September NPD Predictions

With US (and it's just US let's not forget that) console sales numbers (estimations) about ready to come in, I thought it might be fun to take a look at what the numbers might be this month. Will the Xbox 360 outsell the PS2 for the second time this year? (that would be the 3rd time ever!) How will Halo change things? Did the PSP slim release affect sales?

Here are Michael Patcher's numbers: (who is quite a sport)
Xbox 360 - 450,000
DS - 430,000
Wii - 425,000
PSP - 252,000
PS2 - 220,000
PS3 - 150,000
GBA - 65,000

And a couple of guiding principles:
1 - Sales are usually higher in September than August as Holiday releases begin to occur
2 - Pre-Halo 3 I predicted Xbox 360 numbers at 360k (so despite now knowing the Halo 3 sales numbers I should probably stick with the old prediction, though if I were to change it, 420k sounds about right)

My guesses (Red means my number is lower, green is higher, Black is =)
Xbox 360 - 360,000
DS - 441,000
Wii - 394,000
PSP - 225,000
PS2 - 232,000
PS3 - 150,000
GBA - 70,000

Stories to watch for:
1 - Does the 360 outsell the Wii. With Halo 3, the flagship 360 title out in September, if the 360 doesn't outsell the Wii it would paint an interesting picture.

2 - Does Metroid Prime 3 sell? It was released late in August to rave reviews and pretty 'meh' sales. Perhaps it was just poorly marketed, but it is a good enough title that the mainstream gamers should be picking it up. If it isn't selling, what does it mean to the lifetime of the Wii?

3 - How many of the top 10 games are PS2 games? In August 3 of the top 10 were PS2, 1 was PS2, 2 were Xbox 360 and 4 were Wii.

4 - Will EA solve the Wii 3rd party riddle? Boogie sales were tepid, Madden were disappointing and though the Wii version of Tiger Woods outsold all other versions in the UK, it was a mere afterthought in the US. Will MySims fare better? Will the long term sales of any of the other titles make up for their poor launches?

5 - What happened to handheld gaming? Though the hardware is outselling the consoles, the games, outside of Pokemon, aren't doing much in the charts. Will Zelda's October 1 release put handheld games back on the charts?

6 - Will Guitar Hero just keep on dominating?

7 - Will Heavenly Sword drive console sales?