Although he still doesn't think that a price cut for the PlayStation 3 will be coming this year, Lazard Capital Market analyst Colin Sebastian urged investors not to count Sony out just yet. Hit the full article for details.

After GTA4, you'd think this hullabaloo would be over. But it isn't. Analyst Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital says that new developments over the proposed buyout of Take-Two Interactive would come next week, and that Electronic Arts would likely have something new to add to their offer.

We've been taking days and weeks for granted (hence, the prevalence of procrastination among many people), but the projected January sales numbers may just show us how important a week is. According to some analysts, January 2008's sales numbers were cut off by approximately 18 percent since it is one week less compared to last year's January. Read more about it in the full article!

Just because a company is down doesn't necessarily mean that a company is out. As analysts Michael Pachter and Colin Sebastian have pointed out, THQ's underperformance in 2007 is "a painful step" to a more successful showing in the future. Fellow analyst Arvin Bhatia concurs, and he has his own words of encouragement for THQ.

You can read more about them in the full article after the jump.

The NPD Group will soon release the software and platform sales numbers for December, so it's time once again to hear from our favorite analysts, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan and Colin Sebastian from Lazard Capital Markets. Check out the full article to find out what they predict for December's results.

The holiday season is almost here, and we'll most likely see lots of console units and gaming software end up underneath the Christmas tree and in the Christmas socks of all good children. However, too much demand that outweighs the actual supply is always a bad thing.

Analyst Colin Sebastian from Lazard Capital Markets said that there will indeed be a general hardware shortage, not only for the Wii (as mentioned by Reggie Fils-Aime in his statement that there will be a Wii console shortage this holiday season). Explained Sebastian,

Holiday hardware demand may outstrip supplies. We believe one of the themes from the upcoming holiday period could be hardware supply constraints, driven by ongoing strong demand for Nintendo’s Wii and a shift in Xbox 360 unit sales from 4Q into the September quarter, while Sony’s PS3 and PSP may benefit from lower price points.

So aside from the almost-inevitable Wii shortage, we may also witness shopping brawls over who gets the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3? Certainly not an impossible scenario, what with the release of the more affordable PlayStation 40GB SKUs, and quite possibly the newly launched Xbox 360 arcade SKU, which is aimed at the casual market.

Despite THQ's under-performance for this quarter, analysts Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan and Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Market remain optimistic for the game developer studio and maintains that the company's stock is still a "buy."

THQ's revenue for this quarter was significantly lower than their initial forecast, owing to the lack of sales of two of their games in the market: Stuntman: Ignition (PS2, PS3, 360) and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights (PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360, PC, DS). This, however, did not deter Pachter who, despite lowering his estimates for THQ, says that this is not likely to happen again.

Sebastian shares the same sentiments, saying that THQ's 2009 lineup seems to be a "significant improvement," mentioning their next Pixar video game adaptation of Wall-E, Saints Row 2 and the sequel to Red Faction. He predicts that the video game for Wall-E will do much better than their Ratatouille saying: "Stated simply, robots are cuter than rats, and make for better video game fodder."

THQ has announced earlier that they will be lowering their fiscal Q2 revenue guidance from US$ 240 million to US$ 229 million, and full-year sales of US$ 1.12 billion to US$ 1.06 billion.

 

Financial analysts are certainly having a field day with Manhunt 2, with its recent banning and all. They've tried to predict what Take-Two will do regarding their ultra-violent title, they've guessed as to why the publishing firm is getting all this bad rap - and now, they're saying that Manhunt 2's suspension could actually end up boosting the game's sales.

Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets is one of those analysts, saying that he doesn't believe the move to suspend Manhunt 2 will actually hurt the company's bottom line in the long run, but instead increase the game's exposure - thus boosting demand when it hits store shelves.

He also believes, as we've reported in an earlier article, that Take-Two will probably do what it has to do to lower the game's rating from the current Adults Only to a softer, more accessible Mature rating. And while it's a given that stores such as Wal-Mart will always be wary about customer backlash, the controversy itself is already free publicity - and savvy store-owners will take the risk of selling a Mature title that's already popular beyond belief.

Sebastian also notes that even if Manhunt 2 does tank, the struggling publisher still has an ace up its sleeve - namely, the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV - to fall back on. He puts it like so:

Relative to Grand Theft Auto it's [Manhunt 2] a lot less significant. Grand Theft Auto is the key driver. This is a second-tier title.

Well, for a second-tier title, it's certainly getting first-tier attention. And while it's very possible that controversy could actually boost sales, it could also work the opposite way if the game itself gets overhyped and for some reason it doesn't deliver what it's promised to do. One thing's for sure, though, is that it's violent as heck.

Further updates about Manhunt 2 as we get them.

It's been quite the eventful week for Manhunt 2, isn't it? With its recent banning in the UK, being buffeted by parent watchdog groups, and having just been shunned by the two companies whose consoles it's coming out on - the title's not even released yet, and it's taking a colossal beating any other game would have shattered underneath. This begs the question: what's going to happen now?

Besides starting up a time machine to see what's going to happen come the game's promised July 10 release, we have the next best thing - a group of analysts' take on what sort of action Take-Two would probably do to be able to release Manhunt 2 without any more troubles.

But before that, let's go over Take-Two's options. The first is toning down the game a notch - which means cutting out or censoring content, to get it from being rated as Adults Only (AO) down to Mature (M). Second is appealing to the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to re-rate the game themselves, with the title presented as is. The third is simply taking it all in stride, and release Manhunt 2 into the public, unedited and complete with its AO rating.

Now that we're up to speed, what do the analysts think Take-Two would do? Enter the first analyst, Nollenberger Capital Partner's Todd Greenwald. He says that he expects Take-Two to pick the first choice - that is, to do whatever it takes to get an M rating instead of an AO. Citing the Hot Coffee incident with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the basis for his assumption, he expects the publishing firm to do the same with Manhunt 2. He also says that the sales of an M-rated Manhunt 2 would probably make up for the UK ban, but an AO-rated one wouldn't.

Lazard Capital Markets' Colin Sebastian shares Todd Greenwald's sentiments, in that Take-Two would indeed make the choice of cutting stuff out in favor of an M rating. However, Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter believes otherwise, saying that Take-Two would most likely ship the game as it is, AO rating and all.

He cites two reasons for this. First, editing the content for an M rating would certainly mean Take-Two spending more money than they've already spent in developing this game, and also disappointing fans with a delayed (and watered-down) title. The other reason is that with Take-Two not doing so well in the financial aspect of things, and having already made some belt-tightening measures, investing more money in the game is a step backwards.

Well, whatever Take-Two's decision is going to be, the world's certainly waiting for it. More updates about Manhunt 2 as we get them. How about you readers, though? What do you think will be Take-Two's final answer? Let us know by your comments.

Electronic Arts has recently reorganized its top-ranking officials and made some key changes to its administrative roster. The maneuver was welcomed by a lot of observers, but one analyst made an interesting observation.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says that the reorganization was a good move and a necessary one for the publisher, but someone seems to be missing in the equation: R&D  head Paul Lee. "In our view, the most important item in the press release is the omission of any mention about Paul Lee, the current head of R&D. It appears to us that Mr. Lee may have been reorganized out of a job," he says. Pachter continues:

He has been in his position for about a year, following the departure of Don Mattrick last year, and in that brief period, we believe that EA game quality has improved. However, we think that Mr. Riccitiello is laser focused on cost control, given that the R&D budget has doubled during his three-year hiatus from EA, while revenues have grown by only around 5%.

According to the analyst, one reason why EA is reorganizing may be because the administration has decided not to go all-out on research and development. He says he expects EA to begin talking more about its plans and policies soon.

For one, Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets agrees with Pachter on the necessity of restructuring. "We believe the restructuring was a necessary byproduct of EA's rapid growth over the last video game cycle compounded by operational challenges evident during the recent console transition period," he says.

No official word from EA has been released regarding Lee's status and what the new policy on research and development is. A statement is expected by many to come out any time soon. We'll keep you posted for more.