attractive in long-term investments. They reduced their Electronic Arts sales projections for the December quarter from $1.52 billion to $1.45 billion, and likewise lowered the associated earnings per-share estimate from $1.29 to $1.20. In the long term, the company reduced its peak earnings per-share estimate from $3.50 to $3.20 in fiscal year 2010."

Comments

Lack of Interest?

[TheZeusJuice]

Maybe it's because nothing particularly astounding has come out as of late? I understand that the game industry is right now trying to concentrate on just getting the next-gen consoles out the door, but thats no excuse for the lack (well, more so than usual) of creative, interesting, and/or original games lately. You can't expect sales to increase just because its winter (well, you can, but not completely). There also has to be something that entices people to say "hmm.. I really want to get this for christmas", and considering how hard it is to get 360's right now, that would basically just be new games for the old consoles. But because of what I discussed above, there just isn't very much in the market worth buying right now. just my 2 centavos

For those interested in investing

[Puhase]

I'll throw this out there just for those who give any thought to investing in game stocks. EA and Activision's stock has already partially taken the bump that it is going to receieve from lukewarm 360 sales, but the story that is going to make the month, is whether that built up "game" demand is then converted into software purchases. There are alot of people out there who may get refunds on their pre-orders or use saved up cash to purchase a few more games instead of the 360 hardware. So while, in the shortrun, these big companies wont make as much money on the specific titles they had pushed for the 360, others titles may benefit to an even greater extent and sell more than expected. If I were an executive, I would put on the afterburners and run a 1 week blitz campaign on current generation "big titles", such as Prince of Persia.
Of course, take this with a grain of salt. There is still the PS3 on the horizon, possible spring says slashdot. My predictions are simply based on the cashflow of the holiday season, and those who invest wisely may see a nice late gift when holiday quarter profits are announced.