Pachter predicts 34% YOY decline in NPD's June sales report

When the NPD Group releases its June sales report later this week, Michael Pachter isn't banking on good news.

The Wedbush Morgan analyst expects sales to reach just $305 million, down 34 % on June 2011, according to a note sent to investors, as reported by Gamespot.

Pachter blamed a "lackluster release lineup", with Pokemon Conquest and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes like to top the charts, ahead of the slow burning Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. June releases Spec Ops: The Line and Lollipop Chainsaw are expected to post modest performances, and Pachter doesn't believe Max Payne 3 has picked up, either.

"In this unprecedented eighth year of the console cycle, we believe there are few new intellectual properties to reinvigorate interest in the games sector/ Consumers have been offered a never-ending series of sequels, and have been offered fewer choices each year for the last several years, with the result being waning interest in new software purchases and an unprecedented three years of software sales declines," Pachter said.

"The poster children for limiting consumer choice are Activision, Electronic Arts and THQ, with each company offering 50 percent as many titles as they offered several years ago, with only one new intellectual property launched among the three companies over the last year."

NPD sales figures have dropped year-on-year each month since November.