In advance of the NPD's October video game sales report later this week (Nov. 15), Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has issued his own preview, which predicts console software sales to grow a whopping 50 percent. Pachter is anticipating sales of $555 million, in large part spurred on by Activision's Guitar Hero III, which he believes accounted for $100 million in sales on one million unit sales. Activision previously reported that the game sold over $115 million across North America in its first seven days on the market.

In terms of hardware, Pachter is forecasting 450,000 units for Wii, 400,000 for DS, 325,000 for Xbox 360, 225,000 for PSP, 190,000 for PS2 and 125,000 for PS3. He said PS3 sales should see a small boost on the $499 announcement for the 80GB model while Xbox 360 sales should fall around 200,000 units following the Halo 3 spike last month.

In addition to Guitar Hero III, other drivers of sales are expected to include Electronic Arts' The Orange Box (PC, 360), and continued strong sales of EA's Madden NFL 08 and Nintendo's Wii Play and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

PS2 software sales are also expected to continue to decline as more and more consumers pick up one of the new consoles. PS2 software sales are down 24 percent through September and Pachter believes sales fell 47 percent in October. That said, PS2 sales should "stabilize" through the end of the year "as the DVD versions of Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Ratatouille, The Simpsons Movie, and Transformers are expected to drive sales of the video games for each film. In addition, PS2 sales of Guitar Hero III should be very strong for the remainder of the year."

Pachter believes 2007 will finish strong. "Although we think that sales of Halo 3, The Orange Box and Guitar Hero III accounted for virtually all of the growth during the month, we think that improving hardware console pricing and the broad diversity and popularity of software will position the industry for solid sales growth in November and December," he said.