In what has become a monthly ritual, Wedbush Morgan game analyst Michael Pachter has preempted the latest NPD report by releasing his own predictions about the previous month. According to Pachter, August 2004 was good for gaming, with $360 million in sales--an 8 percent rise over August 2003's $334 million.

　　"After the traditionally slow summer months, sales typically begin to build in August and September heading into the holiday season, with monthly variations based on the quality and quantity of games released. We expect this trend to continue in 2004," he said.

　　Patcher was also optimistic about the year as a whole. For 2004, he forecast that "strong holiday sales will allow the US console software market to deliver 10 percent year-over-year growth (up from 5 percent in 2003)." Pachter also said that, despite several lackluster summer months, 2004 sales are already up 6 percent compared to the same period last year.

　　Which publisher is benefiting most from these rosy numbers? Even though it doesn't take a financial expert to tell you Electronic Arts remains the top dog, Patcher did anyway. "We expect EA to again be the market-share leader," said the analyst, who estimated that 38.9 percent of the games sold in August bore the EA logo. He attributed the company's success to the one-two debut of Madden NFL 2005 and NCAA Football 2005, as well as continued solid sales from Fight Night 2004 and Need for Speed Underground, among others.