The gaming industry is off to a strong start for 2007 in the US, according to the industry-tracking NPD Group. January saw game sales growth of 53 percent (which is slightly misleading due to a longer reporting period than normal), with February game sales up 28 percent, and March game sales jumping 15 percent.

　　When the NPD Group releases its US retail sales figures for April, a pair of analysts expect the trend of significant growth in the industry to continue. They also named Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, and Guitar Hero II as particularly successful sales drivers. However, their expectations differ appreciably as to just how much sales were driven overall.

　　Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson sent out a note to investors today projecting an April take 10 percent higher year-over-year. As for factors that contributed to Wilson's expectations of slowing growth, the analyst mentioned a lack of major releases from THQ, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive, as well as fewer than expected shipments of Wii consoles.

　　While Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter didn't specifically reference Wii shortages in his own note to investors, his numbers indicated it was still an issue. Analysts and retailers alike had expected supplies of the Nintendo Wii to jump significantly in April, but Pachter projects that the console sold 300,000 units for the month, a notch up from the 259,000 it moved in March.

　　On the software side, Pachter pegged game sales growth of 24 percent, more than double that of Wilson's expectations. However, he doesn't think the industry will keep up this rate of growth much longer.

　　"We now expect software sales growth to continue at low double-digit rates through summer 2007 (in spite of year-over-year comparisons that average [above] 20 percent)," Pachter said.

　　On the speculative side, Pachter suggested that the production costs of the PlayStation 3 had reduced to the point where Sony could consider a price cut for the system this summer.

　　The NPD Group is expected to release its April US sales figures later this week.