Wedbush's Michael Pachter Offers April '15 Video Game Industry Monthly Update

In a report rolled out Monday, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter and his team provide their video game industry update for April 2015. They look into industry wide trends, as well as specific companies and events. Below, a summary of the main points in the research paper. The Wedbush Video Game Index, a market cap-weighted index of video game companies, gained 9 percent for the month of March, mainly on the back of Nintendo Co., Ltd's (ADR)

strong month. On a constant F/X pretty much flat. According to NPD Group, February U.S. console/handheld software sales were up 7 percent year-over-year, to $339 million, comfortably surpassing Wedbush's estimate of $303 million, once again driven by Nintendo's strength. "The shift to digital downloads and the popularity of bundles continues to mask overall software demand, and overall growth was probably in the mid-teens," the analysts explain. They "assume that full game digital downloads were 10% of total February demand for each high-profile game on next-gen consoles, meaning total console software sales were up 17% or more when factoring in full game digital downloads."

GameStop Corp.

reported results that in line with its revised guidance. For its part, Turtle Beach Corp

reported and guided to below-expectations profitability. Majesco Entertainment Co.

also reported a miss in its latest quarterly. Sony Corp (ADR)

announced worldwide PS4 sell-through of over 20.2 million units as of March 1. The company also launched the PlayStation Vue cloud-based TV service. Electronic Arts Inc.'s

Battlefield Hardline was launched to poor reviews.

NPD will release March U.S. console/handheld software and hardware sales on April 16. King Digital Entertainment PLC

will report first quarter results on the week of April 27. Zynga Inc

will do the same.