Wedbush Morgan Securities Analyst Michael Pachter believes that only the next generation consoles can save the game industry.
The lack of new hardware in the last seven years coupled with the increased popularity of Downloadable games has made life difficult for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
In an interview with Gameindustry.biz, Pachter stated that "A new console cycle is likely to reverse the negative sales trends of the last several years, with next-generation consoles expected from each of the three manufacturers over the next 18 months. Nintendo will launch the Wii U on November 18, and while neither Sony nor Microsoft has yet announced new hardware, we expect a PS4 no later than November 2013, and a new Xbox no later than March 2014."
Back in September Pachter stated that the Wii was "priced too high to sustain demand and compete with other consoles and tablets. However, he did state that the move was to take advantage of the core fanbase's initial demand. He stated that the demand for the system should remain high until April 2013 and that Nintendo would cut prices around Summer 2013 or the 2013 Holiday Season.
However, there are always questions regarding Pachter and his attitude toward Nintendo. Back in May, the analyst stated that the Wii would not work and at one point stated that "People love to beat me up for bashing Nintendo, but they bring this on themselves. They give no information, and want us all to proclaim that their consoles will sell record numbers." His criticism of the Wii U has extended to the lack of a "real hard drive" because 32 GB is not enough for full game downloads. He also stated that the Wii worked and "they got lucky, but I don't think they're getting lucky with Wii U." In August he added more fuel to the fire by ooffending Nintendo fans and saying that "I don't think Nintendo fans are so stupid they would buy a piece of cardboard. A box on the other hand, that says Nintendo on it, they probably would."
He was however impressed that Bayonetta 2 will appear as an exclusive for Nintendo's console and stated that he was going to buy a Wii U just to play the title. He also stated that the game could sell an extra 1 million Wii U consoles.
Pachter has been hosted on a number of programs for Gametrailers.com including his own segment entitled Pach-Attack.