We believe that speculation about a potential leveraged buyout is unfounded. If anything, Take-Two's disclosure that it may require additional capital to fund next generation game development suggests to us that it is not an LBO candidate. |
We do not believe that recent weakness will persist, and expect a sales rebound in November and December. |
We do not expect a current generation Xbox price cut from Microsoft this year, notwithstanding the company's stated intention to 'support' the current generation console. We believe that Microsoft's production cost of the Xbox is higher than the current retail price, precluding further price cuts, and we also think that the company prefers that consumers buy its next generation console when that box is introduced. |
We expect a price cut for the PS2 later this year. We believe that Sony will respond to Microsoft's introduction of its next generation console with a cut from $149 to $99 some time before the November 22 Xbox 360 launch, ... We think that Sony has positioned itself to lower price by reducing the production costs of its console when it redesigned the box to a smaller format... Should Sony choose to discount the PS2 to $129 or even $99, we would expect a dramatic lift in PS2 hardware sales, and a corresponding lift in PS2 software sales. Our model forecasts that Sony PS2 hardware sales will be 1.8 million units higher this year compared to last year. |
We expect a price cut for the PS2 later this year. We believe that Sony will respond to Microsoft's introduction of its next generation console with a cut from $149 to $99 some time before the November 22 Xbox 360 launch. We think that Sony has positioned itself to lower price by reducing the production costs of its console when it redesigned the box to a smaller format... Should Sony choose to discount the PS2 to $129 or even $99, we would expect a dramatic lift in PS2 hardware sales, and a corresponding lift in PS2 software sales. Our model forecasts that Sony PS2 hardware sales will be 1.8 million units higher this year compared to last year. |
We expect modest growth in November and dramatic growth in December, |
We note that NPD U.S. retail video-game software sales data for the January quarter implies that Take-Two's sales are down 40 percent compared with the prior-year quarter, so we believe that the company is likely on track to meet our revenue and earnings per share estimates for the period. |
We think that the decline in overall sales of current-generation software in December indicates the beginning of a trend that will persist well into 2006, and we anticipate double-digit declines in current-generation software sales for the first half of 2006. |
What everybody needs to understand is Sony is not competing with Microsoft. Sony's competition is with Toshiba. |
You need people to buy more stuff. This is a bad downturn. |
You're going to see the Revolution as the second console of choice in the household. |