Summer of ’07 Predicted As Good Vintage For Gamers

After a winter of discontent in the game business, Hollywood’s upcoming summer slate of films should prove to be a season of solace for the people who make and sell video games. The 2007 tent pole season is chock-a-block with animated pics and CG franchises, prime territory for game versions of films.

In a story in today’s Hollywood Reporter, an new industry study predicts that the likes of Electronic Arts Inc., GameStop Corp. and THQ Inc., will rock and roll this year as Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Transformers, Ratatouille, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Simpsons Movie and Surf’s Up hit multiplexes worldwide in the next few months.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers study is quoted predicting that Nintendo Wii, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sales will rise to an aggregate of 17.5 million units this year up from10 million in 2005.

A report from NPD Group meanwhile, says that sales of game hardware, software and peripherals in the U.S. were up 66% through the first two months of the year compared with the same period a year ago.